Batman: Arkham City Catch-All

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

It takes place before Asylum, too, so it'd be quite the timey-wimey feat for him to die after City, but before Origins.

Good point. Hopefully he hasn't ramped up his question mark manufacturing plant.

Sounds like his role isn't quite as extensive.

Edit: I really like the sound Robin's staff makes when connecting with enemies.

I'm finally getting around to playing this and after just finishing Asylum I can't shake the feeling that I'm playing this game 'wrong.'
I got lost in the joker compound after rescuing the doctor. I took out the goons guarding her using the tried and true Asylum methods of strike and fade. I found a nice corner that let me drop down and take out individual guards before zipping back up to the ceiling, rinse repeat.
Great. Then they sealed the door. I spent the next 20 minutes figuring out new and inventive ways to break back into the room the doctor had been sealed up in while trying to suss out where I needed to go next. I could have come in from under the floor, from the vents, from the ceiling... instead I just lured everyone out into the main room. Booooring!

Eventually it turned out that I needed to use the alternate firing mode of the electro gun I had just unlocked. I can't help but think that this game will force me to spent lots of extra time exploring the various tunnels and side-paths that I could have implemented in my attack strategy but didn't. Because of Riddler.

Higgledy wrote:
Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

It takes place before Asylum, too, so it'd be quite the timey-wimey feat for him to die after City, but before Origins.

Good point. Hopefully he hasn't ramped up his question mark manufacturing plant.

Sounds like his role isn't quite as extensive.

Edit: I really like the sound Robin's staff makes when connecting with enemies.

Spoiler:

Well, he does have all the fast travel on lock down, so you have to interact with him at least for those. But there's just as many riddler puzzles in Origins as any of the other games, the only difference is they never CALL him the Riddler because he hasn't adopted that moniker yet. I never did finish those because at that point I just didn't care. :lol:

I kinda noticed this in Asylum, but apparently I'm not doing so hot. My Batman looks like he's been hugging a wood-chipper. Heavies + Gun cabinets + Shields + Blades + Debris throwers all in one battle mean I'm constantly flubbing the 'correct' response or hitting free-flow mode and losing track of targets as Batman zooms across the room with a single button-press.
At this rate I'll be running around town with a naked Bruce Wayne before I get to the end.

Batman's costume damage is all story-related. It's not related to how well or how poorly you're doing.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Batman's costume damage is all story-related. It's not related to how well or how poorly you're doing.

That sound you heard was a bubble bursting. Good to know, but now I'm a little less immersed in the story. Persistent damage after having to reload after receiving a beatdown seemed like a really novel concept. I'm only 30% in according to the stat tracker, so unless Batman receives a new suit delivery at some point he's still going to be stretching the limits of modesty before too long.

On the up side you'll get to see Batman's underpants. They have a miniature spotlight built into the front that shines the bat signal on whatever wall he's facing.

Rezzy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Batman's costume damage is all story-related. It's not related to how well or how poorly you're doing.

That sound you heard was a bubble bursting. Good to know, but now I'm a little less immersed in the story. Persistent damage after having to reload after receiving a beatdown seemed like a really novel concept. I'm only 30% in according to the stat tracker, so unless Batman receives a new suit delivery at some point he's still going to be stretching the limits of modesty before too long.

What'd you think this cosplay was from?

IMAGE(http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww154/shane65006/haters-gonna-hate-batman-rollerblading.jpg)

It's worth noting that progression tracker includes all the side missions, riddler stuff (including his physical challenges), and I think even the challenge rooms.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

What'd you think this cosplay was from?

I am scarred for life.

Finally getting to this way late to the party, and it's just not clicking for me. I absolutely can't get a feel for the combat. I think it's that the "press button > thing happens" sequence is really delayed. I hit the punch button, he does an animation that might involve flipping around and punching at some point. I hit it again, and he does some more stuff. Hit it twice, and maybe he punches twice, but maybe he doesn't. See the attack telegraph indicator, hit the Y button, except maybe I also hit the punch button too recently and he's busy doing that still, but maybe it just didn't register and I don't find out until I get hit. Two guys swinging at the same time? Yeah, you're getting hit. Camera also loves to fly around so that it's not unusual to have someone telegraphing an attack from off screen, and you'll only find out when you get hit.

I was never super great at the combat in Asylum, but I guess it ramped a bit better because it was assuming you started from 0, and was a more linear game. Here, they're assuming you just finished Asylum within the last year or so, and are already good at the combat. There's also a LOT more guys with guns here, and those are just no fun to deal with in a stand up fight.

What am I missing? I just feel like a lot of things are set up to be mildly annoying, and it's compounding to making me real annoyed with the whole game. Like, why don't the Riddler clues pop up when you're in the general area of the answer? It's way harder to find the answer if I don't even realize there's one to find.

Arkham City does a terrible job of teaching you how to fight.

First and foremost, you're right that it largely assumes that you've played Arkham Asylum and retained the core gameplay concepts from it. Asylum did a much better job of introducing you to the gameplay mechanics with smaller groups of thugs in smaller spaces so that you could get a good feel for attacking, dodging, and countering. Arkham City just sort of shoves you off into the deep end and then piles even more moves and combat mechanics on top of you.

Second, the camera isn't really your friend here. In most third-person games, you really want the camera behind your character, pointed toward whatever you're attacking, and the camera in Arkham City defaults to that position. But the freeflow system really needs the opposite: a camera that points back away from who you're attacking and toward the rest of the mob. If you're punching someone, they're effectively incapacitated, and you need to be more worried about who might be coming up behind you.

The best advice I can give is to think of combat less like a brawler (like God of War or Bayonetta) and more like a rhythm game. Don't mash buttons, take a moment between them to check out the lay of the land and look for counter indicators. Remember in Arkham City that you can counter more than one person at once, so if you're surrounded and have three counter indicators, hit the counter button three times to counter all the thugs at once.

Finally, dodge. You can double-tap the action button (A on Xbox controller; Cross on PS controller; B on Wii U; no idea on PC, probably alt+shift+S or some sh*t) while facing a thug to vault over them. Do this constantly. If you don't feel like you've got breathing room to hit a guy two or three times, just jump over them and find someone else. You won't lose your combo doing that, and it keeps you out of harm's way. It's also a nice way to quickly work through a crowd to the guys with the guns.

Two things.

1. IMO, the combat is much faster in City than in Asylum. Faster reactions, movement, etc.

2. You can use that to your advantage. I like to start on an enemy who's a little isolated, then when the pack gets to you, use Bats' movement speed to rocket to the far side of the group. I fight (and avoid damage) by rocketing around the group a lot more than by countering.

Thanks for the tips. How do you deal with dudes with guns? I can't consistently disarm them, so the only recourse I have if there's more than one gun in play is to bail out and try and sneak around.

The riddles are way harder in here than they were in AA, just because of the larger area you have to deal with. In AA, I loved the riddles because it felt like I could actually work them out, since I only had to carefully search one room. In City, it's like "search this multi-block area with tall buildings, and you don't really know what you're looking for." Takes some of the fun out of it.

I loved the Riddler stuff in AA, but I suspect I'll wind up skipping most of it here. Too much seems like pixel hunting or weirdly-precise platforming puzzles.

I'd skip the Riddler puzzles in this. There are gobs of them, and they're mostly poorly designed.

For guys with guns, I try to just target them early and often. Jump over guys to make your way through the crowd and to them, and try to target gun-users with an instant takedown if you can. Disarm and Destroy is really useful, but I found the button combo for it difficult to press.

While I did enjoy this I've got to admit that the story felt a lot more focussed/interesting in Asylum.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

For guys with guns, I try to just target them early and often. Jump over guys to make your way through the crowd and to them, and try to target gun-users with an instant takedown if you can. Disarm and Destroy is really useful, but I found the button combo for it difficult to press.

Only thing I'd add to this is that a quickfire batarang will generally slow down a distant gun-wielder for long enough for you to either close to punching range or counter whatever else is attacking you and then pop off another quickfire batarang. Once you take down a gun-wielder, make sure to camp over their corpse unconscious body because empty-handed mooks will pick up their fallen weapons and need to be taken down in turn, unless you use the Disarm and Destroy combo to break the weapon.