Another month,
another superhero game that fails to live up to its name. Batman;
Vengeance is a third person action game that appeared on consoles a year
ago and it wasnt very good back then either. Camera problems, horrible
controls, bland graphics, and a surprising lack of anything enjoyable at
all contribute towards making Batman: Vengeance an unpleasant experience
that even die-hard fans of the Caped Crusader will have trouble
enjoying.
The story in
Vengeance is pretty uninspired. It definitely isnt worthy of the
animated TV show on which the game is based. Along the way, youll do
battle with not only the Joker but his cute sidekick Harley Quinn, the
evil Mr. Freeze, and the treacherous Poison Ivy.
I have to
admit, out of all of the superheroes out there, I probably like Batman
the least. He is basically a rich guy with some mental problems. He
relies on fancy gadgets, a lot of luck, and the predictable foolishness
of his enemies for his success. I can only imagine what the world would
be like if Bill Gates or Steve Forbes or any of the other eccentric
billionaires of the world decided to invest in some futuristic gizmos so
they could go out and fight crime. Probably something along the lines of
flinging boxes with green "X"s on them at their enemies.
Gadgets truly
are what make Batman well, Batman, so any game featuring ol Bats had
better get his tools right. Batmans famous utility belt and all of its
hidden goodies are featured in the game, but most of them arent that
useful. The Batgrapple plays a fairly major role in progressing through
the game, but you are severely limited as to how you use it. In a city
full of tall buildings and ledges and dozens of other things we have
seen Batman take advantage of in the past, the only things you can latch
onto with your Batgrapple are predetermined spots marked with big
glowing icons. You can also use a few different variations of the
Batarang as well as the Bat Launcher that shoots nets at your enemies.
The main
problem with all of these gadgets, other than the fact that it is
usually easier to just take out your foes with punches and kicks, is
that in order to use them you have to switch to first person mode. Talk
about a buzz killer. Batman is busy delivering a flurry of punches and
kicks when he has to call a timeout so he can aim his Batarang just
right. As fans should know, Batman doesnt kill anyone. This means that
at most you can capture or knock your enemies unconscious. Rather than
quietly disappearing into the night after they have been beaten, the
enemies in Vengeance will keep getting up and attacking Batman unless
you slap a pair of Batcuffs on them. The problem is that you only have a
very limited supply of these hand cuffs and at times youll wish you
could just whip out a Glock and pop a cap in their asses. Especially
frustrating is when you are trying to make a tricky jump, only to fail
when some enemy you failed to tie up comes up out of nowhere and throws
off your timing.
Even though
having to Batcuff every enemy in the game is annoying, I can understand
why superheroes try not to kill people, and it isnt because of a moral
objection to capital punishment. It is all about job security, baby! If
you kill the Joker now, there wont be any super villains for you to
defeat tomorrow. People have to suffer and die just because our
superheroes are selfish. That is a pretty bleak way to describe the
superhero/super villain relationship, but having to fight the same enemy
a dozen times before you get some more Batcuffs is enough to drive you
mad.
Perhaps
Batmans most famous gadgets are his vehicles. The Batplane and
Batmobile both have levels where you have to maneuver them around Gotham
City. These sequences are even more horrendous than the rest of the
game, thanks to extra sluggish control. Racing through the city streets
isnt too bad, but flying the Batplane is nigh impossible. Twisting
through the cluttered skyline of Gotham City while chasing Mr. Freeze is
too frustrating to be fun.
When you
arent fighting or driving a vehicle, the gameplay in Batman: Vengeance
consists of nasty jumping puzzles that take an already difficult game
and kick the frustration factor up a notch. Nothing ruins a perfectly
good third person adventure game faster than brainless jumping puzzles.
There
are two problems that make the game far more difficult than it should
be: The camera and the controls. A problem that ruins almost every third
person action game is that the camera never seems to be in the right
spot. In Batman: Vengeance, not only does the camera swing wildly at
seemingly random times, but you cant easily reposition the camera to a
better angle. The only thing you can do is quickly switch from third
person to first person and then back to third person perspective. This
places the camera directly behind Batman and makes most of the jumps a
little easier.
The
other major problem with Batman: Vengeance that makes not only the
jumping puzzles but also the entire game more difficult is the horrible
control. Controlling the game with the keyboard is almost impossible.
Using the W,A,S,D keys for movement just doesnt offer precise enough
control, so it is best to use a gamepad when playing Vengeance. Even
though the game controls infinitely better with a gamepad than the
keyboard, it is still ridiculously difficult to complete the jumping
puzzles. The controls, even with a gamepad, just feel too stiff and you
never really feel like you are actually in control. It is more like you
give the game the general idea of what you want it to do, and then it
struggles to turn those dreams into reality. Expect to miss a lot of
seemingly easy jumps in this game thanks to the control.
Graphically,
Batman: Vengeance manages to do a fairly good job of emulating the
animated TV show on which it is based. The characters are all suitably
detailed and resemble their television counterparts fairly well. Batman
has the square jaw and triangles for eyes youd expect, and the Jokers
hair is just the right shade of green. The characters, especially
Batman, are also animated very well. Where the graphics fail to deliver
are in the environments. Everything is either blue, black, or gray and
make the game feel very repetitive. The story is told through some
decent looking real time cinemas, but there are also some absolutely
fugly (yes, fugly) pre-rendered scenes that are too blurry to watch. The
characters look great, but the rest of the games graphics leave much to
be desired.
The
sound is one of the highlights of Batman: Vengeance. Mark Hamill and the
other voice actors from the animated TV series reprise their roles for
the game and do a very good job. The music is also very well done, but
it can start to get on your nerves when you have to listen to the same
track over and over when you have to play through levels repeatedly.
Even though the sound is generally pretty good, it isnt enough to save
Batman: Vengeance.
Overall, Batman: Vengeance is a bad game with bad graphics, bad
controls, and a bad camera. The game is also very short and seems
artificially lengthened by all of the puzzles and driving sequences that
will require you to try them dozens of times before you beat them. The
worst thing about struggling through this adventure is that there is
nothing to unlock or secrets to discover. The reward definitely doesnt
justify the trouble you have to go through. Batman: Vengeance is a good
example of poor game design and ends up providing more frustration than
fun. Even die hard fans of Batman will struggle to have fun with
Vengeance, so Id recommend skipping it and playing one of the other
superhero games out there.