So, I know this blog is supposed to be about movies. As a rule, during the school semester I do not play video games. I tend to get a little to sucked into them. With the semester at an end, I sort of broke my rule and picked up Batman: Arkham City since A) I work at a video game retailer and everyone kept talking abou it and B) I had to watch my boyfriend play it a month ago and drool secretly to myself. Breaking that rule has led me to want to write about the game, because it really is an interactive movie. (I also fell asleep during movie night this week while watching Paul, it was good for what I saw, I was just exhaaaauuuusted.) So let the review begin!
Things I loved:
1) Arkham city. It's expansive and beautiful. The over all look of this game is absolutely polished down to the T. The architecture is astonding. I'm an Art History minor and gothic architecture is one of my many loves. I walked into the cathedral in the middle of the city and could not believe the amount of detail that went into that building. It was perfect. There are so many places to explore at ground level, building tops, and even underground that you could honestly spend hours just taking a look around (if you weren't being shot at and attacked constantly by the goons)
2) Villan designs. The character models for the villans themselves are perfect. Normally I would say Harley Quinn is my favorite (she is my favorite in Batman and I loved her look in Arkham Asylum) but this time around the Riddler takes the cake. There is something about his character's overall design that just feels so perfect. My second favorite was the Mad Hatter. He's grungy I-just-walked-out-of-the-madhouse-gutter look fits so perfectly into a villanous version of the classic Alice hatter. And the corresponding Batman costume for that scene was amazing as well.
3) The story. The ending in particular leaves you staring at screen going "Is that really the end of the story? Are they going to change this somehow?" (comic book storylines always find that loop hole and it ALWAYS pisses me off) but this time you know it's the end. The main story jumps seamlessly between different villans while keeping Dr. Strange as your main focus and pulls what I will refer to as a Final Fantasy boss move. You think it's one thing and at the last moment *BAM* you were so wrong.
4) Mark Hammill. The man is a vocal genius. I give actors in general credit for what they do. But voice acting is such a refined talent that those who pull it off astound me. He IS the Joker. Done. End of story. I know many people loved Jack Nicholson in the 90s movie or even Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight but you have to admit that hearing Mark Hammill do the voice of Joker is exactly what he should have always been. I'm sad to say that this was his last outting as Joker. He's done so much damage to his vocal cords by voicing him that he announced at the begining of the year that he was stepping away from it. I nearly cried. Mark Hammill may be Luke Skywalker to many, but to me he will always be Joker.
Things I'm still Iffy about (I don't want to say dislike because I'm still torn)
1) The combat. I loved the combat in Arkham Asylum. This time around I don't get that same feel. I think it's because of the gadget set up. I hate fighting with the d-pad to choose things that are NE, NW, SE, or SW on the pad while midfight. As Batman, he's slow and needs to be timed perfectly. You also get to play as Catwoman if you are connected online. She's much faster but she doesn't have as many useful gadgets. I enjoy fighting with her more but Batman definitely wins for getting around.
2) Riddler challanges. Not the fight challenges, the hidden question marks. By the gods, some of these things are so frigin ridiculous to A) find but to B) get to is insane. But, if this were reality, I have a feeling that's exactly what he would have done. It's just cruel and unusual punishment to have to control the remote controlled batarang through electric fields across the map back to where you are and through some small port hole. *YIKES*
3) Villan side missions. Some of the side missions feel kind of pointless. The one for Deadshot. I felt kind of unsatisfied after that one. I enjoy having them there and some are pretty awesome, but not all of them.
4) Catwoman. I enjoy fighting with her and I love her character model but her story is so-so and the end game is actually kind of cheesey from what I have gotten to so far. I want to love her, but I just can't seem to get myself to. Maybe once I complete everything I'll feel better about her.
Overall this game is perfect. Just as the first one was. I love just about anything with Batman (that takes place in his world...Justice League be damned). But video games have always had a hard time recreating superheros as they exist in their comic book realm, or in the movie realm. Rocksteady for the win on this one.
As you can tell, I'm much more of a gamer than a movie person. I chose movies for this blog because I knew I could fit those in, but video games are definitely my expertise. I'm excited to go and catch up on all the games I missed over the semester. This is my final blog but I've been thinking of creating my own gaming webpage. We will see how that goes. Thanks for reading all semester. Hope you guys found some new movies to look into, because I know very few people have seen half of what I reviewed!
