Arkham Games 1-4

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

At this point I have 100%'d the main games in the Arkham series, from Asylum to Knight. It had been almost a year since I played through a rented version of Asylum, but bought it on a Steam sale and just the other day/week came back to it to 100% it, having now finished the games, save for the DLC in Arkham Origins.

I've seen a few people bring up the games in another thread, so I thought I'd ask what you people think comparing the strengths and weaknesses of each title in the series considering they are all kinda unique.

Recently I saw this video that touched upon the same subject and thought it was pretty interesting, especially considering he took to Knight really well and that's the game people were let down by the most.


youtu.be/lgL46_iAPyE

[Beelzquill]

You know, I own all four games but have only played Asylum and City, I liked both though I found the boss fight with the Joker disappointing in Asylum. When I heard Origins was gonna have different voice actors I lost interest, a stupid reason in retrospect and if you're curious the only reason I have Origin and Knight is a friend of mine sold his playstation and just offered them to me because he knew I liked City.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Actually the voice acting for Batman in Origins often took me out of it. I think Troy Baker did the Joker, and him I did like though. Of course departing from Hamill you're gonna have an inevitably different character by shade, but I was comfortable with the performance.

The guy in the video above said the same thing about the Joker battle in asylum. It's hard to imagine all the ways you can go wrong with the Joker, but that's certainly one of them lol. Not sure how you felt about him in City, but while the cinematic element of the games is strongest in that game (and it is fun to watch for story), I don't feel like there's much in the way as far as encountering the Joker himself.

And that does kinda go for boss fights in these games in general, they are often disposable, formulaic, or overly consistent in handling.

[Beelzquill]

Yeah I admit the story in City is what I remember, but I also like that they didn't try to make the Joker the biggest physical threat. It just doesn't seem right to make him the big tough as balls boss. Troy Baker voiced the Joker? Damn, might play that just to hear it, I swear you could play six degrees of Troy Baker in voice work and get anywhere.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Yeah I admit the story in City is what I remember, but I also like that they didn't try to make the Joker the biggest physical threat. It just doesn't seem right to make him the big tough as balls boss. Troy Baker voiced the Joker? Damn, might play that just to hear it, I swear you could play six degrees of Troy Baker in voice work and get anywhere.

Well I'll undoubtedly encourage you to try it, but past that, the game is widely considered utterly pale, and I wouldn't blame you for stopping early.

[FaxModem1]

I like the series, as a whole. But I still do think Knight lost it's way, mostly due to the fact that you better like playing in the Batmobile, or you're going to hate the game with a passion. Asylum, City, and Origins all stayed rather true to the same mechanics; you are Batman, gliding around, punching people, solving crimes, etc.

Knight forced you to use the Batmobile for almost everything, to the point that it felt like we were in more of a spinoff than the actual grand finale game.

Storywise, I rather enjoy the series, as Arkham-verse Gotham feels alien, but similar enough to reality to be it's own thing. This is a world where Art Deco and Gothic architecture never went away, fashions changed while still keeping to 1930s aesthetics, and things like Airship laboratories and force fields are real.

It's an interesting world, and the games make them feel real.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I like the series, as a whole. But I still do think Knight lost it's way, mostly due to the fact that you better like playing in the Batmobile, or you're going to hate the game with a passion. Asylum, City, and Origins all stayed rather true to the same mechanics; you are Batman, gliding around, punching people, solving crimes, etc.

Knight forced you to use the Batmobile for almost everything, to the point that it felt like we were in more of a spinoff than the actual grand finale game.

The learning curve for the car was a tad stilted, though using it to get around was understandably straight forward. I liked how it was potentially faster than gliding your way across the map, but complicated enough in navigation and handling that you might very well choose to glide instead.

I guess if you don't like it, it is a considerable departure from the game play, but it definitely feels like Batman to me.

[FaxModem1]

I like the series, as a whole. But I still do think Knight lost it's way, mostly due to the fact that you better like playing in the Batmobile, or you're going to hate the game with a passion. Asylum, City, and Origins all stayed rather true to the same mechanics; you are Batman, gliding around, punching people, solving crimes, etc.

Knight forced you to use the Batmobile for almost everything, to the point that it felt like we were in more of a spinoff than the actual grand finale game.

The learning curve for the car was a tad stilted, though using it to get around was understandably straight forward. I liked how it was potentially faster than gliding your way across the map, but complicated enough in navigation and handling that you might very well choose to glide instead.

I guess if you don't like it, it is a considerable departure from the game play, but it definitely feels like Batman to me.

Sure, but is it really necessary for the Riddler to make racetracks? Or for Batman to have tank battles?

I'll admit, I enjoy the idea of Batman fighting over territory with a mercenary army, but I got tired of so many things having to include the Batmobile, to the extent that the story had to find a reason to evacuate Gotham so that Batman wouldn't be running over countless civilians.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I like the series, as a whole. But I still do think Knight lost it's way, mostly due to the fact that you better like playing in the Batmobile, or you're going to hate the game with a passion. Asylum, City, and Origins all stayed rather true to the same mechanics; you are Batman, gliding around, punching people, solving crimes, etc.

Knight forced you to use the Batmobile for almost everything, to the point that it felt like we were in more of a spinoff than the actual grand finale game.

The learning curve for the car was a tad stilted, though using it to get around was understandably straight forward. I liked how it was potentially faster than gliding your way across the map, but complicated enough in navigation and handling that you might very well choose to glide instead.

I guess if you don't like it, it is a considerable departure from the game play, but it definitely feels like Batman to me.

Sure, but is it really necessary for the Riddler to make racetracks? Or for Batman to have tank battles?

I'll admit, I enjoy the idea of Batman fighting over territory with a mercenary army, but I got tired of so many things having to include the Batmobile, to the extent that the story had to find a reason to evacuate Gotham so that Batman wouldn't be running over countless civilians.

Actually tank battles are excessive in concept, though as far as game play I liked its design. It's tremendously silly what they did with the Riddler challenges in game, though it's off of the main story and they're obviously trying to be super exaggerative for speculation. Evacuation of the city did at least make more sense in this game than Arkham Origins.

[Nessus]

I really like the first two (Asylum and City). Origins was a mixed bag leaning toward "meeeeeehhh" on balance. Haven't played Knight.

Asylum still holds up very well IMO. People like to say it's not as good as City b/c of not being open world, but IMO that's a distinction of gameplay genre, not quality or advancement. Asylum is a Metroidvania that feels like a modern (even though it's what, ten years old now?) evolution of classic stuff like Soul Reaver.

I don't truly consider City open world: it's still a metroidvania, it's just the hub map is bigger and has random encounters. It's the open-ended side mission structure that makes it open-world more than the map IMO. That said, the grapple swinging map traversal is great, and feels exactly as Batman as it should. And the various mission "dungeons" outside the hub map have a lot more visual variety than in Asylum. Under the hood it's IMO not actually as dissimilar to Asylum as it's often made out to be, but it FEELS like the "Aliens" to Asylum's "Alien".

Origins has a good main story, with particular kudos to how the Joker is handled. I like the batsuit: my tastes have moved on since then, but this is EXACTLY the batsuit I wanted from the Nolan films back in the day, and only kind of half got. But some confluence of little changes to the gameplay makes it start feeling stale and repetitive rather quickly, and the environmental design is relentlessly monotone. I mean, it is supposed to be Gotham in winter, but they went too far and made the whole game into a grey soup that I can't stay in for very long before I can feel parts of my brain shutting down. I don't mean "bleak" or "dark" in a stylistically cool or dramatically interesting way, just in a sort of general smothering Seasonal Effective Disorder sort of way.

Underneath the oppressive grayness, the outdoor parts of Origins do have a strong "Batman Returns" vibe, and finding a texmod that recolored the batsuit in Burton black & yellow is part of what helped me make it through.

It's not just Batman's voice that's different in Origins: his face looks different too. A bit less square jawed, more "Commander Shepard" male-modelish. The effect is like not so much like the voice is "wrong", as it is like watching a live action sequel where a character has been recast with a different actor. In Batman's case, this feels like a step down, but the Joker surprisingly holds his own. Despite having the same "different actor" feel to his look as well as his voice, it feels like they succeeded in creating their own unique spin (off Hamill's foundation, but the point is it works just as well in a vacuum) whereas the changes to Batman's performance and looks just make him feel more "generic protagonist guy".

Origins as a whole is subtly different in visual style from the others, like they were trying to hew a bit less cartoony and more "real", so it feels very "same world, different director". Like the difference between the first two and the third Harry Potter movies.

Knight looks like a return to form with some upgrades... except for the Batmobile stuff. I really like the idea of having a drivable batmobile in game (it felt increasingly conspicuous in its absence with the previous games, especially Origins), but turning so much of the game into "the batmoble show" isn't great, and I really, REALLY don't like how militarized the batmobile and its gameplay appears to be.