Spider-Man (PS4)

[Silverfish]

and the story in Spider-man is significantly more coherent

Like the scene where Dr. Octopus breaks open a vial containing a deadly virus and then puts on a gas mask afterward.

 

[mogwaimon]

I'm not going to defend the Arkham series combat because it really does have all the depth of a puddle (though it is somewhat enjoyable despite this) but Spider-Man does little more than take the Arkham model and add more options. if you see a shield guy you're supposed to hit O to dodge under and hit from behind. Weapon guy? Need to use an aerial launcher. Brute? need to web them up first. Oh, right, there's more options to take these guys out though, like with shield guy you can do a swing kick to bust through or with weapon guy you can disarm or attack from afar (...didn't Arkham have a disarm? didn't they also have batarangs? huh...) and the brutes...well, you can web them up 'better' if you used the web bomb gadget or that one focus ability that spews webs everywhere. Not exactly an ocean in comparison to Arkham, is it? we have gone from a mere puddle to...maybe a pothole? it's a fun combat system and you're right in that the enemies in Spider-Man are far less anemic than in the Arkham series but it's not exactly a mindblowing improvement over Arkham either.

In regards to story, the criticisms of City that I often hear is based on the premise itself, 'who's going to let inmates run wild all over their city like this' and all that. Which is pretty insane, I'll give you that but we're also dealing with comic books. It's a setting that would be retarded if it were based in reality in any shape or form, but since it's comic book BS I think it can be allowed to slide, in my opinion. And as for the bosses, Spider-Man does take the edge in that department. Though the Mr Freeze fight in AC was still pretty badass.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Though the Mr Freeze fight in AC was still pretty badass.

It's a good sequence, but I hesitate to describe it as a "boss fight"; I think "stealth puzzle" would be more accurate.

I haven't played Spider-Man as I do not own a Playstation, but regarding Arkham City's story:
Yeah, it's a whole lot of cheese, red herrings, and plot-holes, but it also has significantly less of those things than like 98% of Batman stories from the comics, so complaining about it seems a little performative.

It also seems bizarre to complain about the Arkham series' writing and pick City as chief offender when Arkham Knight is one of the most pants-on-head retarded adaptations of a franchise I've ever seen.

 

[Talby]

Imagine the sinking feeling of paying 500 bucks for a brand new console to play a worse version of a game you already own, while also paying the premium nuconsole game price. Console fags get what they fucking deserve.

 

[DalekFlay]

Is the color and contrast all fucked up like that in the game? Or is that somebody's weird ass TV making the face change comparison look whacked out?

 

[GreyViper]

So regarding new Miles morales spinoff story, I have only one word BORING. Honestly, the potential was there but what you get is, a bunch of mediocre to not interesting characters and villains. Hell only ones that may have piqued interest were Rhino and Kriger and that's telling something.
And even then Kriger was just a joke, what they should have done is use the Kingpin side story as the main plot device. The Venom powers were another thing that left many questions, like why when did he acquire them.

On the bright side, Morales got his "happy end" by blowing his load on Phin in the end and nothing was lost.

 

[Ezekiel]

Really don't know why the developers saw fit to subtitle all the Chinese of the bad guys (in parentheses, almost like SDH). First of all, Spider-Man, MJ and Miles don't speak Chinese, and second, most of the stuff that's subbed is totally unimportant. Game devs never have any taste for this stuff. Rockstar got it with Max Payne 3. Max was a stranger in a foreign country, so they chose to leave all the Portuguese without subs.

I don't pretend to know the comics, but this seems kind of overly violent and grim. Pistol-whipping, blood, terrorism, the way Spider-Man pulls their heads into beams before tying them up.

Posted these in the screenshot thread a couple of weeks ago, but...

Spoiler

No forehead.

No forehead.

No forehead.

No ear lobe.

No forehead.

 

[Ezekiel]

Web-slinging was fun, as was the Elfman-reminiscient theme that plays while you do so.

Music gets old rather quick. Really doesn't always have to be there in freeroam. That takes its impact away.

 

[Ezekiel]

ah, another thing the arkham games did better. Catwoman > Blacc Cat

Hated Catwoman's bimbo design, along with almost everyone else in the Arkham games. The art direction was bad. This ugly middle between realism and overdesigned toon.

 

[Silverfish]

The art direction was bad. This ugly middle between realism and overdesigned toon.

The funny thing was that the Arkham game with the best art direction (comparatively speaking of course) was the one farmed out to another dev team.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Eh, I appreciated the look of the environments in Arkham games - Gotham in Arkham City felt straight out of Burton's Batman Returns.

 

[Ezekiel]

The art direction was bad. This ugly middle between realism and overdesigned toon.

The funny thing was that the Arkham game with the best art direction (comparatively speaking of course) was the one farmed out to another dev team.

Didn't like that game's art either. Overdesigned again. Batman is all beefy in a weirdly proportioned kind of way and covered in boring, puffed up armor plating, taking away from the whole theatricality of the character.

Even though he was just starting out and it would have been an opportunity to finally have him all textile.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I agree character designs were a mess in the Arkham games. I thought Joker and Scarecrow were okay, but pretty much everything else was a mess.
I do like the environmental art though.

 

[Ezekiel]

You should see the 1:10 latex-clad Catwoman statue I keep in my bookcase, Chimera. City's cat is still a bimbo.

 

[Ezekiel]

Damn movie games...

 

[Ezekiel]

Spider-Man, like the new God of War, has no... proper gameplay loop? What I mean is that, due to the priority of the cinematic presentation, you always start from an auto-checkpoint with full health. That feels cheap. It gives the player an incentive to fail. First thing they might do when they face off against the second level of a boss is just kill themselves or pause and load from the checkpoint. As opposed to older games where you'd replenish your health and THEN get the save point. Where you'd have to journey on to the next save point and might start any auto-checkpoints with only as much health as you had before you entered. If it's not the Spider-Man/God of War way, it's usually health regeneration. The two methods make the areas/action feel so... insular rather than progressive. You always get a clean slate.

 

[Ezekiel]

The nightmare sections are SO played out. Every AAA dev does them now. Thanks, Far Cry 3. Always feels the same.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

The nightmare sections are SO played out. Every AAA dev does them now. Thanks, Far Cry 3. Always feels the same.

Arkham Asylum did it before FC3, probably some others as well. Kind of an interesting question of what game historically did it first.

 

[Ezekiel]

The nightmare sections are SO played out. Every AAA dev does them now. Thanks, Far Cry 3. Always feels the same.

Arkham Asylum did it before FC3, probably some others as well. Kind of an interesting question of what game historically did it first.

Was gonna say "Arkham Asylum/Far Cry 3," but wasn't sure if it expoded after Arkham or FC3. Max Payne was one of the only ones that didn't feel so dumb about it. Not to bash Batman, though. Made sense with Scarecrow.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Oof I forgot about the Max Payne ones. I found those excruciating although it’s been 20 years since I played it.

 

[Ezekiel]

Platforming over those narrow blood trails could have been better, but the nightmares in the Max Payne games actually kind of did feel like a nightmare. That baby screaming, the echoes, the distorted look... In Spider-Man and so many games like it, everything is just really weird looking but feels almost as real as the rest of the game, including that boss.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

but wasn't sure if it exploded after Arkham or FC3.

Most likely because of Arkham Asylum
I remember that at the time of release the "Scarecrow Nightmares" were segments of the game that had alot of buzz
And to be fair they are some of the cooler parts of the game

 

[Ezekiel]

Finished. Yeah, not very good. Feels very committee-made. I have no idea why they told me that I couldn't upgrade anymore past that point if it was just a boss followed by the post-game in which you can do everything anyway. A needless spoiler, but I didn't care about the story anyway. (If this is an accurate representation of Spider-Man villains, I'm unimpressed, as a non-fan.) Still, it wasn't some drawn out ending in several locations or something. Just the boss. Is this like a requirement for their open world games? Weird.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've had this since I bought the ps5 in late 2020 but never got around to playing it. Been playing a bit since the VRR update hit this week and it's just another example of good tech wasted on an awful game. It looks great and zipping around the city is fun enough, but there is no actual game built around these aspects. Zero enemy variety, no interesting combat scenarios, imprecise floaty controls, repetitive zero-challenge collectathon open world gameplay complete with Ubishit towers. Cutscene-filled main campaign for brain damaged children.

If they had made city traversal a little less braindead, had fewer but more considered hidden collectibles and added some actual difficulty to the combat, it would be pretty decent. As it is, it's a turn your brain off and consume product kind of deal. Production values through the roof and a tragic waste of resources.

 

[Roguey]

Zero enemy variety, no interesting combat scenarios, imprecise floaty controls, repetitive zero-challenge collectathon open world gameplay complete with Ubishit towers.

The side activities actually get incredibly demanding.