Arkham City is my joint favourite game of all time, and I just finished replaying Arkham Asylum after not playing it in years (which by the way still holds up after 5 years) and I can't help but wonder: does anybody not like the Arkham games?

Asylum and City both got stellar reviews from fans and critics alike, being praised for being very accurate to Batman comics (as well as being stuffed full of easter eggs) and having one of, if not the best combat of all the video games released in recent years.

As a big Batman fan I find both Asylum and City to be absolute joys to play, Rocksteady showed every character a great deal of respect and knowledge, they stuck close to the comics while simultaneously adding to the universe, provided great story and voice acting, and just had incredibly awesome gameplay - particularly the Scarecrow sequences in Asylum and the Mr. Freeze boss fight in City.

So, with the obvious exception of Arkham Origins which was a massive let-down, do any of you not actually like those games? And I don't mean if you don't like any video games, or if you don't like Batman, or if you like them but think they're over-rated, I mean if you actually don't like them. And please explain why you don't like them.

Also, if you happen to love them, feel free to share your opinions too.

How can you not like Arkham City? lol

I suppose if somebody doesn't like quality games.

Although I do understand why one may not like Arkham Origins.

I didn't like Asylum that much, but Origins was fine, and City was great.

How does anyone have a different opinion when it comes to games?

I didn't like Asylum at all, City was great and Origin was about the level of Asylum, maybe a bit better.

I've never encountered someone in real life or on the internet that honestly didn't like at least Arkham city. Its simply an amazing game, there's no doubt about it.

@zaied@muyjingo What didn't you like about Asylum?

I think I liked the first one, then I remember playing the second one when it came out and I wasn't feeling it for some reason so I took it back and haven't played one since, so I guess I don't. I have nothing against them but I just wasn't enjoying it, kind of like Assassins Creed games, I don't hate on them, I just don't enjoy them.

Asylum is actually my favorite. I did play it when it came out so maybe I'm nostalgic about it. A friend and I did 100% the game from scratch a few months ago.

City is really good too.

I'm sure someone out there has an opinion that differs from everybody else.

But the majority agree that it's an amazing series, easily one of the best superhero video game franchises of all time.

Jmarshmallow

i like all three. i can't wait for Arkham Knight !

The difficulty lies in that both Asylum and City are two of those rare games where everything just went the right way. Story is great in both cases, it's fun just moving around in both games and look at stuff, combat and stealth dont cripple one another, both were largely free of gamebreaking glitches and additions (unlike Origins). All of that put together and you are going to have a tough time finding any game/Bat-fan thats displeased with either of these two.

That said, there probably are some out there who dont like them simply because they are not using the version of Batman they wanted to see. Like from the WW boards you really get the impression that some people rake stuff down as soon as it's not the Lynda Carter WW being used. I assume there will be Adam West fans as well who do the same here.

Arkham Asylum 9/10

Arkham City 10/10

Arkham Origin 7,5/10 (because of nonsense timeline of Batman tech's ( in the AO there is more high-tech of in the AA))

Arkham Knight 8/10 in advance. Hope for 10/10...

I just found it kind of monotonous at the time, got tired of tracking footprints to solve crimes etc/

It's been a long time since I played it though.

@muyjingo: So what was it about Origins that was better than Asylum? Interested to know since I (and most people) consider it to be by far the worst in the series, in terms of story, voice acting, not really bringing anything new to the table, and of course the various bugs and glitches (which WB Montreal openly said they weren't going to fix because they'd make DLC instead).

So what is it about Origins that makes it better than Asylum in your eyes?

@minisaladfresh: Yeah I know people think it was worse...but I think most of that was groupthink because it was a different studio. People were hating it before it was even out.

I had no problems with the voice acting, thought the story was better..maybe. I don't even remember the story for Asylum....I just found it very monotonous

I didn't experience any bugs with Origins while playing on PC. I also thought the boss fights were a big step up.

@minisaladfresh: It was a good game, but from a story perspective I hated having to backtrack and run around the same corridors to progress. I liked City and Origins' method of utilizing multiple indoor and outdoor locales for the story.

The GCPD building infiltration in Origins is one of my favorite parts in the entire series. They also had a lot more variety and replay value.

@muyjingo: Personally I hated the boss fights in Origins. Deathstroke's was cool but too easy (and he never shows up again, after being in every trailer as if he was a main character...) and I quite liked the firefly one. Electrocutioner didn't even have a boss fight, Shiva and Deadshot weren't really boss fights either (also they were reduced to side-missions... they really didn't care about that assassin plot after about an hour did they?) the Bane boss fight wasn't very creative and you had to do it 3 times throughout the game - yawn. Killer Croc was another simple "dodge, dodge, batarang" and Copperhead was kinda crappy too. Were there any boss fights I missed?

Sure, Asylum didn't have amazing boss fights, Poison Ivy and Titan-Joker were particularly poor, but the Killer Croc section was tense as hell, the Scarecrow sections were great... come to think of it Asylum was pretty light on the boss fights, but then I personally prefer that to Origins where it always felt like another boring boss fight was around the corner.

As for the story, it's not so much that the Origins story was bad, just that they sold the game as "Black Mask hires 8 assassins and gives them one night to kill Batman" which sounded awesome and I had high hopes for the game, but then after a few hours of gameplay they were just like "Black Mask was actually never involved, let's get the first few assassins out of the way early on, a couple can be taken out of the story completely and put in side-missions instead, we can fill time by having the same fight against Bane 3 times, aaaaaand the story is now Joker killing people and Batman's trying to catch him."

Basically what I'm saying is that while the story is not badly written, after two games with Joker as the villain we were promised something different, but then we just ended up chasing Joker again as ever, except this time there's no "I want an army of titan henchmen" and there's no "I want to be cured" - Joker doesn't have a plan, he's just going around killing people and Batman's trying to stop him. The story we thought we were getting was way more interesting than the story we actually got.

I do want to make it clear though that I'm not saying your opinion is wrong or anything, I'm just respectfully disagreeing with it in the name of debate.

I think Arkham Asylum has the best atmosphere, it makes me feel like Batman unlike Arkham City did. I love Arkham City's expansive-ness and it's story was more magnetizing than Arkham Asylum, but, I can't help but love Asylum more. Arkham Origins was flarp.

@minisaladfresh: I found the boss fights in Asylum to be monotonous..they were all like the Bane battle you described in origins. I thought the Boss fights in Origins were at least a little more crreative, and I enjoyed the cutscene.

I found the scarecrow parts in the first game as poorly done, and a distraction from the main game, although I'm probably alone on that.

As for the story....I wasn't really following the game being released, but just decided to play it one day, so I wasn't disappointed at all. I do think Joker being the villain was lame.

And yeah, no worries, I enjoy your input :)

@muyjingo: Yeah I get what you mean. Asylum's boss fights were all pretty similar, but I didn't mind it really because the boss fights were few and far between. What Asylum did do really well though was atmosphere. The parts that were meant to be intense, were intense.

And I do think that what really killed Origins was the expectation. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd known nothing about it going in, and I think everyone would have loved it if it weren't for the fact that it came after Asylum and City. The game itself is not bad (outside of bugs and glitches, some of which are virtually game-breaking) but those two things are what killed it: it's inability to live up to its predecessors (understandable since it's a different studio) and that what we got was not what we were promised.

On a different note, I've decided to go into Arkham Knight almost completely blind. Outside of the facts knowing who the main villains are, the whole city is available, and that the Batmobile is drivable, I know nothing about Arkham Knight, and I'm trying not to watch any gameplay or anything before I play it. I'm even steering well clear of speculation on who the Arkham Knight might be just in case somebody's right... I want everything in the game to be a complete surprise (unlike City's ending which I managed to accidentally stumble across before playing...). I just have to hope it lives up to the hype.

I don't like the uberdark aesthetic and how all the villains are pretty much pure evil. I don't like how all the skins are dark, the side characters have no personality and aren't playable, they made thr Animated series skin have no blue shine and more. So yeah I'm in the minority. It's just personal taste. I'm sure Asylum has its own charm and City looks good but I have to say that Origins is the only game where the story really captivated me, but City is pretty great, I just personally would have preferred a more colorful city where not every villain is pure evil and combat isn't repetitive. The psychological aspect of these villains aren't there. Only the threat, not the humanity. Except Origins and some characters in City. So unless there's a I know yall will dox me and try to end my family for this opinion even though you asked but still. With Insomniac spidey cutscenes and the colorful customizable skins in them, it gives me a sense of control in the narrative. And fun. I don't believe batman NEEDS to be super dark. Arkham City is a fun game and feels like Lego Batman without the color or likable characters. You also can play as the villains there. My point is Arkham City is faithful to what batman is, just the aesthetic is too dark for me. Arkham origins does too but the characters are actually explored. Yes stuff like the tech and it being another joker story bog it down but it's still great. I get the appeal of the arkham games which is why I don't think they're bad, it's just I'd be more invested in a horrific and dark world if the characters were explored. Also if there are mods to give the characters more colorful outfits. But the mods are kinda trash unlike Spider-Man. The The Batman 2004 skin looks nothing like it. Anyways I know yall will dox me and get angry and try to behead me. I'm fine with a dark batman game but idk man...