Gameplay wise it's a fun romp with lots of side missions, challenges and a great setting. Rocksteady didn't merely double down on the Batmobile they went all in. You'll be using it to solve puzzles, defeat bosses, comeplete challenges and sometimes as a form of transportation. Cape gliding remains the quickest way to traverse the city. The team-up encounters are well done. You'll have the opportunity to fight alongside Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman. Speaking of Robin, without getting into spoilers, you get to undertake one of the most entertaining scenes in the game while controlling him. Story-wise there are too many fake outs for my taste. It's often bleak and one of the main plot threads seems to be forgotten about half-way through. The 'mystery' surrounding the Arkham Knight's identity is anything but. And then that thread also kind of poofs out. The upgrade system is a case of 'don't try to fix what isn't broken'. There are many more upgrades available to you and while the argument can be made that this supports a variety of playstyles, many upgrades aren't worth the point investment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Earning upgrade points is now more or less funneled through completing 'most wanted' stuff and scoring well on challenges. You do earn XP for beating up thugs just relatively little of it. Mark Hamill goes for broke and is a good juxtaposition to Conroy's delivery. The new toy this time around (other than the Batmobile) is the Voice Synthesizer but you'll get limited use out of it while you use it to make henchmen open gates for you or lure them into traps. The game is a bit buggier than past outings and crashed more than Origins or City. Or, in the case of a side mission, a scripted event failed to trigger and needed a restart. Despite the shortcomings it's a fun Batman game worthy of its 4-stars.
Master of Magic was originally given to me as a gift when I was a 'tween'. I'm still playing it 22 years later and counting in my mid 30s. It's by no means perfect. There's still bugs that can wreck your game (save often), the AI is a cheating SOB relentlessly pursuing a strategy of attrition, while the UI and graphics are admittedly dated. That said, much like Master of Orion II remains the pinnacle of 4X Space Strategy, Master of Magic remains the pinnacle of 4X Fantasy Strategy. Spells are organized in a way that resembles the popular Magic the Gathering game (5 colours) and city building resembles Civilization, exploration and encounters with monsters / neutral towns seem as though you were playing Dungeons and Dragons at the strategic level commanding men at arms, fantastic creatures and heroes with equipment slots. It's unparalleled. There's no need for a campaign you choose some world parameters and game difficulty, choose or create your wizard including a handful of spells to start with, choose a starting race to populate your initial town and go explore/conquer the world. The tactical combat is an isometric square grid with some terrain features and strategic fortification (city walls). It can get tedious. With experience the player will know which combats can be resolved with the 'auto' button, leaving it to the AI and which will demand some intervention. The strategic layer is more about not getting 'shut out' by the enemy wizards, accumulating enough resources to deal with the cheating computer before it starts to put out some nasty world enchantments or send endless waves of creatures and soldiers with a seemingly inexhaustible pool of mana to support them. The diversity of races, military units, creatures, heroes and spells makes for a rich sandbox to play in. The dual world mechanic kicks it up a notch and opens up some additional strategic considerations. Look past the graphics, this is the defining game of its genre.
I played this a long time ago on a PC far away... It's quite average as far as space strategy games go. There's a lot to like in this game if you're a fan of Star Wars and its now defunct 'expanded universe'. It's a 4x space strategy game that plays with the urgency of an RTS. Apart from the usual RTS fare, the idea of recruiting and deploying a varied array of characters to help accomplish your goals is fun. It does have some shortcomings. I never could get the hang of manually controlling space combat and simply left it up to the game to decide the outcome. Also the more planets you control the more tedious it becomes to manage them. If you're looking for a 4X Star Wars themed experience, this will satisfy. If you're looking for an excellent 4X space strategy game, Master of Orion II is the gold standard.
