The game has a stealth element as well, but, you guessed it, it’s been
oversimplified. You have an onscreen radar that shows you the position and view
cone of each enemy as well as indicates which ones are armed. You need to click
L3 to go into sneak mode, move behind the armed guards one by one (which is made
even easier by the fact that they hardly ever move), and then press the
context-sensitive attack button when you’re near enough to knock an enemy out.
You can then proceed to fight the other enemies as detailed above and then
you’re ready to move onto the next room. Woo-hoo!
The game tries to capture Batman’s ability to strike fear into the hearts of his
enemies by adding a fear mechanic to play. A fear meter tracks your enemies’
fear level and the higher the fear the less effective at fighting the enemies
become. So do you get to toy with your enemies? Give them a slow mind freak of
your own devising? Nope. OK, now I feel like I’m really repeating myself but
here goes: the game basically takes care of all this for you. As you scroll
through the highlighted items in a room you’ll see the triggers needed to set
off the events that are scripted to drive the fear up in your enemies. Explode a
highlighted barrel, knock a platform down, whatever, just scroll through the
available actions until the game says you’re done.
For variety there are a couple of levels in which you get to drive the Batmobile.
Your job is to tear down streets bashing into enemy vehicles and this is by far
the most enjoyable part of the game. However, we’re talking about Batman Begins
here so expect a very linear course and giant arrows which tell you the way you
need to go.
There’s a lot of potential for a great game here – the production values are
top-notch and the game is tied to an exciting movie. However, Batman Begins is
just too linear and does way too much handholding. If you let the gamers
actually play the game, you’ll let them imagine that they are Batman, and that
would make for a truly great Batman game.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
67%. Too short, linear, and easy to recommend on its own merits,
Batman Begins is best enjoyed as a rental to be played soon after seeing the
movie while you’re still on a Batman high.
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