Despite a shaky start that had me seeing the combat as mediocre but ultimately something I would suffer through for the sake of the plot (and Batfam fandom), this game really came around on me. After about 10 hours of play time, enough combat abilities are unlocked to where you feel you can really express yourself in fights. And you'll need to, because as you level up so do enemy variants and combat tactics, making for tougher fights in terms of strategy and not just larger health and damage numbers. By the end of this game I was doing extra side content simply because of my love of the combat.

The characterisation of both the protagonists and the city of Gotham are really strong. While Gotham and the characters may seem a bit cookie cutter or bland to begin with, the depth of thought gone into planning them out make story beats and the open world so interesting to navigate. There is tender love and care put into the minute detail for those willing to look for it.

I think ultimately where this game falls short though is the crafting economy. Engaging with it to min max strength and weaknesses based on the factions you plan to fight is engaging, but the micromanaging of upgrading your suit, melee and range weapons for every level up (essentially every single 'patrol') is tedious. It's the one thing that would get me to end a play session. If the leveling was removed and instead suit element types and bonus conditions were kept, I think this would be a far easier game to parse and get the most out of. Unfortunately not effectively engaging with this system can make it seem like enemies are hit sponges where that really is not the case, but rather planning and knowing your enemy through your equipment choices are heavily rewarded. This latter part makes this a great Batfamily game, but disengagement with the system created by the constant gathering of loot and numbers to look at obfuscates this from a lot of players. I don't really blame the people who bounced off this because of it.

If you can push through the initial shallow combat and the loot economy, you will be rewarded with a game that has a lot of love put into it. Besides just the character of Gotham and all the comic inspired areas or easter eggs to find, you have a plot that makes it feel like whichever character you choose to play was the one always intended to be the main protagonist. The balancing act pulled off here is insane and in theory makes for a very replayable story, however the idea of pushing through that initial slog and managing the inventory again makes me think twice.

If you're a big Batfamily fan, I think there's something really good here for you. It unfortunately takes some patience to see, but once you do you will be rewarded with a gameplay loop that more accurately represents the fantasy of the Batfamily (patrols, intel gathering, crime solving and stopping, and grand overarching narrative) better than any other game out there, even the Arkham games.