Arkham City

[I'm Murrin]

So I just got to the first Catwoman section, and I am loving it. I could spend hours just running around the city beating up everyone I see. Best fun I've had in a while.

[Cagliostro]

I agree. There is almost too much to do, and a lot of space to do it in. I'll probably go ahead and just finish the damn game soon, and then go back and collect everything else later. But enough fun can be had just swinging from building to building and taking out the occasional goon.

[Cagliostro]

I'm slowly nearing the end, I suspect. We'll see. It feels like things are coming to a head in the game. I have so little time to play it these days that it is definitely going slow.

[I'm Murrin]

There's an interesting variety of charcters in this one. Other than Croc and Zsasz, the first game stuck to well known villains. This time they don't seem to have minded throwing in a lot of comic book lore that would be less well known by the general public.

I've just finished off Penguin at the museum, myself. Now I'm going to wander around for a long time grabbing all the stuff I needed the line launcher for, I think.

[sgt.null]

any Signalman?

[I'm Murrin]

Nope.

Roles for Talia al Ghul, Solomon Grundy, Clayface, Deadshot... they're not the least well known characters, but they're ones that people who don't pay attention to comics and only really know Batman from films and games probably won't already be aware of. It also has Tim Drake as Robin when most adaptations still use Dick Grayson.


Finished the main game last night, I guess. At least, there was a brief dramatic exit from the City and the credits rolled, so I must have finished it. The finale in the theatre didn't seem all that climactic - it was a pretty simple and repetative boss (then again all bosses = fight waves of minions while occasionally throwing a gadget at the boss in the centre).

And then it threw me straight back in with more Catwoman plot, which apparently becomes open ended after that when you get control of the characters back to explore and finish side stuff. To be honest I think that left the Catwoman and Batman storylines not quite meshing into a single game; they should have made the Catwoman plot fit inside the main story, not continue after it.

[Cambo]

I thought both the beginning and the ending were fantastic- best parts of a superb game.

I was kinda bummed to find that after I clocked the main storyline I'd completed a mere 38% of the material.

[sgt.null]

Murrin - sorry to hear my favorite didn't make it. but Grundy and Deadshot making it are cool...

I want the video game... need the first one too.

[I'm Murrin]

I thought both the beginning and the ending were fantastic- best parts of a superb game.

I was kinda bummed to find that after I clocked the main storyline I'd completed a mere 38% of the material.

The ending of the story was fine, it's the ending of the game that fell flat. Dramatic cutscenes are fine and well, but the actually climax of the gameplay should feel significant, too, not just having a previously unseen enemy appear and use pretty much the same mechanics as every other boss.

I was 66% complete, having gone out of my way to finish the Zsasz, Deadshot, Azrael, Mad Hatter and Identity Thief side quests and three quarters of the Riddler games. I did wonder if the Mad Hatter side quest was time sensitive, or if the thing that triggers it changes based on what stage you're at in the game. There was only one part of the game I saw where it actually stopped you from wasting time running round collecting things, and that was when you had to get into the theatre at the end.

I'm pretty much done with everything now except the Riddler puzzles in the subway and sewers, and the last scraps of Catwoman stuff. Need to work out if the riddler trap rooms down there are actually solvable.

[Cagliostro]

I just finished last night, and I have to say that the "ending" was pretty surprising. Even more surprising was being brought back to play as Catwoman. I think I finished at 40 some percent. I do really want to work out the rest of the side quests, but will probably leave Riddler to do what he does.

Oh, and Null, I'd suggest picking them up in order. Get Arkham Asylum first (it's $20 nowadays), and Arkham City second, as it might come down in price before you pick it up, as it is full price now. But they do have a thread of a storyline running between them. They are both brilliantly executed, but I find my fondness at little more toward AA than AC, probably because the detective mode is a bit more engaging in the original, and the scenes with Scarecrow were superior to most things found in AC. I'm not at all disappointed with the sequel though.

[dlbpharmd]

I've played the hound out of this game - finished on 'hard' level, new game plus, all Riddler secrets (still have some Riddler challenges left,) and side missions. I'm only at 85%! I still have challenge rooms to finish. They're pretty easy as Batman, but tough when playing as Catwoman, Robin or Nightwing.

Overall I think it's a very worthy sequel to Arkham Asylum. I expect to continue to have fun playing this game for months to come.

[I'm Murrin]

I've now finished everything except the physical challenges and the challenge stuff. Little disappointed that the Catwoman bit just ends with you collecting the loot then... nothing.

[Cambo]

The ending of the story was fine, it's the ending of the game that fell flat. Dramatic cutscenes are fine and well, but the actually climax of the gameplay should feel significant, too, not just having a previously unseen enemy appear and use pretty much the same mechanics as every other boss.

You make a fair point. AA suffered from the same problem with the final Joker fight being nothing more than a

Spoiler

plus size Titan goon.

. The Mr Freeze boss fight in AC was far more interesting, especially if you don't use the Batcomputer to tell you your tactics. Ras AlGhul was epic was well. But you're right, the AA Scarecrow sequences were the best part out of either of the games.

I've finished Zsaaz, Deadshot and Identity thief, not sure if I've got the patience to go through the Riddler storyline.

[dlbpharmd]

not sure if I've got the patience to go through the Riddler storyline.

It takes a long time to complete, but you'll enjoy how it ends.

I realized that I had not completed the all of the side missions on new game plus, so I've been working on them. I'm stuck on the random violence mission. I'm at 90% completed, but nothing's happening. Any ideas on how to trigger it?

[I'm Murrin]

You just have to move around until you spot another fight going on. All over the Bowery, Park Lane, and Industrial District.

I was at 90% and found my last one in some spot in Industrial.