BRST tries to add a little variety to the fighting by placing objects in the levels that can be picked up and thrown and be making a select few things destructible. This is all just window dressing, though. There’s no real reason to break items other than to see them break, and thrown items do not seem to do significantly more damage than straight punching does already. You’ll also encounter gameplay elements like timed sections where you must beat everyone up and get to a hostage before time runs out. This is an annoying feature of the game because of the aforementioned glass walls. Why should you be prevented from rescuing a hostage because you’ve lost track of the very last enemy that must be defeated before you can proceed? All this does is to create a frustration factor as you fail levels simply because the game prevents you from moving forward to grab the hostage.

Uh, Batman? A little help, please? Batman?

BRST supports a cooperative mode in which you and a friend can play through the game’s story. There is an additional fun factor added to the game by beating up bad guys with a friend, but once again this is something best kept to shorter play sessions. After a while the enthusiasm wears off and you’ll sit quietly together going through the motions of fighting off yet another wave of attackers.

In addition to the story mode, the game also has a series of challenge modes – successfully complete a challenge and you will unlock the next in the series. Challenges will present you with a goal such as fighting off X number of baddies in Y minutes while surviving to the end. As with the game’s campaign, this is fun in small doses before the numbness of repetition sets in.

BRST does deserve special mention for its collection of some of the cheesiest unlockables ever to appear in a game. The developers were too lazy to try and think of some unlockables that would be worth playing for so they stuck in a bunch of animated models of the game’s characters. Did they think that you’d rather just watch the 3D models than seeing those models in action by playing the game? The worst though is the images of Batman toys. I suppose that they are there to make you want to go out and buy the toys, but if you’re going to stick in a blatant product plug, don’t make the gamer earn the right to see the advertisement. And at the very least put a clear picture of the product in the game – the images are so grainy and fuzzy that you’ll think that something is wrong with your TV or your eyes, or even both.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 66%.  Rise of Sin Tzu is not the good Batman game everyone has been desperately waiting for. It has its moments, but is best left to the Batman-obsessed.

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