Comments on: [Gamer Diary] Batman: Arkham Asylum & Arkham City, or; The Bat and his Bitches

By: Alice

Alice — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:44:14 +0000

I tried playing City at a friend’s house. The stealth-based beat-guys-up game play doesn’t appeal to me, even if the atmosphere of the game is cool. But how the game treats female characters is the real deal-breaker. I mean, the gratuitous slow-mo crotch-shots when Catwoman attacks henchmen, just makes me uncomfortable. And I don’t want to play a game like that.

It’s sad that DC is falling into a habit of just failing lately when it comes to their female characters, especially since I grew up on Batman: The Animated Series (where the female characters were amazing and strong, and had sensible character designs).

By: wererogue

wererogue — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:53:49 +0000

Mostly on the same page as you – I haven’t seen the ending to comment yet, but since the ending of Asylum was pretty poor, I wasn’t necessarily expecting much.

The puzzles and sidequests have been more than worth it for me, however. The lack of any real interest in the story gives me license to go riddle hunting whenever I like, and I enjoy all the mechanical challenges too. The expanded fighting and quick gadgets in combat are really fun, too.

The biggest disappointments for me are all gender-based – Ivy is barely present, and is basically set up as some kind of “crazy ex”. Catwoman is horrifically shallow, with no personality above the level of be sexy/steal stuff. Talia has been peripheral so far, Oracle reduced to giving Batman advice that he never takes. That ninja concept art made me roll my eyes so hard that I had to call in sick the next day. And Harley is the worst of all – they expanded her role, only to portray her as even more incompetent than in Asylum.

In a late episode of the animated series where she first appears, Harley traps Batman and would have successfully killed him if Joker hadn’t gotten jealous. Nobody else comes as close. In Arkham City, a thug jokes about how if Joker dies, he’ll get to “Ride the Harley”. In TAS, Harley successfully runs the Joker gang when J is, to all appearances, gone for good. In AC, NPCs expound at length about why that will never happen. Each time one of these conversations play, I cringe viscerally.

But the Riddler keeps me going back. I will get you, Mr. Nigma!

By: Russell

Russell — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:41:36 +0000

I completely agree. “It’s bigger” doesn’t really make up for the shortcomings, which for me also included obtuse autosaving, an over-emphasis on excessively difficult combat, and an obscure levelling system I managed to be completely disinterested in. When I first played Arkham Asylum, it was fun, but since then I’ve played three Assassin’s Creed games, and it just doesn’t cut it next to them.

Most uncomfortable was the ridiculous wiggle every female character seemed to sport. I don’t think I know any women who deliberately walk that way in real life, but then I don’t think I know any master criminals either. Harley’s new costume was obviously designed to fit in with the… thing she’s wearing in the comics now, but I really don’t see anything wrong with the original jester suit. Obviously too cartoony for what was meant to be a grim and gritty Batman game, and of course missed out everything that makes a good Batman story.

It did occasionally manage to be reasonably atmospheric, I suppose.