Current Events > Arkham vs Insomniac's Spiderman

(+) Yeah! (+)

Combat is enjoyable in both. Arkham beats Spidey in the puzzles, but I have to say Spiderman's costume design and general aesthetic beats Arkham out of the water. I've always loved the Arkham games so much, but (and I know this is gonna be super unpopular) I've actually always disliked the Arkham games aesthetic. I absolutely loathe the Unreal Engine, just utterly loathe it. The UE engine in ps4 was slightly better than the ps3 days, so that's at least something. But as a massive DCAU fan (which Arkham Asylum clearly banked on by reusing voice clips from the show) I detested some of the character designs for characters I loved from the show, the obvious one being hq but also some of the other villains. Eminem Robin in Arkham City was weird too.

Meanwhile I actually like Spiderman's designs for characters, and by god do I love the costume designs. My favorite is the cel-shaded spiderman suit, but I love just sifting through the different ones he has because they look so good. I never bothered with alternate costumes with Arkham games because the engine just doesn't lend itself to interesting designs, a cel-shaded engine might have been better for that but would go against the tone the Arkham games have set up I guess.

I'd say Spiderman easily but the forced stealth sucks so much it brings them pretty even

Spider-Man was the best console game of the PS4 generation imo. Great gameplay, great visuals, great story, never got boring for me.

Plus all the great unlockable suits reminded me of the good old days before everything cool started costing extra money.

Spider-Man gets a lot of points for the random traversal actually being really fun. Arkham Asylum gets away with it because you never have to travel very far, but the later games it becomes way more of a slog - which is a common issue in big open world games like these.

Having the extra Spider-Man suits be unlock able by doing in-game stuff was such a great idea and its crazy the Batman games had such a huge variety of suits, and largely hid them from you outside of buying DLC or new-game +.

I want to say Spider-Man, but that's not like the Batman games are bad (though I didn't like Arkham Knight - screw those Batmobile sections)

I feel like Spiderman is what Arkham City could have been if it had been able to be made a decade later. A lot of Arkham's deficits are a product of when it was made.

I do say that I think the Arkham series blows spiderman out of the water when it comes to visual aesthetic. Not graphical quality, mind you, but aesthetic. They really captured that gritty, Gothic, Victorian night look that is quintessential Batman. Spiderman is a gorgeous game, but... new York is new York.

KTG2 posted...

I'd say Spiderman easily but the forced stealth sucks so much it brings them pretty even

I just beat the game and good point yeah, the stealth sections struck me as very very weird. When I heard "stealth" I thought they were going to do the same thing as Batman where spidey goes from vent to vent, taking down baddies silently. Instead it was more like... castlevania lords of shadow 2, that "so bad it's good" game where dracula of all characters is doing stealth portions even after it no longer made sense to hide and cower in stealth mode.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

I feel like Spiderman is what Arkham City could have been if it had been able to be made a decade later. A lot of Arkham's deficits are a product of when it was made.

I do say that I think the Arkham series blows spiderman out of the water when it comes to visual aesthetic. Not graphical quality, mind you, but aesthetic. They really captured that gritty, Gothic, Victorian night look that is quintessential Batman. Spiderman is a gorgeous game, but... new York is new York.

I do like gothic, and I do like Victorian... but I like art deco more. That said the actual world and city is definitely great, I absolutely love the city skyline and design, and stumbling upon the references in Arkham more than I did in spiderman (if only because I'm more familiar with DC while only thing I know from Marvel is spiderman) and what I liked about Origins is Gotham in the snow reminding me of Batman Returns, my favorite of the older Batmens.

Arkham Asylum, City and Origins are all 9/10 games for me.

Spiderman was a 7/10. It was fine, but I dont see what all the fuss is about.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

I do say that I think the Arkham series blows spiderman out of the water when it comes to visual aesthetic. Not graphical quality, mind you, but aesthetic. They really captured that gritty, Gothic, Victorian night look that is quintessential Batman.

This.
The thing the Arkham series truly got, is that Gotham is a character itself. While Insomniac's Spider-Man's New York is leaps beyond any other rendition of the city in games with all the little easter eggs and such, it's just New York yet again. Spidey needs to be in New York, I get that. But after a dozen games it's a stale setting.

saspa posted...

(which Arkham Asylum clearly banked on by reusing voice clips from the show)

Where did they do this? Been a decade since I played Asylum, but I don't recall any voice clips straight up from the DCAU.

Imo Arkham City> Marvel's Spider-Man> the rest of the Arkham games but they're all great

TheSavageDragon posted...

Where did they do this? Been a decade since I played Asylum, but I don't recall any voice clips straight up from the DCAU.

From what I remember over a decade ago, When playing the game and listening to the recordings I specifically remembered dialogue from the TNBA episode mad love where they show harley's origin story and interviewing joker. That made it extra cool to have BTAS and just general DCAU homages.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

I feel like Spiderman is what Arkham City could have been if it had been able to be made a decade later. A lot of Arkham's deficits are a product of when it was made.

This. I did enjoy Arkham more but Spiderman is the "better game"

TheSavageDragon posted...

Where did they do this? Been a decade since I played Asylum, but I don't recall any voice clips straight up from the DCAU.

They reused scripts/lines, but they did re-record all the dialogue. There were no actual reused voice clips

Origins is 10/10

DarkBuster22904 posted...

They reused scripts/lines, but they did re-record all the dialogue. There were no actual reused voice clips

That's what I was thinking.