Five stars means that despite its flaws, this game and is insanely fun and I've compulsively replayed it a bunch of times and I'll probably play it a lot more once the "remastered" version comes out for PS4.
As for the flaws (in this game and in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham Origins), they nearly all boil down to the sense that the game devs would really rather be making movies. How else to explain the endless parade of Cutscenes in All But Name where Batman stares, dazed and deathly ill, at his hands; walks slowly down a flight of steps while you hold the right thumbstick in one spot; stands trapped in an elevator while a bad guy rants at him (the devs _really_ like this one); paces around a small room and refuses to open the door until the Riddler is done bragging; paces around a fenced-in alley and refuses to climb the fence until he's done talking to Alfred or Oracle on the Bat-radio; or patiently listens to the Big Bad's "The Reason You Suck" Speech before beating the shit out of the couple dozen mooks standing around him? Then there are the carefully-choreographed climactic fight scenes that take away the really fun parts of the combat system and replace them with QuickTimeEvents designed to end in a videogenic beatdown. What matters to the people who made these games is the script, the acting, and the expertly-designed lighting and virtual-camera work. That stuff, as anyone who's read Roger Ebert on video games knows, is real Art with a capital "A". Gameplay is just the bullshit that makes gamers pull out their wallets.
The thing is, ultimately, I'm going to want to replay a really fun game way more times than I'm going to want to re-watch a really good movie. Forcing me to rewatch half the movie every time I play the game really dents replay value—eventually, the annoyance of listening to all these Joker monologues for the nth time overrides the fun of the game.
P.S.: Absolutely no bonus points for the constant, in your face T&A. Ditching most of that is the one thing Origins does better than the first two games.
5/5 Stars
Five stars means that despite its flaws, this game and is insanely fun and I've compulsively replayed it a bunch of times and I'll probably play it a lot more once the "remastered" version comes out for PS4.
As for the flaws (in this game and in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham Origins), they nearly all boil down to the sense that the game devs would really rather be making movies. How else to explain the endless parade of Cutscenes in All But Name where Batman stares, dazed and deathly ill, at his hands; walks slowly down a flight of steps while you hold the right thumbstick in one spot; stands trapped in an elevator while a bad guy rants at him (the devs _really_ like this one); paces around a small room and refuses to open the door until the Riddler is done bragging; paces around a fenced-in alley and refuses to climb the fence until he's done talking to Alfred or Oracle on the Bat-radio; or patiently listens to the Big Bad's "The Reason You Suck" Speech before beating the shit out of the couple dozen mooks standing around him? Then there are the carefully-choreographed climactic fight scenes that take away the really fun parts of the combat system and replace them with QuickTimeEvents designed to end in a videogenic beatdown. What matters to the people who made these games is the script, the acting, and the expertly-designed lighting and virtual-camera work. That stuff, as anyone who's read Roger Ebert on video games knows, is real Art with a capital "A". Gameplay is just the bullshit that makes gamers pull out their wallets.
The thing is, ultimately, I'm going to want to replay a really fun game way more times than I'm going to want to re-watch a really good movie. Forcing me to rewatch half the movie every time I play the game really dents replay value—eventually, the annoyance of listening to all these Joker monologues for the nth time overrides the fun of the game.
P.S.: Absolutely no bonus points for the constant, in your face T&A. Ditching most of that is the one thing Origins does better than the first two games.