Poll: Batman: Arkham Aslyum - Overrated?

[Simmons 2.0]

if you want to know why, watch yahtze's review on it. if you dont want to watch it, then basically, he says its a game that successfully morphs good fighting and stealth gameplay together. and everything else, story, voice acting, sound, villians etc are just brilliant, everything is done well and you can tell people spent time over it... which makes it my game of the year, closely followed by cod mw2 and ass's creed 2

 

[Danzaivar]

I personally ain't too keen. Not sure if there's just some massive detail I'm really missing or what but the game just bores me to death... The bits with Scarecrow are cool tho.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Considering it's the best Batman game every made (have you seen the other games based on Batman? I'd sooner do a 36 hour marathon of Superman 64 than play those.) It deserves every bit of praise it got, not only for beating out it's predacessors, but for totally rocking.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

It's a good game and probably the best Batman game ever done. However, I do believe it is overrated.

As a Batman game, having a 3D character dressed with the famous cowl and cape isn't enough to make it true to the Dark Knight. And this regard, the game fails. Anyone who has read a lot of Batman comics knows there is something important missing; the narration. Bruce Wayne is a troubled man in constant conflict with his role as a hero. He's always questioning his actions and make reflections about the current events. It might be a lot to ask to a video game, but I believe it feasible. Also, the environments are lacking some life and look too static. I would assume a jailbreak in such prison should be a lot creepier.

As a game, everything in Arkham Asylum feels to stiff. Controlling Batman is like controlling a tank (he's a martial art master) and the camera (which is too close to Batman in my opinion) could have been a lot smoother. The fighting is grandiose the first few times, but become quickly repetitive.

Oh, and please don't get me wrong. This is just for argument sake. I loved Batman Arkham Asylum and I'm really surprised by how good the game turned out to be. It does a lot of things right like the stealth mechanics and the overall audio design. The characters and setting design are also incredible. But in terms of overall value, I preferred games like Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed II and Infamous.

Finally, I know I will break the whole purpose of a debate, but bottom line it all depends on your appreciation of the game. If you think the game was worth you 60$, then no, the game wasn't overrated to you. On my side, I think other games were more worthy of that same amount of money.

That's a pretty good argument. Unfortunately for me, whether the game is overrated or not is independent of the overrated quality of the package as a whole. It's not just a binary decision.

What I mean to say is yes - the gameplay is overall kinda clunky and repetitive, but at least the mechanics actually work to provide interesting options for different gameplay experiences. Batman: AA is ultimately a linear, story-based game - generally this type of game doesn't focus on new mechanics. To say the gameplay is overrated? Yeah, I can see where you're coming from, but the fact that it works is enough for most people.

The package as a whole is where my conflict really comes through. As a part of the Batman franchise, it is highly appealing, as AA's story follows pretty close to the way comics unfold. Granted, the character of Batman is really just an inner conflict writing exercise, but the story as a whole plays out more like the comics (and animated series plots) of the 90s. In this regard, AA totally meets every expectation. It actually felt like I was playing a Batman game, rather than a game with Batman in it. It's a very important distinction I feel should be made with all media derived from such sources as comics, and in this rare case, they came through for me.

 

[comadorcrack]

Because we finally got a good Batman game.
The story, was a great take on the comics and had alot of interesting cameos.
The melee system was fucking fantasic, It gave you the Batman feeling after taking out dozens of guards without getting a scratch.
It also had some fairly well done Detective sequences. I thought the boss battles were quite fun (Yes, even the Joker one).
All of that and the Scarecrow seqeunces...that shit was golden.

This with the Added.

Awesome Character Design and Voice Acting, and Generally Fantastic Story Telling

 

[Zhukov]

Yup. I found it a bit overrated. Mostly because it was so darn easy.

Combat was mostly a matter of mashing one button with the occasional counter thrown in. Enemies would politely attack you one at a time, and even had a little symbol flash over their heads whenever they were about to take a swing.

Stealth was also too easy. Having safe and invisible perches everywhere just took all the challenge out of it. Knock one guy out, spray explosive gel on a nearby surface, hide, wait for enemies to come check on their friend, detonate gel. Rinse and repeat. Easy and boring.

I hear a lot of people say it was simply fun playing a game that makes one feel like batman which sorta makes sense. However, I've never been able to take superheroes seriously, so that aspect just didn't do it for me. To each their own I guess.

So yeah, it wasn't exactly bad. Just rather dumbed-down and way too easy.

 

[Donttazemehbro]

ABSOLUTELY NOT. Arkham asylum is one of the best game I've played. If you think Arkham Asylum is bad you should probably think about getting yourself sectioned.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

Don't open the spoiler tag below if you don't enjoy being insulted.

Spoiler: I'm insulting you here

I'm a retard, disregard my opinion.

Don't spoiler tag it. If you don't have the sack to insult me without concealing how immature you are, then you have no business saying anything at all.

I hope you mean ACII. The first Assassin's Creed is a very mediocre game. AA is much better.

I wouldn't call it mediocre, I had a great time with it and it has at least two aspects that are better than Arkham Asylum: the writing doesn't rely on comic book cliches, and it's rendered much cleaner. All the highlights shining off of Batman's gloves and everyone's faces are pretty ugly. But AA does control much better and has a universal appeal - everybody loves Batman.

At the end of the day, though, AC is my idea of a perfect game design. Plenty to explore, beautiful vistas and a very engaging story. Just beat it 15 minutes ago, looking forward to playing the sequel now. Not counting on ever understanding that weak ending though...

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

It's certainly not perfect, but what game is? It's certainly the best superhero game ever made, and even generally speaking it's an awesome game. Whether or not you'll consider it GOTY material is up to personal preference in the end, but there's no denying that it's one quality game.

 

[SimGrave]

I didn't use the right button to reply. Sorry for the duplicate.

 

[Battenbergcake]

It's a good game but i strongly agree on hind sigh with a many of your points, namely the copy pasted enemies, personally i don't think it would of been as bad if the actual super villains had been proper boss battles.

The stealthiness was fun and the melee combats was a barrel of fun for me personally, but the constant dragging down of walls always became tiresome and i was sad that Joker pulled a resi and injected himself with t-virus ripoff 226 and became a pathetic joke of a boss, which i gues sis kinda ironic since he's a clown *rim shot*

But i digress searching for riddles was fun and the combat was nice but it did get repetitive when they introduced those titan fellers into regular fist fights and some of those scenes were far to drawn out, and killer croc was a massive disappointment.

A good game, but be no means perfect.
i loved the scarecrows sections if only because i love the scarecrow, they could have been more interactive than just duck and cover.

People do like the fact that batman has been given a game in which play as him feel like a new and individual experience as everyone will play the dark knight differently and everyone will feel like they are the dark knight, meaning they experience isn't with some crappy platformed with sub-part combat and a roster of interchangeable stock character builds but instead with one finely tuned protagonist.

Personally i don't' see why there couldn't of been unlockable skins for batman, like different suits or a Bruce Wayne Costume.

I also felt exploring the island afterward was fun exploring for riddles, was ultimately pointless and mundane without stealth sections and brawls to keep me amused in between the murk shiny scenery.

 

[SimGrave]

That's a pretty good argument. Unfortunately for me, whether the game is overrated or not is independent of the overrated quality of the package as a whole. It's not just a binary decision.

What I mean to say is yes - the gameplay is overall kinda clunky and repetitive, but at least the mechanics actually work to provide interesting options for different gameplay experiences. Batman: AA is ultimately a linear, story-based game - generally this type of game doesn't focus on new mechanics. To say the gameplay is overrated? Yeah, I can see where you're coming from, but the fact that it works is enough for most people.

The package as a whole is where my conflict really comes through. As a part of the Batman franchise, it is highly appealing, as AA's story follows pretty close to the way comics unfold. Granted, the character of Batman is really just an inner conflict writing exercise, but the story as a whole plays out more like the comics (and animated series plots) of the 90s. In this regard, AA totally meets every expectation. It actually felt like I was playing a Batman game, rather than a game with Batman in it. It's a very important distinction I feel should be made with all media derived from such sources as comics, and in this rare case, they came through for me.

I guess it all comes down to expectations. Mines weren't met because I was looking for another aspect of Batman's legacy. If I did expected something more in vein with the series from the 90's, I guess it would have been a different story.

Gameplay wise though, I'm not sure. You are right in bringing up the fact that story based linear action adventure games aren't usually known for coming up with new mechanics, but even if they "work", they don't excel in this case. That why I believe it is overrated and is what makes the difference between a good game and a great game.

That's my point, Batman AA was good, but not great. Not the type of game I was wishing for more once completed or wanted to restart it immediately. The other games I mentioned did that to me.

So often you could the exact same word for word arguments for two different games and didn't lower the score for one, but did for the other. In this case, it seems they were so glad to finally have a good Batman game, that it was enough of an excuse to forgive some of its weaknesses. These same weaknesses would have probably killed a new IP.

I am not questioning the metacritic or game ranking systems as a whole, but numbers have the tendency to have us forget that these are written by people with different backgrounds and that no matter how hard they try, it's almost impossible to make abstraction of their personal likings.

 

[tk1989]

I cant really think of many good superhero games... Spiderman 2 springs to mind... But most of them are pretty shit. Batman is a good game by all standards, but as far as superhero games go its a godsend imo.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Perhaps - and here I am saying perhaps because it will only apply to YOU - it had such low expectations it was rated highly when the reviewers saw it as good as it is.

Meanwhile you expected a fantastic game, when in fact you only got a good superhero game.

Now BAA (not to be confused with the sheep noise game) is a fantastic game and well worth a purchase, but the above could possibly apply to your situation.

OffTopic: If you swap the o and e in the word "Superhero" it spells "Superhore"... now all we need is a 'W'.

 

[Nazz3]

No. Though the game might get boring sometimes

 

[D0WNT0WN]

Nope, it is the first good Batman game we have had in the last decade.

 

[IamQ]

You buy products because of their reviews? Dear god...

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Yes. It's damn fucking good, but not the greatest licensed game ever...That honor goes to Treasure's 2D side-scrolling GBA masterpiece.

But it's a damn close second.