For me Arkham Knight was also not a super great game mechanics wise and some odd tonal story takes, I was wondering why the nation wouldn’t send the army to just nuke such a place. But what did make it an outstanding experience was the whole atmosphere. The city looked and felt exactly like when I visited a Batman real life set. It oozed “Batman” from every possible angle any minute of my playtime. Voice acting, set pieces, everything was screaming, this is exactly as much Batman as it can get. Now, we are left with the okay-ish mechanics and seemingly none of the heart what sold the experience. But I will wait for the release to give Suicide Squad a chance before dismantling it into obscurity.
Its interesting to hear that you didnt find the mechanics satisfactory. I’ve always felt that Knight had the best iteration of both combat and predator mechanics (the ability to consistently freeflow onto enemies lying on the ground without dropping your combo is neat, and so is the fear multi-takedown and disruptor shenanigans). Knight’s primary failing in my opinion is that it made all of these good gameplay upgrades…and then made 75% of the game batmobile tank sections which were all shit.
I actually really enjoyed the game, but with the mechanics I felt there were situations were the controls were overloaded and my character did often things he shouldn’t. I think the DLC with the funfair?, showed it the most. Some of the invisible snap points were mapped poorly. I don’t remember all the details by this point, but it was slightly janky. When the mechanics did work as intended it was great.
I love the controls in Knight, when I was playing I knew all the quick shortcuts for the gadgets, was properly countering three at a time including holding direction towards each enemy when counting and everything it was bliss. Are you sure you just weren’t a little unfamiliar with them? Because I remember then being meticulous.
God I can’t believe they shoved the batmobile in there and put such a focus on it, it really detracted from the rest of the game.
So the game is essentially Gotham Knights but with guns
Biggest flop of 2024? Might be too early to tell yet, but it’s not a bad bet.
Waiting for the IGN review of 8/10 after a title like that
RIP Rocksteady