''I'm Batman."
So I just finished playing the latest Batman game, Batman: Arkham Knight, and have written a review of it right here. Although I enjoyed the game as a whole, there were parts that let me down. But can probably be cured with some future DLC. But personally, I would rather just wait for a Game-of-the-Year Edition, because I'm buying it anyway with all DLC. Patience is virtue, I guess.
But I want to talk about Boss Fights specifically.
What I was looking forward to when waiting for the release of Arkham Knight was facing off the entire Batman Rogues Gallery throughout the Arkham Series. Though we got a decent amount of previous and new villains, I was kinda hoping for more. Instead, we got a narrative focused game, which I don't mind since I enjoyed the story of Arkham Knight...oh, and a whole bunch of tank battles. Long, tedious, tank battles.
Though it lacked boss fights, it didn't really affect the game's story as much. In fact, the pacing of the entire game just felt natural and smooth, which is why certain characters felt like they didn't need a full fledged boss fight. After all not everyone in Batman's rogues gallery is a physical match to the Dark Knight himself. One-on-one boss battles are more fun when the boss actually has a chance defeating Batman. Those who aren't a physical match tend to rely on thugs and weapons to do the trick, and they could be difficult Combat/Predator Challenges.
What I'm going to do is talk about every villain in Arkham Knight and talk about what I liked and what I din't like and what could have made it better. I'll probably talk about previous villains that could make an appearance down the road and what I personally would like to see Rocksteady Studios pull off.
READ PART 1 Here. SPOILERS AHEAD, duh!
THE RIDDLER
"Riddle me this: What's dead? You!"
Now, let me get this one out of the way. You know ever since I started playing Arkham City (I played it before Asylum) I was just stressed out by Riddler trophies. They were cool and all, but collecting all of them to beat him pissed me off at times. So my goal became solving all of them before finishing the main story. But it turns out, that's near impossible in Arkham Knight. It took me about three days to find all of them and most of the time it just felt like a chore, especially with the Batmobile.
Though I appreciated the Riddler races to a degree, I was just really annoyed at how annoying Nigma is in this game. In the previous games he didn't seem all that annoying, but for some reason, he's just unbearable in Arkham Knight. Probably because he's very desperate of trying to outsmart the Dear Dark Knight; have you seen him in this game? He's a wreck. He didn't even have time to put a tie on.
"Get away from her, you bitch!"
I did like the robots, they were more Riddler-esque than the thugs. I've always thought that his ego was way too inflated to rely on mindless minions, so creating robots (or life) is pretty much his god-complex speaking and it worked. The mech he had was pretty sweet! I was surprised that he was just so desperate in this game that he sunk to the physical level to prove his superiority. I had fun with the Riddler boss fight, because we never really got to whoop his ass for making us work way too hard.
POISON IVY
"Nature always wins."
Oh, Ivy. I'll miss you. We didn't really get a poison Ivy boss fight in this game because she surrendered almost immediately when we encounter her in the beginning of the game. That and she helps you stop Scarecrow, but giving her life in the process. I was shocked when that happened because everyone is just dying. Though I can't help but point out how they didn't really treat the women in this game that well. All of them are pretty capable and independent by their own volition, yet they all somehow managed to be damsels in distress. I mean I get Oracle, she's been crippled and can't really fight off anyone in her condition, but Ivy? She's the most powerful Gotham Siren! I was hoping for a bit of resistance from her before being taken in.
(Side track: When i first saw how Ivy looked like in Arkham Knight, she didn't look Plant-like enough. I prefered her look in previous Arkham games. But I guess they were trying to humanize her for the end.)
I kinda wanted to have a Poison Ivy fight, but if we did, why would she even bother helping batman in the end? But still I think if batman uses her plants to motivate her, she would have come around.
So I started thinking: if she had a boss fight, how would it have played out? Personally, I would have made the fight similar to the Arkham City Ivy battle, then progressed it to a fight similar to the one in Asylum. Then she can have various plants grow in the gardens like walking venus flytraps, vines and ivies, and flowers that shoot those green slime. Think Plants vs Zombies, and Batman is the Zombie.
A second boss fight would be cool if they made it in Arkham Knight's perspective where you try to destroy the big plant she grows to stop Scarecrow's toxin. All I know was she was the MVP in Arkham Knight.
Ivy's Sacrifice. This made me tear a bit. Rest in peace, Red.
HARLEY QUINN
"When you see my Puddin', tell her Harley sent ya! And she says 'hi!'"
Everyone knows you can't really hate Harley. She's been through a lot. She fell in love with a psycopathically murderous clown, took all the abuse he can give her while remaining faithful, lost the love of her life...she's been an emotional wreck. In Arkham Knight, she seems to be past the mourning stage and is wreaking havoc in Gotham.
What I liked about Quinn this time around is that she seems to be a lot more formidable than we usually see her. She's aware of Batman's strategies, her crew is immensely loyal to her, and she seems to be running things quite efficiently. I feel like she's finally reaching her potential and Joker just held her back. She still has a weak spot for Mr. J however, because she falls for an older man infected with the Joker gene. And she was motivated to protect all of them to teach them how to be worthy Jokers. I also did some research that each Joker represented an aspect of the real Joker. Hers was Mr. J's obsession with Bats.
The entire encounter with the four Joker infected victims and Harley was one of my favorite parts of the game. Each had their own "boss level". Christina Bell had to be rescued from heavily armed thugs. And you had Robin with you engaging in a Predator challenge. It added a new twist on the stealth aspect of the game as you have to work together to efficiently take down enemies and cover your partner when they go for the takedown. I also just loved how whenever you moved to a vantage point your partner would move to get a better position as well. It made this level fun. As for changes, i wouldn't really change anything. In fact, i wouldn't change anything in this entire part of the game.
This felt so good when I got to this level.
Then I went after Albert King. This dude is great. I think he had one of the best boss fights in the game. He's a well-known heavyweight boxing champion. He went up against Wildcat, the guy who trained Black Canary! He had some thugs with him and you expect him to be just some brute, but no. He runs up to you and begins delivering a flurry of punches, un-counterable punches. I love this guy! i don't know why but he's just badass.
Fight cancelled, still a better fight than Mayweather v. Pacquiao.
He also does this annoying thing of picking up his soldiers when their down, and forcing them to fight. The only way to hurt him is with a dual takedown. You do this a few times and you mash the strike button to perform a beatdown with both Batman and robin. The only problem is he doesn't care. he'll punch whoever is taking point and it'll interupt you and you'll have to do it again. I had fun fighting him, and I believe he takes on Joker's violent nature.
Here's the full boss fight for Albert King.
Johnny Charisma. Hmm. What can I say about Johnny Charisma? The living incarnation of Joker's ego? I'll let this video do all the talking...or in this case singing.
Basically the fear gas is doing its thing on Batman, while Robin defuses the bombs in the room.
I genuinely thought this is the most memorable part of the game. As well as the chapter where Joker is running loose in Batman's consciousness. The guys at Rocksteady AND Mark Hammil really outdone themselves with this part. Bravo! "I can't stop laughing!"
Then after you've captured all three, you go after Harley. I didn't expect much of a boss fight from her. So when all I had to do was press a takedown combo, I wasn't all that surprised, then I had to fight a small handful of thugs and pick her up to finish the mission. Though, I did feel some disappointment since she was carrying this huge gun, probably the same one she used in Harley Quinn's Revenge. So I started thinking what her boss battle could have been. Until I played her Story for Arkham Knight.
Harley had fully functioning combat moves and gadgets! So I started thingking again, and I figured out a pretty decent boss fight for the Clown Princess of Crime. She'd have her own theather stage that looks almost identical to the final stage in Arkham City. She'd be in the balcony and starts yelling at the Dark Knight about the night her Puddin' died, while she shoots rockets, throw explosive jack-in-the boxes, and laughing gas at both Batman and Robin. You'd also face a great number of thugs, and maybe Mr. Hammer. I mean, Mr. J is dead and his brother is a Penguin crew, but he must still be loyal to Harley, right?
Then maybe once in a while she'd hop on down and fight with her baseball bat. She's pretty acrobatic in the game and she even beat Nightwing when she was rescuing Ivy. All her moves can be un-counterable and the only way to do damage to her is by super stunning her followed by a dual attack. Once you've incapacitated her, guess who's back to help her? The Joker! There's a moment of shock, but as Robin stands confused, Batman takes Harley's Bat and impales Joker with it. Robin is shocked only to come to a sudden realization: "Clayface."
"The role of a lifetime!"
We all loved that twist! And we all wondered what happened to old Clayface. Now here is where it gets interesting. In order to fight him effectively you must already have the freeze blast with you. Now, I had no clue the freeze blast was in the game, but when I found out, AFTER beating the game's story mode for the first time, and headed over to the movie studios to collect a Riddler trophy, I found the Freeze Grenade sitting right there on a table and I missed it. Every. Friggin'. Time. I've been to the studios over and over and I missed it! Sigh. So this is where it gets hard fighting him. If you have it, the fight will sort of flow just as smooth as your last encounter, except now you have Robin with you for help.
But if you don't, it would be interesting if Robin is the only one with the Freeze blast grenade and you have to utilize and time your tag efficiently to do damage to the boss, but you'll have to find creative ways to beat Clayface using your surroundings as well. They added in a feature where you can interact with the environment, you can use that to your advantage. Drop lights on him, gas tanks, or ice grenades if you even bothered to explore that secluded area.
He'd probably have learned a few moves since Arkham City. He can still turn into the ball and crush you, mold his hands to hammers and blades, and now he can punch the ground and have clay spikes emerge from underneath. If you manage to blow him up into little pieces, he can shapeshift his mini clones into ninjas, and maybe even into Jokers to further mess with Batman, so basically he can shapeshift his little clayface babies into any enemy type, brutes, Titans, etc. What would really be cool, though, is if, by the end of it all, he shapeshifts into Talia, which pisses Batman off in a rage almost unleashing the Joker within him. Robin has to pull Bruce away to calm him down and just when Clayface is about to attack again, Robin throws a freeze blast and freezes Clayface in Talia form.
This would be so cool. Batman tells Robin to take Clayface into one of the isolation chambers while he takes Quinn. The level pretty much resumes as it went with Henry Adams being revealed to be the Intelligence incarnation of Joker, and him killing all the other ones, and commiting suicide, after both he and Robin notices that Bruce is the final Joker victim.
Don't let that look fool you, this dude is EVIL incarnate.
(Side track: You know, when I saw him for the first time, I thought he was Arnold Wesker, the Ventriloquist. He looked like him, unitl it was revealed to be a Joker thing. Sigh... I want to see the Ventiloquist in action! I've waited to see one of the most coolest Batman villains in action, in an Arkham game!)
This is definitely my favorite chapter in Batman: Arkham Knight because this is the part that really screwed with Batman emotionally. If this was the final game, they should've completely destroyed him emotionally in this chapter. I always felt that Scarecrow, throughout the game, was destroying Batman up until the end, where he rebuilds himself up. With my idea of Scarecrow psychologically toying with the players throughout the story, it would be pretty cool if this chapter toys on his heart strings a lot more than it did.
FIREFLY
"There'll be nothing but a charred stump when I'm finished with you, Batman."
UUUGGGHHH!
Sigh.
Now before i start deconstructing this one, let me just say that I like Firefly. When they included him in Arkham Origins I just thought that it was pretty damn cool. Or in his case hot. His boss fight in Arkham Origins was alright, could've been more fun rather than repetetive. if he switched it up more often it wouldn't have been tedious. But come on! TEDIOUS! The only word I can say for his boss encountersss.
So basically in the beginning, you are told by Aaron Cash that a squadron of firefighters were attacked and taken hostage. If you choose to rescue all of them without checking out the fire station side missions first, you'll find out that Chief Underbill, the Firefighter Chief and last hostage, hired Firefly to cause fires on abandoned buildings and empty construction sites throughout Gotham. but he didn't have evil intentions, he just wanted to provide work for his firefighters because the government is firing them. See the irony? He was just trying to help jobs, but he hired a pyromaniac to do it, and things went ablaze.
So you then go and stop the various fires throughout gotham and BOOM! Firefly! Now you think you're going to have a new hand to hand combat with this dude similar in Origins, but no. You chase him down with the Batmobile...
As if Batmobile levels weren't TEDIOUS enough.
Y'see at first it's no big deal, you're thinking that you're going to have this one big fight after you've caught up with him and beat his face in numerous times, but no. That's all you do. No big explosions, no fights OUTSIDE the Batmobile. you just chase him down until you are near enough to eject and grab him mid air to knock him out.
Origins did him more justice in my opinion. They could have had one of the best rematches ever, but it was reduced to a batmobile chase. They could have included the chase, but after three or x amount of times, game developers should've known how boring that would have been. But if they added in one last fight. It would have made a better boss encounter.
So I started thinking what the fight could be. And I thought, wouldn't it be funny if they have their final confrontation on the bridge where they first fought? You'd have a battle similar to the Origins fight. He starts shooting flames, throws grenades, blows up cars, trigger pre-set mines and other explosives, pyromaniacs galore (basically enough explosives to make Michael Bay look like an amateur). You avoid his flames, except this time, you don't really have much cars to cover behind, but even if you do, he'll be able to blow it up forcing you to move around the stage and not just hiding behind a car or truck. You use every gadget in your arsenal to stop him, then after doing all that and you've got the chance, you grapple onto him.
This scene would've been a lot better if it weren't a cutscene and was actual gameplay.
But this time, Firefly has learned; he's modified his jetpack so that everytime Batman grapples onto him, he flies off, full throttle, around the bridge, dragging Bats in mid-air, trying to hit him with the cables, the metal, the gravel, the cars and trucks, and firing aiming and shooting his flamethrower behind him trying to burn Batman. It'll be like that cutscene in Origins before they actually fight, but not a cutscene. Think of when you finally get him in the end, where he's dragging you and you counter the obstacles, but more expansive and more tasking.
You'll have to throw batarangs at his jetpack, which consequently opens up a panel everytime you attack it, but getting a clear shot is near impossible since you're hanging on for dear life. It would be cool if he drags you all around Gotham when this is happening, too--dragging you close to the ground which requires you to maintain your grip, and prevents you from throwing batarangs at the time, and then he can crash into buildings and you're trying to avoid desks and other debris. If you let go, you die; considering the speed he's going everytime.
So basically once you hit one of his engines you button mash to struggle up the batclaw wire, and get on his back to physically punch the first engine, and you'll end up back at the bridge and you proceed to beat him down. At which point, he gets help from rioters while he kicks you off and flies away to assess the damage. Once the thugs are taken care of, he comes back and you do the process again, but this time he'll be much faster and more accurate when he's using his flamethrower to get you off his back and you'll have to move around trying to avoid it. You basically do what you did before, and you attack his other engine, and then repeat the beatdown on the bridge. Then even more thugs come, tougher and quicker, but while Firefly is recharging on top of the bridge, he's helping them out by throwing bombs and stuff, and making things explode with his flamethrower. It'll be harder to maneuver on the stage because there's fire every where, fire does damage, fire kills, duh.
I really like his design inthe Arkham games...
Once he's recharged, he would be moving all around the screen now, circling you while shooting flames and grenades. He can probably fly off then come back full speed dropping all sorts of explosives on you airstrike style, while you evade the line of fire. Once you've weakened him, you grapple again.
The final time, is basically the same thing but again speed increase, flamethrower accuracy, now he's using flares to blind you so it's harder to see obstacles ahead to avoid them. You do your thing and finally attack the now exposed power core and you both crash land on the bridge, but he's a considerable distance from Batman. Now the trick is trying to get to him while avoiding the flamethrower. Once you get to him, you perform a beatdown and when he tries to fly away you grapple and drag him down to the floor and beat him down again til you knock him out.
...But this, the design from The Batman TV Show, is my favorite Firefly design ever.
After that, you call in the batwing to transport him back to GCPD.
BOOM!
Easily a better Firefly encounter that anyone on the Rocksteady team could have come up with. I don't hate Rocksteady, I think they're pretty cool for making the Batman Arkham games and giving fans a great experience, but they should have enough creative minds to make awesome boss fights. Just saying. I love you, people of Rocksteady and thank you, but I'm just saying it as it is. If you decide to REMAKE the Arkham franchise with better boss fights and maybe add on to make an Origins trilogy, give me a call, I have a few ideas, that you can easily tweak and improve and make money out of.
Not cool, Rocksteady! Not cool!
(Click for website)
MAN-BAT
This was a the craziest surprise in the whole game. LITERALLY! I had a heart attack when I encountered Langstrom. I wasn't expecting this at all, I was trying to get to my next mission, then out of nowhere, this guy just shows up.
I loved how everyone wanted him in the game, and Rocksteady listened. What we didn't expect was how he was gonna be a part of it; and they pulled this off quite well. Man-Bat was recently created in the Arkhamverse which is why we haven't seen him in previous games. Though it's sort of sad we didn't encounter him in previous games, because he was a big part of Batman's early career, where many Gothamites confused the Giant Bat with the Bat-costumed vigilante. It was more than enough having him in the game as a side mission, though, and they really did the tragic doctor justice.
The tragic experiment... oh and a "Is the red light on?" cliche.
If you don't know, Dr. Kirk Langstrom and his wife were trying to develop a cure for deafness by infusing vampire bat DNA with human DNA. That doesn't seem logical, but it turned out to be a success in tests, and he proceeded with human test trials by using himself as a test subject. The experiment went awry and he not only lost his humanity, but he accidentally killed his wife. When you find his lair to synthesize a cure in Arkham Knight, you get to see a video fo the horrific events and you really sympathize with him, even Batman agrees that it wasn't his fault.
There's really no big boss battle for Man-Bat because the side mission really just focused on tracking him down, similar to how you would track down the serial killers. Though I wish they would've made finding him a lot more gruesome, (it is a rated M game after all. you either go all M or not) by locating bodies he's been feeding on and utilize different aspects of the Detective Vision to analyze the crime scene, like maybe tracking blood all the way up to the rooftops and into a hole in a wall where he pops out and flies out dragging you with him and you're trying to struggle out of his grip and preventing him from biting you. It would've been very tense and much better than just tackling him in mid-air when he resurfaces. I would have much preferred tracking him down to his hiding spot, have a little skirmish, then chasing him on the rooftops of Gotham to administer the cure.
I was just really psyched how he showed up unannounced. The jump scares in the game are really well placed and played the fear factor really well. Even Joker got involved.
They got me again with this.
PROFESSOR PYG
"Pyg is like clay. Pyg is like God. Pyg is here to fix us all!"
When I was chasing down the loose serial killer across Gotham, I thought I was going to fight Hush, but instead, when I made my way into that creepy beauty parlor, I meet this creep instead. The twisted, derange, porcine killer, Professor Pyg. I was surprised he made it into the game since he's a fairly new Batman villain. But he is definitely a welcome addition in my book.
Tracking down his victims were a real treat because they were often marked by the sound of opera music. Everytime you found a body, it just created an eerie atmosphere. I like the new Detective Vision feature when analyzing dead bodies. You got 3 systems to examine, the skin, the muscular, and the skeletal. It's a bit of an improvement from Arkham City. But I was kind of hoping that when it came to collecting clues, they could borrow some of Cole Phelps's clue gathering skills from Rockstar's LA Noire, Detective Vision is so OP that I play through the entire game, including cutsces, in Detective Vision.
How can his detective vision do this anyway?
All that radiation emmitted by the cowl shouldn't even enable Bats to think, right?
The atmosphere of his boss level was just off, in a good way. There's Dollotrons attacking you, his future victims are in cages hanging from the ceiling like chandeliers, and when you enter the "surgery room" for the first time, he's operating on some poor unfortunate soul.
The battle is basically a bunch of Dollotrons that will not stay down unless you perform either a ground take down or a multi-ground takedown. He'll also throw butcher knives at you that you have to counter and throw back at him. I don't think Batman cares about his no-killing rule. He could've killed him, considering he throws the knife to his face. And the mask, though looking like it's made of porcelain, can easily be pierced by a blade.
I had no complaints about the level, though I kinda wished he had a more varied strategy. He could have been trying to gut Batman with the knife and scalpel, or chased him down with his signature drill-saw (ala Pigsy from Rockstar's Manhunt) instead of trying to keep away with his operating table, but I thought that was pretty funny. Each time you try to get close he just moves away on the other side until knocking him out with an environmental takedown.
This guy is just plain crazy, they need to reinstate the Asylum,
he's just too dangerous to be kept behind bars at the GCPD.
Although, It would be cool if he takes a hostage and disappears in the basement, and you have to rescue the hostage via Predator Mode, if he sees you coming he'll kll the hostage, and you have to take him down in various ways.
I enjoyed this level and he is by far the creepiest villain in the game.
DEACON BLACKFIRE
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH! The wicked demon has been slain!"
Now, I don't read much comic books anymore, not as much as I want to, anyway. I consider myself knowledgeable enough when it comes to heroes and villains both Marvel and DC, but when i met him I had no clue who he was. He's one of those obscure villains, but only avid fans would know him. Blackfire turns out to be some homeless dude who happens to be the leader of some cult.
Throughout the game, Jack Ryder, who has taken shelter in the GCPD, would talk to you about a cult he's investigatin. At first I thought nothing of it, but when he gets captured later in the game I had a bit of excitement flowing through my veins. I thought that this would finally be the first time we see Jack Ryder become the Creeper. But alas, it's just some rescue mission at Lady Gotham's island. The boss battle is pretty standard, take out thugs and disable the electrical fence, and knock the dude out. I was kinda hoping that instead of Ryder being the hostage it's be someone else. And when you get there, The Creeper is fighting off Blackfire's men.
That funky look, though...
This would be an awesome dual-play moment and we are introduced to a new character. Imagine going ballistic crazy as the Creeper and teamed up with Batman? I think that would be fun! And since The Creeper is pretty much like Joker, The Fear gas can affect how we see the Creeper in Batman's view, with The Creeper looking like Joker once in a while mid-fight, similar to how Batman would sometimes become Scarecrow in Asylum during their encounters? It would be an awesome opportunity for the Joker hallucination to chime in and say things like "The real Dynamic Duo is here, boys!" or "Never thought you'd be my sidekick, Bats! I'm flattered, haha!"
Though it's been implied that he can turn into the Creeper at will, in previous Arkham games, based on his bio in Arkham Aylum, it has never really been showcased physically. So the one way I thought could make this work, is what if Ryder was injected with the Joker formula himself, but was the actual key to a cure. He's not fully immune, but he's managed to make it work for him and adapt it into his DNA rather than Joker taking over his mind? Just a thought, really.
HUSH
"Would you believe good old-fashioned revenge?"
After the events at Arkham City, we find out that Thomas Elliot has just finished constucting a Bruce Wayne face. What he intended to do with it was unknown. In Arkham Knight, he breaks in to transfer all of Bruce's money into his.He his then discovered by Lucius, who he takes hostage as Batman enters the room to confront him. Now the level is pretty easy, all you have to do is press the counter button in time. You press it to early, Lucius dies; too late, you die; just in time, you beat him.
It is so antic-climactic. But sort of fitting.
I don't know, I felt that I wasn't satisfied enough with the Hush arc in Arkham Knight. Personally, I think he could have easily been the Arkham Knight. They could have just taken a few scenes from his story arc in the comics and used it. Bruce's identity gets revealed anyway. But the fact that he was cornered when Batman got there and took Lucius as hostage pretty much ended the fight.
I don't know, I was kind of hoping that they'd have a quick hand-to-hand fight, but like I said, Hush was pretty much cornered in this game. I guess this was the final chapter of the Identity Thief side mission from Arkham City, so i guess it was fitting. besides, Bats already has a lot on his plate.
Speaking of anti-climactic...
"It's been a long rivalry, Bat. But this is the only way it could end."
Long rivalry, short ass fight.
DEATHSTROKE
Seeing this guy come back was so awesome. In fact, it was so awesome that everyone, including the producers at Rocksteady were expecting a much better one-on-one fight with him than the one in Arkham Origins. In order to fight him you need to complete three--YES, THREE--sidemissions: Own The Roads, Campaign for Disarmament, and Occupy Gotham. Basically, he took over the militia once the Arkham Knight was defeated. Okay, no problem; can't really argue with that. It will be really satisfying to finally beat you again. So once you accomplish all that, he starts talking smack about beating Batman to a pulp and killing him, until Batman got sick of it and called him out:
"Then do it. Grand Avenue, Slade. I'll be waiting."
I thought that was the most badass thing Batman has ever said in this game.
So you get to Grand Avenue, and it's basically the Time Square of Gotham, you can't miss it, and it's literally a circle. I thought we'd have a one-on-one fight there, but instead, Batman contacts Alfred and tells him to raise the bridges. Then I started thinking, holy crap things are gonna get serious. Then we get a tank fight.
Now, I know that the tank fights are annoying but at this point, I just thought, "Okay he'll play dirty. He'll try to use drones first to make quick work of me, but after I beat them, he'll face me." So after a grueling 15-30 minutes, I beat the tanks, and then a cutscene initiates.
-.-
That's it? That's it. THAT'S IT?
Good God! What is that?! NO!
He's Deathstroke the Terminator! He ain't got a glass jaw!
Actual footage of fans attacking Rocksteady.
(I am enjoying this new GIF maker website that I discovered way too much.)
This was so anti-climactic, more so than the Hush side mission. At least that one didn't really build it up. This one was built up by three side missions and another tank battle. One of the side missions is already a series of tank battles, and we get yet a final one. The only reason why I finished all three side missions is to fight Slade one-on-one! They must not have counted the Batmobile sections to be annoying to some fans, but to tell you the truth, it wouldn't be if it wasn't shoved in our faces.
Deathstroke had so much potential as a boss battle. People, for the most part, liked his boss level in Arkham Origins. they could have seriously improved upon that. here's what it should've been, here's what I expected when I played the game.
After the tank fight, you two end up in the middle of Grand Avenue. There are abunch of rioters and militia that have decided to gather around you two in a circle, schoolyard style. They're all making bets while Batman and Slade walk around in a circle and start talking. Slade trash talks before finally starting the fight. As soon as it begins: you two are fighting. And expect the game to be hard even when playing on easy.
Deathstroke has a variety of weapons and gadgets at his disposal. He has a sword. He can have similar moves as the ninja enemies, in addition to others. He should have two moves that could have been borrowed from Injustice such as the sword spins where he jumps into the air and spins delivering a lethal attack. He can also swipe his sword sort of like how Link from Legend of Zelda spins around to deliver the Spin-Slash. Basically when he's using the sword he's trying to keep a healthy distance between you two while doing damage. Batarangs are easily avoided and blocked as well, so don't even bother with projectiles, unless you want to get him to move just where you want him. While this is happening he's also getting help from thugs.
Once thugs come to play, he'll start dashing at you with his sword, sort of like how Ra's al Ghul did in his Boss Fight in Arkham City, but more, I guess the word I'm looking for is "anime-like", where two samurais dash at each other with their blades then stop. He'll dash in that fashion. Once you've defeated the thugs that has decided to join the fight, he'll dash at you and you'll need to counter all of his swipes until he unleashes a fury of strikes and you'll have to mash to block each one with your gauntlets. Then he'll kick you a great distance towards the crowd, where they catch you and grab hold of you. He'll get ready to attack you from the other side, but you'll have to struggle out of the way. Once you're out, he'll miss and the crowd will throw him back in the ring and this will be your chance to deliver a beatdown.
"I wan't my own boss fight in your new game!"
'No! Deal with the Batmobile!...Hehe that rhymed--I'm Batmaaaan!"
He'll use a flash grenade and Brutes push their way through the crowd. You'll fight off some more thugs and Deathstroke would be providing some assisance from nearby vantage point by shooting an assault rifle. Once you've beaten the thugs, he'll jump off and you'll need to block his attacks and counter them. Then it's back to avoiding getting slashed at and fighting more thugs, and pushing him back into the thinning crowd and delivering a beatdown. He'll use the flash grenade again and end up getting backup from a second vantage point: Deadshot.
Now Deadshot gets territorial with his kills, but he and Deathstroke put aside their differences to get back at the Bat. So you're avoiding Deadshot's killer aim, Deathstrokes assault rifle fire, and fighting off goons on the street at the same time. Once you've defeated the entire crowd you'll need to take out Deadshot by blinding him with smoke pellets and getting near him. You can do this earlier, before finishing off the crowd to lessen the chaos. Once you've delivered Deadshot his own beatdown and you knock him out, Deathstroke starts running but not before you can fire a tracking device on him, you'll need to chase Deathstroke throught the rooftops of Gotham, similar to how you chased down one of Talia's guard in Arkham City. While you're chasing him down you've contact Cash to pick up Deadshot while you chase Deathstroke.
Now here's the fun part about the chase. He'll be shooting you while he's running and he'll be zip-lining as well. You'll then be stopped in your tracks by a group of ninjas that you need to take care of. Once you've done that you follow the tracker to Port Adams.
Once there, you find the tracking device but it's been rigged with an explosive so you throw it away as fast as you can and...do you remember that cool Arkham Origins trailer? Think that.
This is the fight that we deserve AND need.
Once you've done that, you two would end up in an open space to fight. This is when the fight becomes similar to Arkham Origins. Instead of just standing around to counter your attack, he'll just go all out, there will be the counter indicators (assuming it's not story game plus) but it won't have those annoying 'Press triangle to counter' instructions on screen. That's partly why the level felt kind of easy in Origins because they tell you exactly when to counter. It should be harder to time your counters and strikes and Deathstroke is pulling off moves quite differently than you last saw him. You'll have to batclaw him near to you to attack, similar to Origins but he'll be dodging the batclaw making it harder for you to get him to you. When a good number of his health depletes, he'll start grabbing the batclaw if you do use it and pulling you towards him which you'll have to counter.
His tactics will randomly change and change quickly to challenge the players to think on their feet and adapt accordingly, or die.Once you've done good damage, he'll go berserk and attack you with a flurry of attacks with his staff. Once you've countered them all, you break his staff.
He then takes out his sword. When you fight him with the sword, he'll start charging at you again and you need to dodge him. Getting a clean combo will be difficult as usual but countering his moves will be harder, because he starts faking his moves; meaning he'll pretend to swipe one way but he'll swipe the other and you'll have to time counters properly and execute them quickly. He'll do this to confuse the player and piss them off. I really liked the animation for his Arkham Origins fight, and seeing that retooled and improved upon would be pretty sweet. Once that set is done, and you've delivered him his beatdown, and knock off his mask, another gamechanger: he'll take out a second sword and starts double weilding. Players will now have to adapt to this new tactic and relearn a new pattern of attack. If you try to throw batarangs at him he'll deflect them with his two swords and he'll sometime deflect it back to you and you'll have to evade them. If you throw a freeze grenade he'll throw it back at you, again evade it or freeze allowing him to deliver some devastating attacks. If you batclaw him, he'll cut the wire with his blades.
The beatdown wont work as easily like last time as you'll now have to counter an imminent strike in the middle of it, similar to the Albert King dual takedown. you just keep fighting him until you finally deplete his health, and stylishly knock him out cold.
That's how I would've made Deathstroke's boss encounter/level. Sure it's complex, but you can't expect to beat Deathstroke the Terminator that easily, can you?
I think that's it for now.
I'll continue on with Part 3.