Working on my New Game + for Batman Arkham Knight.
Some spoilers incoming, though nothing major:
So, I finished my first playthrough of the game last night and I've got a really mixed opinion of the game. On one hand, I really enjoyed the story. Jon (Scarecrow) was suitably scary and made for a great main villain. The combat is much improved over the other games in the series and much more streamlined (though...perhaps a little too improved given I really didn't have to use much other than basic attacks on 99% of the enemies. The drone battles are fun, Eddie's (Riddler) robots were a nice bonus, and some of side missions were really interesting as were some of the "new" villains. So far the DLC's been great (though Harley's was really short). Also, your guest after you reach the chemical plant is just :thumbsup:. Final battle was epic, though.
Now here's where things go south. The Arkham Knight started as an interesting concept and quickly became whiney and annoying and, in my opinion, was a letdown. Even without being spoiled it was obvious who he was and there was no real character growth to explain why he did some of the things he did in the end. Some of the side missions were major letdowns as well (Blackfire, Firefly, "militia commander", I'm looking at you three) and some of the villains were acting really weird to the point of feeling OOC (Two-Face being the main culprit of this). A lot of the missions got repetitive fast and it was extremely disappointing to see that the major boss battles in the game were tank battles. Actually, I can't even call them "battles", it was the same exact fight repeated over and over again. The races were annoying, as well, and the lack of predator encounters really bothered me. Also, this is minor, it kinda bugged me that there were a ton of upgrades and yet they cost so many points that it's near impossible to get them all in your first playthrough. Like I said, minor but I didn't like it. (There were also some plot holes that didn't make sense to me and some missed opportunities for villains interacting, I didn't like that beating up thugs on the street doesn't earn you any XP at all, and I really missed the original challenge map system, but, again, all relatively minor.) Additionally, didn't care for having to complete the game at 100% just to get the full ending. :/
The biggest mixed bag in the game, however, was the batmobile. On one hand, I really enjoyed driving around, crashing into things and shooting drones. But, on the other hand, I found using it to get tedious fast. You can't get away from the car for more than ten seconds and every mission seems to end with you being forced to rely on it. I mean...I thought Batman was supposed to be really strong and stuff, not incapable when his car isn't around. :/ The car also has cr*p handling at high speeds making battles like the excavator one really annoying, really fast. (Also, Eddie's last race is just horrible because of this car's handling.) The main problem is that the batmobile never goes where you want it to go. You want it to turn? Here, you get to spin out of control instead. You want it to jump? Nah, let's just flip you. You want it to go up that wall? Despite the fact that there's a boss who can kill you in one hit coming, nope; you can go up ten feet and then you get to stall and die. That's basically the biggest problem with the batmobile. :/ In the end, unless you practice, you can't get it to do a single thing more than go in a straight line, and the urge to practice is, for me, significantly decreased by the awesome new grapple mechanics and how much nicer gliding is now. Maybe my issue is that I don't like or play racing games and that tainted it for me. -shrugs-
Over all, really enjoyed the game. Great story, great gameplay, but it didn't feel like it fitted in with the rest of the series and it could have benefited from some fine-tuning. About half as much batmobile in the game and twice as many predator encounters and it would have been my favorite in the series, but...it'll have to settle into second behind Origins for now.