Is it good? Yes. Is it great? Eh. Is it worth a play? If you're into the genre, I'd say so. Personally, I still maintain that the original Dark Souls is still the best of the trilogy because of its world design. The labyrinth that is Lordran really does start to feel like home after a while. You recognize landmarks, learn shortcuts, etc. Frankly I could probably give someone directions around the game over the phone with nothing to go off of but their description of where they are. Nothing in this game even approaches that. Just feels like mostly linear levels connected to a hub. No interconnectedness to any of it. What about combat? Well Sekiro was my favorite in that department (only played a bit of BB so I can't compare there, seriously though Sony give us a PC version please). Sekrio felt tight and responsive. If I died, it was because I did something wrong. Well, this game can't really compete with that either. The combat feels... serviceable. But it doesn't feel great. Parrying feels like it just doesn't work sometimes, the game does an awful job of communicating when proper parry timing should be, to the point where I often don't know if I messed up a parry, or the game did. Frankly I've started ignoring it entirely, it's not worth the damage you'll take if it doesn't register, especially when the game isn't doing a good job of telling me what I'm doing wrong. The harden mechanic is neat though. Overall, I don't think there's any aspect of the game that manages to be better than FromSoft's work. Generally speaking I'd say they make better complete packages too. But this isn't a bad game. It's fine. It's just in the unavoidable position of being compared to them. I don't regret buying it. I just don't feel compelled to keep playing it. Out of the other non-FromSoft souls-like games I've played, LotF, The Surge, etc. it's the one that's held my attention longest. And kudos for releasing it on GOG, that's something FromSoft hasn't done yet. Much appreciated.
Frankly, I love this game. I love the combat, I love the new gadgets, I love Batman's mobility. Gliding around Gotham is an absolute joy, and it almost makes it difficult to go back to City, just because I'm always left missing Knight's gliding. Along with everyone else, I don't like the batmobile all that much (the Ace Chemicals section used it well enough, but it's downhill from there), and the fear takedowns just feel like a replacement for more interesting stealth gameplay and you'll have a better time if you just ignore it entirely. Story wise, it has some incredible moments, but this version of the Scarecrow just isn't as fun as Asylum's version, and there's a very obvious character/player disconnect when the world's greatest detective is the last person to figure out who the Arkham Knight is. I wish I could give the game 5 stars, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are easily 5 star games, and I would give the Steam version of Knight 5 stars too despite its faults. But I have to knock off a star for 3 major reasons specific to the GOG version. 1) no achievements. Speaks for itself really, Steam version of the game has achievements, GOG version does not. 2) Freeflow focus 2.0 does not work. There's a combat upgrade called freeflow focus 2.0. When you reach a certain combo level, time slows down and your attacks are stronger. For some reason, this does not work in the GOG version. I've tried multiple installs on multiple machines, doesn't work on any of them. 3) There appears to be a glitch with the riddler informants. On the steam version I had no issues completing all of the riddler's challenges. However, on the GOG version, riddler informants have stopped spawning, yet there are still riddler challenges that have not been completed but are not marked on the map. It is possible that maybe I'm just doing something wrong, but due to the freeflow focus issue, I know there are glitches in this version of the game that are not present in the Steam version.
This game is a lot of fun. It's nothing incredible, but it's some functional arkham style combat with some exceptional car combat. You won't be blown away, but you'll have a good time with it. One important note I want to make though. This game has one major flaw that I cannot believe hasn't been fixed yet. To my knowledge there's no mods that can fix this. WB Games, Avalanche, if you're reading this, please do something. The convoy assaults are by far and away the best part of the game. And they do not respawn. Once you take out a convoy, it's gone for good. You get an attachment for your car for each one, but you can only equip two at a time. So here's my advice, find a wiki, figure out which two attachments you want, and only complete those convoys. For the other ones, take out most of the convoy, by leave the suppy truck at the end so the rest of the convoy will respawn, and you can do it as many times as you like. Now ride forth, shiny and chrome
