Customer Reviews

Batman: Dark Tomorrow

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Let me see...

I really liked the Batman Animated version that came out for the PS2, Cube and XBOX months ago. Yes, it was a little stiff in places, but the art/animation/t.l.c. put into this game was really obvious. I even liked the Superman Animated one that came out a while ago on the PS2. I've seen so many people blast that game. I had the honor of meeting Paul Dini and I have tons of Batman/Superman animated stuff hanging on my walls at home---I love their version of the Bat and Supes.

Then, the other Superman game came out (Last son of krypton?). Left a lot to be desired, but I bought it and played it, and it sorta grew on me.

This game tho, is something FAR different. Everything I'd seen up to this point looked like this was going to [be awsome]. Well, it does just the opposite.

1. the control SUCKS. you run one direction just to have the camera flip the screen in you as well as your point of view-then you're running in the opposite direction of your joypad.

2. the camera SUCKS. it changes on you so sparatically, you'll end up falling off rooftops left and right.

3. the graphics SUCKS. The background, effects and other characters look ok, but the developers left a number of frames off of Batman himself which is pretty obvious when you watch him move and fight. It looks like they superimposed his character on a detailed background. For a master of martial arts, his moves are really, really limited too.

Save your money, ...

The negative reviewers here are NOT lying to you. This is a game that nearly everyone who plays it for fifteen minutes is going to hate. So why the four stars? Simply because out of every Batman game I've every played- and I've played them all- this is the first that really made me feel like Batman.

As I said, you can't just play it for fifteen minutes. The tricky camera makes running nearly impossible, and most people will give up before they've passed the first few stages. Let me point out- it's not one of those games that is just plain frustrating and difficult. I've been playing it for a week now, and it's quite easy to make it halfway through the game without a single continue. However, if you aren't willing to slow your approach to it, you will NOT do well.

Case in point are the fight sequences. The great thing about them is that they almost never unfold the same way twice. Batman has a nice variety of moves (although you'll need to scope out the strategy guide for them, as they aren't included in the manual!), but fights can either end with one punch or quickly evolve into drawn-out affairs. For example, encountering a group of enemies doesn't mean you'll get to take them on one at a time- they'll swarm you, even hitting when you're down! This makes for some very realistic (and fun!) fights, and you will definitely need to employ strategy to survive!

As with any Batman game, two of the most important elements are the villains and gadgets, and this game delivers both. There are a total ten Batvillains- although a couple of them are not actually available to fight in the game. The gadgets are not as plentiful, and to be honest, you don't use a few of them all that much. Aside from an early rooftop level, there's hardly any grappling in the game, and there is a flashlight that looks cool in use, but isn't very helpful. Batarangs are deployed in first-person mode, and are actually quite handy. This is also the first game where the smoke bombs have been effective. Once I got the hang of them, I found myself able to incapacitate up to four enemies with a single smoke bomb.

The story and cutscenes are the best to ever appear in a Batgame, and it's literally worth playing through just to watch all of the cinemas. It also has the best atmosphere of any to date- especially the early levels, set in Gotham amid a gang war.

The bottom line is this- if you're willing to dim the lights, play at a controlled pace, and really get into the whole experience of being the Dark Knight- this game is for you.

The Game has excellent cinemas on the gamecube but not the xbox version because that was a port that became a disaster.I mean it,The Camera Angles may be screwy in this one and camera angles are good in the xbox version,so whats the different,supereasy controls -GC Horrible Controls -Xbox Camera Angles bad -GC Camera Angles good - xbox,so both has its faults but the best version would be the gamecube version.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. THE GRAPHICS ARE WORSE THAN ANYTHING IVE EVER SEEN IN A GAME INCLUDING ORIGINAL NINTENDO. THE CONTROLS CAMERA ANGLES ARE JUST AWFUL. THE CONTROLS ARE THE WORST IVE EVER USED IN A GAME. CONTROLLING THIS GAME IS HARDER THAN LIFTING A CAR. THE ANIMATIONS ARE WEAK. THE STORYLINE IS JUST AWFUL. THE GAME IS A CLUNKY B-===CH TO MOVE THE CAMERA. IM SHOCKED ANYONE WOULD RELEASE A GAME OF SUCH LOW QAULITY. I BET THE ATARI JAGAUR CAN HANDLE BETTER GRAPHICS THAN A GAME MADE FOR THE FREEKIN XBOX. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME ITS A SLOW AWFUL WASTE OF TIME AND CASH.

I'll admit at first I wanted to chop this game up with an ax. But, once I got used to the controls and camera angles, this was the best Batman game I ever played. This is actually the first game I beat without cheats. I got so into the game, I felt like I was the Dark Knight himself.
I also like the use of lesser Bat-villans like Black Mask and Ventriloquist, although I'm glad they didn't leave out Mr. J. I recommend this game to anyone who hates all those ... Batman games from the past.

Well, I had very high hopes for this game - probably too high, as I am really disappointed with it. It looks great, and the cinematic scenes are some of the best. But the game play is terrible. I must have gotten spoiled on Splinter Cell. My problems are: (1) there is no convenient way to "look around" using the C-stick, like you can on other games (or with the mouse on a game like SC on a PC). On SC, you can pan your camera all around yourself; you can't on B:DT. The only way you can look around is stop, switch to night vision (in first person!), look around, then switch back to third person view. How can you swing to another rooftop if you can't see it, how high/low it is, etc. And you can't play the game in first person the whole time, so that's pointless. (2) You don't keep the same perspective on Batman all the time. For example, if you round a corner, it throws in some weird camera angle (frequently!) that makes it hard to play. SC and Spider-man maintain a constant perspective that makes game play better. (3) The swing/climb rope stuff should have been combined like in Spiderman or Batman: Vengance. It's stupid to have one thing to swing and another to ascend/descend. And the ascend doesn't do much - you should be able to fire it anywhere and have it pull you there, like in the other games. (4) It's hard to control where you're going. There's not much between walk and run, plus the perspective/camera angles make it harder. In closing, if I had played this before SC, I might have liked it better; but SC nailed it and is the best third person game I can compare this to. Too bad, since Kemco could have had a runaway hit. I would suggest renting it first to see if you can stand the things I mentioned. I am considering getting the strategy guide, as the enclosed instructions are pitifully brief, but at this point that seems like throwing good money after bad. This coulda been a LOT better. Batman: Vengence, while not as elaborate, even plays better than this.

Holy mediocre games, Batman! Batman fans have been waiting a lot for a good Batman game; and it seems they might be disappointed again. Those who played Return of the Joker have suffered enough. Batman Vengeance was good but not exactly great. Batman Dark Tomorrow has really nice features but lacks even more. My favorite Batmam game is still The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the SNES.
First of all, the first thing you notice is that the game doesn't look good enough. Let's face it, there is not much detail in the picture. Batman looks great, tough, but I think the model doesn't have enough animation. Gotham City is a dark, mysterious city but this is clearly not what I had in mind, it just looks simple, a few crates and boxes. The cinematics are great the only problem is that there are too many of them. At some point your watching the game rather than playing it.
Second, the control is awful. Remember the sluggish Batman from Batman Forever? Batman just doesn't respond. It's similar to controlling Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. You just keep bumping onto walls, going the wrong way and feeling stupid (sometimes it seems like Batman really doesn't know where to go and spins). It is hard even to enter a door. Batman either runs too fast or walks too slow. In the end is frustrating.
Third, gameplay is very repetitive. Enter a room, punch, kick, handcuff and repeat. The game is unnecessarily hard I think. If you die you can continue in a point close by but you will repeat this process a couple of times. Using your batarang or smoke bomb is useless, the thugs stand up very quickly and they corner you. The boss fights are more of the same.
Batman Dark Tomorrow has some nice features like the original story and the cool cinematics, but being a good storyteller doesn't make a good game designer. I seems to me that the guys a Kemco spent all this time fixing the cinematics, and the have done a great job, but they didn't pay attention to the horrible camera angles, the boring and unispiring music, the repetitive gameplay, the unusefulness of the batgadgets,and the frustrating control. I had been expecting this game since it was announced, and I can say the have disappointed me again. It doesn't even have an atmosphere of it own, the music doesn't help and neither the visuals, the characters alone don't support the entire game, I think it relies to much on its story. Batman fans may be tired of waiting, maybe developers should quit.

well with the recent release of batman begins i found my self engrossed in the world of batman and as such went hunting for what ever media i could find featuring the character. i played the batman begins and must say i loved it. i then found a used copy of dark tommorrow at the local blockbuster aand decided to get since it featured a good cast of batman villains. well i have to say i was somewhat dissapointed.

first off the good things. the graphics, music, storyline and voice over are on the spot. its all a hardcore fan of the caped crusader could want right? well the biggest turn off to the game is the horrible gameplay and camera that make it almost unplayable. after the first 2 levels or so i was starting to think i may never beat this game and i wasted $12. but after keeping at it for a few hours i pretty much figured out the controls and got the hang of it. i beat in about a day and a half. it is a rather short game.

well in conclusion, this game is only for the true batfan. any casual gamer will be put off by the junk camera and gameplay but if you can get the hang of it you will be treated a pretty decent story and graphics. villains featured are ra's al ghul, joker, mr.zsasz, mr. freeze, poison ivy, killer croc, ratcatcher, scarface and ventriloquist, and the black mask. if not for gameplay and camera this could have been "THE" batman game. anyway i liked it. for batfans this is worth a rental, all others beware.

Browsing through the mix of reviews here for this game piqued my interest. The game seemed unquestionably bad, but yet with a glimmer of fun for the hardcore Batman fan. Being just such a fan, I decided to rescue a copy from the bargain bin and try it out myself.

I'll say its an absolute shame the controls and camera in this game suck, because otherwise this could've been *the* groundbreaking comic book-to-video game translation. The production values are amazing. You get not only very nicely rendered models of Batman and major villains like the Joker and Mr. Freeze, but also a bucketload of lesser villains and supporting characters like Black Mask, Killer Croc, Ratcatcher, Lt. Montoya, and the Cassandra Cain Batgirl. This is probably the only time fans will ever see these characters in 3-D. There is a full orchestral soundtrack which can also be unlocked for listening, along with a gallery of production art. The voice acting is suprisingly strong too, considering how fans are used to the superb voice-acting from the animated shows. The in-game graphics are also nicely detailed in ways that the cel-shaded Vengeance and Sin Tzu Batman games can't hope to match.

However, playing the game is like performing a masochistic ritual. The camera is fixed like Resident Evil, but cuts to so many different angles in a single room that it screws up the players sense of direction and control. Finding Black Mask in the warehouse stage while he guns you down is horribly frustrating. There is also the poor implementation of stealth. In a bit of realism, enemies gang up on you and even kick you when you're down, forcing you to find creative ways to fight them seperately. You might be asked to lean out from behind a crate, knock an enemy down with a batarang, then go up and disable him with handcuffs. However, by the time you toss the batarang, press the various buttons to unstick yourself from the wall and maneuver the camera angles to find the bad guy you just took down, he'll be back on his feet and have sounded the alarm. What could have been a fun stealth experience is completely ruined by poor programming.

If Kemco had put just a bit more polish into this game, it could've been so much better. Batman: Dark Tomorrow is playable, but only in a way that makes you scream in frustration every step of the way. If you're a Batman fan, I invite you to come experience the pleasure and pain. If you're not, there's no reason to go near this game at all.

as a reviewer said before you MUST have patience and this is a real game, there are hidden clues ALL over the place, like old newspapers, old beat down hamburger places, it is all so cool! you must have patience, im telling you, it was a wonderful experience for me! buy it for gamecube also, its just plain out sucks for X-box, bad graphics, bad controlling, bad everything(all because of the X-box of course) It is MUCH better for the gamecube, and has extras, and all those little details i mentioned above! thanks...