Batman : Arkham Asylum

[JRD]

 ;D  :-X

This game keeps geting better... upgrading skills makes Batman an even better fighting machine. I can get to special combos quite fast with two upgrades of that kind, which makes my hand to hand combat a portrait of violence  >:D ... I can use two batarangs at once, hang upside down for silent knock outs, have a grappling hook that can be used for both combat and mobility, extra enforced protection in my batsuit...  :-X :-X :-X

[fragger]

Cool, sounds like quite an addictive game :-X Glad you're enjoying it mate :)

...extra enforced protection in my batsuit...  :-X :-X :-X

No... I better leave that line alone... >:D

[Binnatics]

 ^+-+

It is indeed quite addictive. Once I got the hang of this fighting technique, which is far from hammering the LMB like I used to do in the beginning, this game got really interesting. Never knew I would like a combat-based game so much. The silent parts are like hitman bloodmoney. The heavy combat should be like street fighter or something, a game I didn't play since the early nineties. It's diverse, well thought out, balanced and the graphics and humor are brilliant.

Yesterday I finally managed to get the max 3 bats for the 3rd combat challenge. It took me 2 days to get that far. Man how I hate these guys with knifes and stunbattons. When you reach round 4, there are 2 of both of them. One of them is Zasz himself. When he starts cutting, you'd better be gone.
After that I tried a quick exercize at the 4th challenge, the first challenge where you have to take out a Titan Henchman. This is a giant overmuscled type, made stronger (and off course dumber) by the Yoker's Titan-poison. It was quite easy with the experience I built up trying to fight my way through the 3rd challenge. The Titan will help you add great points to your combo-multiplyer when you go sit on his back when he's down. Really funny to see him crawl through the rest of the henchmen when trying to free himself out of your grab ;)

The rest of the combat challenges are the same as the first 4, only here are more enemies and they have the possibility of grabbing guns out of wallcabinets. That makes it more complicated, but gives you also a great opportunity to build up huge points, since there's more of them to hit >:D

After completing all the challenges I will take a shot at the hard playthrough. I'm expecting a lot of pleasure with the learnt techniques ^-^

[JRD]

Cool, sounds like quite an addictive game :-X Glad you're enjoying it mate :)

...extra enforced protection in my batsuit...  :-X :-X :-X

No... I better leave that line alone... >:D

...reinforced...  ::) :-[ :-D  :-X

[Art Blade]

except the ears spoil the illusion a bit :-()

:-D

[Binnatics]

I finally beat the Shock and Awe Extreme challenge. That might be the hardest challenge of all. They biggest problem is not the quantity of henchmen, the amount of points to get, or the knife-guys and stunbattons. The nastiest of all is the timelimit. In the last round you have only like 60 seconds to take out all the henchmen. And yes, they do have knifes and stunbattons. I managed to get the required amount of points to beat the challenge and had not too many difficulties with the weaponed guys, but it's so damn hard to take out 10 or more henchmen in the available time. I failed numerous times because of the timelimit, which will make the floor electrified so that's a quick end to the battle.
In this last try I was only focused on terminating all these fools as quick as possible. Hit, hit, execute, hit, hit, execute etc. etc.
Now let's try the last of all: The one with the titan henchman. I wonder how would that be in the extreme edition  >:D

[JRD]

That`s great Binnatics...  :-X

I`m envious of you... I can finish the fight challenges I unlocked so far (two or three only) but never with good scores  :-(

I am constantly missing a hit so my combos goes down... either that or I`m doing fine and get hit by trying to finish a fallen henchman off while there`s another one about to get me  :D

Anyway... I`m at that part where you chase Harley Quinn to an area where the floor gets electrified and you have to fight wave after wave of henchmen while moving from one deck to another in order to avoid electrocution... not sure how far I`am from the ending... the stats page says 25% but it also accounts for challenge maps and extra content I guess

[Binnatics]

I think you're pretty far in the story. After taking down Harley (locking her up that is) you will try to do bussiness with the plants girl. From that moment everything goes fast.

I had the same problem, and still have, with the challenges. I keep missing a counter so they hit me and I lose my multiplyer. Frustrating. but if you do it many times you'll get a hang of it. You'll also learn how to take them down in order to get great comboscores. I allways try to finish the first round in the same way. Hit, hit, counter, jump over to evade, another hit and you can start with the takedowns and throws. That's 5 different moves allready. Then, with a quick batclaw, capestun and batarang I get the remaining guys on the floor. When they're down I do the ground takedowns. They produce massive scores, since every ground takedown counts for 100 x multiplyer. That can be easily 2000 each, if you have a multiplyer of 20 or so. Plus that's all 9 moves in one flow (if I'm lucky and won't miss a counter) and give 5000 xp bonus after the round.
I learnt to use evade more then countering. It's usefull since you can jump out of confusing and crowded situations and you can go on hitting some lonely henchmen to the side. Then jump back in with a killing takedown  >:(

The place with the electrifying floor is where the Shock and Awe challenge takes place. You'll only be in the middle part, but there's a counter. When it stops the floor gets electrified and you'll be dead instantly. I think it's the hardest challenge map. Glad I finally made it through  ^-^

[Binnatics]

I finally made my way through the last challenge as well. Nice one, with these big titan henchmen. You have to fight 3 in total. It's really cool to climb on their backs and have them berserk the whole group of his fellow henchmen.

Now all there's left is the hard playthrough. Cool to focus on the story again. This game has a good replay value  :-X

[JRD]

Cool I'm fighting the two titan henchmen myself, the ones you meet before getting to Poison Ivy at the botanical gardens.

The challenges I've done helped me dealing with crowds of henchmen with knives and stun battons so I have a smile on my face when I see a bunch of them in detective mode  >:D

Also dealing with armed thugs is very cool with the upgrades I have.

Indeed I'm in for another playthrough just to do it better this time.  :-X

[Binnatics]

I get what you mean JRD. This time I focus more on getting high scores when being confronted with a group of henchmen. That'll help getting the upgrades quicker, what is kind of necessary now! I remember with my first playthrough, just hammering my way through the groups Now it's time for tactics ;)

[Binnatics]

I'm in the mansion again. About to see the sracecrow for the second time. MAn these henchmen spot anything now. Gotta be EXTRA careful....

[JRD]

I allways try to finish the first round in the same way. Hit, hit, counter, jump over to evade, another hit and you can start with the takedowns and throws. That's 5 different moves allready. Then, with a quick batclaw, capestun and batarang I get the remaining guys on the floor. When they're down I do the ground takedowns. They produce massive scores, since every ground takedown counts for 100 x multiplyer. That can be easily 2000 each, if you have a multiplyer of 20 or so. Plus that's all 9 moves in one flow (if I'm lucky and won't miss a counter) and give 5000 xp bonus after the round.
I learnt to use evade more then countering. It's usefull since you can jump out of confusing and crowded situations and you can go on hitting some lonely henchmen to the side. Then jump back in with a killing takedown  >:(

I got my first bat at the first challenge last night  :-[ ::) ... I`m not playing hours in a row, just one hour maybe two at night, so I`m not really putting the necessary effort in order to improve my skills in the fighting challenges.

I managed to finish the first round without being hit, which gave me a bonus points  8) but every time I reach the combo I somehow miss a hit... I guess I see the icon with RMB on the screen to do a takedown but end up missing it  :D

RMB is a counter but only if there is someone about to hit you, shift+RMB is a takedown but only if you reach a combo and there`s a henchman down, ctrl+RMB is a normal takedown which I try not to use at challenges... what happens a lot is I`m trying to chain punches and kicks and suddenly I pick up a batarang, which means I used RMB at the wrong time and screw up my hit count  :D

Well... need yet more practice... but the fun part is that when you come back to the game after a few successful rounds at challenges, it seems so much easier  ;D

[Binnatics]

I got the same problems with the challenges. I got better at it after a few nights training, and I don't play more then 2 hours either. I read somewhere that it's good to leave the game for a while and do something else when you get stuck in these challenges, and that seems to be true.
The problem with missing a combo by pressing the counter at the wrong time is what still keeps happening to me. I do better now, but it's still hard. I found out though, that when you perform a normal takedown or a critical strike, anyway when you're in an animation of an attack, you can see that someone is preparing an attack at you. As soon as the animation ends, you should counter then. Or, and that's more easy and won't break your combo, quick evade the attack which will allways w@&k or do a takedown if you not just have performed one.
Usually I try to evade the upcoming attack, making sure to jump in the right direction. So I'll find myself in a better position and I can keep punching the henchmen that are not in the centre of the fight. They won't know to react quick enough so no need for countering.
After 2 or 3 normal punches you can do another takedown or throw.
I wait with the more complicated variations until there's only 3 or 4 henchmen left. Usually I first use the batclaw, which is upgraded so you can pull 3 at once, then I capestun them. I keep looking around and if there are still some guys trying to attack me I use the quick batarang. Then, when everybody is stunned or down, I use the ground takedown. You're still vulnerable when performing one, so make sure nobody will attack you right away. Plus using it after a great combo score will give you massive points. Usually I end up at combo X14 at the end of round 1, so when I finish someone with the ground takedown that will give you 15 or 16 X 100.  :-D

In my config the ground takedown is ctrl+RMB by the way, and the shift+RMB is the normal takedown. The normal takedown can be performed without being hit; you be invincible for as long as the animation takes. It will give you a short brake to look around. Good luck on these challenges. Once you get a little better at it they are great fun!

[Art Blade]

JRD, in case you haven't noticed: Binnatics is fond of completing all  achievements and to get there he is willing to go through a lot of analysis and practice. In other words, he tries to find the best way possible to get it over with and never gives up until he managed to get them all. :-()

[Binnatics]

Art is right, it's a weird illness I have developed playing these achievement-games. But in most games it's fun!
Probably I'm a controlfreak  :-D

[Art Blade]

 :-()

[JRD]

I see... not being able to move much won't help you avoiding your completionism either I suppose!  ;D

I like to take the most of the games I'm playing - the ones I like I mean - but sometimes getting all achievements becomes quite painful so I move to the next game or just start another playthrough!  ;)

[Binnatics]

The problem with some of these bossbattles is that they take away your 3rd person view. It's really hard operating batman when standing on the sideline. They should have found a solution for that imo.
Dealing with Joker now, on the rooftop. He's damn hard to get. You only have seconds to tear him down and punch him, and there are allways henchmen willing to break your back :/
Anyway, that's it for tonight. More fun tomorrow ;)

[JRD]

The Scarecrow levels are a bit silly... it's a plattform level but quite dumb as it breaks the dark mood present in the game. They could've done something better with this character.  :-(

Anyway, it's not hard either. I managed to go through those levels without being spotted by the Scarecrow once  ^-^

[Binnatics]

I had more difficulties with them. Allways once or twice he found me and killed me. I agree it's silly. That's what I mean with bossfights in the same way. Suddenly you loose your 3rd person view, and you're about to make all these difficult fighting combo's with a platform kind of setting. Maybe because you have to keep an eye on the boss himself, but hey, why shouldn't they have told me so? I would have whirled my head if necessary, but not this..

Doing Joker on the rooftop now. Quite an uncompletable task in hard. Hope I'll finish him off soon :)

[fragger]

Wipe the smile off his face, Binn >:D

[Binnatics]

Just did. Got the game 100% completed now. But whiping the smile off his face seems impossible: The guy even smiles when he's stunned, down, in terrible pain and in life danger. Funny how he commented at the bare end of the game, that he had set it all up just to make Batman see through the eyes of a madman once, so he'd 'understand'.

After game thoughts remind me of what I first thought of the game: Why the H*** do I have to be that good GOOD good guy? I want to be the Joker!!! He seems to have so much more fun in all that he's doing  >:D

[Art Blade]

Wicked.  :-()

[JRD]

It's like that with heroes... the villains are always so much interesting!  :-\\

Batman is a character with a deep background but still he's a good boyscout. If you read the comics, particularly Batman comics, you'll see that he's a disturbed character. In a way, he belongs within Arkham. It's just plain luck that a guy with his resources decided to be on the good side of the law and not the other way around.

In the great The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, the Joker locks commisioner Gordon in an amusement park and submits him to a night of mind torture just to prove that any man, if under pressure, can snap and go crazy and that Batman is just as mad as the Joker, so if both the Joker and Batman got nuts, why should one be locked in while the other is free?  ;)

The other graphic novel on which the game is based on is Batman: Arkham Asylum is pretty much the same as the game: there's a riot in Arkham and they call B-man to sort things out. The novel is much, much darker than the game, Batman is facing his own fears then, this is when he realizes he actually belongs to Arkham and questions all his past.

On both graphic novels the Joker plays a much more interesting role that the hero. His motivation and background are way more solid than what turned Bruce Wayne into Batman. It is much more likely for any man to go crazy, seek revenge and loose ground, turning into a menace, than to decide to put on a bat suit and fiight crime.

The very existence of ther Joker is due to the existence of the Batman and deep down inside, what the Joker wants is to prove that they are the same, so their fate should also be the same!  8)