Skip to main content

The Dark Knight Rises: Initial Impressions

     Hey, everyone, and a good evening to y'all. I am burning the midnight oil, playing my new Batman game which I bought for the sale price of 99 cents. It is named after the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight Rises. In fact, the game seems to follow the movie rather closely, so there might be some spoilers in the gameplay for those who haven't seen the movie.
    This game is huge, file wise. I'm talking about a whopping 821 MB. It has 6 Chapters, with the chapters taking place at different locales. In each chapter are a bunch of missions. In addition to the 6 chapters, there is a segment called free roaming. Unfortunately, you must conquer each mission as you go, as all missions, other than the one you are on, are locked. Tonight I played through 3 missions and thought I'd share some impressions.
     First of all, let's talk about the WOW! factor. When you start out and you jump off a building and glide on your Bat costume, then land on a car roof and smash it, glass flying everywhere, you think "Oh, heck yeah!" Or, if you use your grapnel gun and shoot a hook into the wall of a skyscraper, then it reels you up there...you think, "Man, I always wanted to do that!" To be honest, I had a flashback as I played. Remember when Jack Nicholson played the Joker and he said "Where does he (The Bat-Dude) get those marvelous toys?" Gameloft is to be commended for the tech side of this game.
     So, here you are, a Bat-Guy (or girl) at last. You are going on missions. It's dark and rainy, great graphics, cool atmosphere, you beat the crud out of bad guys. At the stock market you hack door locks, knock statues over onto crooks, and wonder how Kane manages to look that 'ripped' without body armor like yours. You use your grapnel gun to swing from gargoyle to gargoyle and perch there. Thankfully no hunchback makes an appearance. Ha, ha. You get coins and XP from your fights and you can spend them on a vast array of stuff. The store for this game rivals the major Role Playing Games. You can buy batarangs, some of which work against electronic devices. This is called an EMP Batarang, like the Pulse that is generated by detonation of a nuke. There are flashbang grenades and smoke bombs, a 'zoom gadget', Kinetic Armor, critical strikes, environmental K.O.'s and a ton of consumables. I assume these last items are used and lost, mission to mission. Stuff like health, silent-running, 5-packs of Batarangs and lockpicks for opening crates of electronic goodies.
     It appears that the game credits you earn, as they relate to the stuff that you buy, may not coincide too well. What I am trying to say, in my clumsy way, is this. In-apps may be necessary to advance a long way. I really shouldn't say, because I don't know. Nuff said.
     There are vehicles to unlock, like the Bat Pod. No, that is not a black music player from apple. Ha, ha. There are collectibles. There are maps and tech advice. Yes, Morgan Freeman's character is there to "Tech you up".
     This game has a lot involved. It has cinematic level 'cut scenes' and a great 'cool factor'. Should you buy it for 99 cents? Absolutely. It paid for itself the first time I glided off a building. Well, I have about 40 missions to go, or thereabouts, so it is time to say goodnight from The Author's Bat Retreat.
   I'm CE Wills, Bat-Dude.
P.S. Tune in tomorrow; same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. Adam West, where in the heck are you tonight?

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Game Review: NFS, Hot Pursuit

    This game was one which I refused to download for a while, even though it was on sale for 99 cents. I thought that it looked boring and narrow. Boy, was I wrong! This game totally kicks butt. It is one of those rare games that will actually give you an adrenaline rush. It is that intense. The developers, EA Games, have recently updated the app to include two main avenues of play. You can either be the cops or the racers who are trying to evade the cops. As a racer you have to deal with cops trying to hit you and make you crash, cops buzzing you with helicopters, oncoming traffic, tack strips spread across the road and roadblocks. In the cop mode you are a cop and you are trying to stop a reckless racer by any means, fair or foul. As a racer you can use nitrous oxide for increased speed, overdrive capability and oil slicks. You also can jam the cops communication with a jamming unit. Like almost all games these days, it gets harder as you go along. I prefer my games to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Four Free Games

     Hey, everyone. If free games makes the start of a new week a little better, we're in luck. Check these out on your friendly, neighborhood app store. 1) Cowboys vs. Aliens vs. Ninjas- This is a dual stick shooter, much like Mini-Gore . You are an old-west cowboy with a vast array of weapons (earned gradually). You have to move and shoot, avoiding death, as you battle Ninjas and aliens. Some aliens are quite large. Some enemies are big Sumo Wrestlers. There are sword-wielding ninjas and these aliens that yield a mini-nuclear explosion when killed. When your enemies die they leave behind little stacks of money, or skulls. You collect these items because of a strange hobby of trophy grabbing for your macabre collection. Just kidding, the items can be spent or used as the game progresses. This is a good game and I played it for a while last night. 2) The Heist - A puzzle game with a twist. As you try to open a bank vault, you must face a series of different puz...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bottle On The Doorknob

      Hey, everyone. I took a day of vacation today and really enjoyed it. We went out and bought some flowers. Flowers don't do well up here as a rule so we buy some and have a couple of big pots of assorted flowers on the deck for the summer. This year we are going to set the pots out in the yard a bit. The reason for this is the moisture and dirt in the pots seems to attract ants, scorpions and perhaps gnats. Bloody drag, what?     This weekend there seemed to be a bad odor in the house in the area of the master bedroom and the master bath. We could not isolate what the problem was. We did a number of things, including pouring vinegar and baking soda down the drains, which boils them out in rather spectacular fashion. Put a handful small amount of baking soda down them first, then pour vinegar down them. Very cool.     We finally deduced that a mouse had crawled up between the floor and sub-floor underneath the jacuzzi, after ...
Post a Comment
Read more