A game which features neither Arkham nor Batman's Origins.....
Intro:
So probably not as memorable as Batman Arkham City, and it didn't take as much risks, but hey, it's a pretty decent story to boot. Can't ever go wrong with Batman, amiright?
This may have been the quickest I ever finished the core Areas of Concern for a game, taking me little over two days to finish. It also showed just how surprisingly short this game is, but hey, it's Batman.
Basic Plot:
As stated in the tagline, this game has nothing to do with Arkham or the Origins of The Dark Knight. Instead, it concerns Batman's second year of crime-fighting, and a ring of assassins set loose to try and kill him.
We meet some familiar faces from all Batman stories, and some surprises along the way.
Release Date: October 2013.
Developer: Warner Bros. Games Montreal.
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PC.
Genre: Action Adventure.
Reviewed By: Kyle van Rensburg.
Areas of Concern:
Violence:
Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Offensive
General Violence:
--Several fights scenes are depicted throughout the whole game, with people being frantically punched, kicked, and bones are broken with a crack being heard. Objects like bats (the other kind) are used to hit people with. Cries of pain are heard throughout.
Enemies swing knives at Batman, with the screen darkening very briefly when the knife slices him.
-Takedowns are depicted, with Batman punching enemies square in the face or slamming their heads against the ground, or grabbing them and choking them unconscious.
--There are a few crime scenes which Batman investigates, which he sees in ultrasonic vision and later in very brief detail. Minimal blood is shown, but violent acts are portrayed like:
-We see a man getting blown back through a wall by an explosion, and a bit of blood spatters on the environment.
-A man is blown back by a gunshot which shows an x-ray vision of his heart being pierced.
-A woman's head is slammed against a table and we later see her hanging from a chandelier as a man shoots her, bloodlessly.
--A few environments are littered with wreckage and corpses, and moderate amounts of blood stains are shown.
Storyline Violence:
--A man is kicked through a window, falls a long distance, screaming horribly, and he crashes into a chandelier which detaches and hits the ground as we see his dead body land on top of it, with electricity surging through him.
--Batman interrogates several people in this game by kicking punching them around a LOT and stomping on them, slamming them into objects, and threatening them with death.
-One sequences involves a man getting punched, thrown around, and choked in a very brutal way, before being knocked out.
--We see that man's dead body was placed in a chair surrounding by electrified water. His corpse convulses slightly. We later see an alive man getting electrocuted from a distance, his body convulsing, and eventually expiring.
--A woman deflects a man's gun, making him shoot an ally, and she grabs him around and breaks his neck with a crack being heard and his head is shown being twisted.
-A giant man grabs two other men and holds them up. We hear cracks, implying that he broke their necks.
--A man electrocutes another man for a period of time; he convulses, gurgling, and his heart stops.
--Two police helicopters gun down several criminals bloodlessly. Both helicopters are then shot down with explosive projectiles, and they crash into each other, exploding.
--There are a few sequences with explosions going off, strewing wreckage, and knocking people back.
Sex/Nudity:
Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Offensive
--We see a few suggestive posters of indecently clad women. These are not shown in detail.
--A woman in a revealing outfit showing off lots of cleavage calls a man "naughty", and tells a group of men if they want "what she's offering" they have to fight him. Later on, we see another woman in a revealing outfit, and a man grabs her posterior.
-We see him later with both women in his arms, still "fully" clothed.
Language:
Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Offensive
Uses of S**t, P**s, A*s, B**ch, B**t**d, C**p, H**l, D**n, Ponce, Wanker and B**ger.
Spiritual Content:
Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Offensive
--List of symbols:
-Five point star. (Satanism)
-Skulls. (Death)
--A man quotes from the Bible, to which a man replies that he "ain't never read that book".
--The game has an overarching theme of Christmas. While some of you may have heard the whole fuss about its pagan origins, the game features a very superficial treatment of it.
(Just so you know, I don't celebrate Christmas, and whether or not its okay to celebrate, is a topic I'll save for an article in December.)
Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking:
Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Offensive
--A man uses having a glass of wine as a metaphor.
--A man is portrayed smoking a cigar.
--A reference to a man being "hopped up" on something, and we later found out that he was using a street drug with severe side effects.
Gross Stuff/Gore:
--A man injects himself with a serum, causing his muscles to bulge and become grotesquely huge, and he growls and spits green fluids.
Scary Stuff:
--A woman loses her mind and laughs maniacally.
--The infamous Joker character is more than a tad bit disturbing, due to his unpredictability and highly unstable personality. He seems to take pleasure in hurting people. We also see one or two disturbing hallucinations involving Batman from his perspective, where Batman is a monstrous creature.
--There is a hallucination sequence, and it includes a few mildly startling moments, including a woman from earlier who behaves in a cat like way and has a reptile-esque tongue. She twists around in an unnatural fashion.
Gambling:
Morality:
Abysmal Bad So-so Okay Good Very Good
The treatment of Batman here is not too different from previous games. While he may be overly aggressive with people, and has some serious revenge issues, he is portrayed to avoid killing people at all costs.
(Even if one or two people come close to death at his hands.)
Thoughts & Impressions:
Despite a rather run-of-the-mill set up, this Batman game does feature a good story and some surprisingly good voice acting. Troy Baker as The Joker is indistinguishable from Mark Hamill's Joker, so that should fan any controversy. (If there were any.)
Roger Craig Smith taking over the lead role from Kevin Conroy features a very subtle change in voice, but I guess long time fans may find the switch jarring and distracting. I'm not one of them, and you're talking about a guy who was upset with the whole Splinter Cell voice actor change.
But all in all, if you liked the story of the previous two games, it seems pretty solid here. Just be warned that not much has changed.
Conclusion:
Well, when it comes to the content, I was expecting it to be the edgy, pushing the boundaries, borderline adult fare that was Arkham City. But it wasn't. In fact, the game played it pretty safe this time.
The tone is much lighter, but not much. This is Batman after all, so its not the happiest story in the world. At the end of the day, this game is up to the individual to decide, but its actually one of the cleaner options out there.
Yep, I said it.
The Preacher: I say live and give me a freaking break because the game is really not that bad.
When you look at it, what's the real concern here? The language? Pfft, kindergarten stuff. Sexual content? Where? Pretty much non-existent except for the obvious English lady. Violence? Okay, well, it is surprisingly gritty for a T-rated game and it felt like they were pushing it, but is that really a reason to throw out the game?
Trent: One thing we must not lose out of sight is the meditation on darkness here, as with all things Batman. We are presented with a very downbeat tone from the get-go.
While its dark thematics may be realistic, is this the kind of thing we want our teenagers playing? Do we want to be meditating on dark stories like these?
Note: The Preacher and Trent are fictional characters showcasing two very different worldviews within the Christian community. Their notes are to help readers on both sides of the fence to make a decision.
Verdict: 12+
For Violence and Dark Thematics.
Outro:
And so the KVR flies off into the night once again, waiting the signal from games waiting to be reviewed.
Until next time, folks! Or tomorrow, should I rather say. And then next time. After next time. Whatever, see you later!
Writer Bio:
Kyle van Rensburg is the Editor-in-Chief of Kyle's Christian Video Game Reviews. (KVR Gaming) He likes cookies.
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