Finally played and finished this thing (have not done all the side missions).
I actually pre-ordered this game, but it was the PC version, so yeaaa... The last patch made it just about barely playable, so I was like fuck it, and powered through. Unfortunately I still suffered from plenty of stuttering but the game never broke down into total unplayability so I was like whatever, but it definitely colored and worsened the experience.
This is a fun game at times, but it's a problematic game, and it often comes down to the tankmobile. It's not inherently awful, but the issue resides on the fact that everything is designed around it. When you're on foot the streets feel stupid-wide, everything is huge, running down a street as Batman feels like it's taking forever. You feel like a tiny person outside in the "open world." That's a problem for me. The proportions are just odd outside, as Batman. The actual tankbattles aren't great either. They're very repetitive and it takes a long time for you get some variety (that's a mistake). Worst, the tankbattles replaced anything that could be considered a boss battle. Coming from the designers of Mr Freeze in AC, this is just really sad. The final "boss" is dumb as a bag of bricks design for Rocksteady.
The open world itself is awful to me. It's pretty, but it's needlessly huge, visually repetitive, and just flat out empty. Another bat-city with nothing to do in it. Another open world with "three islands" that are barely any different. When I know noticed that I just had to roll my eyes. You know what, maybe Batman could use a linear game or two. Gotham City isn't that interesting place, and setting an open world in a singular city is probably not that great.
I have another issue with "readability." The game is constantly throwing a wealth of visual effects and all sorts of colored lighting that for me it clouds a lot of the visual indicators you're supposed to get during a fight. At several times I couldn't tell who was a grunt, a medic, or who has guns. Shit just gets clouded for me a lot of times. Combat in general is more annoying than usual. Using the same button combination to pick up weapons, to break weapons and to do environmental finishers is just a mess. There's more shit to do, but I didn't really have as much fun here as I did in AC. Maybe simple is just better for this kind of combat. The controller layout they got going on is not really designed to keep adding shit on top of it. In my opinion they should've rehauled that entirely.
The story is really dark and gloomy, even by Batmang standards, but several of the "emotional" moments for me are total wet farts, mostly because Kevin Conroy is absolutely dreadful. As far as I'm concerned he's been terrible in every Arkham game, but this is just a special kind of awfulness. He doesn't work at all for the tone RS seemed to have wanted. He's an unemotional monotone robot, delivers his lines in the most friggin' boring and uninterested way possible. He definitely made the game worse than it could've been. He doesn't just not bring anything to the table, he actively shits up the game. In any case, there's only one character worth a damn in this game to be honest, and everyone knows who I'm talking about. Only thing I'll say is Rocksteady absolutely nailed that shit and in terms of storytelling and characterization it's definitely the best thing they have done in that regard.
I had my fun with the game, horrific performance issues and general annoyance about the PC situation aside, but I feel like the game's design documents in general could've used another pass. I give it three tomatoes and out two heads of lettuce.
