Batman - Arkham Asylum 2 - I am Batman

[sa226]

A couple hours in so far. I like the depth of the story and the integration of more "famous" villains. It feels like a true comic book story.

As far as actual gameplay goes, so far it does feel quite similar to its predecessor. In the first one, the sense of satisfaction after systematically picking apart a room full of thugs was incredible. I hope there are some fresh new concepts like that.

[CaptainCrunch]

Good column from or friends at Cracked.com

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-a...-to-be-batman/

Well now they've added a similar mechanic to the God Damn Batman: You traverse a vast swathe of a meticulously rendered Gotham City via a combination of parkour, grapple-hook swinging, and hang-gliding. That's right: Just traveling from objective to objective incorporates the most addictive elements from Assassin's Creed, Bionic Commando, and ####ing Pilotwings.
***
A scream rings out in the night, shrill and desperate. A woman. An alleyway. Two men in hoods.
"Please, somebody help me!" She sobs.
"Ain't nobody gonna help you," the thin man answers.
"Wait, why not? Isn't this a Batman game?" The fat one asks.
"Hey, yeah, where is he?" The woman interjects, wiping mascara stains from her pale skin.
"Last time I saw him, he was doing loop-de-loops around the bell-tower, seeing how long he could go without touching the ground and holy ####, is that him up there? Is he still doing it?! It's been six hours! What is he, high?"

[Daradon]

I'll likely check out this game cause I enjoy open environment games, but I didn't think the first was that great. Got it as a bargain bin buy last year for 20 bucks and that's about what it was worth in my opinion.

The overall feel was nice, and I guess if you like Batman that was a big plus (I'm not a huge fan, maybe that's part of the problem), but I found it WAY too easy, even when finding all the extra Riddler stuff (one of the easiest games I've played on PS3 to be honest), and found the whole point of being Batman hiding in the shadows kinda pointless. Often it was easy enough to just go in and beat people up. Not to mention it was kinda unbelieveable finding gargoyles in the indoors of all these buildings just so you could drop down from them.

[Nammer403]

I can't wait to get my hands on the game

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Daradon

(I'm not a huge fan, maybe that's part of the problem)

I'm not either. I downloaded the demo expecting it to be another mediocre superhero game but was very impressed instead and pre-ordered it. Even my niece who could care less about superheros liked it.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Daradon

I'll likely check out this game cause I enjoy open environment games, but I didn't think the first was that great. Got it as a bargain bin buy last year for 20 bucks and that's about what it was worth in my opinion.

The overall feel was nice, and I guess if you like Batman that was a big plus (I'm not a huge fan, maybe that's part of the problem), but I found it WAY too easy, even when finding all the extra Riddler stuff (one of the easiest games I've played on PS3 to be honest), and found the whole point of being Batman hiding in the shadows kinda pointless. Often it was easy enough to just go in and beat people up. Not to mention it was kinda unbelieveable finding gargoyles in the indoors of all these buildings just so you could drop down from them.

Totally disagree about your first part. Metacritic has it as a 92. http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-...-arkham-asylum. I bought it for $30 and considered it a very good deal. But it's subjective I suppose.

Just out of curiosity what difficultly setting did you use? I always pick the hardest setting available. Granted once you got the combat down the battles weren't too difficult. Easily the hardest thing in the game were the combat challenges. Never got through all that. I think this game removed them from the achievements which is good.

[Flash Walken]

One thing I'm really enjoying about the game is that, unlike Burninator, I'm very good at the combat, but this game is hard to get by the guys if you're just going to go in thinking you'll waste them with your fists.

I notice I have to way more creeping than in the previous game, which is pretty awesome.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Totally disagree about your first part. Metacritic has it as a 92. http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-...-arkham-asylum. I bought it for $30 and considered it a very good deal. But it's subjective I suppose.

Just out of curiosity what difficultly setting did you use? I always pick the hardest setting available. Granted once you got the combat down the battles weren't too difficult. Easily the hardest thing in the game were the combat challenges. Never got through all that. I think this game removed them from the achievements which is good.

Yeah I didn't bother doing the combat challenges, didn't enjoy the game enough, but I can see where there would definitely be challenge there. I loved doing the challenges in God of War, loved those games, beat them on the impossible difficulty (I believe they changed the name for the fourth difficulty each time to reflect the current mythos of the game, IE Titan was hardest in one, but not the other)

I probably played it on the normal difficulty, but yeah, after that experience I just play each new game on hard right off the bat now, even if I have no experience with the franchise. I guess after playing games for 30+ years you pick up some tricks. So whether that's the games fault or not, meh, I can see it both ways.

I'll give this a try, but may wait till it goes best-seller edition.

EDIT: Actually I think I did a few of the challenges, but yeah, not many.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

One thing I'm really enjoying about the game is that, unlike Burninator, I'm very good at the combat, but this game is hard to get by the guys if you're just going to go in thinking you'll waste them with your fists.

I notice I have to way more creeping than in the previous game, which is pretty awesome.

Did you get all 24 medals in the combat challenges?

Because I didn't have any trouble with the combat in the story mode. But the combat challenges were way harder than the actual game.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Did you get all 24 medals in the combat challenges?

Because I didn't have any trouble with the combat in the story mode. But the combat challenges were way harder than the actual game.

I'm 12 for 12 on the medals so far, and got the last 6 on the first try.

I love the combat engine in this game.

I'm still working on a couple of things. The old Arkham game instilled some bad habits in me in terms of how to fight certain henchmen, it's breaking my combos and I'm getting hit more, which I don't like.

One thing I really miss about this game is the ability to throw guys. I used to really like that.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Yeah I didn't bother doing the combat challenges, didn't enjoy the game enough, but I can see where there would definitely be challenge there. I loved doing the challenges in God of War, loved those games, beat them on the impossible difficulty (I believe they changed the name for the fourth difficulty each time to reflect the current mythos of the game, IE Titan was hardest in one, but not the other)

I probably played it on the normal difficulty, but yeah, after that experience I just play each new game on hard right off the bat now, even if I have no experience with the franchise. I guess after playing games for 30+ years you pick up some tricks. So whether that's the games fault or not, meh, I can see it both ways.

I'll give this a try, but may wait till it goes best-seller edition.

EDIT: Actually I think I did a few of the challenges, but yeah, not many.

It's your adaptability. First time and rookie gamers get stuck in trying to do the same thing for an hour.

Seasoned gamers understand that if you're not getting it within the first little bit, maybe you need to re-examine your approach.

I got stuck trying to open a door with a batarang for 15 minutes before I re-evaluated my strategy. Change things up and BOOM, first shot I get it.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

It's your adaptability. First time and rookie gamers get stuck in trying to do the same thing for an hour.

Seasoned gamers understand that if you're not getting it within the first little bit, maybe you need to re-examine your approach.

I got stuck trying to open a door with a batarang for 15 minutes before I re-evaluated my strategy. Change things up and BOOM, first shot I get it.

This game is a little tricky at times. It seems like every building has a unique way to get into it. I can't decide if that's good or bad. On one hand it's like a puzzle, but on the other I feel like a tard walking around a building for 30 minutes only to find out there's a door that's ajar just enough for me to slide under.

The combat is my favourite part of the game. It's almost rhythm based. I imagine button mashers would have a much more annoying time with it.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Russic

This game is a little tricky at times. It seems like every building has a unique way to get into it. I can't decide if that's good or bad. On one hand it's like a puzzle, but on the other I feel like a tard walking around a building for 30 minutes only to find out there's a door that's ajar just enough for me to slide under.

The combat is my favourite part of the game. It's almost rhythm based. I imagine button mashers would have a much more annoying time with it.

It's very much rhythm based.

In fact, and this isn't a significant thing so I don't think spoiler tags are necessary, you can get an upgrade later in the game that increases your critical strike potential the more in time your strikes are.

The better the rhythm, the more ass-kickery.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Good column from or friends at Cracked.com

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-a...-to-be-batman/

[/COLOR][/LEFT]

The article linked to this one pretty much blew my mind:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19457...deo-games.html

[Flames89]

This game is likely my favorite so far this year. Just want to keep playing.

[Icon]

So I'm interested in playing Arkham City... would you consider it's a prerequisite to play Arkham Asylum first? (either from a plot or gameplay perspective)

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Icon

So I'm interested in playing Arkham City... would you consider it's a prerequisite to play Arkham Asylum first? (either from a plot or gameplay perspective)

it's not required. a lot of the events from the first are referenced in Arkham City, but it's a completely different storyline so you'll still know what's going on. the game also still gives you all the background information on all the characters in the game, so you won't be wondering who this particular villain is or how he fits into things

[Hockeyguy15]

Don't forget to go and visit Calendar Man today, he has a story for you.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Icon

So I'm interested in playing Arkham City... would you consider it's a prerequisite to play Arkham Asylum first? (either from a plot or gameplay perspective)

It's not a must, but it's still a great game, in many ways it is much darker than Arkham City.

It's not like playing an inferior game at the start of a long running Franchise, it's still a great game.

I imagine for those that didn't play Batman1, the learning curve for Arkham City is also much steeper. Could be good to wet your feet in the combat and scenarios of the first one before getting into the second.

You'll get a great view of all the things they improved on from the previous version.

last but not least, by the time you're done Arkham Asylum (which I will stress again, is a great game by itself), Arkham City will be sale.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Don't forget to go and visit Calendar Man today, he has a story for you.

Seriously? The game is tied to a real world calendar?

If so, I missed that one, then.