Arkham City: Preliminary Complaints

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October 21st, 2011

09:39 am

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Arkham City: Preliminary Complaints

The glory of Arkham Asylum was that whenever Batman died, you never felt like it was his fault. Batman was a chained panther, so eager to beat up criminals that you had the feeling if you dropped the controller, Batman might keep punching Joker gang members because he had not dispensed SUFFICIENT JUSTICE.

The controls were so tight, and Batman so obviously competent, that any time you died, it felt like you had let Batman down. You were insufficient. Batman remained bad-ass.

Which is why it’s such a shame that Arkham City turns Batman into Rain Man.

I was a little worried about Arkham City because it was an open-ended game, a la Grand Theft Auto, as opposed to the “Walk through this level ’til you hit the cut scene” of Arkham Asylum. And I get lost going to the bathroom. As a man with no sense of direction, in a city that’s designed for rooftop swings and alleyway scuffles, I was terrified that Arkham City would just leave me wandering in circles, desperately trying to find my way to the next mission.

And lo! Guess what happened? There’s a map, but no obvious way to set a waypoint marker – or at least it hasn’t come up on the tutorials yet, and the “instruction manual” is literally a two-page sheet of emptiness that warns you about extended playing time. So I’m flailing about the city, not sure which direction I’m facing, bringing up the map and going fifty feet, bringing up the map and making sure I haven’t gotten turned around, bringing up the map and…

OH SHUT UP BATMAN.

See, the problem with Arkham City is that when Batman’s on the case, because he can go anywhere, Batman helpfully reminds you of what you’re supposed to do next by muttering it to himself. “I have to scale the belltower to find the location of the shooter,” he says. And that’s great! Thanks for the help, Bats!

Then, thirty seconds later, he says it again. “I have to scale the belltower to find the location of the shooter.” Which is somewhat less helpful, because not very much time has passed, and Bats has not pointed towards the belltower, nor given any other indication in a possible direction where it might lie.

“I have to scale the belltower to find the location of the shooter.” “I have to scale the belltower to find the location of the shooter.” “I have to scale the belltower to find the location of the shooter.” Every thirty fucking seconds. Eventually my wife was shouting, “SHUT UP BATMAN SHUT UP.”

Batman might as well be wandering around muttering, “Ten minutes to Wapner. Ten minutes to Wapner.” It’s like Navi’s “Hey! Listen!” only not quite as helpful – because despite all of Bats’ arsenal, a simple compass doesn’t seem to be one of them.

This makes Batman not a caged panther, but an annoying pal. “You’re the great fucking detective,” you say. “How about just grappling hooking your way to where you need to be so I can punch some more bad guys?” But no. “IhavetoscalethebelltowerIhavetoscalethebelltowerIhavetoscalethebelltowerGAH NOW I KNOW HOW THE JOKER FEELS.”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun punching bad guys. But the game seems woefully short on explaining the user experience – there was one level where three switches needed to be shut off to stop Batman from dying to steam. (Yes, in my game, badass Batman died from walking into steam.) And I spent ten minutes hitting each switch with a Batarang, as had been explained in a previous segment, but there wasn’t enough time – I’d fire one Batarang, and by the time the next one hit, the other switches had flipped back on again. (Because they are, apparently, mysterious switches that flip back on by themselves. Happen all the time.)

It wasn’t until I broke down and looked at a cheat guide, which told me, “Just tap the button three times quick. You don’t even need to aim. Batman will do that for you.” GOOD TO FUCKING KNOW, ARKHAM CITY, THANKS FOR EXPLAINING THIS RAPID-FIRE BUTTON IN THE MANUAL – WAIT, THERE’S NO MANUAL – OR THE TUTORIAL THAT DOESN’T EXIST. THANKS FOR LETTING ME SPEND ALL THIS GODDAMNED TIME AIMING.

So it’s not a terrible game, but my opinion of it after two hours of play is that it’s a fairly unpolished addition to Arkham Asylum. Fortunately, Arkham Asylum was so polished that I can beat up random bad guys all day and still feel pretty good about myself.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/160997.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

Tags: reviews, videogames

(21 shouts of denial | Tell me I'm full of it)

Comments

From:	aiela
Date:	October 21st, 2011 01:45 pm (UTC)

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I'm still sad twitter shut down @annoyingNavi. It was a bot, yes. But it would tweet you HEY! LISTEN! everytime it found a Zelda reference. And I thought it was cute.

In the game? Not so much. I've been known to leave the room while Brit's playing. ;)

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From:	yendi
Date:	October 21st, 2011 02:04 pm (UTC)

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Have you seen the FilmCritHulk's comments on the game?

I'm still on the first game (which I do enjoy a lot). I just don't have enough time for games these days.

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From:	adam_0oo
Date:	October 21st, 2011 02:18 pm (UTC)

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Well, the hottest water can get is boiling, but the hottest steam can get is plasma, so steam can kill even batman.

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From:	ravenblack
Date:	October 21st, 2011 02:23 pm (UTC)

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You don’t even need to aim. Batman will do that for you.

That really doesn't sound like a fun gameplay experience.

Next sequel's manual: PUSH BUTAN AND U WIN. U LIEK GAME.

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From:	zzzzsleep
Date:	October 23rd, 2011 02:28 pm (UTC)

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Have you ever played "Press Space to Win"?

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From:	ravenblack
Date:	October 23rd, 2011 11:00 pm (UTC)

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No, but if it's the one where you press space lots of times and it keeps encouraging you, I've seen someone else showing it off for some reason. But hm, I think that one was clicking a red button, rather than pressing space.

Regardless, I'm sure it's not something I want to play. See also: Progress Quest.

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From:	exile_27
Date:	October 21st, 2011 02:31 pm (UTC)

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My housemates have been playing Arkham City nonstop since they got it, and since I've the room next to the games and the projector, my daily soundtrack has been a symphony of fists. It's...not bad, actually.

What I've seen watching them (included a time when my housemate died to that exact steam, only to get a rapid-fire-batarang tooltip) is that it pulls up various compasses sometimes. To find the ARG training, it'll use a basic objective compass and a height meter. To find Mr Freeze, there's a temperature meter that lets you play "hot/cold" and can be used sort-of-compass-y to get to that single objective.

The only consistently useful way to find objectives that I've observed, however, is that usually the Batsignal appears above them with wispy lit-up arrows pointing downwards. Again, I've been watching and not playing the whole game, but that's how it's appeared to me so far.

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From:	radiumhead
Date:	October 21st, 2011 02:47 pm (UTC)

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Oh my god, i had the same problem, i couldnt fucking find anything.

Maybe they didnt bother with the booklet cause they figured people would buy the inevitable 200 page guidebook anyway.

Which is some fuckin bullshit, after paying $60 for the game you gotta pay $40 for the book?

Im using the online walkthrough.

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From:	xforge
Date:	October 21st, 2011 02:55 pm (UTC)

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Huh, it'd be like playing WoW. "I can't do that yet it's out of range I'm out of mana I can't do that yet I don't have a target it's out of range I can't do that yet I'm out of mana I can't do that yet it's out of range I don't have a target." I turned that voice waaaaaaaaaayyy down and it doesn't bother me so much, I presume this game doesn't have that option.

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From:	dragonblink
Date:	October 21st, 2011 04:38 pm (UTC)

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You can turn those error sounds off completely actually. I did that after a week of me yelling at the screen I KNOW YOU'RE OUT OF RANGE YOU NIMROD.

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From:	xforge
Date:	October 21st, 2011 05:05 pm (UTC)

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And it's set for melee, so your poor mage is perched primly out there at exact optimum kill range and he's still being told "I'm out of range I'm out of range I'm out of range I'm out of range I'm out of range" STOP IT STOP IT NOW

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From:	dragonblink
Date:	October 21st, 2011 08:01 pm (UTC)

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I know! He's all "I'm out of range" and I want to yell "You're not supposed to hit that thing with a stick, genius! You're supposed to SET IT ON FIIIIIRE"

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From:	wrendragon
Date:	October 21st, 2011 05:55 pm (UTC)

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You can turn them OFF? :D Thank goodness, much as my Draenei's vaguely Russian accent amuses me, the out-of-range warnings are stupid unnecessary once you mostly know what you're doing...

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From:	mantic_angel
Date:	October 23rd, 2011 07:09 pm (UTC)

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Oh goodness, please tell me how to do that :)

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From:	lurid_dawn
Date:	October 21st, 2011 08:31 pm (UTC)

Waypoint

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You can set a waypoint marker with triangle (Y)

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From:	kidsis
Date:	October 21st, 2011 09:18 pm (UTC)

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I have high hopes for this game and I want to see it do well for my voice actor friends who worked on the project (not that they get anymore money if it sells well but it puts them in a better position when they look for work). Unfortunately, I don't get to purchase or play most of my friends' games because I only have a Wii and it never gets any love when the cool games come out....

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From:	ronin_kakuhito
Date:	October 22nd, 2011 12:08 am (UTC)

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I watched my roommate play a lot of the end of the game. There is eventually a city map that you can use for navigation.

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From:	ronin_kakuhito
Date:	October 22nd, 2011 12:10 am (UTC)

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oh I misread what you were saying... I just saw him doing a lot of map based navigation.

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From:	fatbunnyghost
Date:	October 22nd, 2011 04:54 pm (UTC)

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The ferrett driving:

I AM NOT LOST

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From:	kisekinotenshi
Date:	October 22nd, 2011 09:15 pm (UTC)

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That would be a nightmare for me. I'm having a bad enough time getting lost every time I attempt to "explore" in Fable II (just bought it a week ago, mostly having fun). Not to mention shrieking in surprise every time a bandit jumps down out of a tree (or worse, a Balverine).

If it weren't for the damn dog, I wouldn't even find half the treasure chests...

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From:	ccr1138
Date:	October 24th, 2011 02:39 pm (UTC)

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That sounds horrible. I'd put it on eBay after playing for an hour.

It does annoy the stew out of me when nothing is explained in-game and you're left to founder. It's okay when it's something like Myst, where the whole point is for you to explore and struggle to figure out how the mechanical puzzle-doodads work. There is satisfaction in spending an hour running around pulling levers and turning valves and suddenly going a-ha! as a new doorway opens.

OTOH, in the MMORPG that is Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO, my current obsession until SWTOR arrives), almost everything you need to know to play the game with any success -- optimizing the gear and stats for your toon, solving puzzles, defeating certain bad-guy bosses -- has to be learned by talking with other players or searching DDO Wiki. Why, oh why, don't they provide in-game NPCs -- sages, perhaps -- that you can consult to figure out things like which of a bazillion arcane recipes to use to craft your bad-ass +5 Holy Burst Quarterstaff of Smiting?

And it's the same with mechanics like your rapid-fire button. I'd played the game for months before somebody told me you could use the F keys to target your allies instantly. That would have been nice to know when my buddies were all dying faster than my cleric could heal their sorry butts.

OTOH, at least we have the forums and DDO Wiki. Remember Prima guides?

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