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Knight
03-20-2003, 02:58 PM
This is from the XenGamers forums:

Fu's few words-- Batman: Dark Tomorrow
Fellas, I've just had the honor of playing the absolute WORST Xbox game yet...

Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon *****s all over this game. That game at least had control COHESION.

New Legends *****s all over this game. That game at least had animation that actually used TRANSITION between its frames.

Hell, the PSX Batman & Robin game of YEARS ago is even a far superior take on the dark knight than this abomination.

Trading in Indiana Jones after being thoroughly disappointed with that glitch fest, I picked up Batman looking for some much needed redemption in 3rd person action/adventure gaming. Soon after playing, I found myself pondering this question: How could a game that has been in development for so long go so wrong?

EVERYTHING about this game blows chunks of horse *****... everything. I'm usually a good one for finding some worthwhile aspect of any game, but not this one... no... there isn't even a single redeeming quality about this game. Not a single one. Infact, what the hell am I thinking... the word 'quality' shouldn't even be anywhere in this thread. Yeah. It's that bad.

The best way to get the point across to all of you good wholesome gaming folk just how much dirty ass this game is, would be to describe to you my first & last 10 minutes of playing this game...

The Intro. One of the crapiest 'directed' CG cinemas in gaming history, beginning with illustrating the deaths of Bruce Wayne's parents (with absolutely NO heartfelt emotion or dramatic flare whatsoever), thus leading into the 'and now he's Batman' suit-up segment (which was done in painfully corny, bad taste) and the blast off in an equally retarded looking Batmobile. Cut to rooftop scene, he spots some thugs and thus begins the *****tiest gameplay I have witnessed in years.

Combat. The 'action' begins with Batman standing in an alley surrounded by 4 or so of the thugs. First thought in my mind? "DAMN are these visuals ASS." Second, I thought to myself, "Well... at least I'll get to checkout the combat engine first. This should be cool." yeah... right. What combat engine? One button punches, one button kicks. That's it. Kick-ass combos? Who needs kick-ass combos? How's about a left-right punch for a combo? That should do... who would think Batman would need kick-ass combos, anyway? Even worse, there's like 2 frames of animation for the 2 kicks and 2 punches at your disposal and another 2 frames of animation for walking/running. To top it off, there's no such thing as smooth transition between animation frames in this game... even if at just 2 frames!
So I dispatch the thugs (which was just a matter of hitting them two times, of which sent them flying off the screen ) and am then taken to a brief CG cutscene showing Batman grappling onto the rooftop above. That was it. That was the 'combat'. A brawl (if you can even call it that) that lasted just 6 seconds tops. No enemy A.I., no technique, no flare, no fun. Who needs those things in a 3rd person action/adventure game anyway?

Gadgets. Once on the rooftop, the next building over highlights red, obviously indicating that'd be my next destination. Walking to the edge of the rooftop, a tip prompt shows up letting me know it's time for some grapple swinging action. I thought to myself, "The combat was horrid but maybe this'll be cool." Yeah... right. As I cycled through the list of gadgets, the full horse-*****ty extent of the visuals began to become frighteningly more evident. Gadgets looked like cardboard pop-outs, seemingly made up of something like 3 polygons per gadget with equally elementary texturing detail. "Damn..." I thought, "..if they were too lazy to make even the gadgets-- the smallest, least detailed objects in the game-- look convincing, then what's to expect of the rest of the visuals??" I soon had the answer to that thought after selecting the cable gadget and returning to the game screen... it soon began 'raining' on the rooftop, with what has to be the most poorly implemented environmental effects I EVER seen. Rain looks like sprites of single white streaks flashing on the screen... apparently they can't even animate rain effects properly. ...and then there was the 'smoke' effects, exactly what smoke or where it was from I don't know, it was just... there... seemingly blowing from the same SE direction of the rooftop up towards the NW portion of the rooftop. First I thought this was smoke bellowing out from a smokestack somewhere on the roof, but then I thought otherwise after making my way across several rooftops while the effect remained stationary, blowing about from the same spot on screen across each new rooftop.
Using the gadgets wasn't any less painful to endure than every other crappy aspect of the game. Walk to the edge of a building, then press Y button to activate your 'Batcable' and you'll swing right smack into the top edge of the next building-- each and every time. There's no jumping first and then grappling to gain some leverage... nope. That would rectify a stiff control issue that this game seems to INSIST on. Instead, you're supposed to swing your totally asinine swing pattern and press 'B' to 'flip' over the wall just before you hit it. This technique might have been sweet if you could perform the technique at your liesure, rather than having it forced upon you to perform on EVERY swing you make. Furthermore, landing off this flip isn't even precise enough. Plenty of times I've started a swing from the furthest, highest edge of a rooftop, broke the swing and went into the flip technique and would end up either clearing the entire building or falling just-short of reaching it, thus falling helplessly to my death. Batman is agile and nimble at his roof hopping antics. Batman is NOT an acrobatical bafoon.

****ty visuals... clunky controls... Non-existant enemy A.I... did I mention Super Nintendo quality sound and music? And the fixed camera perspective that aims to impede your every efforts? I've never ripped a game outta my XBOX as quickly as I tore this piece o' ***** outta there... never.

http://forums.xengamers.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75284&highlight=Batman

In other words save your money for a better game.
They will never make a good Batman or Superman game.

Xbox Owner
03-20-2003, 03:23 PM
What about Superman 64?! Best.Game.Ever:rolleyes:

Kraft
03-20-2003, 03:32 PM
Though I have never played it, it really comes as no suprise. Can someone direct me to a good game based on a cartoon?

wweomaniac
03-20-2003, 04:00 PM
yeah, the batman games make me depreciate the tv series that came out in the past. I dont know why they continue to make it. Who the heck buys it anyway?

btw. I hate how swear words like ****, ****, *****, all get asterisized. its makes it so hard to analyze how ****ed a gamer is

Knight
03-20-2003, 04:03 PM
Originally posted by Kraft-XBA
Though I have never played it, it really comes as no suprise. Can someone direct me to a good game based on a cartoon?

----> Spider-man

VeNoMiZA
03-20-2003, 04:11 PM
i think batman vengeance was a good game...... but you know thats just me... hmm games that were great IMO that werefrom cartoons were, batman returns snes, spider man xbox, xman 2 clone wars sega :), xmen the super nintendo version that was named enter apocalypse or somthing, there are a few games oh man the punisher rocked. those games were awesome.:D

Kraft
03-20-2003, 04:15 PM
Originally posted by Knight
----> Spider-man

I knew I was forgetting one :D But then again, if you are referring to the Xbox spiderman, it is based off a movie, not a cartoon. But to counteract my own point, the engine was based off of the DC spiderman game, which was a good game.

Insane Jester
03-20-2003, 04:22 PM
YES i 100% agree .. the worst game ive yet to play .. in fact i only made it onto the first roof top until i switched it off in disgust and put it in the TO TRADE pile... who in there right mind makes a game like this an actually sits down and says " yes this is great " who ? dam u and youre eyes ...

official Jester rateing 0 outta 10

official Jester alternative use .. CUP COASTER

Knight
03-20-2003, 04:56 PM
Rule 1# of Video games never buy a Batman or Superman because there dog crap.

ARONO129
03-20-2003, 04:58 PM
A liitle off topic but I'm getting UFC Tapout 2 tomorrow. If it's in. Hopefully it's better than Batman.

Ninja Scroll
03-20-2003, 06:44 PM
Originally posted by Kraft-XBA
Though I have never played it, it really comes as no suprise. Can someone direct me to a good game based on a cartoon?


I'll give ya a more than 1 junior.

TMNT on NES (da Ultragames orginal) and first TMNT game.
Da Arcade port was aight too!

Batman on NES was tight too! Da first joint based off da first movie.

X-Men on Genesis was awesome too!

There are several others, just aint need no good ones in a good decade or so, naw mean?

MaxPain
03-20-2003, 08:22 PM
Ahh the TMNT series.. remember them in the arcade? :)

siayajin
03-20-2003, 09:39 PM
Originally posted by MaxPain
Ahh the TMNT series.. remember them in the arcade? :)

yeah, definitely worth my quarters back in the day, especially when plaing with friends.

I swear it better be a 4player game when it's released on xbox.

Shadow20002
03-21-2003, 09:11 AM
Ok, i that way i will never get this game. :rolleyes:

Evil_Dr_Beefy
03-21-2003, 01:13 PM
Originally posted by VeNoMiZA
i think batman vengeance was a good game...... but you know thats just me... hmm games that were great IMO that werefrom cartoons were, batman returns snes, spider man xbox, xman 2 clone wars sega :), xmen the super nintendo version that was named enter apocalypse or somthing, there are a few games oh man the punisher rocked. those games were awesome.:D

Your right, Batman vengeance was a good game, it nailed the WB cartoon graphic wise. Even with the design problems..it's still on of the best batman games ever made.

y2kash_14
03-21-2003, 06:45 PM
Originally posted by Kraft-XBA
Though I have never played it, it really comes as no suprise. Can someone direct me to a good game based on a cartoon?

the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games were really good