It seems as if the Batman fans think the game has a deep story and amazing gameplay whereas the more analytical people of TA, like myself, agree with the review video. Subjectivity and its many woes... More or less, it seems like a decent fighting game but nothing new, refreshing, or varied.
I like the game quite a bit, but I can't see how anyone would think it has a "deep story". It doesn't have a story. Meet bad guys. Beat them up. Meet bosses. Beat them up. That's cool with me, since I think it's done well, but there's no story to speak of.
I have yet to see a story , I'm just enjoying it based on it being a blend of Batman and IB. Don't care if there is a story or not. Would be nice but it isn't necessary for me.
Yeah, what you two guys said is the overall theme/vibe I was getting. When you look at console games there really is no depth to the story, but I see iOS/mobile as a place where story/more interactivity can be intertwined with fighting games. That's why I like the IB series so much. Yes, Batman looks pretty dang good but, according to impressions, it doesn't seem to expand on the aforementioned things. Personally, I really want to take it for a spin, but I've already put my money for this week into some other things, so I'll have to wait. Depending on what comes out next week, I might go on ahead and pick it up.
Funny how people keep praising IB's storyline as if it was the best ever to hit a game while in reality it's more like an after thought and when first released, IB was nothing more than a tech demo (check out the original thread of how people complained about its non existing story and super repetitive loop nature). Yes IB's story is interesting and certainly better than Batman's (only because the latter has no story), but let's call a spade a spade.
I'm not praising IB's storyline like it's the best thing since (insert here), but it is quite good. The reason I give it so much credit is because I like the direction it's headed in. And again it has a better story then a lot console fighting games and a lot of things on the mobile platform. I'd say the same for Dark Meadow, I really enjoyed figuring out what was going on in that game. I'm pretty sure anyone who read my earlier post could've understood that; but, then again, your comment may have been a general one instead of a directed one. Anyways, like I said, Batman looks good/decent but doesn't expand on the aforementioned things.
Yes, I know what you mean, I myself like the look & feel of IB 1, it's got a charming personality. Less so about IB2 which is somewhat a bit too generic as if they're trying too hard to make it reach wider target audience by including english voice, asian theme, sidekick character, etc. I don't like Dark Meadow though, the game's just absolutely boring (at least IB doesn't pretend it's a deep or serious game, everyone knows it's action-filled game). It's not scary at all and everytime and enemy pops up I was like, "alright bring it on, let's finish this" instead of shitting myself like when I first played Silent Hill, Fatal Frame or Dead Space. Dark Meadow's story is also very predictable. Anyone who's played or watched some horror games / movies will be able to know the story a quarter into the game, it's just too obvious and everything's laid out for you. I'm more forgiving when the game doesn't pretend like it's a story-driven game like IB, Epoch or Batman. Just like when going to the movie to watch Green Lantern, Fast Five or 2012, you know it's all about flashy actions and crazy effects
Well, I'm back to having a crash issue on my iPod Touch 4G again. Is anyone able to load the boss level in the Gotham Steel Mill against Deathstroke? I have tried multiple times to start the level and it crashes. I can't get this level in Batman, the new COD or IBII to load. I've rebooted with everything closed, signed out of GC, turned on Airplane mode, nothing. I even went as far as a restore from backup to see if that would help and it does not. I don't know what to do. It seems like trying to play an UE3 game on my device just doesn't work any longer. I'm going to hedge my bet that it's definitely 5.0.1 and the extra memory to run the addtional processes probably. Don't know and don't care, just know that I've plunked down a lot of cash recently on these games and none work. At this point, I'm just fed up and frustrated.
Yeah, I think the story of the first game was better as well. However, I still like the 2nd, just not as much. Gameplay wise (without all the bugs) IB2 is super solid. As far as Dark Meadow, I enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit. To be honest, I hadn't played IB1 in a long, long time when I started DM. As far as the story goes, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yes, it was predictable (as are most things these days), but I enjoyed reading the different articles. I like doing this in all games (finding and reading every little thing). I turn 30 hour games into 60 hour games (mild exaggeration) due to how I play. But yeah, Dark Meadow doesn't have that certain je ne sais quoi that IB has, and probably isn't as fun as Batman from a fighter standpoint. I still think iOS is the perfect platform for storylined fighting games. Coming from a person who loves storylined strategy games (Ravenmark, FF, King of Dragon Pass) I see the potential. I loved the fighters of the Sega, PS, PS2, and N64 days. I'm just ready for storylined ones on iOS. I guess this is just the direction I'm moving in. Yeah, a lot of the new games are buggy/crashy/laggy on 5.0.1. Desert Zombie Last Stand is supposed to be delivering a new update for their game today, so we'll how that goes. I wonder how these games would be if they went the Shadowgun route and used the Unity Engine.
You're right this game has a more limited environment. Infinity Blade 1-2 does let you look around, open treasures chests, and sometimes pick your path. If Batman had a little more freedom in the environment it would of made it much better. I still think the fighting style of this game has more combo's and options though. Infinity blade I feel is just left, right, left combos and repeat. I never really seen much of anything special you were able to do except use different weapons. Batman I already seen special moves like spinning back kick, jumping upercut punch, and the takedown moves are pretty cool. I agree it is lacking depth. but it's fun. I'm actually not really much of a batman fan but I do really like the Gotham city environment.
Definitely was a surprise when the game came out. Couldn't have been more excited, especially after seeing that it was being published by Warner Bros, who's definitely had a good run with its recent releases: LHP 5-7 and Scribblenauts Remix. And, yeah, it's Batman. The Unreal Engine gets the job done well here. Although the environment is gloomy/dark as expected, you definitely notice the impressive visuals. The character models are excellent, and there's quite a bit of detail to everything. Although the main enemies (thugs) all like extremely similar, the bosses were reproduced very well visually. The music is great, and the sound effects get the job done, from the threats the thugs shout at you while they get beaten up to the resonance given off by Batman's lightning strikes. There's four save slots, which is always a very good sign. After you create your account, you choose to either start the game or check out the store. There's quite a few things to purchase, passive upgrades for Batman: defense, strength, speed, and upgrades for Batman's abilities: heal, bat swarm, stun, and lightning strike. Each can be upgraded 6 times. There's also a store to buy three different Batman skins. Sadly, these can only be purchased through iAP at $0.99 each. Of course, there's iAP bundles as well to purchase credit, which is used to upgrade Batman. There's 16 levels total, which can be beaten played fairly quickly. I doubt it'll take you over two hours to get through them the first time. After completing each of the levels, the game starts over on a harder difficulty. The game controls are limited to tapping and swiping, much like Infinity Blade. Swiping left, right, and up throw punches/jabs in those directions. Swiping down right as the enemy attacks counters him and stuns him. There's a few combos to discover, but the only one I ever used was the old left, right, left, right. Tapping the screen causes Batman to dodge. Occasionally, when dodging or deflecting a blow, context circles like the ones in Infinity Blade appear. These get you an extra hit or lead to a finishing move from Batman. Batman's four skills can be used by tapping their respective boxes in the lower left. All in all, the controls are excellent, responsive, and work as you'd expect. Definitely very platform-friendly. There's four zones in the game. Each with four levels, three being a few thugs, and the last one being thugs + the boss. Sadly, the game gets quite repetitive since each of first three levels for each zone are pretty much the exact thing. Three to four enemies will come after you one after another, and you end with a stats screen that assesses your performance. Credit will be given based on your stats. Nothing changes as you progress between the zones besides the environment, which is actually very limited. The boss fights are good fun though, but there are only four of them so far. The game also falls short in its difficulty level. It's rather low, especially after you get used to everything. I only died once in the entire first run through the game, and that was against the third boss since I didn't know he had a healing ability. Your skills completely devastate the enemy when used. I don't really want to go into detail on them, but they're very similar to the "super attack" in Infinity Blade, except they recharge 5x faster. With a few upgrades, they'll recharge in just seconds. The enemies are generally very predictable, and even the bosses don't really have any surprise combos. Occasionally, they will go into berserk mode, where they just throw strike after strike at you no matter what you do, so you have to dodge them. They become stunned afterwards. Even on my second run, the game doesn't feel much more difficult. As long as you purchase the right upgrades, you probably won't ever have to replay levels to earn more credit just so you can move on. I'm hoping that the game will be getting content updates in the future. It's doing extremely well in sales currently, so that's a good sign for the possibility. Although the game looks and sounds incredible, the limited amount of upgrades and repetitiveness of the game take quite a toll. Sadly, it feels like a watered-down Infinity Blade more than anything, especially in the wake of IB 2's release. However, if you're a fan of games like the IB series, and Epoch, this should be a sound purchase.
Would anyone mind sharing the combos they found? I've only got 3 so far. The basic 2 + 1 that I sometimes accidentally do (it's the move that ends with an uppercut). The fight feels somewhat start-stop-start and unresponsive unless we can really chain some combos, but I don't know how to 'learn' or 'unlock' new combos..
@backtothis, are you a professional reviewer? If not, with a write up like that you should be. Thanks.
I'm sorry, but how can you believe that IB is just left right left while batman has combos? First, parrying in batman is the same down gesture over and over whereas in IB you have to match your direction with the enemies attack. Same with dodging, it's directional vs. one button in batman. As far as fighting, batman has three combos that I've noticed, a more powerful version of the Normal punch, and the two you mentioned. The latter is activatd by LRL, and the other two just add an up swipe at the end of the combo. Meanwhile, IBs standard sword has three different strong moves at the end of combos, plus all the different combos with the new weapons. As far as the takedowns, I'll agree batmans are fun. But IB still has stab attacks, which can be brutal especially with dual swords. While I really did like batman, I just can't shake the feeling that it wasn't as good as overall. Not trying to troll or anything, I just see a lot of flaws in your reasoning. But I respect your opinion.
4 Hit combos: Left - Right - Left - Up ( or right-left-right-up )= 4 hit combo finishing with a flying uppercut knocking the enemy down Left - Right - Left - Down ( or right-left-right-down ) = 4 hit combo finishing with a side kick knocking the enemy back but not down Left - Right - Left - Right = a 4 hit combo finishing with a reverse roundhouse kick knocking the enemy back but not down Right - Left - Right - Left = a 4 hit combo finishing with a Hammer Fist knocking the enemy back but not down One two punch: Left-Down = a 2 punch move that ends with a overhead punch Right-Down = a 2 punch move that ends with a body shot Right-Up = a 2 punch move that ends with a uppercut one-two Kick: Left-Up = Batman does a right hook And forward kick There's more combo's but not sure how I did them yet. I seen something with batman using what looks like his cape to end the combo knocking the enemy back
Thanks for the info. I noticed i did a lot of different punches and kicks but really didnt know how most of the time.
