My opinion on Batman Arkham Asylum was a controversial one. The game is a commercial and critical success. It’s currently rocking a 92 on Metacritic, and I can’t find one other person who isn’t a fan of it. I assumed that the reason I didn’t have any fun playing it, is because I’m not a big fan of games in the third person. Third person action games to be more specific. Which brings me to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I hated Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune with a fiery hot passion. My rants and tweets surrounding my frustration with the game are legendary. So when Uncharted 2 came out this week and we were reviewing it, I was dreading my time with the game. By now hopefully you have listened to our Reviewcast of the game, which if you haven’t this article will spoil what I thought of the game(starting now)and you know that I am absolutely in love with almost everything about it.
Did I have some problems with the controls? Did I have some problems with the design choices? Yes, absolutely, but they were no where near as bad as the mistakes Uncharted 1 made. So I found elements of Uncharted 2 to be frustrating and I found elements of Batman to be frustrating. Both games are third person action games with a fair amount of puzzle solving. So why did I enjoy Uncharted 2 so much?
I figure it has to be the story. Batman’s story is The Joker runs wild in Arkham Asylum, stop The Joker. Really. That’s it. The only twists and turns come from, the other villains who pop up for you to fight as bosses. Uncharted 2 is a twisting, turning, globe trotting adventure that never lets up on the action, or the “what could possibly be next” factor. It’s one grandiose set piece after another. Even mid mission the action flips and changes. Uncharted 2 does puzzle solving, gun fighting, and plot advancement all in the same breath. I took Uncharted 2′s frustration in stride, because I wanted to progress, I needed to progress. I had to do whatever it took to reach the end of the game, to find out what happens to these characters.
A video game’s story is that important to me. If your story is compelling enough, I can over look certain things, like falling off cliffs cause the camera is in the wrong place or the fact that your enemy AI can throw a grenade at your feet, every time. A good story will motivate me to attempt puzzles multiple times, or retry a firefight that seems designed to have me fail. Up next is Brutal Legend, another third person game, but this one incorporates driving and real time strategy elements. Two more genres of game that I don’t excel at, and that I don’t particularly enjoy. I’m a little more than a quarter of the way through the game and the characters, settings, and story are making things more pleasant.
In the fight between Bruce Wayne and Nathan Drake, Nathan wins out this time. Hopefully Rocksteady crafts a solid story to go with their amazing Batman mechanics for the sequel to Arkham Asylum. Just as Naughty Dog was able to do with the sequel to Uncharted. I will admit one thing, in a fight between Nathan Drake and Batman. Batman would totally win. Sorry Drake, you wouldn’t even hear him coming.