Bro I just appreciate you telling the truth this was like Gotham knights. But at least everyone had there own thing in the game this played played like any other looter shooter. Transversal was the best thing about the game
Green lantern's ring would have changed to fit king sharks fin. Comedy for the sake of power continuity. *Fake chuckle* a power ring has to choose a user for them to use.
When I heard about the game’s story, my first thought was: well, clearly this is anithe universe and we’ll end up going to the Arkham universe by the end. It was so easy, so fun.
100%... I actually think the boss fights were actually great, but they just felt like the first HALF, or the first time you fight them (Flash, Green Lantern, and Superman). There should have been a more personal epic phase after what we do in the game for each of those 3.. when the fights ended for all 3 I thought... THAT'S IT!? I thought there was gonna be this insanely epic, GOW type boss fight after each. Also Batman 2nd half was a massive let down with fear toxin crap, huge demon bat.. the Batman experience in the beginning was epic, and we should've done a bigger more procedurally generated version of that as the Batman boss fight... where we have to find him, and catch him, and shoot him, and he grapples away but can take us down in different ways.... also a massive let down.. especially since they teased it with the batman experience in the beginning, and we get that crap instead.
That would have taken passion and dedication far beyond the scope of this development team’s capabilities. My god this game shouldn’t have left the writers room
Going for the "kill 13 Brainiacs" for a live service model feels weird. They should have made the JL much bigger and had you only kill one major member and some minor members (your Green Arrows, your Red Tornadoe) in the base game. Then every season have you kill one major member of the JLA and theme the season around that with some minor heroes related to the main hero and a playable villain per season. Then when the game is "done", kill Brainiac and it's done (or then release the Darkseid season as a epilogue)
@@rangerthederpgoat2326 you can also introduce sidekicks/allies, and rogues galleries. Like say the Wonder Woman season you can have Cheetah as the playable character, and Donna Troy as a the 2nd boss. Do a side mission on Paradise Island (just throw a McGuffin there) and it's set. The Batman one is easy, just hsve you kill the Bat Family, and I'd leave out the Joker as the playable character, there are way better options for an action RPG like Bane, Killer Croc or Azrael. The 13 Brainiacs just seems so lazy, I can't imagine the devs actually wanted to go that route.
For a live service game. The story and game doesn’t end. Kinda harsh to go at the game while the game hasn’t finished yet. Yes, I get it’s a live service game so people hate on it. Wait to judge the game until it’s completely. Heck, maybe Task Force X killed clone Justice league members. The original ones are still being captive.
@@gatewayrealtor664I think the fact that we are not getting another Arkham game is sinking in. I don't know if you saw the leak way back but we could have had a Batman Beyond game using the nemesis system.
Bringing back Arkham Batman made absolutely no sense considering his story ended in Arkham Knight. This was a failed cash grab attempt by rocksteady. Gameplay is decent, gets repetitive but decent.
Well that's the thing. I wouldn't even call this a "cash grab." They worked on this (apparently) for like 8 years. You don't work on a single game for that long as a "cash grab." No, the game is just BAD in EVERY sense. That's what completely boggles me. How the hell do you work on a game for THAT long, and THIS is what your final product looks like?
Leave it to Jake to give one of the most heartfelt, honest takes on the game without just being "game is trash." 100% agree with your points about Kevin Conroy, nothing can take away that iconic voice he did for 30 years. RIP you beautiful bastard, the world is a hell of a lot dimmer without you my dude 🫡
It's amazing to think, they worked for years and years on this, spent goodness knows how much money on it, and it'll probably be shut down in under a year because it's flopped so hard. They could have just put out a normal, good game.
Jake I can relate to the Joker killing in Arkham City. When he got stabbed I reached out at the screen and say OMG NO! When Batman carried him I just remember not moving from my seat and wow it’s over….. it was a sad moment for me.
I agree after everything Arkham Batman went through ESPECIALLY during knight warrants a bigger reason for him to come back. Not just superman found him and convinced him to join. Bruce went into exile after being outed as Batman by scarecrow to protect his loved ones . He used fear toxin to be something more. And HOW were they brainwashed? What did Brainiac do? Why can’t we get cutscenes ?
The quality of the Deadshot traversal makes it even more painful. Considering they could have done some awesome jet boosts/glide/grapnel traversal for a Batman Beyond Arkham game.
Super cool point. The motorcycle in Gotham knights was for a scrapped batman beyond game that used the nemesis system. We were given this and Gotham knights instead.
“Something was lost in the writing room” yeah, talented writers who actually researched and cared about source material and previous works from their own studio.
Bingo! The game felt empty and missing things. Harley Quinn and Batman have history together. They are the only two that been in every Arkham game. She should be pissed at him and it should been more personal. But she gave a little speech about "us criminals" and pulled the trigger. Now if that was all Gotham bad guys I would get it. The game was ok, but I'm not going to play it again until all the DLC's (whatever they are called now) come out so I can finish the story. Jake good stuff as always and I feel your pain.
The issue is Harley having vendetta against Batman is actually out of character for her. Harley in most continuities respects him because he tried to help her break free from Joker’s manipulations and to reform.
Live service games just can't go away soon enough. We could've had two single-player Arkham style games (of other DC characters) in the past 9 years, but we got a generic co-op 3rd person shooter with one of the worst comic book stories that I've ever seen. I liked the idea of killing the Justice League, but they couldn't have done a worse job with it.
Stop it with this live service hatred bullshit like thats something independent from how gamers behave as consumers. Millions of manchildren gladly pay for overpriced shitty cosmetics in live service games and don't buy nearly enough good single-player games, that's why everyone and their mother is trying their hand on a live service game. Whatever this industry has become, gamers are the main architect of it. If gamers have put their wallet on where their mouth is and bought well made single-player games instead of battlepass/dlc/cosmetic/cash shop shit, all we could see would be single-player games. The money listens, everytime.
This is quite common among today's "writers"; they often believe they know better. They tend to mock everything that came before, prioritizing shock value and subverting expectations at the expense of consistency or respect for the characters.
Didn’t the original writers and authors from the past once did similar things like the modern writers do. Oh wait they actually honor and understood what actually came before their artwork and books became to be.
Not story related, but, an immediate turn off for me upon seeing gameplay trailers was the UI. I looooooove all genres of games but no matter what the genre, numbers flying everywhere along with a million instructions and gauges and meters and stuff on screen drives me crazy. All I really need to know is ammo and health and maybe a mini-map (depending on the genre). The rest of it I should just be able to toggle so that I can see it when I need it.
11:47 I've always hated this defense because it's so reductive. The entire reason killing the justice league is shocking is because it goes against established convention and status quo, so it needs to be executed well in order for it to be anything other than brainless shock value. Also, if I made a movie called "Private Ryan on the Shores of Normandy", and its plot was "once upon a time, Ryan got shot by nazi machineguns", it wouldn't matter how much I parade the excuse of "it's world war two, it's in the title". It wouldn't change the fact that it's the simplest execution of an idea that could otherwise be written into a compelling story. Honestly, whenever I hear things about this game, it just sounds like everyone except the narrative lead and creative director did their job. Voice acting is good, modeling is good, animations are good, environments are good, etc etc. The only ones who dropped the ball are the people who are so devoid of creativity, they think the best way to kill the justice league is with a gun.
Wish it was Batman Kills the Justice League. Having to figure out everyone's weakness and how you'd go about it. As a detective. That would be the best universe version of this from Rocksteady
Another issue with the boss fights in this game is that you can clearly see that they made them extremely quick and easy as they’re designed to be re-played over and over again not making anything too large scale and grandiose, the same way that every mission is considering you’re generally supposed to play with others in a digestible re-playable manner
Here is the thing it wasn’t a retirement, he gave up his Identity to fully embrace the Dark Knight, so it doesn’t make sense to come out of the shadows and join the Justice League. Him fighting Joker in his mind should be enough to not be mind controlled and he could have helped to stop the Justice League.
Exactly. Like why didn’t they make Batman kept his sanity instead of being brainwashed. It could’ve been maybe that Batman helps the suicide squad and that Harley with her history with the Batman, learns to cooperate with him instead of wanting him dead for the joker’s demise. And then when he does the most selfless thing in his life, sacrificing his life in stopping brainiac; Harley realizes that he was more virtuous than rich and selfish. That not would the suicide squad make them heroic in their actions, but they saw Batman saving the world at the cost of his life. The surviving justice league and Gotham city residents honor the fallen dead dark knight. A true final tribute to Kevin Conroy himself. For his Batman voice acting that made our childhoods feel fulfilled.
Or at least make it something big enough to come out of the shadows and work with others. Let Brainiac still conquer earth but maybe the suicide squad or superman have to track him down .
I have nothing to add.. it just feels good to listen you. such a genuine Talk. No rant, no bicching , just pure honest thought From a gamer. Thanks Jake. Have a nice week.
i still think the story should've had him come out of hiding to help the squad stop the league. you can still have him die, but maybe have superman kill him off in the last fight. raises the stakes and make for a somber ending to the character
This game would've worked so well if we started out as the JL and one by one saw how they were all corrupted and taken by Brainiac. That would've been a dope way to introduce them into the Arkhamverse before unceremoniously killing them off with little to no character development - just evil. Like, how did Barry manage to escape the ship? Where was Diana during all of this? A Batman fight where he kills Robin... Ugh, so many missed opportunities.
it's insane how losing few original creative people can make such a big difference, but also when your go to market strategy is how to squeeze as much money from your customers that is never a good strategy
I hate that Jake had to see one of his favourite franchise ended in such disappointment and it’s just sad. You can see at the end he was so emotional because it means so much to him and he was always hopeful it will be good or even decent. A lesson to Developers for half assing a story and hell bent on making a live service. I feel for you man Jake even though I was never a fan of the Arkham verse, watching him geeking them out was always so fun to watch.
This video is a synthesis of why Jake is one of my favorite content creators: critical and level headed commentary on the video game industry with a conscious decision to focus on why games are fun and exciting. To be clear, many content creators and reviewers start out with this premise but most lose sight of it over the months or years. Jake however is clearly and genuinely himself always. We need more eyes on his work.
Thanks for being rational about the game. Your ability to still recognize the good parts of the game, even though you disliked it as a whole, speaks to your professionalism and your ability to be fair. I appreciate that.
The issue with killing Batman in this game is that Arkham Knight already did that. That game was obviously inferring that it was just the image of The Batman that died, but that was still a huge deal that could lead to a big change in the way a new incarnation of the character could behave. Instead in this game he is unceremoniously brought back to just be the exact same as before and then they unceremoniously kill him at the end. Of course people would rather him just not be there at all.
They had a multiverse comic which confirmed Arkham batman survived after Knightfall & after killing the joker , he got more unhinged as time went on , so Harley's reaction makes sense if u know that context. So it's not that surprising that he was bought back here unceremoniously or not , ppl knew he was alive and kicking those who read the comic anyway.
Man, Kevin Conroy was such a major figure for our generation. Everyone who grew up with him voicing Batman remembers his tone clearly, even though he’s been gone for years now. Amidst the sadness, it feels so great to hear so many people say the same thing about his legacy. Keep reading Batman lines in his voice, guys, we shouldn’t ever forget him
Cheers to you, Jake. I wish more UA-camrs would have "after hours" content. Just hanging out with a dude being straight up and honest about his opinion
Jon Stewart creating only guns? One of the main things about Jon is the fact that he's an engineer so he tends to make insanely durable and strong constructs...
they did the last performance from Kevin Conroy so dirty, hes quite possibly the most influential batman VA for this generation and he gets bitched on by harley on a park bench as his last appearance in a game. that killed this game for me
Man, the passion behind you equating the game's ending to a "wet fart, a whimper", you can totally tell how bummed you were with this. And understandably so. I couldn't justify the $70+ price tag for the game, so I started watching others stream the game to see what it was like. The gameplay really didn't interest me, but I actually stuck around to watch for the story. I thought the voice cast did a pretty compelling job, I thought Deadshot's performance was a bit dry though for most of it, but overall I was curious to see how it all tied together. Not having played the game myself I can't talk much on the mechanics, but it definitely felt weird how abruptly all the boss fights ended. The boss fights felt like they should have blocked the players from ending the fight by shooting and instead have a God of War finisher above their heads to initiate some sort of cutscene. Idk, the game has so many of those types of moments that felt off or just "did that really just end like that?". I've been speculating that since there's 12 alternate universes/Braniacs, that we will end up seeing more of Arkham Batman, and end up fighting alongside each member of the JL at some point too. I think they're saving a better ending after more of those fights, as in they want to build some sort of character arc for the Suicide Squad over these next DLC releases. HOWEVER, they could've just put that all in one game instead, not as DLC over a period of time. Because now the players are here sitting with this poor tasting ending in their mouths waiting for a better resolve. If they would have given us more endings to play through right away, I don't think there would have been as big of an uproar. Sorry for the long comment, clearly I'm a bit passionate about this as well lol.
Jake is truly one of the most cool headed game reviewers who justifies his disappointment with certain aspect of a game, all while presenting it in a civilised manner and giving constructive critism and advice along the way.
Yeah. It was a moment where someone said, "This would be cool" and stopped there. There is no point in basing it on DC characters if stuff like that doesn't matter.
funnily enough, people defending this game are crediting that moment as one of the many that “foreshadow” that the justice league wasn’t the real version
The intro with green lantern was actually kind of creepy & the SS felt vulnerable for a brief moment. Boomerang literally has the speedforce gauntlet & king shark eventually gets a lantern ring but for some reason we take down each member with guns?!
Man Jake, this is the saddest and most disappointed I’ve ever seen you be for a video game. Tbh my heart goes out to you. Shows how much you wanted this to work. I haven’t played the game and was dodging spoilers hoping to play it eventually. But when I saw your video pop up, I was like fuck it it’s Jake. Great video as always🙏🏾💜
For a minute I thought you were gonna quote Jeff Goldblum from JP-“…you read what others had done, and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, you packaged it, and now BAM! You’re selling it!” I’m paraphrasing but you know the scene.
You can thank Sweet Baby Inc ;) It's ironic that you mention the wonder woman bit being the only good part... cause uh... Sweet baby inc being involved is exactly why the only female was represented in a good way. Shocker.
Sweet Baby Inc. is a consulting studio, they don't have narrative power over Rocksteady Ultimately this is Rocksteady's and WB's fuckup, and yeah if more characters got the Wonder Woman treatment we might have gotten a better story
@@shamrock141 fair enough, they chose to have sweet baby work on their game so the blame is still their own BUT a choice like that is higher up and it’s possible that the reason the game took so long is that they actually finished a game that would’ve been better to a degree and THEN had sweet baby come in and do their work on it.
@@tmauntler I understand you but that reasoning seems off. The story, narrative and audio are among the first things completed in game production, the work that must have gone into making these cutscenes around established characters like Wonder Woman would have been immense, so Rocksteady knew what they were doing and aiming for years in advance Personally I liked Wonder Woman in this game, I thought her story was damn good and I just wish the rest of the league got the same level of writing, there's no reason they couldn't have made the league more compelling as villains than what we got
Hi, by the way ; even if the game is called "Kill the JL", it could have been the title of the mission with kill , meaning neutralizing the JLeague, incapicatate them without terminating them. And it could have been Luthor during the story, finding a way to reverse the mind control. And during the game, we will have in adding to the mission of neutralizing the JL, an ARC to build a machine toi reverse Brainiac MControl, and at the the JLeague is badly hurt, and the season to come for the 13 brainiacs, you could have the help of the members not dead....
One of the things that bummed me out the most as a Superman fan were how lame, sparse, and surface-level the easter eggs are from what I’ve seen. The Arkham games had SO many references all over the place and tons of them were deep cuts. This game is just like, a character’s name on a sign or something. Hell, there’s probably more Batman stuff than Superman stuff in the game, and it’s set in Metropolis!
Well it’s not about the Justice League being killed. It’s about they got killed before we can ever experience to play with them. And not just game wise but also canon wise. This is their first Justice League level of threat and they failed. If there was a game or two about them or even just a few of them that we can play as, getting kill them wouldn’t be so pointless
Once I heard it was heading for a live service model I had no doubts that it would suck. But I'm not the biggest fan of the suicide squad anyway. I honestly don't know why they've been pushed so much for the past 8 years.
Jake saying: these are the people that killed the Joker Made me remember how I felt after Arkham City and even more dumbfounded at the choices this gama made when it comes to the deaths
Always appreciate your honesty and positivity in your takes. I've watched your videos for over 10 years now. When you describe a game as "a wet fart", that carries some weight 😂
Love it Jake! I think the Batman death could've worked in an 8-12 hour Harley story. I also think the way he was killed could work too, a bullet with Harley at the trigger, because he's the only Justice League member without super powers, he is just a man and his death should reflect that. There just wasn't the story to back any of it up. P.S. Conroy was my first and is still my favourite Batman, remember being five years old and the Animated Series theme always giving me goosebumps.
For the life of me, it will never make sense to me that Batman couldn’t shake the mind control since canonically he’s been shown to having such an incredibly resilient mind with the capacity to break free of all forms of mind control/brain washing/fear toxin.
Hear me out guys, sorry Jake for this being not related : we need a Dark Nights Metal & Death Metal series if they really want to do a live service game. As the evil bats, we destroy/invade multiples universes (multiples seasons) while a multiversal resistance is forming up in the background (for the story).
Great video, as always, Jake! Love you, man. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! I watch you all the time here and at Gameranx. Good luck with your Batman home filming studio!
Jeez Jake, way to make me feel my feelings while I'm trying to get ready for work. As a lifelong fan of Kevin Conroy's Batman, you nailed it - we'll always have a treasure trove of the incredible work he did
It's fun to dream. The fanbase may be too small. It may need a movie first. Arkham Asylum came after Christoher Nolan's Dark Knight. It may work if it's really good, Arkham City good.
14:43 . Totally agree with you. For me, after playing Starfield, downloading and experiencing Fallout 4 and Skyrim again, though still meager efforts as a games, felt so much more impactful than Starfailed ever could. I suspect that's how many of us will feel after finally getting our hands on SS: just by sheer comparison, we'll come to appreciate the Arkham series more than ever.
Thank you so much for this. I love spoilers especially for things I might be a little interested in when it's wrapped up in something terrible that I don't want any part of.
What he isn't telling you is that right after the eulogy for Kevin Conroy, the immediately give you a loot box-style equipment drop and one of the squad then congratulates themselves on the cool gun they got.
It seems like they forced Wonder Woman to be the main hero to help the Squad because they wanted to "empower" women even though seeing as it was an Arkham verse game it made more sense for it be Batman. The whole toxic masculinity thing was pretty hilarious.
Great video as always, and I'm glad to hear your deeper opinion on what didn't work for you with the game. I think it's completely valid for people not to enjoy this game, whether it's the plot, gameplay, or live service model. I for one really dig it, and I've been struggling to see why people have so much anger towards the game. As a comic fan of 30 years I've seen my share of fan induced rage, but I feel like this game wasn't even out before people decided it was trash, and the majority of the critiques I've seen are purely subjective opinions being passed off as fact. The two words I've seen most commonly associated with negative feelings are 'expectations' and 'entitlement', two words I dislike as a fan of art and comics. We as fans are not entitled to anything, the fact that we got a final Conroy Arkham performance is amazing in and of itself. Being an Arkham game, fans set expectations high, which I understand, but that's on them, not the devs nor the actors involved. I remember when Arkham Origins came out and people clowned it's story. I remember when Arkham knight came out and it had terrible bugs on launch for PC. Fans will always find something to complain about. Are they valid in this case? To some degree, yes, as long as it's acknowledged that these critiques are subjective. I for one loved the Boss fights, thought the story was pretty good, and honestly loved how anticlimactic Batmand demise was. It wasn't overly dramatic because it's not his story. Wonder Woman got more of a moment because our characters interacted with her more, and her demise meant something thematically to the story more than just a send off for a beloved character. I understand being bummed about it being Arkham Batman, and I get wanting more explanation into his return to heroics or his demise, but I think that's for a different story or game. It's funny that you used a panel from Final Crisis in the video, a story that was heavily critiqued and hated by fans on release and to this day. I've defended that book to Canon fans who think it's an affront to the characters they love, when it's really a love letter to all things DC. It's loaded with Fourth World goodness, and the demise of Batman was such a fun moment to live through. I had friends at my local comic shop give up comics over it saying Morrison didn't understand the characters and didn't write a good story. Much like that instance, I hope people remember that this is a story that isn't anywhere near finished. It's like judging a 12 issue event off the first 6 without seeing what plot threads open and unravel over the coming months. Thats what comics are. They're serialized storytelling, they're meant to be told over time, not binged and taken as one massive chunk. Again, I get this not working for people, and I get being bummed about the story, mechanics, etc. I just hope fans remember that we are not entitled to anything and we are the ones setting our expectations, that's not on the devs. To those who didn't like it, I hopenthe next Batman game does it for ya. For me. I'm stoked I got a game where I got to play as a Rogue and to see some of my favorite characters come to life in a game. Just hearing the words Elseworlds uttered made me so happy. I hope the next game from DC can make more people as happy as I was in that moment. Thanks again for all you do!!
Amazing work, been subscribed for 13 years. Funny you looked and sounded so familiar. Now i know why lol. The room will look great when everything is setup. Keep making great videos. -Matthew Greco
I probably wouldn't have as many nit picks about it if it wasn't Arkham Batman because of the time playing as him and all that Arkham Batman went through but yeah it's just a whole lot of missed opportunities and a lot of the League members deaths do feel like there wasn't anything to them. But yeah you're right that if the story is done well then it's not a big deal if members are killed off, it's just that this game doesn't have that. Also could of done with just a Justice League game because there are hints of potential there with the League members but a whole lot is skipped, especially with Batman coming back from his death/retirement and joining them like you said. But yeah just as a potential thing that could of fit maybe a bit more is that if the premise still stands with Brainiac taking over the JL but have Batman never join/never come back officially to the JL, save that for the game so we haven't lost time with Arkham Batman. Then he doesn't have the loss to Brainiac that the others members do and he's the one working on a counter offensive, I know that detracts from the title of the game and pre hype at the time but if it's still the Arkham world I feel like it still has to follow some rules. I don't know but again with his previous appearance in Knight to be more or less Batman fighting most of the game to keep control from becoming the next Joker, for his next appearance to be fully under control just by Brainiac instead just doesn't sit all that well for me either.
I honestly don't know why it wasn't a Batman kills the Justice League game ( *even though he doesn't "kill"). Just would have been way cooler, he has a contingency plan for every member.
I think the fact that the story couldn't hold my attention was when I knew I wasn't going to take the game as seriously as I was hoping I would've. I found myself dissociating at some points, kind of just auto piloting the experience. By the time Batman took a piece of chrome to the dome I was so checked out that If didn't even register any emotion. Which is wild because I have such an appreciation for the Arkham Verse story, and lore.
You da man Jake. Great video! I appreciate you always giving it to us straight with no bs. You have a genuineness that comes through and you don’t give time to negativity but do a great job with being analytical about stories and characters.
I really enjoyed this video from you Jake. I normally enjoy consuming all the content you produce but these type of videos especially always leave an impact. This is more Jake the passionate fan, where on Gameranx, understandably so, it's Jake the video game journalist/reporter. It was really nice to hear your thoughts on this, how you felt about Batman's demise and the justice league as a whole, with how they were treated and disposed of. I, like yourself don't see this game standing the test of time like we always have with the Arkham games. It certainly will scratch some people's itch due to it being a reasonably open world co op looter shooter you can play with friends as you take control of *some* iconic characters in the DCU, but it certainly has a shelf life. The ending especially was really well said and poignant. We will always have Kevin's greats performance across the other mediums, he loved batman, he loved to perform for all of us and he gave us endless entertainment and countless memories through out so many years. This was a nice change of character from the batman we all knew so well and group up with. I'm sure he had a load of fun with it, portraying the more devious take of what Bruce Wayne could become under the right circumstances, the story just could have been a whole lotmmore but such is the video game industry nowadays, especially when they implement the live service model. Great video dude truly, I always enjoy your takes on this channel especially, your passion and opinions are a home run every time. This time, Mr Baldino, Pizza's on me.
thanks for watching! I felt really passionate about this one
Cool.
Howdy!
Thanks for making it I was really wanting someone to go through this for me so I didn't have to play it and we have similar taste
Bro I just appreciate you telling the truth this was like Gotham knights. But at least everyone had there own thing in the game this played played like any other looter shooter. Transversal was the best thing about the game
Green lantern's ring would have changed to fit king sharks fin. Comedy for the sake of power continuity. *Fake chuckle* a power ring has to choose a user for them to use.
If it wasn’t the Arkham Batman I would have been onboard. I’m all for changing stories and characters, but it could have been a standalone timeline.
When I heard about the game’s story, my first thought was: well, clearly this is anithe universe and we’ll end up going to the Arkham universe by the end. It was so easy, so fun.
It is so ironic too since it comes from DC who screws their timeline every 5 years. Why not make another one again?
But it would mean less because it would just be another elseworlds batman. I think it gives it more weight tbh
Agreed. Would help if the game itself was actually good too
Wahh wahh akrhamverse boo hoo.
The game needed some God of War type of boss deaths for the Justice League deaths. Should have been epic.
Boomerang could’ve given Flash the Hermes treatment 💀
With this script; give it all U want, it still gonna suck .
100%... I actually think the boss fights were actually great, but they just felt like the first HALF, or the first time you fight them (Flash, Green Lantern, and Superman). There should have been a more personal epic phase after what we do in the game for each of those 3.. when the fights ended for all 3 I thought... THAT'S IT!? I thought there was gonna be this insanely epic, GOW type boss fight after each.
Also Batman 2nd half was a massive let down with fear toxin crap, huge demon bat.. the Batman experience in the beginning was epic, and we should've done a bigger more procedurally generated version of that as the Batman boss fight... where we have to find him, and catch him, and shoot him, and he grapples away but can take us down in different ways.... also a massive let down.. especially since they teased it with the batman experience in the beginning, and we get that crap instead.
That would have taken passion and dedication far beyond the scope of this development team’s capabilities. My god this game shouldn’t have left the writers room
Yeah QTE 💯
Rocksteady ain't the same rocksteady. Especially when the game directors left.
If you are talking about the two co founders, they left in late 2022. Game was essentially done by then as it had been in development since like 2016.
@@jdp117nah this is all sweet baby dei bullsht and we all saw through it. Garbage game
Ship of Theseus but of game studios
Sweet baby stink
Most of the people who worked on the Arkham games left at some point before or during development.
Another lame thing, is that Evil Justice League and Brainiac only interact with each other through comms. They're never evil on screen together.
This is a crazy wild point that I somehow missed? You are so right lmao
My biggest gripe is the way they completely discarded the bat family….
I’m going for the gravely injured robin escaped to inform the rest of the bat family and they might show up later in seasons or whatever
@@vadar0521 not gonna lie that would be a cool concept, too bad this game probably won’t make it past season 2 with the way it launched
Cause they were in the Gotham Knights timeline trying to save THAT version of Batman😆
As i was zipping around as captain boomerang in metropolis im like goddamn it i wish this was a superman game or a justice league game
I've been praying for a video game version of "The Long Halloween" for years, but at this point, I'll stick with the book.
Ya closest we got to that is Arkham Knight
Such a good story. An evil Batman based on the cult comic would be cool too. Or the Dracula comic.......ugh
We could have had a Batman Beyond with the nemesis system.....
@@KamikazibroadcastCloser to Knightfall than Long Halloween
Going for the "kill 13 Brainiacs" for a live service model feels weird. They should have made the JL much bigger and had you only kill one major member and some minor members (your Green Arrows, your Red Tornadoe) in the base game.
Then every season have you kill one major member of the JLA and theme the season around that with some minor heroes related to the main hero and a playable villain per season.
Then when the game is "done", kill Brainiac and it's done (or then release the Darkseid season as a epilogue)
Damn man, that would have been a dope idea and given each brainwashed hero their due.
@@rangerthederpgoat2326 you can also introduce sidekicks/allies, and rogues galleries. Like say the Wonder Woman season you can have Cheetah as the playable character, and Donna Troy as a the 2nd boss. Do a side mission on Paradise Island (just throw a McGuffin there) and it's set.
The Batman one is easy, just hsve you kill the Bat Family, and I'd leave out the Joker as the playable character, there are way better options for an action RPG like Bane, Killer Croc or Azrael.
The 13 Brainiacs just seems so lazy, I can't imagine the devs actually wanted to go that route.
This alone aounds amazing..ughh they messed up big time!! 😤😤 While also dropping new Suicid* Squad member!
Instead were probaly gonna get copies of the previous justice league fights, in the later seasons
Incredible idea
We're stuck in the "It had a cool pemise and it had the potential to be this or that, but it's this intead which is why it sucks" cycle
If a Suicide Squad game was a hard sell without the Arkham goodwill, then it shouldn’t have been made.
Bingo. That was their last ditch effort to pique interest and it backfired tremendously lol
Jake is cool, the game sucks, everything’s balanced.
Based comment.
Didn't he say it didn't suck though? I think those were his exact words in his review... 🤷🏾♂️
@@maceblade2069and yet you reply with a phrase using the exact tactic you thought it was countering? Jake is cool and this game does suck lol
For a live service game. The story and game doesn’t end. Kinda harsh to go at the game while the game hasn’t finished yet. Yes, I get it’s a live service game so people hate on it. Wait to judge the game until it’s completely. Heck, maybe Task Force X killed clone Justice league members. The original ones are still being captive.
@@gatewayrealtor664I think the fact that we are not getting another Arkham game is sinking in. I don't know if you saw the leak way back but we could have had a Batman Beyond game using the nemesis system.
“You’ve been warned, you don’t care” Jake Baldino.Wise words about Suicide Dud
Bringing back Arkham Batman made absolutely no sense considering his story ended in Arkham Knight. This was a failed cash grab attempt by rocksteady. Gameplay is decent, gets repetitive but decent.
Well that's the thing. I wouldn't even call this a "cash grab." They worked on this (apparently) for like 8 years. You don't work on a single game for that long as a "cash grab." No, the game is just BAD in EVERY sense. That's what completely boggles me. How the hell do you work on a game for THAT long, and THIS is what your final product looks like?
Leave it to Jake to give one of the most heartfelt, honest takes on the game without just being "game is trash."
100% agree with your points about Kevin Conroy, nothing can take away that iconic voice he did for 30 years. RIP you beautiful bastard, the world is a hell of a lot dimmer without you my dude 🫡
It's amazing to think, they worked for years and years on this, spent goodness knows how much money on it, and it'll probably be shut down in under a year because it's flopped so hard. They could have just put out a normal, good game.
Jake I can relate to the Joker killing in Arkham City. When he got stabbed I reached out at the screen and say OMG NO! When Batman carried him I just remember not moving from my seat and wow it’s over….. it was a sad moment for me.
They should have made a Batman beyond game 🫤
that would have been an infintely better sendoff for Kevin Conroy as well.
I agree after everything Arkham Batman went through ESPECIALLY during knight warrants a bigger reason for him to come back. Not just superman found him and convinced him to join. Bruce went into exile after being outed as Batman by scarecrow to protect his loved ones . He used fear toxin to be something more. And HOW were they brainwashed? What did Brainiac do? Why can’t we get cutscenes ?
The quality of the Deadshot traversal makes it even more painful. Considering they could have done some awesome jet boosts/glide/grapnel traversal for a Batman Beyond Arkham game.
True. The combination of the jets and Arkham Batman’s traversal would’ve been awesome. Too bad they went this direction
Super cool point. The motorcycle in Gotham knights was for a scrapped batman beyond game that used the nemesis system. We were given this and Gotham knights instead.
“Something was lost in the writing room” yeah, talented writers who actually researched and cared about source material and previous works from their own studio.
They could’ve been better off making this game as some elseworlds type event game. At least this doesn’t collide with the Arkham verse
Bingo! The game felt empty and missing things. Harley Quinn and Batman have history together. They are the only two that been in every Arkham game. She should be pissed at him and it should been more personal. But she gave a little speech about "us criminals" and pulled the trigger. Now if that was all Gotham bad guys I would get it.
The game was ok, but I'm not going to play it again until all the DLC's (whatever they are called now) come out so I can finish the story. Jake good stuff as always and I feel your pain.
If you think 3 missions on repeat is ok along with that story you need to seek help
The issue is Harley having vendetta against Batman is actually out of character for her. Harley in most continuities respects him because he tried to help her break free from Joker’s manipulations and to reform.
@@unionblue21 Not in Arkham series though, He never tried to help her break free and Harley never truly got over the Joker.
Live service games just can't go away soon enough. We could've had two single-player Arkham style games (of other DC characters) in the past 9 years, but we got a generic co-op 3rd person shooter with one of the worst comic book stories that I've ever seen. I liked the idea of killing the Justice League, but they couldn't have done a worse job with it.
Stop it with this live service hatred bullshit like thats something independent from how gamers behave as consumers. Millions of manchildren gladly pay for overpriced shitty cosmetics in live service games and don't buy nearly enough good single-player games, that's why everyone and their mother is trying their hand on a live service game. Whatever this industry has become, gamers are the main architect of it. If gamers have put their wallet on where their mouth is and bought well made single-player games instead of battlepass/dlc/cosmetic/cash shop shit, all we could see would be single-player games. The money listens, everytime.
This is quite common among today's "writers"; they often believe they know better. They tend to mock everything that came before, prioritizing shock value and subverting expectations at the expense of consistency or respect for the characters.
Didn’t the original writers and authors from the past once did similar things like the modern writers do. Oh wait they actually honor and understood what actually came before their artwork and books became to be.
They outsource the writing part to Sweet Baby Inc so of course it's felt disconnected to the rest of Arkham Titles
@@bobbywrtm It's also disconnected from reality. This game was written for the mythical modern audience.
Sounds like Ryan Johnson
Not story related, but, an immediate turn off for me upon seeing gameplay trailers was the UI. I looooooove all genres of games but no matter what the genre, numbers flying everywhere along with a million instructions and gauges and meters and stuff on screen drives me crazy. All I really need to know is ammo and health and maybe a mini-map (depending on the genre). The rest of it I should just be able to toggle so that I can see it when I need it.
11:47 I've always hated this defense because it's so reductive. The entire reason killing the justice league is shocking is because it goes against established convention and status quo, so it needs to be executed well in order for it to be anything other than brainless shock value.
Also, if I made a movie called "Private Ryan on the Shores of Normandy", and its plot was "once upon a time, Ryan got shot by nazi machineguns", it wouldn't matter how much I parade the excuse of "it's world war two, it's in the title". It wouldn't change the fact that it's the simplest execution of an idea that could otherwise be written into a compelling story.
Honestly, whenever I hear things about this game, it just sounds like everyone except the narrative lead and creative director did their job. Voice acting is good, modeling is good, animations are good, environments are good, etc etc. The only ones who dropped the ball are the people who are so devoid of creativity, they think the best way to kill the justice league is with a gun.
Said it perfectly bro
Damn... very well put
Wish it was Batman Kills the Justice League. Having to figure out everyone's weakness and how you'd go about it. As a detective. That would be the best universe version of this from Rocksteady
I've wanted to play a game where I get hunted down in the dark by Batman since I was a kid, sad to see this is the game it finally happened in.😢
Play the multiplayer in Arkham origins
Another issue with the boss fights in this game is that you can clearly see that they made them extremely quick and easy as they’re designed to be re-played over and over again not making anything too large scale and grandiose, the same way that every mission is considering you’re generally supposed to play with others in a digestible re-playable manner
the only people defending this game are people who don't wanna admit they were wrong anddon't wanna admit they got swindled outta $100
Here is the thing it wasn’t a retirement, he gave up his Identity to fully embrace the Dark Knight, so it doesn’t make sense to come out of the shadows and join the Justice League. Him fighting Joker in his mind should be enough to not be mind controlled and he could have helped to stop the Justice League.
Exactly. Like why didn’t they make Batman kept his sanity instead of being brainwashed. It could’ve been maybe that Batman helps the suicide squad and that Harley with her history with the Batman, learns to cooperate with him instead of wanting him dead for the joker’s demise. And then when he does the most selfless thing in his life, sacrificing his life in stopping brainiac; Harley realizes that he was more virtuous than rich and selfish. That not would the suicide squad make them heroic in their actions, but they saw Batman saving the world at the cost of his life. The surviving justice league and Gotham city residents honor the fallen dead dark knight. A true final tribute to Kevin Conroy himself. For his Batman voice acting that made our childhoods feel fulfilled.
Or at least make it something big enough to come out of the shadows and work with others. Let Brainiac still conquer earth but maybe the suicide squad or superman have to track him down .
Harley Quinn killing Batman is like Screwball killing Spider-man
I have nothing to add.. it just feels good to listen you. such a genuine Talk. No rant, no bicching , just pure honest thought From a gamer. Thanks Jake. Have a nice week.
i still think the story should've had him come out of hiding to help the squad stop the league. you can still have him die, but maybe have superman kill him off in the last fight. raises the stakes and make for a somber ending to the character
This game would've worked so well if we started out as the JL and one by one saw how they were all corrupted and taken by Brainiac. That would've been a dope way to introduce them into the Arkhamverse before unceremoniously killing them off with little to no character development - just evil. Like, how did Barry manage to escape the ship? Where was Diana during all of this? A Batman fight where he kills Robin...
Ugh, so many missed opportunities.
it's insane how losing few original creative people can make such a big difference, but also when your go to market strategy is how to squeeze as much money from your customers that is never a good strategy
I hate that Jake had to see one of his favourite franchise ended in such disappointment and it’s just sad. You can see at the end he was so emotional because it means so much to him and he was always hopeful it will be good or even decent. A lesson to Developers for half assing a story and hell bent on making a live service. I feel for you man Jake even though I was never a fan of the Arkham verse, watching him geeking them out was always so fun to watch.
Hearing you talking about batman so passionately makes me want to watch the Batman animated series again. Haven’t seen it since I was a little kid.
This video is a synthesis of why Jake is one of my favorite content creators: critical and level headed commentary on the video game industry with a conscious decision to focus on why games are fun and exciting. To be clear, many content creators and reviewers start out with this premise but most lose sight of it over the months or years. Jake however is clearly and genuinely himself always. We need more eyes on his work.
Thanks for the great video, @JakeBaldino! I can tell you were invested in this one.
Thanks for being rational about the game. Your ability to still recognize the good parts of the game, even though you disliked it as a whole, speaks to your professionalism and your ability to be fair. I appreciate that.
The issue with killing Batman in this game is that Arkham Knight already did that. That game was obviously inferring that it was just the image of The Batman that died, but that was still a huge deal that could lead to a big change in the way a new incarnation of the character could behave. Instead in this game he is unceremoniously brought back to just be the exact same as before and then they unceremoniously kill him at the end. Of course people would rather him just not be there at all.
They had a multiverse comic which confirmed Arkham batman survived after Knightfall & after killing the joker , he got more unhinged as time went on , so Harley's reaction makes sense if u know that context.
So it's not that surprising that he was bought back here unceremoniously or not , ppl knew he was alive and kicking those who read the comic anyway.
Nothing can ruin Conroy's legacy
Man, Kevin Conroy was such a major figure for our generation. Everyone who grew up with him voicing Batman remembers his tone clearly, even though he’s been gone for years now. Amidst the sadness, it feels so great to hear so many people say the same thing about his legacy. Keep reading Batman lines in his voice, guys, we shouldn’t ever forget him
Holy s#it! I have Batman’s voice in my head too! It’s there, and it’s nice to know that it’s still there.
Cheers to you, Jake. I wish more UA-camrs would have "after hours" content. Just hanging out with a dude being straight up and honest about his opinion
Touching Bro. We love you :)
This game is like the Halo Tv Show. Say that you don’t like it, forget it and replay the first 3 Halos to help you with that.
Jon Stewart creating only guns? One of the main things about Jon is the fact that he's an engineer so he tends to make insanely durable and strong constructs...
John's constructs usually had internal parts while Hal's constructs we're usually hollow.
You can definitely tell Kevin is having a kick ass time with the dialogue. Lol
they did the last performance from Kevin Conroy so dirty, hes quite possibly the most influential batman VA for this generation and he gets bitched on by harley on a park bench as his last appearance in a game. that killed this game for me
While it will be his last Arkham bats he is reportedly reprising his role posthumously in crisis part 3.
Man, the passion behind you equating the game's ending to a "wet fart, a whimper", you can totally tell how bummed you were with this. And understandably so. I couldn't justify the $70+ price tag for the game, so I started watching others stream the game to see what it was like. The gameplay really didn't interest me, but I actually stuck around to watch for the story. I thought the voice cast did a pretty compelling job, I thought Deadshot's performance was a bit dry though for most of it, but overall I was curious to see how it all tied together. Not having played the game myself I can't talk much on the mechanics, but it definitely felt weird how abruptly all the boss fights ended. The boss fights felt like they should have blocked the players from ending the fight by shooting and instead have a God of War finisher above their heads to initiate some sort of cutscene. Idk, the game has so many of those types of moments that felt off or just "did that really just end like that?". I've been speculating that since there's 12 alternate universes/Braniacs, that we will end up seeing more of Arkham Batman, and end up fighting alongside each member of the JL at some point too. I think they're saving a better ending after more of those fights, as in they want to build some sort of character arc for the Suicide Squad over these next DLC releases. HOWEVER, they could've just put that all in one game instead, not as DLC over a period of time. Because now the players are here sitting with this poor tasting ending in their mouths waiting for a better resolve. If they would have given us more endings to play through right away, I don't think there would have been as big of an uproar.
Sorry for the long comment, clearly I'm a bit passionate about this as well lol.
Jake is truly one of the most cool headed game reviewers who justifies his disappointment with certain aspect of a game, all while presenting it in a civilised manner and giving constructive critism and advice along the way.
The king shark green lantern moment made no sense thats not how the power ring works
Yeah. It was a moment where someone said, "This would be cool" and stopped there. There is no point in basing it on DC characters if stuff like that doesn't matter.
funnily enough, people defending this game are crediting that moment as one of the many that “foreshadow” that the justice league wasn’t the real version
The intro with green lantern was actually kind of creepy & the SS felt vulnerable for a brief moment. Boomerang literally has the speedforce gauntlet & king shark eventually gets a lantern ring but for some reason we take down each member with guns?!
Dude i am so happy you made this video, kevin will always be with us; glad he got to have fun with this
Can't wait for the Snyder Cut of Kill the Justice League.
Spyder is garbage
Love me some Spyro
@@EdK-Musicthat dragonfly is pretty cool
@@Trispefear the coolest
I clapped
Thanks for the level headed take Jake👍
I can't wait for Angry Joe's video on this game.
Taking out the Earth 3 justice league would have made better sense. They're evil already.
Excellent, measured response, especially when taking into account both videos. Just a really honest, solid breakdown.
Man Jake, this is the saddest and most disappointed I’ve ever seen you be for a video game. Tbh my heart goes out to you. Shows how much you wanted this to work. I haven’t played the game and was dodging spoilers hoping to play it eventually. But when I saw your video pop up, I was like fuck it it’s Jake. Great video as always🙏🏾💜
For a minute I thought you were gonna quote Jeff Goldblum from JP-“…you read what others had done, and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, you packaged it, and now BAM! You’re selling it!” I’m paraphrasing but you know the scene.
Batman’s boss fight could’ve been something similar to the Mr freeze fight in Arkham city.
yes!
You can thank Sweet Baby Inc ;)
It's ironic that you mention the wonder woman bit being the only good part... cause uh... Sweet baby inc being involved is exactly why the only female was represented in a good way. Shocker.
Sweet Baby Inc. is a consulting studio, they don't have narrative power over Rocksteady
Ultimately this is Rocksteady's and WB's fuckup, and yeah if more characters got the Wonder Woman treatment we might have gotten a better story
@@shamrock141 fair enough, they chose to have sweet baby work on their game so the blame is still their own BUT a choice like that is higher up and it’s possible that the reason the game took so long is that they actually finished a game that would’ve been better to a degree and THEN had sweet baby come in and do their work on it.
@@tmauntler I understand you but that reasoning seems off. The story, narrative and audio are among the first things completed in game production, the work that must have gone into making these cutscenes around established characters like Wonder Woman would have been immense, so Rocksteady knew what they were doing and aiming for years in advance
Personally I liked Wonder Woman in this game, I thought her story was damn good and I just wish the rest of the league got the same level of writing, there's no reason they couldn't have made the league more compelling as villains than what we got
Hi, by the way ; even if the game is called "Kill the JL", it could have been the title of the mission with kill , meaning neutralizing the JLeague, incapicatate them without terminating them. And it could have been Luthor during the story, finding a way to reverse the mind control. And during the game, we will have in adding to the mission of neutralizing the JL, an ARC to build a machine toi reverse Brainiac MControl, and at the the JLeague is badly hurt, and the season to come for the 13 brainiacs, you could have the help of the members not dead....
Assault on Arkham the animated movie is out how you do a Scary Batman that hunts down your protagonists as this outside force of nature.
Just wanted to say thanks for all you do and most of all God bless you and yours always brother Baldino always and forever more. ~Peace&Soul
Ppl like Jake make been nerdy cool. He's really out here repping for us man. Big up
One of the things that bummed me out the most as a Superman fan were how lame, sparse, and surface-level the easter eggs are from what I’ve seen. The Arkham games had SO many references all over the place and tons of them were deep cuts. This game is just like, a character’s name on a sign or something. Hell, there’s probably more Batman stuff than Superman stuff in the game, and it’s set in Metropolis!
Well it’s not about the Justice League being killed. It’s about they got killed before we can ever experience to play with them. And not just game wise but also canon wise. This is their first Justice League level of threat and they failed. If there was a game or two about them or even just a few of them that we can play as, getting kill them wouldn’t be so pointless
Once I heard it was heading for a live service model I had no doubts that it would suck. But I'm not the biggest fan of the suicide squad anyway. I honestly don't know why they've been pushed so much for the past 8 years.
Jake saying: these are the people that killed the Joker
Made me remember how I felt after Arkham City and even more dumbfounded at the choices this gama made when it comes to the deaths
No it’s not those people don’t work there anymore and haven’t for awhile
Always appreciate your honesty and positivity in your takes. I've watched your videos for over 10 years now. When you describe a game as "a wet fart", that carries some weight 😂
Thank you for the heartfelt video!
You can't kill batman
You know why?
BECAUSE HE IS BATMAN!
Love it Jake! I think the Batman death could've worked in an 8-12 hour Harley story. I also think the way he was killed could work too, a bullet with Harley at the trigger, because he's the only Justice League member without super powers, he is just a man and his death should reflect that. There just wasn't the story to back any of it up.
P.S. Conroy was my first and is still my favourite Batman, remember being five years old and the Animated Series theme always giving me goosebumps.
Some great points. I'll reserve judgement until the end, assuming it lasts until then.
yeah the way handled batman in this game was just depressing and sad in my opinion.
For the life of me, it will never make sense to me that Batman couldn’t shake the mind control since canonically he’s been shown to having such an incredibly resilient mind with the capacity to break free of all forms of mind control/brain washing/fear toxin.
Uhh , He got Brainjacked by Superman in injustice 2 who used *Brainiac* tech to do the same.
Hear me out guys, sorry Jake for this being not related : we need a Dark Nights Metal & Death Metal series if they really want to do a live service game. As the evil bats, we destroy/invade multiples universes (multiples seasons) while a multiversal resistance is forming up in the background (for the story).
Great video, as always, Jake! Love you, man. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! I watch you all the time here and at Gameranx. Good luck with your Batman home filming studio!
As a person who grew up on Kevin Conroy being Batman, this is the review I need to watch and deserve to hear.
Jeez Jake, way to make me feel my feelings while I'm trying to get ready for work. As a lifelong fan of Kevin Conroy's Batman, you nailed it - we'll always have a treasure trove of the incredible work he did
We shoulda got a Batman beyond game
It's fun to dream. The fanbase may be too small. It may need a movie first. Arkham Asylum came after Christoher Nolan's Dark Knight. It may work if it's really good, Arkham City good.
14:43 . Totally agree with you. For me, after playing Starfield, downloading and experiencing Fallout 4 and Skyrim again, though still meager efforts as a games, felt so much more impactful than Starfailed ever could. I suspect that's how many of us will feel after finally getting our hands on SS: just by sheer comparison, we'll come to appreciate the Arkham series more than ever.
Thank you so much for this. I love spoilers especially for things I might be a little interested in when it's wrapped up in something terrible that I don't want any part of.
What he isn't telling you is that right after the eulogy for Kevin Conroy, the immediately give you a loot box-style equipment drop and one of the squad then congratulates themselves on the cool gun they got.
Jake you are one of the few influencers I listen to on your opinion when it comes to a game. Thank you
I still want a static shock game.
Oh man me too, ever since the show came out.😂
Wow I can tell this one was personal for you Jake! You make some great points.
It seems like they forced Wonder Woman to be the main hero to help the Squad because they wanted to "empower" women even though seeing as it was an Arkham verse game it made more sense for it be Batman. The whole toxic masculinity thing was pretty hilarious.
Great video as always, and I'm glad to hear your deeper opinion on what didn't work for you with the game. I think it's completely valid for people not to enjoy this game, whether it's the plot, gameplay, or live service model. I for one really dig it, and I've been struggling to see why people have so much anger towards the game. As a comic fan of 30 years I've seen my share of fan induced rage, but I feel like this game wasn't even out before people decided it was trash, and the majority of the critiques I've seen are purely subjective opinions being passed off as fact. The two words I've seen most commonly associated with negative feelings are 'expectations' and 'entitlement', two words I dislike as a fan of art and comics. We as fans are not entitled to anything, the fact that we got a final Conroy Arkham performance is amazing in and of itself. Being an Arkham game, fans set expectations high, which I understand, but that's on them, not the devs nor the actors involved.
I remember when Arkham Origins came out and people clowned it's story. I remember when Arkham knight came out and it had terrible bugs on launch for PC. Fans will always find something to complain about. Are they valid in this case? To some degree, yes, as long as it's acknowledged that these critiques are subjective. I for one loved the Boss fights, thought the story was pretty good, and honestly loved how anticlimactic Batmand demise was. It wasn't overly dramatic because it's not his story. Wonder Woman got more of a moment because our characters interacted with her more, and her demise meant something thematically to the story more than just a send off for a beloved character. I understand being bummed about it being Arkham Batman, and I get wanting more explanation into his return to heroics or his demise, but I think that's for a different story or game.
It's funny that you used a panel from Final Crisis in the video, a story that was heavily critiqued and hated by fans on release and to this day. I've defended that book to Canon fans who think it's an affront to the characters they love, when it's really a love letter to all things DC. It's loaded with Fourth World goodness, and the demise of Batman was such a fun moment to live through. I had friends at my local comic shop give up comics over it saying Morrison didn't understand the characters and didn't write a good story. Much like that instance, I hope people remember that this is a story that isn't anywhere near finished. It's like judging a 12 issue event off the first 6 without seeing what plot threads open and unravel over the coming months. Thats what comics are. They're serialized storytelling, they're meant to be told over time, not binged and taken as one massive chunk. Again, I get this not working for people, and I get being bummed about the story, mechanics, etc. I just hope fans remember that we are not entitled to anything and we are the ones setting our expectations, that's not on the devs. To those who didn't like it, I hopenthe next Batman game does it for ya. For me. I'm stoked I got a game where I got to play as a Rogue and to see some of my favorite characters come to life in a game. Just hearing the words Elseworlds uttered made me so happy. I hope the next game from DC can make more people as happy as I was in that moment.
Thanks again for all you do!!
Amazing work, been subscribed for 13 years. Funny you looked and sounded so familiar. Now i know why lol. The room will look great when everything is setup.
Keep making great videos.
-Matthew Greco
You can thank Sweet Baby Inc. for the ass writing
I probably wouldn't have as many nit picks about it if it wasn't Arkham Batman because of the time playing as him and all that Arkham Batman went through but yeah it's just a whole lot of missed opportunities and a lot of the League members deaths do feel like there wasn't anything to them. But yeah you're right that if the story is done well then it's not a big deal if members are killed off, it's just that this game doesn't have that. Also could of done with just a Justice League game because there are hints of potential there with the League members but a whole lot is skipped, especially with Batman coming back from his death/retirement and joining them like you said. But yeah just as a potential thing that could of fit maybe a bit more is that if the premise still stands with Brainiac taking over the JL but have Batman never join/never come back officially to the JL, save that for the game so we haven't lost time with Arkham Batman. Then he doesn't have the loss to Brainiac that the others members do and he's the one working on a counter offensive, I know that detracts from the title of the game and pre hype at the time but if it's still the Arkham world I feel like it still has to follow some rules. I don't know but again with his previous appearance in Knight to be more or less Batman fighting most of the game to keep control from becoming the next Joker, for his next appearance to be fully under control just by Brainiac instead just doesn't sit all that well for me either.
I honestly don't know why it wasn't a Batman kills the Justice League game ( *even though he doesn't "kill"). Just would have been way cooler, he has a contingency plan for every member.
I think the fact that the story couldn't hold my attention was when I knew I wasn't going to take the game as seriously as I was hoping I would've. I found myself dissociating at some points, kind of just auto piloting the experience. By the time Batman took a piece of chrome to the dome I was so checked out that If didn't even register any emotion. Which is wild because I have such an appreciation for the Arkham Verse story, and lore.
You da man Jake. Great video! I appreciate you always giving it to us straight with no bs. You have a genuineness that comes through and you don’t give time to negativity but do a great job with being analytical about stories and characters.
I really enjoyed this video from you Jake. I normally enjoy consuming all the content you produce but these type of videos especially always leave an impact. This is more Jake the passionate fan, where on Gameranx, understandably so, it's Jake the video game journalist/reporter. It was really nice to hear your thoughts on this, how you felt about Batman's demise and the justice league as a whole, with how they were treated and disposed of. I, like yourself don't see this game standing the test of time like we always have with the Arkham games. It certainly will scratch some people's itch due to it being a reasonably open world co op looter shooter you can play with friends as you take control of *some* iconic characters in the DCU, but it certainly has a shelf life.
The ending especially was really well said and poignant. We will always have Kevin's greats performance across the other mediums, he loved batman, he loved to perform for all of us and he gave us endless entertainment and countless memories through out so many years. This was a nice change of character from the batman we all knew so well and group up with. I'm sure he had a load of fun with it, portraying the more devious take of what Bruce Wayne could become under the right circumstances, the story just could have been a whole lotmmore but such is the video game industry nowadays, especially when they implement the live service model.
Great video dude truly, I always enjoy your takes on this channel especially, your passion and opinions are a home run every time.
This time, Mr Baldino,
Pizza's on me.