SheikhHeisen
2009
The best thing about this game is the combat and how Cole and his enemies exist in the environment around them (as opposed to how it is in Spider-Man PS4 or Uncharted or something). Everything else ranges from great (the cutscene art) to okay (like most of it). It's got a neat atmosphere too, even if its quite grey
2011
The open world was super overwhelming to me at first, and I still think the game's structure, specifically the side content, makes literally no sense with the "muhuhaha you will die by tonight batman, tick tick it's almost time, you will die soon lil bro, maybe find a cure if you can trololol" plot, but I really liked this!
Like, I think the overwhelming feeling was intentional, since Arkham City's one massive fucked up prison, but its pretty weird that we've got him trying to track down Deadshot on a side quest while he's a few hours away from fucking dying, especially when the story keeps pointing out how little time he has left. Makes for really weird pacing, which is funny when that's one of the things Asylum nailed.
I'm okay with that though because the actual gameplay is really solid. Gliding as Batman across the city is EXTREMELY satisfying, especially after you've gotten the grapple boost upgrade, and the stealth/combat is still fun like it was in Asylum. I found the bosses interesting here too (Mr. Freeze's was neat especially). Catwoman's traversal is awful though, and that final mission with her was really annoying.. I find it really funny how the game presents a choice with her, and upon choosing the wrong one the game just rolls the credits. I thought that was neat lol
Everyone who adores this game always points out how good the story is, and while I think the ending is really well done (love that thing with the credits), everything preceding the final hour or so of story was just alright? The story is great in the sense that it finds a good way to weave in as many batman villains as possible without it feeling too game-y, but besides that it's just an alright go-here, find-this-villain, go-there, find-this-villain, though I do question opening the game with the big "HUGO KNOWS WHO BRUCE IS" when literally nothing happens with it. I did like the Talia and Ras part but they feel out of place for whatever reason, just comes out of nowhere I guess? There's this air of stuff being a little contrived, but that's like a really stupid nitpick to make honestly considering this is both a superhero story and a videogame. Also, I have no idea how (un)popular this opinion is, but Arkham Batman/Bruce is pretty meh to me. I understand that he's stoic, and you do see little bits of emotion (he's sarcastic with Oracle sometimes), but he's about as interesting as a plank of wood, and it also sucks that the game's lead people to think Batman's always a dick and smashes random robbers' ribcages on the daily.
As a complete experience, it was pretty good, and ended right as I was starting to get tired of it. I can see why it was so beloved; way bigger scale and more grandiose than Asylum, would've blown 8 year old me's mind. I'll admit the Batman fanboy in me gave an extra half star just because you could play as Nightwing and Robin in the challenge maps (TIM HAS THE RED ROBIN SUIT AAAAAAA) (they have their own animations and gadgets!!)
Speaking of gadgets, I can't help but think of how much better this game handles them and breaking up the flow of the superhero gameplay than Insomniac did with Spider-Man (2018).
neat game !
Like, I think the overwhelming feeling was intentional, since Arkham City's one massive fucked up prison, but its pretty weird that we've got him trying to track down Deadshot on a side quest while he's a few hours away from fucking dying, especially when the story keeps pointing out how little time he has left. Makes for really weird pacing, which is funny when that's one of the things Asylum nailed.
I'm okay with that though because the actual gameplay is really solid. Gliding as Batman across the city is EXTREMELY satisfying, especially after you've gotten the grapple boost upgrade, and the stealth/combat is still fun like it was in Asylum. I found the bosses interesting here too (Mr. Freeze's was neat especially). Catwoman's traversal is awful though, and that final mission with her was really annoying.. I find it really funny how the game presents a choice with her, and upon choosing the wrong one the game just rolls the credits. I thought that was neat lol
Everyone who adores this game always points out how good the story is, and while I think the ending is really well done (love that thing with the credits), everything preceding the final hour or so of story was just alright? The story is great in the sense that it finds a good way to weave in as many batman villains as possible without it feeling too game-y, but besides that it's just an alright go-here, find-this-villain, go-there, find-this-villain, though I do question opening the game with the big "HUGO KNOWS WHO BRUCE IS" when literally nothing happens with it. I did like the Talia and Ras part but they feel out of place for whatever reason, just comes out of nowhere I guess? There's this air of stuff being a little contrived, but that's like a really stupid nitpick to make honestly considering this is both a superhero story and a videogame. Also, I have no idea how (un)popular this opinion is, but Arkham Batman/Bruce is pretty meh to me. I understand that he's stoic, and you do see little bits of emotion (he's sarcastic with Oracle sometimes), but he's about as interesting as a plank of wood, and it also sucks that the game's lead people to think Batman's always a dick and smashes random robbers' ribcages on the daily.
As a complete experience, it was pretty good, and ended right as I was starting to get tired of it. I can see why it was so beloved; way bigger scale and more grandiose than Asylum, would've blown 8 year old me's mind. I'll admit the Batman fanboy in me gave an extra half star just because you could play as Nightwing and Robin in the challenge maps (TIM HAS THE RED ROBIN SUIT AAAAAAA) (they have their own animations and gadgets!!)
Speaking of gadgets, I can't help but think of how much better this game handles them and breaking up the flow of the superhero gameplay than Insomniac did with Spider-Man (2018).
neat game !
i like robin <3
very pretty and more fun to actually play and swing around in than the previous one, but god bless their souls insomniac's writing team is so millenial white liberal IFUCKINGLOVESCIENCE nothing-meaningful-to-say it's actually fucking hilarious
This cleared the original Ratchet and Clank tbh
2011
:)
one of the like 7 games to actually utilize the PS Vita's features, and they actually made it fun surprisingly!!
2008
i feel like tearing up whenever i listen to the garden's theme. this was the first videogame i ever played on the first console i ever owned man. i miss you sackboy <3
i might actually have like a 100 hours into this. yes i was a raiden main.
2016
fuck this shit man; they really turned the original game into EXACTLY what it was making fun of, but at least the pixelizer is cool and the whole thing's pretty to look at i guess
2002
i remember finding this really witty and funny when i was 12. it had some really good music too. i sure am glad no one made a god awful remake that took out literally every single thing good about this!
2020
i'm so glad the most-liked reviews on this site tear into just how fucking bland and generic the game's entire structure and core is. for all it's talk about being faithful or like a kurosawa film, it's so.. cookie cutter AAA ubisoft. i mean the kurosawa mode itself just being a black and white filter, some grain, and shitty audio is so fucking funny to me. it sucks because when this game was first announced, i really was expecting this like REALLY realistic samurai simulator, where a lot of it was mundane and fights would end with two strikes at max and.. man that would've been a sick PS2 game. it's really funny how weirdly racist this game feels with all the talk about killing the mongols (ik ik they're the invaders here), but the central theme of the game being "ermm bushido sucks amirite" is so fucking stupid and overdone and god can we fucking retire that imperial era propaganda already holy shit. mishima didn't literally kill himself for it for y'all to keep using it (ok, he would want us to, but shush)
so wait why does this get 3.5 stars if i think its so mediocre? two things: Ilan Eshkeri & Shigeru Umebayashi's INCREDIBLE score that still tugs at my heartstrings (the latter is forever goated to me for composing Yumeji's Theme; featured in Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love), and the photo-mode. yes. no, seriously. if you saw the photos i took from this game, the sheer insane shots i got out of it, the roleplaying and story ideas i could act out with this stupid fucking but beautiful looking game, you'd get it. it's GORGEOUS, and it's so, so "alright" as like an actual game, but as like a pretty environment with a SHIT TON of sliders and effects and filters and options to take shots of a samurai, or a broken husk of a man turned killing machine, or of a shirtless dude with a straw container covering his head, this is literally the best fucking game to ever exist.
oh also i can't lie i did fuck with the ending kinda got me a little choked up idk
so wait why does this get 3.5 stars if i think its so mediocre? two things: Ilan Eshkeri & Shigeru Umebayashi's INCREDIBLE score that still tugs at my heartstrings (the latter is forever goated to me for composing Yumeji's Theme; featured in Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love), and the photo-mode. yes. no, seriously. if you saw the photos i took from this game, the sheer insane shots i got out of it, the roleplaying and story ideas i could act out with this stupid fucking but beautiful looking game, you'd get it. it's GORGEOUS, and it's so, so "alright" as like an actual game, but as like a pretty environment with a SHIT TON of sliders and effects and filters and options to take shots of a samurai, or a broken husk of a man turned killing machine, or of a shirtless dude with a straw container covering his head, this is literally the best fucking game to ever exist.
oh also i can't lie i did fuck with the ending kinda got me a little choked up idk
2014
this is going to the be the oddest fucking comparison you'll hear between this and DS1 ever... but, my feelings on this compared to DS1 are like my feelings on Tyler, the creator's IGOR vs Call Me If You Get Lost. i think the former is a much more focused and cohesive work of art that i adore and like to think about a lot (DS1), while CMIYGL has a LOT more and feels a bit less like that lightning shot that worked so well, meaning theres a lot of stuff im like "its alright" on, but like the sheer amount of stuff i REALLY like means that it actually possibly maybe edges out IGOR for which album i like the most (therefore DS2 > DS1 maybe).
the first half of this makes me feel <3333333
this is one of those stream of consciousness reviews (all of mine are, but this one even more so):
this game is like the film in the sense that it's the worst but so fucking funny unintentionally. this one is definitely way wilder than its film because it looks so fucking ugly, somehow a downgrade from the previous game graphically, but also in the sense that no one looks like they do in the films (PLEASE LOOK UP HOW PETER LOOKS IN THIS GAME IM BEGGING YOU). gwen doesnt even fucking show up (???), it looks like it bears almost no relation to the previous game or its world, save for black cat mentioning cross-species genetics, electro like randomly shows up halfway through because they seemingly forgot he was literally the main villain of the film this is a tie-in for, the open world still SUCKS and you can't fucking do anything in it, the combat hasn't really improved much but you got new "ionic" blasts whatever the fuck that is, the music is SO FUCKING REPETITIVE I HAVE THAT STUPID OPEN WORLD THEME BLARING IN MY HEAD NOW LMAOOOOO, why is kraven a mentor figure to spider-man, the dialogue options in this are so half-assed i love it, they put in this hero-villain morality system that sounds cool on paper but it literally only applies to the open-world, and i don't mean in a sucker punch's infamous way, i mean in the sense that there's a task force that literally has electric force fields blocking your swinging path and fighting with you in the streets every five seconds if you dont fuck off to halfway across the map to do one of like 5 different fucking random crimes often enough, god this game is a mess, WHY DID THEY FUCKING ADAPT CARNAGE BEFORE THEY DID VENOM, GUYS THEY CALLED HIM "C.K.", NOT JUST FOR "CLETUS KASADY", BUT SO THE NEWS COULD CALL HIM "THE CARNAGE KILLER" IM CRYINGGG but hey at least now you can have either trigger swing with either hand! (ok i cant lie that was neat).
i do feel bad for Beenox because they've proven they can make great Spider-Man games, it's just that they had a budget of 4 dollars and had their already very rushed time to make this game cut in half because Marvel made them reset it all or something </3
this game is like the film in the sense that it's the worst but so fucking funny unintentionally. this one is definitely way wilder than its film because it looks so fucking ugly, somehow a downgrade from the previous game graphically, but also in the sense that no one looks like they do in the films (PLEASE LOOK UP HOW PETER LOOKS IN THIS GAME IM BEGGING YOU). gwen doesnt even fucking show up (???), it looks like it bears almost no relation to the previous game or its world, save for black cat mentioning cross-species genetics, electro like randomly shows up halfway through because they seemingly forgot he was literally the main villain of the film this is a tie-in for, the open world still SUCKS and you can't fucking do anything in it, the combat hasn't really improved much but you got new "ionic" blasts whatever the fuck that is, the music is SO FUCKING REPETITIVE I HAVE THAT STUPID OPEN WORLD THEME BLARING IN MY HEAD NOW LMAOOOOO, why is kraven a mentor figure to spider-man, the dialogue options in this are so half-assed i love it, they put in this hero-villain morality system that sounds cool on paper but it literally only applies to the open-world, and i don't mean in a sucker punch's infamous way, i mean in the sense that there's a task force that literally has electric force fields blocking your swinging path and fighting with you in the streets every five seconds if you dont fuck off to halfway across the map to do one of like 5 different fucking random crimes often enough, god this game is a mess, WHY DID THEY FUCKING ADAPT CARNAGE BEFORE THEY DID VENOM, GUYS THEY CALLED HIM "C.K.", NOT JUST FOR "CLETUS KASADY", BUT SO THE NEWS COULD CALL HIM "THE CARNAGE KILLER" IM CRYINGGG but hey at least now you can have either trigger swing with either hand! (ok i cant lie that was neat).
i do feel bad for Beenox because they've proven they can make great Spider-Man games, it's just that they had a budget of 4 dollars and had their already very rushed time to make this game cut in half because Marvel made them reset it all or something </3