@@itz_ben17 It was personnally less tedious for me in A.Knight than in A.City. Because i don't know about you but, for me, going back & forth in A.City's half-moon shaped map really felt more tiring than in "fast boost and glide" A.Knight's Gotham.
I’d have to disagree, Hugo strange does a lot in the background, when you do the riddler trophies you get tapes of strange talking to all the villains. He’s the one who tells two face where catwoman at the start, he uses mad hatter to get hypnosis tricks to control the Quincy sharp and he’s the one who gave Nora to joker and gave freeze to penguin. Also the message he leaves Batman at his parents crime scene is amazing
@@ThatBoyAqua Also, Strange also does stuff with Batman's identity. The reason he does not kill Batman immediately is that he needs him to be a part of Protocol 10. And in the bad ending where Catwoman escapes Arkham city with the stuff in Strange's vault, Tyger seizes control of Wayne manor and kills Alfred, Gordon, and presumably Oracle. So strange does take advantage with his knowledge of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Making him my favorite villain in the Arkham series.
@@ThatBoyAqua I’m not positive about this, but I remember gliding around at some point after Protocol 10. I turned on detective vision and looked down to see the streets littered with hundreds of blue bodies from the protocol 10 wipe. After that I landed in the street and just looked around. Protocol 10 did have casualties.
@@ThatBoyAqua In my last play through when I actually read the stories from solving the riddles, you also find out that the lunatics from Arkham Asylum were lobotomized by Hugo Strange in order to hypnotize Sharp. He even says, “No one will miss them.”
@@acehighlights3.034 Yeah, especially when you take into account him being referenced in Arkham Asylum and City only to be killed off screen in Knight.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double "Wall hacks" usually refer to being able to see people through walls in a shooter, not shooting through said walls. Aqua's use of the term is correct.
@@Highonwater3X Yes. In COD you can shoot people through walls regardless of if you can see them. This is reffered to as a "wall bang". In Batman's case, the batarang can not in ideal conditions hit a target through a wall, hence why wall hacks wouldn't fix it. I'm sure there are some shooters in which some hacks allow you to shoot through walls when you could not before however in Modern Warfare, with certain attatchments on guns such as the AS-Val, you can shoot through 5 foot thick rocks without any cheats or hacks. Assuming you use a spotter grenade and see exactly where the person is on the other side.
The Arkham series is just one of those rare series where any one of its instalments can be someone's most favourite while still loving all of the other instalments just as much
@@laprinhound9369 being a spin off or not, it's still in the arkham universe and it's still canon. It is also sold as a game rather than a dlc for Arkham Origins
I'm somewhat annoyed by how Batman says he'll rescue Dr. Stacy Baker from the Steel Mill and bring her back to the Medical Center, but he never ends up saving her. Instead, she is left in the Steel Mill, and disappears from her last known position after you complete the game.
Your comment made me have new ideas for the political prisoners quest, they should've made her the part of political-prisoners quest and made it so that you have to either carry or guide every political-prisoners and Riddler's hostaged to the safe destination like the church and by the end of the game, you have all the political-prisoners and Riddler hostages inside the church like in the original game and Arkham Knight.
Meanwhile in another alternate universe Mr Freeze: Bring me Nora or you will die Batman: Or... just give me the cure and then I I’ll give you Nora Mr Freeze: Hmmm... didn’t think of that!
@@ThatBoyAqua lol how about you explain Batman locking up Robin and turning away all of his friends when he's dealing with an entire Army that's far bigger than the one he faced in City in the Knight game? Also he knows he's going insane so he's dangerous to himself if no one's with him
Only once cause it tired the hell out me.Still great. Embarrassing?I finished GOW3 10 times,the disc was overheated,I bought it again,finished it again around 3 times then bought the remaster and finished another 3 I think. GOW4 already atleast 4 times
If I can remember correctly, I beat Arkham City on the PS3 4 times and then I got Return to Arkham and beat it at least 15 more times. I’ll tell ya, if being only 7 and beating Arkham City in front of your entire family that many times is NOT an accomplishment, then I don’t know what is.
I think the appeal of the story that makes it “best in the series” for so many is kind of the same reason that you (and others) didn’t enjoy it as much. The wild goose chase plot feels like a classic comic book story (like Hush (for example) in the way it kind of serves as a tour of the Batman universe’s greatest hits. It may not be the most interesting or provocative script but there’s a certain delight in being bounced between all these different characters and story beats that you already know while you’re getting to the bottom of the ultimate mystery.
@@theotherbeatle707 i mean, it pretty much is? and i say that with love, man. batman is sent to arkham city, goes and finds catwoman to learn about protocol 10, goes to find joker to learn about protocol 10 after he tried to kill catwoman, joker poisons batman with his blood, which derails batmans entire search for this protocol 10 plan, so he seeks out mr freeze, who's kidnapped by penguin, you have to find 3 machines that are blocking your detective vision before being allowed in there first though, then you head inside, beat grundy/penguin, go grab some blood from ra's al ghul/fight him, then beat freeze cause he was being a cunt, find that joker stole the cure, go back to fight joker, get blown up, and wake up and realize that protocol 10 was just order 66 but for batman. granted, the way i've phrased it makes it sound far more boring than it is in practice, but still, there is no "point A to point B" in the arkham games, it always gets derailed intensely.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double and how did the inclusion of the villains in knight not make sense? scarecrow made everyone evacuate, so of course the criminals would be still there. and again, they were side quests, batman arkham city didn't invent side quests.
Reading the stories you get from solving all the riddles and listening to all the audio reels you get at the end make the story much more satisfying. Also, I feel like you missed out on the fact that Strange doesn’t intend on exposing Bruce’s identity, he wants to humiliate Batman (making Arkham Knights story even more pointless). He just wants to destroy everything Batman has worked towards. Strange is also obsessed with Batman, another detail shown through the aforementioned audio reels and riddle stories
I also disagree with your complaint on the story being a “wild goose chase”. This is a completely subjective opinion so your missing nothing. I just feel that the elements are woven together very well and the story plays out like different issues of a comic. With Catwoman being a tie in, and Jokers death being less of a sabotage of the ending and more of an epilogue.
@Da rock Gaming yeah... He also likes Assassin's Creed Odyssey more than the Ezio Trilogy so you can see how the microtransaction business model has sunk its teeth into him
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double no... The DLC is f****** horrible. They are each no longer than 15 minutes fights or stealth sections with some gimmicks. Nothing compared to Arkham City DLC where you could literally play around as Catwoman in the open-world and she also had her own challenge Maps and story missions
Thanks for watching guys! I want to make a quick edit. Shawn S pointed out that Hugo had no intention of killing Batman but instead killing the legacy of the Batman. He also was obsessed with the dark knight to an unhealthy degree. This can be found out by listening to the many audio logs within the game. Also my joke about Harley Quinn having jiggle physics is just a joke. I don’t actually base my enjoyment of a character based on the size of their polygonal curves or sex appeal. I genuinely didn’t like Harley’s design in this game and it just had to do with the costume design. It was a mockery of those who will actually use Harleys sex appeal to explain why this game is good.
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 He says "If you try to stop me, everyone will know your secret". Did he really think Bruce would stand by? He then goes for hours trying to stop strange and at no point does he reveal Batman's Identity.
I get why you say narratively the story is weak, but I think the setting really helped sell the story, along with all the little pieces of lore in the arkham city stories you get from riddles. if this goose-chase existed in the entire city of gotham without the concept of arkham city then it sounds pretty lame. but since every supervillain is locked in a broken down slum with a finite amount of resources and control they can have it makes for a very interesting playing field to put batman and his enemies in. Yes, everything is a wild goose chase because Batman's been placed smack-dab in a mega-prison powder keg filled with extreme personalities all locked in together with their own conflicting agendas with so much happening in the background at any point in the story that make everything feel real. things DO happen outside of batman's perception because arkham city is such a sprawling, out of control gang warzone with a lot going on. besides everything he does to/with batman, joker is planning a breakout and steals nora from freeze. bane is lurking around collecting titan, deadshot and hush are going around killing their targets. penguin captures freeze and discovers a platoon of undercover cops in his gang. somewhere below the streets talia and the league are waiting to give ra's another trip to the lazarus pit. and the whole time while you try to solve all these things, you are being watched and studied. by strange, azrael, tyger, the league, and the riddler to some extent. this along with being trapped in a prison bring some element of creepiness that wasn't really present in origins/knight. you may be batman, but you're batman in place that's already way out of control by the time you arrive and is only getting more unstable. the way the story is told and played is less about the actual narrative points and more about the setting and how it affects both batman and his villains.
The side missons are a lot better if u do them all during the story especially azreals because he only appears during certain points in the story watching u
Agreed. Compared to the main campaign the side missions mostly suck since they're just fetch quests. The good thing is that most of them like the Titan container Quest are placed nearby to your story objectives so it's never an inconvenience to pursue them. Also f*** those Riddler trophies we have no idea how many thought out side missions they could have made instead of over 400 trophies.
@@theotherbeatle707 generally speaking you'll have done all of the physical challenges by the end of the story, and if you literally just look around as you go through you can get at least 250 of them done
Azrael just chose to not make his final appearance before I had finished all other side quests, including Riddler for some reason. I went past where he'd be multiple times.
I think he didn’t kill Bruce since Ra’s was technically pulling the strings and wouldn’t want Wayne dead. Since he wants Bruce to be the heir to the demon head etc etc
Also killing Bruce Wayne would cause a lot of controversy and people would figure out that Strange is a villain way before he could commence protocol 10
@@thataintfalco7106 actually yea 8 months of thinking makes me realize it kinda does make sense but isn't really shown, we have to make the assumption with no real true evidence
The hush side quest actually set thomas Elliott as the main villain in the next game but the writer left the project because the game company didn't want hush as the main villain.
@@Benjatron-jw2rg Atleast they pretended scarecrow was the main baddie when like origins and despite being Ashes Joker once again steals the spot as main villain.
Fun fact: The first time you go to the church in the game, Hush was actually there lying on a table holding organs. P.S. could you do a video on Spider-Man PS4. I'd love to see your thoughts on it
You forgot to mention the introduction of the Riddler informant interrogations. Sure, they repeat, but getting the enemy at just the right spot to push him over a ledge or against a wall is SO satisfying!
Sure they repeat... Until you realize that every time you press the triangle button there is a completely unique animation depending on where the enemy is standing or whether they are lying down or not. Also made combat much more tactical.
I respectfully agree and disagree with a lot of your points. Arkham city is hands down one of my favourite games growing up and it still holds a huge place in my heart. Overall, great video. Keep up the good work man.
My favorite game of all time after Starflight. I go back and play this game so often it's become a joke to my friends. I friggin' love this game, as well as Arkham Origins, and REALLY wish there were more Batman games like these. Free roam, no enemy levels--just learning how to fight, the characterization of Batman and his villains, the atmosphere, the awesome stealth rooms, the Riddler trophies that force you to perfect all of Batman's abilities (as opposed to Asylum and Knight, which largely just left them lying around) including physical abilities, the replayability, the alternate costumes, the campaign maps and challenges...it's like this game was made for me, specifically. I love to go back and replay the game with different' paths toward upgrades (sometimes not upgrading at all where it isn't required), and trying to gather all the Riddler trophies and challenges by memory alone, never looking at the map. I can't get enough of this world.
For the mini bosses, just jump over them each time anyone tries to attack you. Don't counter and and only focus on the mini boss and you can beat them easily, without taking any damage.
@@LegoCityFilms To each their own but I always focus on taking down the Abramovici Twins first, which can be done quickly by punching them and jumping over them as they try to hit you. I don't fight any other enemies until Hammer/Sickle is down. If a thug tries to strike, I just jump over Hammer/Sickle.
I'm pretty sure anyone who completed the main campaign could. The game does a great job at showing you around the entire city multiple times with different objectives and the amazing thing about this world is that it doesn't feel overstuffed or oversized. But the level of intricate detail is incredible from the Iceberg Lounge to the gcpd building.
This may seem weird but my favorite thing about bac is how dark and dirty is the city its just adds a lonely , creepy and depressing athmosphere, which triggers the feeling of being left behind which very much describes the setuation of ppl in here
While I agree that the main story feels disjointed and often unrelated for the sake of stringing you on, that's part of why I love the story. As you said, each segment feels great in isolation, and for me, it's like each segment is an issue of a comic series, with the overall story being the equivalent of a full comic book arc.
Yeah! Plus everything is explained Hugo Strange is The Mastermind behind everything he gives the motivations or forces the villains to do things they don't want to do. In City the main bad guy was kind of lame because you already beat him early but the motivation still makes sense and it's a thousand percent more impactful and unexpected than Arkham Knight.
No matter how much of a mess the story is, The Jokers death was incredibly impactful, from the death scene to the haunting end credits theme with Joker singing only you. Always gives me chills.
@@AICMedia-up5wc I agree Knight’s story was pretty messy though I did like parts of it, City was good but I think Origins is the best paced and the most focused.
@@sirgreg7124 I just finished knights story, arkham city, and arkham asylum in a week and i’ll say that city was the most darkest and it was the most chilling story when joker died, I want to play origins again tho :(
An incredible hint towards the Clay-Joker is in the way he talks to Batman. Every single time Clay-Joker is talking, he says "Batman" when it has been shown in _Asylum,_ as well as the the interactions with the real Joker that he only ever calls him "Bats" And then there's the detective vision showing Clay-Joker not having any bones. Something you wouldn't really focus on, but is a big giveaway once you notice it
Another problem I had with Arkham City's story was the lead up to the Mr. Freeze boss fight. Dont get me wrong the boss fight itself was spectacular but the narrative around it never made any sense to me. Batman saves Mr. Freeze from the penguin, gives him his suit, and has been working with Batman throughout the game in order to create a cure. Mr. Freeze finally makes the cure for Batman, yet because Joker threatened him with his wife, Mr. Freeze decides to destroy one of the two antidotes while asking Batman to go find his wife. That was so dumb because not only did Freeze know Batman was dying, but Mr. Freeze could've just given Batman the cure and Batman would've saved his wife anyways.I have to assume that Freeze has known Batman for years at this point, he knows how Batman operates and he's been working with him the entire time. It made no sense at all.
It felt like when they were writing the story here Rocksteady was like “hey we should have a boss fight with Mr.Freeze” so they programmed the boss but forget to change the setup to the boss to make sense it feels like this boss wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double So it was better for Freeze to destroy the antidote in front of him knowing that it would cause Batman to try and stop him? He doesn't even try to come up with a compromise. Mr. Freeze has every reason to trust Batman at that point in time, and I have to assume he knows that Batman won't abandon an innocent person in need of help, hell Batman saved Nora in Arkham Knight and finds her in Arkham City anyways. But its just my grip with it, luckily the actual boss fight was good.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double “your grip does not take account the facts that Batman has never encountered anything like Arkham city” what does that have to do with mr freeze? Freeze is the one who destroyed the antidote and brought the fight to him, not Batman. I understand Batman has never encountered anything before Arkham city however it doesn’t make any sense as to why freeze did what he did. The end result was only for him to lose, attempt to give him the other antidote anyways (which Harley stole), and made Batman waste time. Batman saved mr. freeze, he gave him his suit, and he even let him work safely in the lab in order to come up with a solution to antidote, and Batman even saved Nora anyways afterwards. Why wouldn’t Mr freeze trust Batman at that point? It’s because the story needed him to act stupid so they can put in a boss fight. Like I said, boss fight itself was great, it’s just that the narrative around it was lame to me.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double Exactly, the thugs didn’t Kill her and Batman ended up saving her anyways. “So Batman couldn’t fucking steal and run away...” That would’ve only happened had Mr freeze threaten Batman to kill him, which he did. Mr freeze knew Batmans body was dying, and was physically unable to keep going without the antidote. Agree to disagree but I’m done arguing.
I want to add something to your "Hugo Strange doesn't do anything with Batman's identity" point. At the beginning of the game Strange says to Batman "If you try to stop me, I guarantee everyone will know your secret". Batman literally tries to stop Hugo Strange through the whole game and Strange does absolutely nothing because why?... Good video, as always!
He also says "it will be my legacy a monument to your failure". Also in the Riddler tapes he is clearly obsessed with proving he can beat Batman anyways so it's consistent to believe he only said that to Batman as a challenge to do his best.
Batman barely makes any active steps to stopping protocol 10 throughout the main story though. The only thing he does prior to it’s activation is interrogate Quincy Sharp and that’s it. He’s more focused on the immediate threat of Joker and the Titan poisoning.
I loved the punch sound effects more here than in Knight. They sounded more realistic and had a really satisfying leathery slap to them. Arkham Knight went more cartoonish and it didn't feel as good.
Hugo Strange didn’t just want to kill Batman because he’s a Batman villain. They wanna make him suffer and watch him fail and then only kill him when he’s completely broken. It’s why they never win lol
And they only improved when Arkham Knight came out. I still don't understand why Arkham Knight was so hated. To me the Arkham trilogy improved after each game, with each one being fucking awesome.
Because half of the main campaign you are forced inside the Bat tank which is the most unengaging thing in all the Arkham games. And the story rips off ACity but with horrible character writing and illogical decisions.
@@theotherbeatle707 while it did get quite tedious it didn't remove from the gameplay outside the bat tank. I never said that the past games were bad by any means I just feel like they improved with each game that released.
@@Creepa99 Literally I like Knight it's fun, but the story didn't do it. Sure they improved mechanics, but the story for Knight had problems. First why do they keep showing Jason getting tortured, then show the Arkham Knight as Jason Todd! It literally basically made everyone 100% sure it was Jason, and Rocksteady lied about it being a new character for the game. Another is the bosses, one of the worst parts of Knight, literally most are one hits or tank battles, the one that disappoints a lot of people was Deathstroke, as in Origins had one of the best boss battles in the Arkham series if not the best boss in the series with it feeling like a movie or comic fight scene, but in this it was just a tank battle then jump out of a vehicle and knock him out. Boss battles weren't even battles. Next, the Batmobile was over used, which I get because it was a new mechanic, but it was overused, with tank battle or charging think or chases, it just used way too much, but it was still fun for that Arkham Knight tunnle chase. That was really it for me, I still play it, but the story needed some work done to it.
@Abdul Shah Yeah. I mean, in terms of story it is, along wirh Riddler trophies. Everything else is pretty good, but the story was the worst of them all.
The only thing I'd have a disagreement on is the story being a "wild goose chase". I just think it's hard to call City a "wild goose chase" without asking what would Knight's or Asylum's story be deemed as then. The game still needs room to be a game in my opinion. Imagine if we got the cure right after we fought freeze or even before that. The game would've been so much shorter and it was meant to build to the tension of, for better or worse, that Batman may die. Or worse if Freeze was able to make the cure from the start we wouldn't have gotten the Mr. Freeze boss fight or even the Ra's Al Ghul which are at the top of the best in the series. Like you've said in your other reviews, you have to have a level of disbelief or otherwise the game won't be a game. For the sake of gameplay, the game may rush over some points or even extend them to provide more gameplay. P.S. Your videos are awesome man, keep doing what you're doing! And I totally respect your point and the way you back it up, good stuff!
I agree with you that the other game's stories are more or less chases too, but I personally find that Arkham City takes it a little too far. Not only do you end up having to travel the entire map multiple times (which starts to get boring), but overall I felt like most of the story was you getting the things you need to make the cure only to have it being stolen from you. You literally spend something like 50 minutes (or for me, 2 hours) playing the game to make the cure, so to have it be ripped away from you at the end of the process is really exhausting. Plus, Hugo Strange didn't really have a lot to do with the actual story (Like I said, most of it is you trying to make the cure), and because of that, he more felt like a another obstacle to me then a villain.
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 yeah. It's easily the best Batman story with the most emotionally impactful ending. It's like a more punchy Killing Joke that's actually done right
36:11 I thought I was just tripping seeing Maui thank goodness it was actually there and I’m not losing my mind after watching these videos at midnight Lmaoo
In my playthrough, I found that if you dodge the first sword swipe individually but then hold down the counter button for the rest of the attack, the blade takedown still works.
The thing I loved about this game the most is how serious and urgent the situation feels. I felt like I was having a bad day and I was dying like Batman is in the game, and like I had to save the city. Yeah it's a cliche to say how immersed you are in a game but why are cliches bad if they're true. Whenever I booted up the game I felt like I was fulfilling my responsibility as a hero.
If you do all Riddler's challenges you actually get to find his hideout and try to take him down yourself, which is pretty satisfying, but no, it's not worth getting all those bloody trophies.
I did that once on the PS3 took my forever. Coming back to the game after I beat it so long ago. Then finally found where he was and yeah it was just ok. Like legit found the door before it showed me. 😂
this game is one of my favorites ever! I still play it like it was the first time everytime. I even remade some of the 3d models based on the ones in this game.
I can understand why its not considered perfect. When you get past a certain part of the story it feels like I forget what I’m supposed to be doing and I’m like oh yea “I’m poisoned”. But when you have to disable all the three jammers to get into the museum, I completely forget why I was even doing it. It just all feels like such a fever dream.
You’re completely correct about Arkham City’s story being an incoherent mess propped up by a few cool moments. The recordings don’t make up for that and feel more like the game covering up its own plot holes.
city has the best story for me, origins had the best boss fights, Asylum had the best atsmophere, Knight had the best combat gameplay and biggest world
@@uhuhuh1966 knight might be the easiest but it has the best animations and more variety, City and origins are the hardest tho because you can’t spam the punch button
but the gameplay like gliding, graphics, bat mobile driving (not batmobile combat), and combat feels more smoother in knight, city and origins combat is way more harder
As someone who has played this entire series to 100% completion several times over, this was an emotionally loaded video to be sure lol, and even if i dont agree with you on a few points, its an awesome video and you just earned yourself a new subscriber :)
Whenever you get enough riddler secrets, you unlock audio tapes of conversations with Strange and Riddler. In those tapes Hugo reveals how he determined that Bruce Wayne is Batman. I remember he said something about, how he set a psychological profile for Batman, and realized the only person who fit that profile was Bruce Wayne.
I think the reason why Hugo never really does anything with Batman's secret identity is that he views himself as Batman's succesor and wants to beat him fairly, and he did have a plan to have him killed in the form of Deadshot anyways just in case Protocol 10 fails
You're not wrong that the story is a wild goose chase, however, I still really like it because it's a great sampling of the majority of Batman's rogues. Penguin and Two Face are the classic mob bosses, Ivy and Ra's and Clayface are the fantastical/supernatural enemies, Zsasz is the disturbing psychopath, and Joker is...well Joker. I hope you see what I mean. You get a sampling of nearly all the flavors of his main rogues aside from Scarecrow and Croc, who already got their shine in Asylum, though I wish they had better parts in this game as well.
Great video, Aqua! You are an absolute inspiration. I'm struggling in school really hard right now, and I don't even have a cool video essay CZcams channel, lol I still consider Arkham City my favorite of the series, and I've played it more than any other entry, but recently every time I try to replay it I don't get very far before I get bored and put it down again. I think you're right about the narrative feeling like a bit of a goose chase which brings the pacing down. I think, objectively speaking, Origins is definitely an improvement, and doesn't deserve so much hate, but I think that when it came out, it felt like far too incremental of an improvement over City, and that's why it felt so disappointing. I still attest that the narrative in Origins is pretty unremarkable, and my best evidence for that is that I've replayed it twice (3 total playthroughs), and I never remember any of the story beats. I'm not sure what it is about that game, but it vanishes from my mind immediately after I play it every time.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double I'm not saying Origins isn't a goose chase (I don't even remember any of the narrative arcs from Origins anymore), just that City is a bit of one, and that doesn't preclude Origins from being one too. I feel like you think I'm being more negative that I mean to be. I really like City. I've beaten it more than 6 times, and it's the one I still want to replay to this day whenever I have an itch for more Arkham. I've played through Origins a handful of times too, and I never enjoy it as much as I enjoy City.
This was an amazing video, the first I've seen from your channel and certainly not the last. I'm getting to play the Arkham games for the first time, actually! I beat Asylum on hard about two months ago, and just beat City on hard a few days ago (and will be starting New Game +). It's super difficult for me to find flaws in this game lol, but I really appreciate how well you state your reasoning. Anyway, great work, man!
“I felt like I accomplished very little by the end of the story.” Yeah, that’s the point. They theme of city is the the helplessness of being Batman in Gotham, he can never save everyone, he can never make the city win. For all his efforts, all lives he saves, he still loses still she cares about, and at the end of the day he still asleep to himself. His morality does not work in this world. If The game had gone against its theme and done what you wanted, tell you would still be alive, joker would be locked up, Hugo strange will be in the hospital, and Batman would be ready to fight again.
An easter egg that I only found by searching online, but that I found really nice was the Scarecrow boat that you need to hack to enter. It was a really cool tease for Arkham Knight
With the mini bosses, you can either choose to counter or dodge over an enemy, if there's too much danger to counter, just dodge, it's a choice depending on the number of enemies nearby.
I think a big part of why Strange knows who Batman is in the game is because the fact he knows it is a huge part of his character in the comics. It's better utilized there, but honestly, if they had him killed without figuring out who Batman is, it would feel like he was cheated.
I don't think City is as tight as Asylum but it makes things bigger without losing what makes the game special. The Joker twist, the Mad Hatter sidequest, fighting alongside Bane, and that amazing Mr. Freeze bossfight are highlights that have stood out in my mind years later.
18:04 "It was a lot of fun but mechanically I didn't get much from it" This pretty much sums up my opinion of every boss in this game except Freeze. Ra's is basically spamming the REC and then fighting a bunch of ninjas while he attacks you occasionally until you get a sorta cinematic beatdown segment, but it was all mechanically unengaging and not that deep. Clayface's first phase where you just spam the Freeze Grenade and dodge for ad nauseam until you pull out the sword, I found mind-numbing (never understood the logic of damaging him with a sword even though he's made of clay but maybe the sword is unexplained to be magical). Two Face conceptually is an interesting way to approach a stealth boss, requiring multiple takedowns and constantly respawning thugs that force you to think a little differently, but is tedious through the fact that you fight him as Catwoman. It ironically is more fun in the copy & paste fight in Origins just because you fight Deadshot as Batman and not Catwoman who can't stealth for shit: slower takedown animations, annoying grappling mini-game nonsense whilst you're being sprayed with bullets, less stealth tools, no gliding. Some may appreciate the challenge, but I don't find it enjoyable in the slightest
Oracle questioning Batman about the identity theft Killings 100% feels like Arkham Knight set up for his inner Joker conflict. Especially since she brings up Scarecrow possibly sneaking Batman a dose of toxic and that Hush was originally the big bad alongside Scarecrow in Arkham Knight!
I could never get into the Batman Arkham games because of the repetitive combat and un-interesting characters (In my opinion. I'm a big Marvel fan, not DC). Yet somehow, you still manage to keep me interested trough a 45 minute video about a series I don't even like. Props to you, man
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double dang you guys are right. Maybe I just couldn't get into the arkham games because of the characters. I'm not a big DC fan, but that's my fault, not the games. I do actually like spider-man ps4, but then again, I also care about spider-man lol
You’ve gotta meet this fellow Livin' down on the farm Because he’s pretty cool and mellow He’s the king of the barn When there’s mayhem in the meadow He keeps his crew on track For all his legendary adventures They should put up a plaque! For Shaun the sheep He’s Shaun the sheep He even mucks about with those who cannot bleat Keep it in mind He’s one of a kind Oh... life’s a treat with Shaun the sheep He's Shaun the sheep (He’s Shaun the sheep) He's Shaun the sheep (He’s Shaun the sheep) He doesn’t miss a trick or ever lose a beat Perhaps one day You’ll find a way To... come and meet with Shaun the sheep He's a brave courageous leader And he’s not a raw recruit He’s a friendly kinda geezer Who’s remarkably astute He’s a father of invention With a charismatic knack For causing havoc in the pasture “Behind the farmer's back” He’s Shaun the sheep He’s Shaun the sheep He’s not afraid to make the intellectual leap For brains and gile With a wink and a smile You... can’t compete with Shaun the sheep La la la la La la la la La la la la la la la la la la la la La la la la La la la la La... la la la la la la la la He’s always ready with a trick To save the day A good solution’s not a million miles away Within his flock He’s pure gold And if his mates get into trouble He’ll return 'em to the fold He’s Shaun the sheep He’s Shaun the sheep He even mucks about with those who cannot bleat Keep it in mind He’s one of a kind Oh... life’s a treat with Shaun the sheep He's Shaun the sheep (He’s Shaun the sheep) He's Shaun the sheep (He’s Shaun the sheep) He doesn’t miss a trick or ever lose a beat Perhaps one day You’ll find a way To... come and meet with Shaun the sheep Oh... come and bleat with Shaun the sheep!
I think part of the "wild goose chace" feel kinda boils down to so much information being delivered through calls to Oracle. Like, the big reveal of what Protocol 10 is delivered to Batman and the player by Oracle just telling you that there's a press conference and Hugo Strange declaring Arkham City unsafe and needint to activate Protocol 10 while the player tries to get back into the Steel Mill. Hugo Strange's plan to take the Arkham City concept and move it to other cities is only delivered through radio chatter during a long predator encounter. These are cool reveals and major parts of the story, but they feel really shoved together during gameplay and not given the importance that they probably need and make Batman kind of unimportant in his own game. He doesn't learn anything or do any detective work, he just kinda finds stuff out when people tell him. I still love this game and think this is a really interesting Batman story (especially taken as a chapter in the grander Arkham series) but the way Rocksteady would just have characters tell Batman stuff over the radio really irks me for some reason.
Can we take a moment that the most forgettable character was the calendar man? Hell you had a trophy tied to him and that’s the only time you’d see him
Playing this game on new game plus (hardest difficulty no counter warning) really gave me a new appreciation for this games combat. Countering based solely on body language made me feel more like Batman than I ever did before. Also Mister Freeze on new game plus is VERY challenging and honestly my favorite way to experience the fight.
‘Near 300 riddler trophies’
Me who collected all 440: yes.
@@itz_ben17 i collected 880 trophies
I got all riddler trophies in all games twice😂
@@itz_ben17 It was personnally less tedious for me in A.Knight than in A.City. Because i don't know about you but, for me, going back & forth in A.City's half-moon shaped map really felt more tiring than in "fast boost and glide" A.Knight's Gotham.
Once. And never ever again.
I collected every riddler trophy in every game, sanity lost
But there one thing nobody can't deny that main menu theme is amazing.
I’d argue almost all the music here is top notch, but that menu theme is iconic!
FINALLY SOMEONE WHO HAS POINTED OUT THE MAIN THEME
Ah yes a man of culture
I got chills listening to it with good headphones after 5 years.
@@ThatBoyAqua I prefer the origins menu theme but I am a sucker for Christmas so I'm biased as fuck
I’d have to disagree, Hugo strange does a lot in the background, when you do the riddler trophies you get tapes of strange talking to all the villains. He’s the one who tells two face where catwoman at the start, he uses mad hatter to get hypnosis tricks to control the Quincy sharp and he’s the one who gave Nora to joker and gave freeze to penguin. Also the message he leaves Batman at his parents crime scene is amazing
Yes i totally agree and I missed that, I edited the pinned comment!
Yeah the story is not a wild goose chase everything is explained and everyone has a motive
@@ThatBoyAqua Also, Strange also does stuff with Batman's identity. The reason he does not kill Batman immediately is that he needs him to be a part of Protocol 10. And in the bad ending where Catwoman escapes Arkham city with the stuff in Strange's vault, Tyger seizes control of Wayne manor and kills Alfred, Gordon, and presumably Oracle. So strange does take advantage with his knowledge of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Making him my favorite villain in the Arkham series.
@@ThatBoyAqua I’m not positive about this, but I remember gliding around at some point after Protocol 10. I turned on detective vision and looked down to see the streets littered with hundreds of blue bodies from the protocol 10 wipe. After that I landed in the street and just looked around. Protocol 10 did have casualties.
@@ThatBoyAqua In my last play through when I actually read the stories from solving the riddles, you also find out that the lunatics from Arkham Asylum were lobotomized by Hugo Strange in order to hypnotize Sharp. He even says, “No one will miss them.”
Two-Face was heavily under used in these games.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double dont forget black mask
@@acehighlights3.034 Yeah, especially when you take into account him being referenced in Arkham Asylum and City only to be killed off screen in Knight.
@@Elfenlied8675309 He got killed in Knight?
@@Elfenlied8675309 he didn't get killed in Knight lol
is nobody gonna mention hush? he had the best set up to be a main villain from his side mission in city
There are two types of people:
People who call it “Detective Mode”
And people who call it “Detective Vision”
Wtf are you talking about? It’s clearly called wall hacks
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double "Wall hacks" usually refer to being able to see people through walls in a shooter, not shooting through said walls. Aqua's use of the term is correct.
@@Highonwater3X Yes. In COD you can shoot people through walls regardless of if you can see them. This is reffered to as a "wall bang". In Batman's case, the batarang can not in ideal conditions hit a target through a wall, hence why wall hacks wouldn't fix it. I'm sure there are some shooters in which some hacks allow you to shoot through walls when you could not before however in Modern Warfare, with certain attatchments on guns such as the AS-Val, you can shoot through 5 foot thick rocks without any cheats or hacks. Assuming you use a spotter grenade and see exactly where the person is on the other side.
@One Happy Boi bruh, why you gotta roast this guy? Amazing burn, man
I am the first.
The Arkham series is just one of those rare series where any one of its instalments can be someone's most favourite while still loving all of the other instalments just as much
Yes agreed. That's the magic of arkhamverse
Well, that if you don't count Blackgate
@@SomeoneThatIsHappythat is not a Arkham game. That's a spin off of one. There's a difference.
@@laprinhound9369 being a spin off or not, it's still in the arkham universe and it's still canon. It is also sold as a game rather than a dlc for Arkham Origins
So true though.
I'm somewhat annoyed by how Batman says he'll rescue Dr. Stacy Baker from the Steel Mill and bring her back to the Medical Center, but he never ends up saving her. Instead, she is left in the Steel Mill, and disappears from her last known position after you complete the game.
Right!!!
I felt so bad for her, she literally has to hide there for the entire game when batman could have easily saved her at multiple points
Your comment made me have new ideas for the political prisoners quest, they should've made her the part of political-prisoners quest and made it so that you have to either carry or guide every political-prisoners and Riddler's hostaged to the safe destination like the church and by the end of the game, you have all the political-prisoners and Riddler hostages inside the church like in the original game and Arkham Knight.
Meanwhile in another alternate universe
Mr Freeze: Bring me Nora or you will die
Batman: Or... just give me the cure and then I I’ll give you Nora
Mr Freeze: Hmmm... didn’t think of that!
Mr. Freeze: smol brain
Batman: Albort Enstin
Lol
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double You are saying Batman will willingly leave someone in danger?
@@ThatBoyAqua lol how about you explain Batman locking up Robin and turning away all of his friends when he's dealing with an entire Army that's far bigger than the one he faced in City in the Knight game?
Also he knows he's going insane so he's dangerous to himself if no one's with him
@GamingPro1003 that's what I'm saying lol
"I've played City 6 times"
I uh...feel embarrassed to say I've beat it so many times I've lost track of how many times I've completed it...
Only once cause it tired the hell out me.Still great.
Embarrassing?I finished GOW3 10 times,the disc was overheated,I bought it again,finished it again around 3 times then bought the remaster and finished another 3 I think.
GOW4 already atleast 4 times
@@utoresa5193 how did it "tire" you?
@@utoresa5193 😎
Same
If I can remember correctly, I beat Arkham City on the PS3 4 times and then I got Return to Arkham and beat it at least 15 more times. I’ll tell ya, if being only 7 and beating Arkham City in front of your entire family that many times is NOT an accomplishment, then I don’t know what is.
I think the appeal of the story that makes it “best in the series” for so many is kind of the same reason that you (and others) didn’t enjoy it as much. The wild goose chase plot feels like a classic comic book story (like Hush (for example) in the way it kind of serves as a tour of the Batman universe’s greatest hits. It may not be the most interesting or provocative script but there’s a certain delight in being bounced between all these different characters and story beats that you already know while you’re getting to the bottom of the ultimate mystery.
It's not a wild goose chase. Arkham Knight and Origins are though LOL
@@theotherbeatle707 i mean, it pretty much is? and i say that with love, man. batman is sent to arkham city, goes and finds catwoman to learn about protocol 10, goes to find joker to learn about protocol 10 after he tried to kill catwoman, joker poisons batman with his blood, which derails batmans entire search for this protocol 10 plan, so he seeks out mr freeze, who's kidnapped by penguin, you have to find 3 machines that are blocking your detective vision before being allowed in there first though, then you head inside, beat grundy/penguin, go grab some blood from ra's al ghul/fight him, then beat freeze cause he was being a cunt, find that joker stole the cure, go back to fight joker, get blown up, and wake up and realize that protocol 10 was just order 66 but for batman. granted, the way i've phrased it makes it sound far more boring than it is in practice, but still, there is no "point A to point B" in the arkham games, it always gets derailed intensely.
@@theotherbeatle707 bane was just there in arkham city, so was hush, and Azrael, they were side-quests.
@@willnelson9906 you're not forced to fight those guys in the story of City
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double and how did the inclusion of the villains in knight not make sense? scarecrow made everyone evacuate, so of course the criminals would be still there. and again, they were side quests, batman arkham city didn't invent side quests.
Reading the stories you get from solving all the riddles and listening to all the audio reels you get at the end make the story much more satisfying. Also, I feel like you missed out on the fact that Strange doesn’t intend on exposing Bruce’s identity, he wants to humiliate Batman (making Arkham Knights story even more pointless). He just wants to destroy everything Batman has worked towards. Strange is also obsessed with Batman, another detail shown through the aforementioned audio reels and riddle stories
I also disagree with your complaint on the story being a “wild goose chase”. This is a completely subjective opinion so your missing nothing. I just feel that the elements are woven together very well and the story plays out like different issues of a comic. With Catwoman being a tie in, and Jokers death being less of a sabotage of the ending and more of an epilogue.
Over all tho the video is great and the fact your opinion made me go this in-depth is great
Ooohh ok my bad. I’ll make an edit in a pinned comment in a bit, thanks for pointing it out!
@Da rock Gaming yeah... He also likes Assassin's Creed Odyssey more than the Ezio Trilogy so you can see how the microtransaction business model has sunk its teeth into him
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double no... The DLC is f****** horrible. They are each no longer than 15 minutes fights or stealth sections with some gimmicks.
Nothing compared to Arkham City DLC where you could literally play around as Catwoman in the open-world and she also had her own challenge Maps and story missions
Thanks for watching guys! I want to make a quick edit. Shawn S pointed out that Hugo had no intention of killing Batman but instead killing the legacy of the Batman. He also was obsessed with the dark knight to an unhealthy degree. This can be found out by listening to the many audio logs within the game.
Also my joke about Harley Quinn having jiggle physics is just a joke. I don’t actually base my enjoyment of a character based on the size of their polygonal curves or sex appeal. I genuinely didn’t like Harley’s design in this game and it just had to do with the costume design. It was a mockery of those who will actually use Harleys sex appeal to explain why this game is good.
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 But he has his own gameplay...
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 He says "If you try to stop me, everyone will know your secret". Did he really think Bruce would stand by? He then goes for hours trying to stop strange and at no point does he reveal Batman's Identity.
@UCH6vc_Bbm5QSMEkAE-8f2pA oh ok my bad
I get why you say narratively the story is weak, but I think the setting really helped sell the story, along with all the little pieces of lore in the arkham city stories you get from riddles. if this goose-chase existed in the entire city of gotham without the concept of arkham city then it sounds pretty lame. but since every supervillain is locked in a broken down slum with a finite amount of resources and control they can have it makes for a very interesting playing field to put batman and his enemies in. Yes, everything is a wild goose chase because Batman's been placed smack-dab in a mega-prison powder keg filled with extreme personalities all locked in together with their own conflicting agendas with so much happening in the background at any point in the story that make everything feel real. things DO happen outside of batman's perception because arkham city is such a sprawling, out of control gang warzone with a lot going on. besides everything he does to/with batman, joker is planning a breakout and steals nora from freeze. bane is lurking around collecting titan, deadshot and hush are going around killing their targets. penguin captures freeze and discovers a platoon of undercover cops in his gang. somewhere below the streets talia and the league are waiting to give ra's another trip to the lazarus pit. and the whole time while you try to solve all these things, you are being watched and studied. by strange, azrael, tyger, the league, and the riddler to some extent. this along with being trapped in a prison bring some element of creepiness that wasn't really present in origins/knight. you may be batman, but you're batman in place that's already way out of control by the time you arrive and is only getting more unstable. the way the story is told and played is less about the actual narrative points and more about the setting and how it affects both batman and his villains.
@A . B Shah Ocarina of time is over rated.
Why the HELLLLLLLLLLLL does nobody talk about the amazing soundtrack. Plus love you aqua
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double man its really the best soundtrack I've ever heard
Same! The whole series has an amazing soundtrack, but Arkham City is just MAGNIFICENT.
Ikr. 😂
It's amazing.
@@kacpernowak1535 Inner Demon from Arkham Knight makes Knight better than City in my opinion.
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 nah Inner Demon is the best video game soundtrack
The side missons are a lot better if u do them all during the story especially azreals because he only appears during certain points in the story watching u
Agreed. Compared to the main campaign the side missions mostly suck since they're just fetch quests. The good thing is that most of them like the Titan container Quest are placed nearby to your story objectives so it's never an inconvenience to pursue them. Also f*** those Riddler trophies we have no idea how many thought out side missions they could have made instead of over 400 trophies.
@@theotherbeatle707 generally speaking you'll have done all of the physical challenges by the end of the story, and if you literally just look around as you go through you can get at least 250 of them done
@@theotherbeatle707 i got around 140 of them before i completed the main story
@@theotherbeatle707it's not even compared to the main story the Side mission sucked full stop even by normal open world side mission standards
Azrael just chose to not make his final appearance before I had finished all other side quests, including Riddler for some reason. I went past where he'd be multiple times.
What about the fact that if you use detective mode of clayface you can see he has no bones?
I couldn't mention all the giveaways for the twist but the detail is out of this world regardless!
Did no one notice the coughing during the speech in the steel mill? Or when he’s broadcasting Talia in danger?
@@tejcomm1764 Nope
Nobody did.
Videogame logic 🙃
But did you notice that it's also telegraphed the first time we meet Clayface in Arkham Asylum 😂
that was already present in AA, when you find him locked up
I think he didn’t kill Bruce since Ra’s was technically pulling the strings and wouldn’t want Wayne dead. Since he wants Bruce to be the heir to the demon head etc etc
Also killing Bruce Wayne would cause a lot of controversy and people would figure out that Strange is a villain way before he could commence protocol 10
If we have to make that up in our heads and put the dots together that far, it's not intentional
@@LegoCityFilms it’s not that much of a stretch, but yeah. However, games do need to be a game.
@@thataintfalco7106 actually yea 8 months of thinking makes me realize it kinda does make sense but isn't really shown, we have to make the assumption with no real true evidence
@@LegoCityFilmsI guess, that's where being 'open to interpretation' c😢omes in handy for developers.
10/10 haven’t even finished yet but when u know it’s aqua u know it’s good
Is this on the ps4 store
@@Moley09 yes BUT it's a remaster AND it comes with a remastered Arkham asylum
@@lilbroomstick2410 you say that like it's a bad thing lol
@@pogisdog never said it was. it’s 2 S tier games for the price of 1
@@lilbroomstick2410 no i meant when people say 'BUT' a con usually comes after.
The hush side quest actually set thomas Elliott as the main villain in the next game but the writer left the project because the game company didn't want hush as the main villain.
That would have been great. He was a joke in Knight. One punch and he’s done!
This would’ve been more appropriate, I hated that Scarecrow was the main villain of Arkham Knight.
@@Benjatron-jw2rg Atleast they pretended scarecrow was the main baddie when like origins and despite being Ashes Joker once again steals the spot as main villain.
@@robertwye9463 your mad bc joker was the main villan in a batman story?💀
Hush as a maom villan would suck
1/10 game, ears too pointy.
His parents weren't around to tell him he would put an eye out. Orphans are a danger to society.
@@v0rteks644 Society, you say? How about another joke Murray?
@@applepie5593 no I think we’ve had enough of your jokes
@@applepie5593 leave the jokes to the joker it's in his name not your'es
Ign would do this
Fun fact: The first time you go to the church in the game, Hush was actually there lying on a table holding organs.
P.S. could you do a video on Spider-Man PS4. I'd love to see your thoughts on it
You forgot to mention the introduction of the Riddler informant interrogations. Sure, they repeat, but getting the enemy at just the right spot to push him over a ledge or against a wall is SO satisfying!
Sure they repeat... Until you realize that every time you press the triangle button there is a completely unique animation depending on where the enemy is standing or whether they are lying down or not.
Also made combat much more tactical.
I respectfully agree and disagree with a lot of your points. Arkham city is hands down one of my favourite games growing up and it still holds a huge place in my heart. Overall, great video. Keep up the good work man.
My favorite game of all time after Starflight. I go back and play this game so often it's become a joke to my friends. I friggin' love this game, as well as Arkham Origins, and REALLY wish there were more Batman games like these. Free roam, no enemy levels--just learning how to fight, the characterization of Batman and his villains, the atmosphere, the awesome stealth rooms, the Riddler trophies that force you to perfect all of Batman's abilities (as opposed to Asylum and Knight, which largely just left them lying around) including physical abilities, the replayability, the alternate costumes, the campaign maps and challenges...it's like this game was made for me, specifically. I love to go back and replay the game with different' paths toward upgrades (sometimes not upgrading at all where it isn't required), and trying to gather all the Riddler trophies and challenges by memory alone, never looking at the map. I can't get enough of this world.
I can relate to this too much, when I was 15, I used to do the same.
Batman Arkham City is in my top 10 best games ever made.
For the mini bosses, just jump over them each time anyone tries to attack you. Don't counter and and only focus on the mini boss and you can beat them easily, without taking any damage.
When you're locked in a counter you can't do anything. Sure you can avoid countering near them, but that's not as fun
@@LegoCityFilms To each their own but I always focus on taking down the Abramovici Twins first, which can be done quickly by punching them and jumping over them as they try to hit you. I don't fight any other enemies until Hammer/Sickle is down. If a thug tries to strike, I just jump over Hammer/Sickle.
Fax why is aqua complaining about the mini bosses when you fight them like twoce or three times
That electric charge makes them hit other enemies weakening them
5:34 “I could recreate it from memory if you put me up to it”
I think we should take you up on that offer
I'm pretty sure anyone who completed the main campaign could. The game does a great job at showing you around the entire city multiple times with different objectives and the amazing thing about this world is that it doesn't feel overstuffed or oversized. But the level of intricate detail is incredible from the Iceberg Lounge to the gcpd building.
@@theotherbeatle707 I can agree with you on that one, but the shape of the map was a bit annoying
@@LegoCityFilms extremely, trying to get one end to the next sucks
This may seem weird but my favorite thing about bac is how dark and dirty is the city its just adds a lonely , creepy and depressing athmosphere, which triggers the feeling of being left behind which very much describes the setuation of ppl in here
i agree it almost makes it feel like a horror game kinda 😂
@@asp_58 arkham asylum: cough cough *COUGH* *COUGH*
While I agree that the main story feels disjointed and often unrelated for the sake of stringing you on, that's part of why I love the story. As you said, each segment feels great in isolation, and for me, it's like each segment is an issue of a comic series, with the overall story being the equivalent of a full comic book arc.
Yeah! Plus everything is explained Hugo Strange is The Mastermind behind everything he gives the motivations or forces the villains to do things they don't want to do.
In City the main bad guy was kind of lame because you already beat him early but the motivation still makes sense and it's a thousand percent more impactful and unexpected than Arkham Knight.
No matter how much of a mess the story is, The Jokers death was incredibly impactful, from the death scene to the haunting end credits theme with Joker singing only you. Always gives me chills.
knight had a mess of a story, city had the best pacing
actually origins had the best pacing, city just was goosebumps
@@AICMedia-up5wc I agree Knight’s story was pretty messy though I did like parts of it, City was good but I think Origins is the best paced and the most focused.
@@sirgreg7124 I just finished knights story, arkham city, and arkham asylum in a week and i’ll say that city was the most darkest and it was the most chilling story when joker died, I want to play origins again tho :(
Batman Arkham City: IS Perfect
🔫 change the title
Its his opinion
@@clown8444 his opinion is false then
@@Slavic_Snake no?
@24 7 im saying aqua has his own opinion same as this guy
Guys I think he was just joking lol, he's been subbed for nearly 6 months
Love the running joke of Harley's... design.
👀
What joke? How sexy they made her?
@@fatmonkey9757 sexy ? Lol it’s polygons not a real woman
Arkham City had the sexiest harley, Aslyum harley looked weird asf and Knight harley looked like someone’s mom
An incredible hint towards the Clay-Joker is in the way he talks to Batman. Every single time Clay-Joker is talking, he says "Batman" when it has been shown in _Asylum,_ as well as the the interactions with the real Joker that he only ever calls him "Bats"
And then there's the detective vision showing Clay-Joker not having any bones. Something you wouldn't really focus on, but is a big giveaway once you notice it
Another problem I had with Arkham City's story was the lead up to the Mr. Freeze boss fight. Dont get me wrong the boss fight itself was spectacular but the narrative around it never made any sense to me. Batman saves Mr. Freeze from the penguin, gives him his suit, and has been working with Batman throughout the game in order to create a cure. Mr. Freeze finally makes the cure for Batman, yet because Joker threatened him with his wife, Mr. Freeze decides to destroy one of the two antidotes while asking Batman to go find his wife. That was so dumb because not only did Freeze know Batman was dying, but Mr. Freeze could've just given Batman the cure and Batman would've saved his wife anyways.I have to assume that Freeze has known Batman for years at this point, he knows how Batman operates and he's been working with him the entire time. It made no sense at all.
It felt like when they were writing the story here Rocksteady was like “hey we should have a boss fight with Mr.Freeze” so they programmed the boss but forget to change the setup to the boss to make sense it feels like this boss wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.
@@difference3maker36 uh...it does make sense lol. The dude above explains it.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double So it was better for Freeze to destroy the antidote in front of him knowing that it would cause Batman to try and stop him? He doesn't even try to come up with a compromise. Mr. Freeze has every reason to trust Batman at that point in time, and I have to assume he knows that Batman won't abandon an innocent person in need of help, hell Batman saved Nora in Arkham Knight and finds her in Arkham City anyways. But its just my grip with it, luckily the actual boss fight was good.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double “your grip does not take account the facts that Batman has never encountered anything like Arkham city” what does that have to do with mr freeze? Freeze is the one who destroyed the antidote and brought the fight to him, not Batman. I understand Batman has never encountered anything before Arkham city however it doesn’t make any sense as to why freeze did what he did. The end result was only for him to lose, attempt to give him the other antidote anyways (which Harley stole), and made Batman waste time. Batman saved mr. freeze, he gave him his suit, and he even let him work safely in the lab in order to come up with a solution to antidote, and Batman even saved Nora anyways afterwards. Why wouldn’t Mr freeze trust Batman at that point? It’s because the story needed him to act stupid so they can put in a boss fight. Like I said, boss fight itself was great, it’s just that the narrative around it was lame to me.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double Exactly, the thugs didn’t Kill her and Batman ended up saving her anyways. “So Batman couldn’t fucking steal and run away...” That would’ve only happened had Mr freeze threaten Batman to kill him, which he did. Mr freeze knew Batmans body was dying, and was physically unable to keep going without the antidote. Agree to disagree but I’m done arguing.
I want to add something to your "Hugo Strange doesn't do anything with Batman's identity" point.
At the beginning of the game Strange says to Batman "If you try to stop me, I guarantee everyone will know your secret". Batman literally tries to stop Hugo Strange through the whole game and Strange does absolutely nothing because why?...
Good video, as always!
He also says "it will be my legacy a monument to your failure". Also in the Riddler tapes he is clearly obsessed with proving he can beat Batman anyways so it's consistent to believe he only said that to Batman as a challenge to do his best.
Batman barely makes any active steps to stopping protocol 10 throughout the main story though. The only thing he does prior to it’s activation is interrogate Quincy Sharp and that’s it. He’s more focused on the immediate threat of Joker and the Titan poisoning.
I loved the punch sound effects more here than in Knight. They sounded more realistic and had a really satisfying leathery slap to them. Arkham Knight went more cartoonish and it didn't feel as good.
Hugo Strange didn’t just want to kill Batman because he’s a Batman villain. They wanna make him suffer and watch him fail and then only kill him when he’s completely broken. It’s why they never win lol
Yeah strange is obsessed with Batman just like the joker
@@goldmantis5850 wayyyyyyy more so then joker, he dresses up as batman
@@etangbose4755 thats in comics
@@etangbose4755 and also not even close to being as obsessed
3:54 FINALLY! SOMEONE FINALLY MADE THE JOKE! Fun fact, he he has a counter where he double knees them in the crotch
Yh iknow
@Blashtifin lmao
Never seen the double knee
@@theotherbeatle707 czcams.com/video/fYQFSHRr_Mk/video.html
Go to 12:33 in the video
Lol also if you do a ground takedown as Robin he'll stab him in the dick with his pole. Nightwing will also zap the dudes balls( roasted nuts🙃)
"comBAT" haha i see what you did there
Finally someone noticed!
2:34 i just realised we can see bruce's reflection in strange's specs... that detail is so cool
This is one of those games I can basically quote the whole way through
And they only improved when Arkham Knight came out. I still don't understand why Arkham Knight was so hated. To me the Arkham trilogy improved after each game, with each one being fucking awesome.
Because half of the main campaign you are forced inside the Bat tank which is the most unengaging thing in all the Arkham games. And the story rips off ACity but with horrible character writing and illogical decisions.
@@theotherbeatle707 while it did get quite tedious it didn't remove from the gameplay outside the bat tank. I never said that the past games were bad by any means I just feel like they improved with each game that released.
@@Creepa99 Literally I like Knight it's fun, but the story didn't do it. Sure they improved mechanics, but the story for Knight had problems. First why do they keep showing Jason getting tortured, then show the Arkham Knight as Jason Todd! It literally basically made everyone 100% sure it was Jason, and Rocksteady lied about it being a new character for the game. Another is the bosses, one of the worst parts of Knight, literally most are one hits or tank battles, the one that disappoints a lot of people was Deathstroke, as in Origins had one of the best boss battles in the Arkham series if not the best boss in the series with it feeling like a movie or comic fight scene, but in this it was just a tank battle then jump out of a vehicle and knock him out. Boss battles weren't even battles. Next, the Batmobile was over used, which I get because it was a new mechanic, but it was overused, with tank battle or charging think or chases, it just used way too much, but it was still fun for that Arkham Knight tunnle chase. That was really it for me, I still play it, but the story needed some work done to it.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double They really are fun. Disappointing how Arkham Knight was, but the graphics are also another good thing about the game.
@Abdul Shah Yeah. I mean, in terms of story it is, along wirh Riddler trophies. Everything else is pretty good, but the story was the worst of them all.
The only thing I'd have a disagreement on is the story being a "wild goose chase". I just think it's hard to call City a "wild goose chase" without asking what would Knight's or Asylum's story be deemed as then. The game still needs room to be a game in my opinion. Imagine if we got the cure right after we fought freeze or even before that. The game would've been so much shorter and it was meant to build to the tension of, for better or worse, that Batman may die. Or worse if Freeze was able to make the cure from the start we wouldn't have gotten the Mr. Freeze boss fight or even the Ra's Al Ghul which are at the top of the best in the series. Like you've said in your other reviews, you have to have a level of disbelief or otherwise the game won't be a game. For the sake of gameplay, the game may rush over some points or even extend them to provide more gameplay.
P.S. Your videos are awesome man, keep doing what you're doing! And I totally respect your point and the way you back it up, good stuff!
I agree with you that the other game's stories are more or less chases too, but I personally find that Arkham City takes it a little too far. Not only do you end up having to travel the entire map multiple times (which starts to get boring), but overall I felt like most of the story was you getting the things you need to make the cure only to have it being stolen from you. You literally spend something like 50 minutes (or for me, 2 hours) playing the game to make the cure, so to have it be ripped away from you at the end of the process is really exhausting. Plus, Hugo Strange didn't really have a lot to do with the actual story (Like I said, most of it is you trying to make the cure), and because of that, he more felt like a another obstacle to me then a villain.
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 yeah. It's easily the best Batman story with the most emotionally impactful ending. It's like a more punchy Killing Joke that's actually done right
36:11 I thought I was just tripping seeing Maui thank goodness it was actually there and I’m not losing my mind after watching these videos at midnight Lmaoo
In my playthrough, I found that if you dodge the first sword swipe individually but then hold down the counter button for the rest of the attack, the blade takedown still works.
The thing I loved about this game the most is how serious and urgent the situation feels. I felt like I was having a bad day and I was dying like Batman is in the game, and like I had to save the city. Yeah it's a cliche to say how immersed you are in a game but why are cliches bad if they're true. Whenever I booted up the game I felt like I was fulfilling my responsibility as a hero.
If you do all Riddler's challenges you actually get to find his hideout and try to take him down yourself, which is pretty satisfying, but no, it's not worth getting all those bloody trophies.
I did that once on the PS3 took my forever. Coming back to the game after I beat it so long ago. Then finally found where he was and yeah it was just ok. Like legit found the door before it showed me. 😂
this game is one of my favorites ever! I still play it like it was the first time everytime. I even remade some of the 3d models based on the ones in this game.
I’ll watch it tomorrow during class it’s 1:37 AM nighty night Aqua!!
Sounds good sleep well!
@@ThatBoyAqua holy shit you replied! I gotta watch it NOW then!!
@@aryanpandey4080 yup
Bro what time zone are you in it’s like 4:30 pm for me
@@dr.skinnypenis2078 4:30pm
I can understand why its not considered perfect. When you get past a certain part of the story it feels like I forget what I’m supposed to be doing and I’m like oh yea “I’m poisoned”. But when you have to disable all the three jammers to get into the museum, I completely forget why I was even doing it. It just all feels like such a fever dream.
the almost part is throwing me off but I'll probably agree by the end. I usually do with your videos
Sup vito
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double ok?
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double He does say near the start of the video that it's his opinion, and he respects others opinions.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double Arkham Knight is better for me too. It's an opinion man
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double true...
You’re completely correct about Arkham City’s story being an incoherent mess propped up by a few cool moments. The recordings don’t make up for that and feel more like the game covering up its own plot holes.
ill admit harley best in arkham knight but damn JIIIIIGGLLEE PHYYYSICSSS
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double and you even get to gag her.
@@kalustaja2k937 but the amount of polygons they put into harley in knight makes her... TOP NOTCH
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double what video game character do you find hottest (and which iteration of said character)
Y’all are weirdos
This game was perfect to me in every way possible
Happy birthday 10 years Batman Arkham City.
It’s not that I think City is the best story, that would be Asylum, City is just the best game overall
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 yes...all 4 games have stories, don’t skip cutscenes
city has the best story for me, origins had the best boss fights, Asylum had the best atsmophere, Knight had the best combat gameplay and biggest world
@@AICMedia-up5wc Knight has the EASIEST/AUTOMATED combat gameplay, big difference. City’s combat has way more depth.
@@uhuhuh1966 knight might be the easiest but it has the best animations and more variety, City and origins are the hardest tho because you can’t spam the punch button
but the gameplay like gliding, graphics, bat mobile driving (not batmobile combat), and combat feels more smoother in knight, city and origins combat is way more harder
Oh, would I *love* to see a Daredevil game done like this
I’d like to see one, but then there’s the whole dilemma about ‘how it’s a batman: arkham clone’
As someone who has played this entire series to 100% completion several times over, this was an emotionally loaded video to be sure lol, and even if i dont agree with you on a few points, its an awesome video and you just earned yourself a new subscriber :)
Whenever you get enough riddler secrets, you unlock audio tapes of conversations with Strange and Riddler. In those tapes Hugo reveals how he determined that Bruce Wayne is Batman. I remember he said something about, how he set a psychological profile for Batman, and realized the only person who fit that profile was Bruce Wayne.
I think the reason why Hugo never really does anything with Batman's secret identity is that he views himself as Batman's succesor and wants to beat him fairly, and he did have a plan to have him killed in the form of Deadshot anyways just in case Protocol 10 fails
This video is incredible, keep doing what you do Aqua.
I’ve been waiting for this video for a while and it did not disappoint, well done!
Thank you I’m glad I didn’t disappoint!
I’m so glad I found this channel
You're not wrong that the story is a wild goose chase, however, I still really like it because it's a great sampling of the majority of Batman's rogues.
Penguin and Two Face are the classic mob bosses, Ivy and Ra's and Clayface are the fantastical/supernatural enemies, Zsasz is the disturbing psychopath, and Joker is...well Joker. I hope you see what I mean. You get a sampling of nearly all the flavors of his main rogues aside from Scarecrow and Croc, who already got their shine in Asylum, though I wish they had better parts in this game as well.
That “damn!” At 4:21 was so funny. I’ve gotta subscribe I love your reviews and your sense of humor
Great video, Aqua! You are an absolute inspiration. I'm struggling in school really hard right now, and I don't even have a cool video essay CZcams channel, lol
I still consider Arkham City my favorite of the series, and I've played it more than any other entry, but recently every time I try to replay it I don't get very far before I get bored and put it down again. I think you're right about the narrative feeling like a bit of a goose chase which brings the pacing down.
I think, objectively speaking, Origins is definitely an improvement, and doesn't deserve so much hate, but I think that when it came out, it felt like far too incremental of an improvement over City, and that's why it felt so disappointing. I still attest that the narrative in Origins is pretty unremarkable, and my best evidence for that is that I've replayed it twice (3 total playthroughs), and I never remember any of the story beats. I'm not sure what it is about that game, but it vanishes from my mind immediately after I play it every time.
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double I'm not saying Origins isn't a goose chase (I don't even remember any of the narrative arcs from Origins anymore), just that City is a bit of one, and that doesn't preclude Origins from being one too.
I feel like you think I'm being more negative that I mean to be. I really like City. I've beaten it more than 6 times, and it's the one I still want to replay to this day whenever I have an itch for more Arkham. I've played through Origins a handful of times too, and I never enjoy it as much as I enjoy City.
This was an amazing video, the first I've seen from your channel and certainly not the last. I'm getting to play the Arkham games for the first time, actually! I beat Asylum on hard about two months ago, and just beat City on hard a few days ago (and will be starting New Game +). It's super difficult for me to find flaws in this game lol, but I really appreciate how well you state your reasoning. Anyway, great work, man!
Here’s my ranking of the games:
1. City,
2. Asylum,
3. Origins,
4. Knight.
Agreed
10/10 good vid. 👏
its been out for 10 minutes and the video is 45 minutes long?
@@shankkar6162 any aqua vid is goated
Devon is a Patron and saw the video a few days early. Hope that clears it up!
@@shankkar6162 yeah dude helping out homie by commenting
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double You clearly didn't watch those videos. I criticized both stories heavily.
This should have been called "Batman Arkham City: Damn Near Perfect"
Catwoman mocapped by a dude tho😳💀
I didn't even think to use the line launcher in the Zsazz encounter, I did it the hard way
“I felt like I accomplished very little by the end of the story.” Yeah, that’s the point. They theme of city is the the helplessness of being Batman in Gotham, he can never save everyone, he can never make the city win. For all his efforts, all lives he saves, he still loses still she cares about, and at the end of the day he still asleep to himself. His morality does not work in this world. If The game had gone against its theme and done what you wanted, tell you would still be alive, joker would be locked up, Hugo strange will be in the hospital, and Batman would be ready to fight again.
Finally! Someone who has same thoughts on Arkham City Harley as me! Impeccable Video btw
Thank you I’m glad you enjoyed it!
An easter egg that I only found by searching online, but that I found really nice was the Scarecrow boat that you need to hack to enter. It was a really cool tease for Arkham Knight
Strange is low key obsessed with Batman and wants to show off to him
For me it’s:
1. Arkham Knight
2.Arkham Origins
3. Arkham City
4. Arkham Asylum
5. Arkham Origins: Blackgate
6. Arkham VR
With the mini bosses, you can either choose to counter or dodge over an enemy, if there's too much danger to counter, just dodge, it's a choice depending on the number of enemies nearby.
Use the shock ray and they’ll take out half the enemies for you.
btw aqua for the big guys you're supposed to stun them three times and that gives you a window to strike them. just a tip :)
I think a big part of why Strange knows who Batman is in the game is because the fact he knows it is a huge part of his character in the comics. It's better utilized there, but honestly, if they had him killed without figuring out who Batman is, it would feel like he was cheated.
“Batman saves a hostage and tells them to hide “ “””hides right next to the door
I don't think City is as tight as Asylum but it makes things bigger without losing what makes the game special. The Joker twist, the Mad Hatter sidequest, fighting alongside Bane, and that amazing Mr. Freeze bossfight are highlights that have stood out in my mind years later.
12:02
Me who has beaten the game 115 times: hmph...cute.
Just a 115
@@willzie8286 honestly probably more than that but I put a random number
The wonder tower predator section is probably the worst thing I’ve ever experienced.
Collecting the 400 riddler trophies
Me: Yes I will
Getting the riddler medals with every character
Me: Hell no, I'm out.
Loved the vide mate :D. Also the ComBat joke was the best thing ever±
I think after City, maybe my expectations were too high for Arkham Knight even though I really enjoyed it.
The dopamine rush id get as a kid stealthily taking out a room of thugs undetected was amazing man
18:04 "It was a lot of fun but mechanically I didn't get much from it" This pretty much sums up my opinion of every boss in this game except Freeze. Ra's is basically spamming the REC and then fighting a bunch of ninjas while he attacks you occasionally until you get a sorta cinematic beatdown segment, but it was all mechanically unengaging and not that deep.
Clayface's first phase where you just spam the Freeze Grenade and dodge for ad nauseam until you pull out the sword, I found mind-numbing (never understood the logic of damaging him with a sword even though he's made of clay but maybe the sword is unexplained to be magical).
Two Face conceptually is an interesting way to approach a stealth boss, requiring multiple takedowns and constantly respawning thugs that force you to think a little differently, but is tedious through the fact that you fight him as Catwoman. It ironically is more fun in the copy & paste fight in Origins just because you fight Deadshot as Batman and not Catwoman who can't stealth for shit: slower takedown animations, annoying grappling mini-game nonsense whilst you're being sprayed with bullets, less stealth tools, no gliding. Some may appreciate the challenge, but I don't find it enjoyable in the slightest
It’s finally here! Thanks Aqua !! :))
That Boy Aqua just uploaded?
Already a banger
Bro they did Catwoman dirty in Knight in every way
Oracle questioning Batman about the identity theft Killings 100% feels like Arkham Knight set up for his inner Joker conflict. Especially since she brings up Scarecrow possibly sneaking Batman a dose of toxic and that Hush was originally the big bad alongside Scarecrow in Arkham Knight!
I could never get into the Batman Arkham games because of the repetitive combat and un-interesting characters (In my opinion. I'm a big Marvel fan, not DC). Yet somehow, you still manage to keep me interested trough a 45 minute video about a series I don't even like. Props to you, man
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double I believe you. I just don't think this game appeals to me personally
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double dang you guys are right. Maybe I just couldn't get into the arkham games because of the characters. I'm not a big DC fan, but that's my fault, not the games. I do actually like spider-man ps4, but then again, I also care about spider-man lol
@Matt Mercer's Stunt Double Will do! Thanks for not lighting me up in the comments haha
You’ve gotta meet this fellow
Livin' down on the farm
Because he’s pretty cool and mellow
He’s the king of the barn
When there’s mayhem in the meadow
He keeps his crew on track
For all his legendary adventures
They should put up a plaque!
For Shaun the sheep
He’s Shaun the sheep
He even mucks about with those who cannot bleat
Keep it in mind
He’s one of a kind
Oh... life’s a treat with Shaun the sheep
He's Shaun the sheep
(He’s Shaun the sheep)
He's Shaun the sheep
(He’s Shaun the sheep)
He doesn’t miss a trick or ever lose a beat
Perhaps one day
You’ll find a way
To... come and meet with Shaun the sheep
He's a brave courageous leader
And he’s not a raw recruit
He’s a friendly kinda geezer
Who’s remarkably astute
He’s a father of invention
With a charismatic knack
For causing havoc in the pasture
“Behind the farmer's back”
He’s Shaun the sheep
He’s Shaun the sheep
He’s not afraid to make the intellectual leap
For brains and gile
With a wink and a smile
You... can’t compete with Shaun the sheep
La la la la
La la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la
La la la la
La... la la la la la la la la
He’s always ready with a trick
To save the day
A good solution’s not a million miles away
Within his flock
He’s pure gold
And if his mates get into trouble
He’ll return 'em to the fold
He’s Shaun the sheep
He’s Shaun the sheep
He even mucks about with those who cannot bleat
Keep it in mind
He’s one of a kind
Oh... life’s a treat with Shaun the sheep
He's Shaun the sheep
(He’s Shaun the sheep)
He's Shaun the sheep
(He’s Shaun the sheep)
He doesn’t miss a trick or ever lose a beat
Perhaps one day
You’ll find a way
To... come and meet with Shaun the sheep
Oh... come and bleat with Shaun the sheep!
you need help
I grew up watching Shawn, I'm glad he appeared as the secret final boss of Batman: Arkham Beyond, even if his battle was pretty simple.
I think part of the "wild goose chace" feel kinda boils down to so much information being delivered through calls to Oracle. Like, the big reveal of what Protocol 10 is delivered to Batman and the player by Oracle just telling you that there's a press conference and Hugo Strange declaring Arkham City unsafe and needint to activate Protocol 10 while the player tries to get back into the Steel Mill. Hugo Strange's plan to take the Arkham City concept and move it to other cities is only delivered through radio chatter during a long predator encounter. These are cool reveals and major parts of the story, but they feel really shoved together during gameplay and not given the importance that they probably need and make Batman kind of unimportant in his own game. He doesn't learn anything or do any detective work, he just kinda finds stuff out when people tell him. I still love this game and think this is a really interesting Batman story (especially taken as a chapter in the grander Arkham series) but the way Rocksteady would just have characters tell Batman stuff over the radio really irks me for some reason.
There was a moment when protocol 10 was activated, the music the acting everything. Just perfect. The best batman story ever told.
Can we take a moment that the most forgettable character was the calendar man? Hell you had a trophy tied to him and that’s the only time you’d see him
Calendar Man isn’t anybody’s favorite character in general anyway lmao
@@InfamousJJ420 to be fair before the arkham series most people never heard of victor Zas
Arkham origins was soo good, its criminally underrated
it's honestly my favorite arkham game
Agreed all the way. Honestly, that game is so good.
It’s my second favorite
Playing this game on new game plus (hardest difficulty no counter warning) really gave me a new appreciation for this games combat. Countering based solely on body language made me feel more like Batman than I ever did before. Also Mister Freeze on new game plus is VERY challenging and honestly my favorite way to experience the fight.
Playing it on PC Mac settings with the brightness turned way low makes this and origins 😯