Batman: Arkham City - Reviews - Post #882

[Mr. Gerbik]

Quick question but how do you use the skins for the campaign mode, really want to play as animated Batman for my 1st run.

You can use the skins in new game+ so you have to beat the game at least once afaik.

[smithstock]

Yeah that's correct. I think you may* be able to use the costume in the challenge arenas from the off though.

*not 100% sure

320 riddler trophies and counting for me.

[robdood]

Man this is easily looking to be my game of forever at the moment. All the little improvements are brilliantly thought out, the set pieces and general ambience are phenomenal.

I'm thinking of avoiding most of the Riddler stuff for now and getting it on a new game +.. the story path has got me hooked at the mo (and pulled me right out of Skyrim heh).

This morning in my obsessive mini session before leaving for work I reached Ra S'al Ghul (sp?), the lead up to this was awesome.

Can't. Stop. Thinking. About. Batman.

[Vemsie]

Man this is easily looking to be my game of forever at the moment. All the little improvements are brilliantly thought out, the set pieces and general ambience are phenomenal.

I'm thinking of avoiding most of the Riddler stuff for now and getting it on a new game +.. the story path has got me hooked at the mo (and pulled me right out of Skyrim heh).

This morning in my obsessive mini session before leaving for work I reached Ra S'al Ghul (sp?), the lead up to this was awesome.

Can't. Stop. Thinking. About. Batman.

I'm the same. Everything I played afterwards just didn't grab me like this. All of its components are tuned to perfection. Combat, navigation, even the puzzles. All done by a British studio that only a few had heard of before this gen kicked off. Stunning.

[robdood]

This game.

THIS GAME.

Just met.. actually not sure of how to hint as to what my spoiler is about without ruining it.. how about: I'm supposed to go and get a cure for something from the Joker, only I got a new side mission.. and..

Mad Hatter bit was EPIC. I was thinking, "hang on, how the hell can we have a cure yet? I'll go check it--" and BAM, a whole pile of awesome explodes in my face. Fantastic.

I also loved the two previous bosses I've encountered:

Ra's al Ghul was awesome, particularly the bits towards then ends where you'd get flashes of reality as you were beating the hell out of him.

And Mr Freeze - holy shit my face almost fell off when I worked out what I was supposed to be doing

Absolutely incredible entertainment. Completely decimates the first game in every regard. (not to mention anything else I've ever played).

And did I manage to counter three people at once during a fight just now?! AWESOME. I really hope there's a fourway counter (and more!)

Oh and people were talking about multiple counters earlier, you definitely have to press the button more than once to pull off a dual/triple counter.

[Don Rosco]

You can use the skins in new game+ so you have to beat the game at least once afaik.

I think that's wrong. I was able to get into my Dark Knight Returns threads in my first, normal playthrough. I don't have a copy any more to check, but it's somewhere as you resume your game from the title screen. It took me a while to figure it out.

[Smitty]

Yeah, I guess I should say that this fixes pretty much every issue I had with the first game (as good as it was).

Mr Freeze (generally, and the fight) was really, really good.

[smithstock]

Regarding counters, 3 is the maximum (4 enemies will not attack at once unless it's a Titan/Leiutenant/Boss which can't be countered). As has been said, multiple button presses must be input, one for each counter. All playable characters have 1, 2 and 3 enemy counter moves.

On another note, I'm not sure on the date or price but new DLC is coming out for this soon and I'm sure I read it's fairly meaty. Several hours of addition gameplay.

Arkham City has slowly crept it's way into my top 5 games ever. I've been playing Creed and Uncharted 3, Batman makes a mockery of both. The climbing in both games is dated and digital whilst Revelations open world is an over spammed generic mess and Uncharted has a pathetic combat system which is used far more in it than the previous two.

It goes to show that there's only one way from the top of the heap and that's down, hopefully Arkham World/Gotham City will expand and dominate, not falling into the complaceny trap. It's also worth noting that Rocksteady are to be making more comic book based games, Superman after Batman perhaps?

[K]

Is there any way of finding the clue for the nearest riddle in an area? I’m sure that if flashed up in green at the top of the screen in Arkham Asylum, but in Arkham City, it only seems to do this very rarely; I’m at the point where I’m going to the riddle marker on the map, and just scanning something that looks like it might be the answer to a riddle.

This is a pretty good game, but the side-missions seem to be mostly a case of wandering round the city until you randomly bump into a dead body / ringing phone / mysterious watcher. With, say, the identity thief missions, is there any way of knowing where to go to trigger the next bit, or is it just a matter of searching the whole area?

[robdood]

Woah there, as much as enjoyed the second Assassins Creed (the other are a bit zzz), I would never say it's been top of the pile in any sense. (Not played the Uncharteds)

And hmmm. Not sure about Superman; Batman works so well as he's a gadgetry character and he's not a superhero so has his combat based heavily in (almost) reality.. which are all suited to computer games.

I'd love to see Rocksteady create their own IP on the back of the Batman game.

[Uncle Mike]

As you get a bit further in, there's a way to get visibility of where the riddles are. Mostly, the side missions are a map hunt, but detective mode can help a lot.

[robdood]

Is there any way of finding the clue for the nearest riddle in an area? I’m sure that if flashed up in green at the top of the screen in Arkham Asylum, but in Arkham City, it only seems to do this very rarely; I’m at the point where I’m going to the riddle marker on the map, and just scanning something that looks like it might be the answer to a riddle.

This is a pretty good game, but the side-missions seem to be mostly a case of wandering round the city until you randomly bump into a dead body / ringing phone / mysterious watcher. With, say, the identity thief missions, is there any way of knowing where to go to trigger the next bit, or is it just a matter of searching the whole area?

you have to interrogate the jokers informants (they will be highlighted in green in random groups of enemies.)

You have been to the church and 'met' The Riddler, right?

[PaB]

Is there any way of finding the clue for the nearest riddle in an area? I’m sure that if flashed up in green at the top of the screen in Arkham Asylum, but in Arkham City, it only seems to do this very rarely; I’m at the point where I’m going to the riddle marker on the map, and just scanning something that looks like it might be the answer to a riddle.

This is a pretty good game, but the side-missions seem to be mostly a case of wandering round the city until you randomly bump into a dead body / ringing phone / mysterious watcher. With, say, the identity thief missions, is there any way of knowing where to go to trigger the next bit, or is it just a matter of searching the whole area?

If you beat up the green riddler guys and interrogate them, they will give you clues, and then you go to the area marked with the question mark.

And then you go there, some obscure clue will pop up. Fairly randomly (you have to be standing in exactly the right place). And then you scan madly in all directions until yo uget something like "Subject Obscured" or "object to small" or such like, and then you will scamper off after it wildly scanning all the time. And eventually you might get something

This is the whole reason I didn't bother with the riddles. Its too wide an area. IN AA, you were in an specific area, a clue would crop up and you could work it out. In AC its far, far too random, too big an area and far too frustrating.

THe game is fantastic as are the challenges. But the riddles. Ugh.

[K]

Cheers guys. I’ve been interrogating the Riddler informants, and got the little [] things on the map that show you where the riddle is, but it doesn’t show me the clues – sometimes, I get a green clue at the top of the screen, but most of the time I get nothing. As an example, I went back to the building where you confront Szaz/Ssasz/Sssasszzssz fuck it, because it said there was a riddle inside; the thing is, when I went inside, no clue popped up on the screen. I didn’t fancy scanning literally everything in there, so knocked it on the head.

Those clues should be popping up when I get near a riddle, right? I’ve done the first two Riddler hostage rooms, so I’m on the right track.

[Boozy The Clown]

I got the impression they are tied in to the number of trophies you collect and fight challenges detailed in the menus. You also need to interrogate as many green guys as possible.

Want a shortcut, buy the £1.99 app on IOS. It's also handy for keeping track of the riddles/trophies you need to solve. There's hundreds of the bloody things and some are quite fiendish.

The riddles and trophies are like crack once they get you hooked. Best collectables ever anyone ?

[Vemsie]

Riddles are one of the best things of the game for me. What I did was complete the game, interrogate all the thugs and then started doing all the riddles that appeared on the map. They have some of the most clever design in the game and tons of variety. Even better, they lead to the Riddler hostage rooms, which are superb. Oh, and you unlock all kinds of cool stuff with them. I get it's all a bit much if you want to do it all in one week, but if you take your time, it's incredibly rewarding. For me at least. All the stuff I played afterwards, from Uncharted to AC to Zelda, doesn't come close to what this game is doing.

The riddle clues appear when you enter an area. They are mostly things that really stick out in the environment. K, in your example, you should

look at Zsasz' desk.

That area also has a really well-hidden question mark by the way.

[zy]

You can read all the riddles individually from the start of the game (although your scanning mode doesn't get activated until a little way into the story). It's clumsy but you can go to the menus, choose the '?' Riddles menu, cycle through to the location you're currently in (i.e. Park Row) and then highlight the [ ] boxes on the checklist. The riddle then appears in text and is read out by the Riddler. The mechanism by which the riddle flashes up on the screen when you enter a new district is exactly the same as that in Asylum, where it will keep giving you the first riddle on the list until solved and then move on to displaying the next. And so it shares the same flaw as Asylum, in that you'll scan something that looks interesting and inadvertently solve a riddle you were never given the chance to work out.

Spoilers for those who finished the game:

On first play I was sure Batman would, at some point,

• fly up to one of those security blimps;
  
• fight Wonder Tower Guardians;
  
• use Freeze's ice gun;
  

none of which ever actually happened.

Oddly, it seems there's no reward whatsoever for playing the game on Hard, beyond personal satisfaction. You can 100% it on Normal.

[Don Rosco]

The riddles and trophies are like crack once they get you hooked. Best collectables ever anyone ?

I generally despise collectables, but some of these are very clever. I think you could lose about half of them at least though, without making the game any worse.

[Salsa Party Animal]

2 questions

I am at GCPD and is somewhere near freezing point. Where / how can I find Mr Freeze ? I saw there is a shutter doors near the bottom but can't open all the way with electric charger gun. Any clues as I am stuck with it.

[robdood]

Open it a little, sprint then hit right trigger to slide under

[Jigsaw Monkey]

I absolutely love this game, but it suffers occasionally by the lack of tutorials. I'm doing NG+ and just mopped up all the riddler trophies, some of the combat ones are great but I really had no idea you could do half this stuff.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Open it a little, sprint then hit right trigger to slide under

Cheers as I couldn't slide underneath before

[robdood]

I absolutely love this game, but it suffers occasionally by the lack of tutorials. I'm doing NG+ and just mopped up all the riddler trophies, some of the combat ones are great but I really had no idea you could do half this stuff.

What kinda stuff do you mean (without spoilers!) - isn't it all in the menu?

My new fave move: using the dismantle weapon perk on shield guys. EAT THAT.

[Jigsaw Monkey]

What kinda stuff do you mean (without spoilers!) - isn't it all in the menu?

My new fave move: using the dismantle weapon perk on shield guys. EAT THAT.

The grapel boost takedown, it's such a cool move and I only found out about it in NG+, would have come in handy earlier. There's also one particular Riddler trophy that I could only get by literally trying all button combinations on the pad and found a feature of an item I had no idea existed. I'll find it on YouTube and spoiler it

[Jigsaw Monkey]

Can't find it, it's the one where you

use the explosive gel on three riddler question marks, then have to zoom in and explode each on individually

Looking at the rest of them though it's my fault for not RTFM

Re: the collectables - I love the models and the character bios, really adds to the package . It's my GOTY - I'm trying other games but keep on coming back

[RubberJohnny]

You can use explosive gel on the question marks? I thought they were all for batarangs.

[Boozy The Clown]

You can use explosive gel on the question marks? I thought they were all for batarangs.

Wait until you figure out that you have to

electrify the remote batarang.

Like I said fiendish.

[robdood]

How is that fiendish? You do it at points through the main story..

Edit. Unless the electric device is miiiiiiiles away and not obvious.

Edit 2: omg is that what I do with the shutter controls which don't seem to have doors attached?! Shit I shouldn't have read that

[Boozy The Clown]

Try and work out how you get the trophy in the cell next to the calendar man is all I'm saying.

[Jigsaw Monkey]

A certain boss fight on NG+ is fantastic, really made me think.