I'm a huge Rocksteady fan and have just completed the latest game. I also reviewed Gotham Knights once upon a time. Ask me anything if you're curious how it holds up.
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Video Games
is it actually any good. Reviews are mixed
That's a very difficult question to answer. It has a fantastic story, great movement, mediocre combat, a bland world, bad loot/gear, and terrible side missions if I were to go from best to worst.
The story has inconsistencies with certain lore. I'm a big DC fan and there are at least three moments where I questioned how they handled the source material. Still, it's absolutely forgivable when there is so much to enjoy. The main four are interesting enough to me, I love their dynamic and banter. I love seeing the Justice League gone bad and how scary they are. The voice acting is incredible. Top to bottom, it's perfect.
The main missions are all right. There's no real fast travel minus to one area, so you're travelling from A to B yourself. This is fine, since movement is actually fun. All four move in different ways and you could find fun in any one of them. I particularly liked Deadshot and Boomerang. The movement is also what makes combat fun. They're all gun wielders but have different preferences on type. I loved the snipers, personally, but there are six or seven different ways to go about it.
It gets a bit samey, though. The enemies are too similar to one another. My worst experience is the artificial difficulty that comes from certain mechanics. For example, to replenish your shield, you need to shoot an enemy's legs to trigger a shield harvest mechanic. The issue here is that the game recommends you play with a controller and puts a HEAVY aim assist that pulls your crosshair away from the legs to the torso/head. There are missions where enemies only take damage from shield harvesting, so you're kinda screwed there. The only workaround I found was specifically playing as Boomerang with a shotgun to exploit the spread.
The world gives you no reason to really explore, and this is coming from someone who actually liked Riddler trophies in the Arkham games. There are far fewer trophies and riddles this time around, but the map is built so vertical because of your movement, that it's not fun trying to spot where they are. It's also almost always outdoors because of said movement, so you get sick of the map by the end of the story.
The bottom line is that I thoroughly enjoyed the story and think Rocksteady outdid themselves, but while I can brave the gameplay to get more of said story, it's nowhere near strong enough to keep people coming back.
I haven’t been following it closely at all… I thought it was predominantly (or only!) a multiplayer game!
How long was the single player? My partner loved the Batman games… is it up to their level?
Have you played the multiplayer?
For all the controversy about the live service aspect… Have you spent any money beyond the initial game purchase?
I played the entire game from start to finish, on my own. I clocked in around 18 hours in total, but that includes a bunch of side missions.
Truthfully, the side missions suck, and you can probably get through the main story in about 8 hours. I would recommend the main story because it's fun and well-written. Very typically Rocksteady in strength. I wouldn't say it hits the heights of Batman Arkham, but the story is worth the 8 hours.
I've not played multiplayer. It's difficult to find friends that even want to play it with controversies.
I've also not spent any money on the game beyond the initial purchase. Since I grabbed the Deluxe version, I had most of the cosmetics right off the bat. The store is very bare, considering it's a live service. I can't see myself spending any money in the game. I'll return to it as a live service game, so long as there are story elements introduced in the DLC. If it's simply bonus characters and missions, I absolutely won't. Side missions aren't very fun.
Cheers!
It's a shame that what sounds like a pretty good single player game has got lost in the messaging/controversies. And yeah, premium priced team-based shooters quite often struggle to get that critical mass of players/friends online. I wonder whether they should have released the multiplayer mode for free (they probably will in due course?), or given you X invites for friends to join in when you somebody buys the main game...
It's a difficult one because the multiplayer is so heavily tied to the base story initially until endgame. They could release the endgame for free because it's all instanced missions but then there might be a levelling problem. Then again, the progression with stats in the game is awful, so I'm not sure it would matter. It's ALL stat-based, with no abilities. I've got a max level 30 Deadshot, but I can still switch to my under-levelled team members and play just fine so long as the gear is relatively caught up. They use your old gear when you upgrade, too. So I guess stats mean nothing.
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