Two reviews chosen
Bias review: Angry Joe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buB5pI5w61w
Objective review: Gamespot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1xnre-sIWI
Critical analysis
Angry Joe’s gaming review is a bias review based of the fact that most of his points are of his opinion. For example he may say something that he doesn’t like and for him that ruined his gaming experience but other people might have enjoyed that part of the game although he does bring up some interesting things that Gamespot also mentions.
Gamespots review is an objective review and they bring up things that I feel are more about the game in its self, although angry Joe did bring up those other things. Angry Joe does have a longer video which is about 30 min long and the GameSpot review is about 5 minutes this is a big gap telling us that Gamespot gets right to the point and tells you what the game is about and tells you if you should get is where as Angry Joe’s longer video is in some way telling you about all the bad things in the game.
GameSpot highlights the amazing combat and action in the game where as angry Joe makes allot of statements saying how bad the Batmobile is and how repetitive it has boring that gameplay and also adding insult to injury saying that you do not feel like batman anymore that you feel like a Psycho that is going around shooting random people in a huge tank and how the gameplay is now fighting the same enemies over and over again which I agree with completely after playing the game.
They both did say that they tried to change the gameplay from the last games by adding a few more enemies to the game so that you have to use different moves to take down the enemies but in the end it became very repetitive again
In fact both reviews did not like the Batmobile gameplay but Gamespot dimmed it down a bit by just saying that it is repetitive
Gamespot gave Batman Arkham Knight a 7/10
Angry Joe gave Batman Arkham Knight a 6/10 on PS4/XB1
And a 4/10 on PC because of the horrible pc port
My review
Let’s talk about big, bad Batmobile simu- I mean Batman Arkham Knight.
This is a biased review of the game with the sole purpose of critically analysing and harshly judging every aspect of it with brutal honesty. There will be little to no objectivity in this review and most of it will reflect my own personal opinions. I will mention the good, the bad and the ugly of all that the game is. This review will analyse key aspects of the game including graphics, story, atmosphere and how enjoyable the game actually is.
Batman Arkham Knight is a third person action open world triple A game and also the third and final instalment of the Rocksteady trilogy (fourth if you want to include Arkham Origins) and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was one of the most anticipated games of 2015. Rocksteady made a huge impact with the Arkham series, astonishing many gamers with Arkham Asylum which introduced many features that have been adopted by a multitude of other games, most prominently, the freeflow combat system. Arkham Knight is the final Batman game that this studio will be involved in and –with the use of a very large budget- they released an astonishing game that managed to live up to its predecessors (by the skin of its teeth in my opinion) and captivated gamers with its stunning visuals and gritty atmosphere. The studio listened to the pleas of fans and introduced the Batmobile into the game however they failed to introduce many important things that fans begged for including the Batcave and Wayne manor.
The game has an intense and gripping story despite the writer of the previous 2 games not being involved. The story starts off strongly with a final goodbye to the Joker which turns out to be not so final and also shows a first person introduction into the Scarecrows nightmare. The story is fairly balanced, although it is rushed at times and slow at other times, and stays true to the dark story that Batman fans are familiar with. There are however, many aspects to the story that warranted more than a few annoyed attitudes.
The studio assured us that the deadly and mysterious Arkham Knight was an original creation and was he? No, he is simply a different version of a popular Batman character that, if the Redhood DLC was played before the main game, has his identity given away at the start of the game. The Joker is dead and Scarecrow is now the main antagonist correct? Once again, no, The Joker steals the show once more and the Scarecrow is barely seen or interacted with in the game. Other minor qualms would be the apparent romance between Barbara Gordon and the current Robin, Tim Drake instead of the more canonical Nightwing, Dick Grayson. The writers were clearly too afraid to kill off any popular characters and -spoiler alert- kill off a villain instead. The ending of the game itself is only fully accessible once the tedious task of collecting all the Riddler trophies (which is definitely not as fun as it was in the previous games) and all side missions were completed. The ending is not worth it in my opinion and feels more like the studio attempting a copout to justify not doing any more Batman games. The ending is rushed and underwhelming and probably leaves the gamer more confused than satisfied. The game, although it was in the passing, acknowledges the existences of two other major heroes including Superman and The Flash however it does not explain why they aren’t there to assist Batman with the disaster he was facing. I mean we understand that Batman prefers to work alone but even he would ask for help when faced with an army.
The game did not disappoint in terms of graphics and gameplay… well gameplay that actually occurred when you WEREN’T in the Batmobile. The graphics are incredibly vivid and detailed as well as aesthetically pleasing and did not disappoint in the least. The City of Gotham was beautifully made and it is not surprising if you stopped playing the game simply to admire your surroundings in-game.
The game featured mechanics that the series is known for including the freeflow combat, the, scarcely used for detective work, detective mode and the predator style stealth mode. While fun, the game itself seems like a minigame compared to the Batmobile which seems to be the entire game. Almost every battle, boss fight and objective of the game seems to utilise the Batmobile. It seems strange that Deathstroke, master mercenary and expert combatant, would opt to fight Batman in a tank instead of using hand-to-hand combat. How is it possible that the terribly received prequel featured better boss fights than this? The gameplay itself was smooth and failed very rarely and did capture the feel that the previous games had.
The game was brought to life with the incredible skills of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Troy Baker, John Noble and more. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill prove once more that no one else can capture the essence of the characters, Batman and the Joker, quite like they do. Troy Baker displays incredible skills voicing both Two-Face and The Arkham Knight and brings the characters personalities to life incredibly well. John Noble -who is known most prominently for his role in the popular TV show ‘Fringe’- is outstanding in his surreal performance as The Scarecrow where he manages to perfectly encapsulate everything that makes the character so terrifying. Other stars such as Dave Fennoy and Ashley Greene also help make the story more vibrant and intense with enticing performances.
I believe that the game, while not as amazing as its predecessors, lived up to the hype and delivered a great experience and was a suitable way to end off an amazing gaming trilogy. Would I play it again? Yes. Would I rate this game is the best of 2015? No. Batman Arkham Knight is an incredible experience with a gripping story, gorgeous graphics and stunning gameplay however it lacks in the areas that may have been the most important. It was in no way a bad game but it wasn’t as great as it was hyped to be and it was absolutely not as awe-inspiring as some other games that released this year. I am, however, somewhat looking foreward to the Season of Infamy DLC as I cannot wait to see Mr. Freeze’s Freezemobile or what tanks Killer Croc and Ra’s Al Ghul while drive.
I give Batman Arkham Knight a 6/10
Critical analysis on my review to the other 2 reviews
My review is similar to Angry Joe's in that I allow my personal opinions to dictate what I think of the game. I looked at the game and compared it to its predecessors as well as analysing every fault that the game had and highlighting them in depth.
I acknowledge the positive points of the game similar to the Gamespot review, however I did not do this as much as would have, had thus been an objective review of the game and because I my experience with the game was on PC which is the same as Angry Joe's. In my review I went into depth about how the story was not good in my eyes which is the same as how angry Joes feels where as others think that it was great but I think that is because of the bad time I had with the game on pc which made me and Angry Joe not really care about the story as much as we should have. There is allot of attention to detail in the characters, I loved the choice of voice actors as usual which is the same as Angry Joes view on it and everyone else's. Angry Joe and myself both loved the combat but said it became very repetitive one you were on you 3000th enemy. The Batmobile was another good idea I thought but it became very boring fighting countless horde modes of enemies which is how angry Joe sees it as well. My review is a bias one because it is based on my experience and everything is based on my own opinion which is not the same as others see the game because I am sure I would have enjoyed it more if I had not played it on PC.
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