who said anything about sandbox? thats not what i said and not even what i am talking about. The game, reviews and videos all make you think you have options as you progress in how you will attack foes your encounter. But thats not true. Sure you come across guys with guns, so you would think your supposed to be the smart batman and figure out how to approach it. But thats not the case....instead there is a strategically placed gargoil for you to grapple up to in order to kill the guys with the guns
and the vents are the same way. If a door is locked, they add a vent to give you the illusion that your found an alternate route. Its very linear in that regards. Its basically making the stealth portion of the game worthless. Its like an add on with no point.
And i am sorry, but if a kick, jump and punch button are too much for people to handle, then you got problems. I am not talking about memorizing a bunch of mortal combat moves. I am saying simple XX - XYX or XYB type combo to make you feel like you are controlling the combat. This is nothing more then mash the X button, wait for the lines over the guys head and hit the Y button.
with that said, i still think its a very good game. I also dont think people should worry about the 12 hours that guys are saying it is in length. If you run thru the story mode without exploring then 12 hrs.....but if you take time to solve the riddles and look around then its gonna be alot longer then that
I'm sorry man, but that sounds even MORE nitpicky. First of all, of COURSE there are areas that certain skills play off of. That's how every game works. You make it sound like this game was advertised as some scenario where you're thrown into a situation with some wire and a sock and you get to figure out your way of completing it. You have a base of moves, an assortment of Batman-esque environments, and you use them to your advantage depending on the situation. The amount of ways that you can take down foes strategically grows significantly as the game goes on, but still, even early in the game it's great to swoop down and take one guy out right over where you dropped some explosive gel, then swoop away, wait for others to approach, drop the guard, and then detonate the explosive gel. There is so much strategery that can go into so many scenarios, with weak walls, floors, whatever, it's great. And some of the gadgets you get later just really play into the whole idea of the "predator" mode.
There are all kinds of creative ways to take down foes, yet you seem caught up on this idea that there are limitations to set pieces. What more could you want? Places to hide and creative ways to take down your opponents.
The whole part about the door is locked so there is a vent is just perplexing to me...every game is like that. I'm confused at what you THOUGHT that this game could be. Games ALWAYS show you one path that you can't access, for whatever reason, and offer a different one, yet for some reason in this sense you think it's "very linear". Brining me back to what I said before: a good narrative SHOULD be linear.
As far as the combat goes, I guess we just will have to agree to disagree. I don't think that hitting XXYB or hitting XXX and then Y to counter and then XB to throw are much different. But I did play on hard where you don't get the little lightning bolt things that tell you an attack is coming. To me, it felt just like the combos you were mentioning. Like I said though, it seems like we just don't agree there.
I will say that, I beat the game in less than 12 hours and got every riddle, so if length is a reason for you to not buy this game, don't. Personally though, I loved every minute of it and look forward to playing it again.
Anyway, that diatribe aside, I hope I didn't come across as attacking, I just really don't understand your complaints. It's similar to some others that I've heard and, as I said before, it sounds like people are trying to look for reasons to hate on a much hyped game that is actually very good. Just my .02.