Batman Arkham Knight

[balloonshark]

The New 52 skins pack DLC is free.

Be prepared for the ultimate showdown with New 52 Skins Pack that includes 3 exclusive costumes: Batman, Robin, and Nightwing.

Xbox One version: https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/DLC/New-52-Skins-Pack/676c616b-6999-4faf-b1e9-37414a839868

PS4 version: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en...m-knight:up1018-cusa00133_00-batmanarkhamknht

 

[Sulaco]

The 52 skins pack DLC is free.

Xbox One version: https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/DLC/New-52-Skins-Pack/676c616b-6999-4faf-b1e9-37414a839868

PS4 version: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en...m-knight:up1018-cusa00133_00-batmanarkhamknht

Just to clarify, for non-comic readers like myself who mistook the title, it's the "New 52 skin pack", referencing DC's New 52 line.
NOT, like I stupidly thought, a skin pack with 52 new skins.

So, meh.

 

[gorcorps]

Yea I hate the races. I don't mind driving the batmobile out on the street but to actually do a timed event is a different story. I can't even tell what the side missions are. I know the main three topics are riddler, the murders, and firefighters.

Seems like it was a short game for you. Hopefully I won't finish it that quickly.

I might not be the best gauge for it. I got a nasty cold and stayed inside for a few days so I've had a LOT more gaming time than I usually do. But still, it doesn't seem to be as long as Arkham City for some reason. I might just be misremembering it, but it just feels that way. Now that I think about it, I actually think AK has quite a bit less of the good "fear" or stealth sections. I remember AC having more of them, and they were a little more difficult, so those took some time. It seems like the few that have been in AK have been easier to do, so that might be why it's gone by fast. Again, it's hard to remember all the way back to AC.

Anyway, if you think you hate the races now just wait until the final Riddler race. That almost sent my controller through a window. Though once I finally got the timing down and figured it out there was a pretty good sense of accomplishment. I was convinced there was a bug and it was impossible for a while.

You find more and more side missions as you go through the story. If you bring up the mission wheel you'll notice there's empty spots. Eventually every one of those spots gets filled with a side mission, and each one is different enough to keep things interesting. Some of them seem kind of tacked on and have no real connection to the story (just reasons to stick Penguin and Two Face in there again) but they're entertaining enough to complete.

 

[Sulaco]

I might not be the best gauge for it. I got a nasty cold and stayed inside for a few days so I've had a LOT more gaming time than I usually do. But still, it doesn't seem to be as long as Arkham City for some reason. I might just be misremembering it, but it just feels that way. Now that I think about it, I actually think AK has quite a bit less of the good "fear" or stealth sections. I remember AC having more of them, and they were a little more difficult, so those took some time. It seems like the few that have been in AK have been easier to do, so that might be why it's gone by fast. Again, it's hard to remember all the way back to AC.

Anyway, if you think you hate the races now just wait until the final Riddler race. That almost sent my controller through a window. Though once I finally got the timing down and figured it out there was a pretty good sense of accomplishment. I was convinced there was a bug and it was impossible for a while.

You find more and more side missions as you go through the story. If you bring up the mission wheel you'll notice there's empty spots. Eventually every one of those spots gets filled with a side mission, and each one is different enough to keep things interesting. Some of them seem kind of tacked on and have no real connection to the story (just reasons to stick Penguin and Two Face in there again) but they're entertaining enough to complete.

How would you rate it versus the other entries in the series? Where do you feel it stacks up?

I'm not NEARLY far enough to give my opinion (on a game like this, I try not to form and voice opinions until at least 6 or more hours in or 60% of the game, whichever comes first.

But it hasn't set my world on fire. I feel like the story, characters, and overall narrative have taken a step back from previous entries, partially because they painted themselves somewhat into a corner with how AC wrapped up. But the "all out war" on Gotham's streets doesn't quite feel as climactic and believable as I had hoped with Rocksteady back at the helm.

And I still haven't warmed up much to the Batmobile.

But I'm still enjoying it and plan on seeing it through to the end before passing any judgment. But right now, it's lingering near last place in my "Arkham" hierarchy. Which isn't bad, considering they are all stellar, GotY candidates. But it hasn't blown me away either.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Actually, I'm finding that as you progress through the story each sidequest gets updated with a location. So if you're struggling to find them just wait, they'll get pointed out to you (or an area to search for will get pointed out). So you can find them on your own, or just wait until you get an update. It'll say "INTEL" under the icon in the side-quest wheel if a location is available. There's even some you won't be able to progress past a certain point without going through the story anyway.



I'm getting near the end. I have a few of the side-quests finished and it seems like things are about to wrap up. Not sure if I'm going to finish the Riddler stuff first... that'll take way too long.



Anyway, I really like it overall. Good variety in the side missions. The only thing I really didn't like was the batmobile racing. I actually liked the tank fights. They didn't fit in with batman at all, but it was fun. The races (riddler and Firefly) were frustrating though. It just doesn't control right and ends up being more annoying than fun. Other than that (and some story gripes) it's been worth getting at release for me.

Actually there are some side quests that you do not get Intel on ever until you encounter the specific location. An example is the firefighters. Until you find it there will be no waypoint. Also for firefly you have to follow the smoke. Manbat appears randomly and you need to listen for the screech.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Yea I hate the races. I don't mind driving the batmobile out on the street but to actually do a timed event is a different story. I can't even tell what the side missions are. I know the main three topics are riddler, the murders, and firefighters.

Seems like it was a short game for you. Hopefully I won't finish it that quickly.

You unlock more as you go along. Pretty much automatically. I'm close to the end of the main story and you can finish that and go back to get stuff you missed before getting your ending.

As for how I feel about it. I would rate it a solid B effort. It's fun and the new powers and moves are great but I wanted more actual batman stuff. Boss battles replaced with tank battles doesn't do it for me. The story is alright but the big reveal of the villain didn't shock me all that much. Though what happened to a few other characters kind of did and batman's internal conflict is very well done and probably the best part of the story.

 

[gorcorps]

Actually there are some side quests that you do not get Intel on ever until you encounter the specific location. An example is the firefighters. Until you find it there will be no waypoint. Also for firefly you have to follow the smoke. Manbat appears randomly and you need to listen for the screech.

You're right about Firefly and Manbat, but I'm positive I've had intel on the firefighters before. I ignored them for a while and then Alfred mentioned he heard some radio chatter about one of the fireman, and then it showed I had intel in the mission select screen. When I selected it I had a waypoint which put me in the general area of the guy. I still had to find him, but the waypoint narrowed down the neighborhood to look for.

 

[gorcorps]

How would you rate it versus the other entries in the series? Where do you feel it stacks up?

I'm not NEARLY far enough to give my opinion (on a game like this, I try not to form and voice opinions until at least 6 or more hours in or 60% of the game, whichever comes first.

But it hasn't set my world on fire. I feel like the story, characters, and overall narrative have taken a step back from previous entries, partially because they painted themselves somewhat into a corner with how AC wrapped up. But the "all out war" on Gotham's streets doesn't quite feel as climactic and believable as I had hoped with Rocksteady back at the helm.

And I still haven't warmed up much to the Batmobile.

But I'm still enjoying it and plan on seeing it through to the end before passing any judgment. But right now, it's lingering near last place in my "Arkham" hierarchy. Which isn't bad, considering they are all stellar, GotY candidates. But it hasn't blown me away either.

Yeah, I'm a little torn overall. This has probably been the best combat of all the games. It's still the same system overall, but there's enough variety that I don't get too bored. The addition of fighting with another person (Catwoman or Robin) helps make it feel different enough when it starts to get stale.

The story (and characters) are probably the worst of the series here though. There's a few good moments but overall things have been kind of stale. It's really hard to compare the first one because I was so blown away with how good it was compared to my expectations that I'm not sure how that affects my memory. I'd say the gameplay is a step above in AK compared to the first because AA felt a little repetitive by the end. All the boss fights in the first one were the same charge/dodge timing thing that it got a bit boring.

AC is probably the best. Having things open up into a whole city for the first time was impressive. They still had boss battles but they were a little more varied in how you fought them. The villains felt like true villains and I looked forward to those showdowns. Some people didn't like the boss fights, but I thought they were decent in AC. Much better than these tank battles, even though I don't mind the tank mode that much.

That's probably the biggest letdown in AK... none of the villains feel like much of a threat. I've taken down Two Face, Firefly and Harley and none of them were that difficult or impressive to face. IIRC in AC, most of the bosses were immune to simple takedowns and most gadgets. You had to think about how to beat them. With the Two Face fight I took him down as soon as he walked through the door with an inverted take down, just as easy as any of his goons. I didn't even mean to get him that way, I was just waiting to plan my attack and he happened to walk under me... the "inverted takedown" warning popped up so I did it and was shocked it worked on him. Was a really underwhelming way to take him down. I still had to clear the room of the other thugs but he was the first one to go down, and had no special abilities as far as I could see.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You're right about Firefly and Manbat, but I'm positive I've had intel on the firefighters before. I ignored them for a while and then Alfred mentioned he heard some radio chatter about one of the fireman, and then it showed I had intel in the mission select screen. When I selected it I had a waypoint which put me in the general area of the guy. I still had to find him, but the waypoint narrowed down the neighborhood to look for.

The later ones don't give you Intel unless you are near them and didn't notice at which point you get a waypoint.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

PS4 (and XBone I think) are getting 100 meg patches today. Apparently it is to fix the leaderboards. But what other things are updated? I can't find hte changelog for version 1.03.

 

[gorcorps]

PS4 (and XBone I think) are getting 100 meg patches today. Apparently it is to fix the leaderboards. But what other things are updated? I can't find hte changelog for version 1.03.

Didn't seem to change anything for me. Actually if anything it made things worse because it seemed like I had some noticeable input delay when browsing menus. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I never had that before and I had it last night after an update. Didn't seem to affect the main game though.

I wish more games would give a gameplay counter. I have no idea how many hours I've spent in the game. It seems like its gone by fast but I know I've been playing it like crazy, so I don't know how long to tell people it's taken.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I love Batman's load times. I know when it is loading but it is painless and fast. I wish other games would learn from this (Bloodborne and Evolve ... I am talking to you). I think Batman might have lower quality (smaller file sized) textures to allow for faster load times. And you know what? I don't care. I love the fact that it is FAST!

I'd even pay $50 more if these consoles would have 50% more memory on board. SSD can help but a 1 TB SSD is expensive!

Anyway, post patch I have not noticed anything new. I haven't noticed menu lag and the leaderboards are still busted.

I hope next gen consoles do some lessons learned. Sacrifice some image quality for onboard memory and better load times!

 

[cmdrdredd]

Now that the initial wow factor is over and I've experienced the new moves and gadgets I'm flat out bored of the game. The batmobile sucks. It's so boring to fight waves of tanks that point where they are gonna shoot so you can dodge. It's forced into a game that didn't need it and would have benefited from NOT having it in there.

Once you clear the streets of all the checkpoints and towers that the militia puts there the game throws more at you at a certain story section just because. So you have to hunt them down all over again. It doesn't help that all the super villain side quests are repetitive. I mean you do the same exact thing 2-3 times over before you get to face the villain and then in most cases you win by default and don't even have a proper fight. So there's not even that to look forward to. I'm really just tired of the game and it's tedious mechanics and can't wait for it to be done. This is definitely the worst in the Arkham series that I've played (didn't play Origins).

 

[Rage187]

Sorry, I think the batmobile is fun. I don't use it a lot but it is a nice break from gliding.

I didn't play origins either, but This is a very solid game. If you liked the first couple, then this is a good followup.

The ONLY thing I thought was crap were the Harley Quinn and Red Hood missions. Just pointless. Would have been nice to earn some upgrade points from them.

 

[Sulaco]

Ugh.

I hate to say for fear of sounding like a broken record, but this is easily, easily the worst written, least compelling (plot-wise) entry in the series to date.

To the point where I'm having trouble continuing on. I'm not looking for anything approaching realism. But this game's writing makes AC and AA (and AO for that matter) look like a simulation in terms of believability. If this was any other game with any other pedigree I might not mind, but the plot and character development of these games has always been a focal point.

I let out an audible sigh when, in one segment, I'm confronted by a knock-off GI Joe looking Apache attack helicopter, before seeing several knock-off Chinooks transporting more "rocket tanks" to wherever.



The mid-90's X-Men cartoon had better writing than this.

*sigh* I'll give it more time, but man oh MAN am I missing the story-telling of the previous entries right now.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Sorry, I think the batmobile is fun. I don't use it a lot but it is a nice break from gliding.

I didn't play origins either, but This is a very solid game. If you liked the first couple, then this is a good followup.

The ONLY thing I thought was crap were the Harley Quinn and Red Hood missions. Just pointless. Would have been nice to earn some upgrade points from them.

The problem is they force you to use it a lot. I just find it boring. The idea is cool, if it was used sparingly. Unfortunately almost 40% of the game is devoted to batmobile usage. Not a fan, especially the tank sections which are easily the worst parts of any batman game I can remember. Let's 1 or 2 shot 50 tanks that telegraph their shots so you can't get hit just because we want to show off the batmobile. It was a very poor choice for a batman game IMO. I am not totally finished with the story but it's giving me no reason to care about it and I am having to force myself to even play it now. I can't even look forward to any of the villains because so far it has been extremely underwhelming.

Like I said, once the initial wow factor wears off I am finding the game to be average and not great.

 

[gorcorps]

Now that the initial wow factor is over and I've experienced the new moves and gadgets I'm flat out bored of the game. The batmobile sucks. It's so boring to fight waves of tanks that point where they are gonna shoot so you can dodge. It's forced into a game that didn't need it and would have benefited from NOT having it in there.

Once you clear the streets of all the checkpoints and towers that the militia puts there the game throws more at you at a certain story section just because. So you have to hunt them down all over again. It doesn't help that all the super villain side quests are repetitive. I mean you do the same exact thing 2-3 times over before you get to face the villain and then in most cases you win by default and don't even have a proper fight. So there's not even that to look forward to. I'm really just tired of the game and it's tedious mechanics and can't wait for it to be done. This is definitely the worst in the Arkham series that I've played (didn't play Origins).

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was getting at with my complaints about the villains too. Just repetitive side missions until they show up on the last mission, and then there's no real end boss battle or anything. You just play the same type of side mission again but now there's a cutscene of you capturing the villain, which you have to bring back via batmobile.

 

[sze5003]

Ugh.

I hate to say for fear of sounding like a broken record, but this is easily, easily the worst written, least compelling (plot-wise) entry in the series to date.

To the point where I'm having trouble continuing on. I'm not looking for anything approaching realism. But this game's writing makes AC and AA (and AO for that matter) look like a simulation in terms of believability. If this was any other game with any other pedigree I might not mind, but the plot and character development of these games has always been a focal point.

I let out an audible sigh when, in one segment, I'm confronted by a knock-off GI Joe looking Apache attack helicopter, before seeing several knock-off Chinooks transporting more "rocket tanks" to wherever.



The mid-90's X-Men cartoon had better writing than this.

*sigh* I'll give it more time, but man oh MAN am I missing the story-telling of the previous entries right now.

I agree the story line and conversations screams lime a poorly written movie. The other games at least had coherent sections.

 

[Sulaco]

The problem is they force you to use it a lot. I just find it boring. The idea is cool, if it was used sparingly. Unfortunately almost 40% of the game is devoted to batmobile usage. Not a fan, especially the tank sections which are easily the worst parts of any batman game I can remember. Let's 1 or 2 shot 50 tanks that telegraph their shots so you can't get hit just because we want to show off the batmobile. It was a very poor choice for a batman game IMO. I am not totally finished with the story but it's giving me no reason to care about it and I am having to force myself to even play it now. I can't even look forward to any of the villains because so far it has been extremely underwhelming.

Like I said, once the initial wow factor wears off I am finding the game to be average and not great.

This.

So very much this.:\

 

[cmdrdredd]

It's a good game and I would recommend someone try it. It just could have been much more.

 

[Sulaco]

It's a good game and I would recommend someone try it. It just could have been much more.

Hmmm...I can honestly say I'd have a hard time recommending it for $60. But that's just me. Unless the money's burning a hole in your pocket, I rarely spend $60 on games that aren't "must-buys", and this is the first Arkham game that I can say that about so far, sadly.:\

 

[cmdrdredd]

Well, I finished it. I must say the ending left no closure and was probably the absolute worst game ending I've ever seen. Especially with the repetitiveness of it all and the amount of hoops to jump through to get it. Really a let down of a game.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I have to say even at $22 I'm glad I didn't get this game. There aren't really any reviews (from this group) that are glowing. The early reviews from critics was pretty high, but it sounds like the actual gameplay/story sucks.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Yeah it rode a lot of hype and if they removed the batmobile tank stuff or at least a portion of it and didn't force 100% completion for the proper ending (that still explains nothing) I may give it a better grade. It's a solid B game when it had the potential of an AAA+ one. I love playing as batman and beating down thugs, but I hate pretty much everything else.

 

[Rage187]

I played Arkham Knight. What game were y'all playing?