Customer Reviews

Batman: Dark Tomorrow

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

The designers at Activision proved that you can make an excellent video game based on a comic book superhero (or in the case of Spider-Man: The Movie, based on a comic book superhero with a popular feature film). In Spider-Man, you are almost instantly swinging gracefully between buildings, shooting webs at the bad guys, and throwing punches, kicks, and combo moves.

Alas, the people at Kemco should have played Spider-Man before releasing Batman: Dark Tomorrow. It's a shame that such a popular character should have to go through the indignity of starring in such a remarkably [sad] title.

The cinematic introduction to the game (and most of the later cinematics) are very well animated. Unfortunately they fail to prepare you for the disappointing gameplay when you move from cinematics to taking control of the character yourself.

Within the first five minutes of the game I am certain that many players will find themselves swinging face-first into the side of a building -- and once you miss the building ledge you are destined to watch Batman fall to his death. The camera, which is usually placed in the most inconvenient location possible, makes it impossible to control your character and as a result Batman staggers back and forth through his world less like the Dark Knight and more like an intoxicated Halloween partygoer.

The combat system is, as others have observed, pretty much geared to frontal assaults with no way of defending yourself. As a result you spend much of your time being shot from a distance while you close the gap between you and your attacker. And finding the attacker can be a challenge, not because of clever positioning, but because of that darn camera.

The last aggrivation is that the game pauses constantly to load the next part of the level. It's strange that massive environments like Halo can avoid ever disrupting the game play to load another section of the level, while Batman has to do this practically every other screen. I'm guessing that the time is necessary to calculate the worst position for the camera's third-person perspective.

It's too bad that Amazon[.com] doesn't allow for 0-star ratings, as this title truly deserves one. Even renting this game would be a waste of money, except for other game designers so they can learn how not to build a superhero video game. Stick with Spider-Man. It's going to take the Dark Knight a while to recover from this embarassment.

In a review of one word....HORRIBLE.

The gameplay is slow to repond and not very well configured.
The camera views are sub standard and very jumpy.
Most of the time Batman is a little, tiny figure that is hard to control.
There is no way to control the camera views.
Your utility belt, while well stocked, is too cumbersome to use properly and while you are trying to get to something, you are getting the poop beaten out of you.
If Amazon allowed 0 stars, this would get it!

Honestly I cannot say enough bad things about this game, and only wish that it was available to rent first!

Do yourself a favor and pick-up Buffy or Indiana Jones instead - they are much better games!

Dont listen to all these people that say this is the worst game ever. They dont know what their talking about. Yes the camera angles [are bad] at times, but so what. It makes it challenging. These people are just mad because they couldnt beat it in 2 hours. This game has a great storyline and like i said its challenging, isnt that what makes a good game?? Believe me its a good game, but since there are so many mixed reviews i recomend renting it first. just alittle f.y.i.

The camera angles in this game absolutely stink. They remain fixed and do not follow you around as you move through the game. This method of gameplay worked pretty well in the hit series Resident Evil, but plays out very poorly in this game. It's difficult to maintain fighting sequences with bad guys and to see exactly what you're doing. The fighting sequences are very frustrating and the punch and kick combos look terrible (Batman kicks low, to the shins! now that's low for the dark knight).

The tools also stink. The batarangs and smoke bombs are awkward to use, and pretty much unusuable during combat.

I do have to give this game some props for the music track and style - both of which are very good. But the gameplay is awkward. This game is difficult, and not in a good way. Huge batman fans, prepare to be disappointed.

I just got this game today and I am taking it back after 15 minutes of playing. the camera angles stink, the graphics aren't too bad but I just think the game is dumb in general

A game has to be really bad for me to get motivated to write a review. I can't think of anything really positive to say about this game other than the cutscenes are nice to look at. The gameplay is terrible, the graphics are sloppy and the stiff control configuration will make you want to throw your controller out the window. What a shame because they had a great team of writers to create an interesting storyline. It's too bad the technical side could not rise to the task.

Is it possible to produce a good game based Batman? I can't remember ever playing a good one, going all the way back to the old "Batman Returns" on the Sega Genesis. And this game is even worse than that. It features the worst camera angles I've ever seen on a game (while moving, the camera suddenly shifts, and you find yourself going in some other unintended direction). The graphics are sub-par. The only good thing about this game is the cutscenes - they're first class. But apparently, the budget for the game was spent on this feature alone, because the gameplay and graphics are awful.

This should give you an idea of how bad it is. I bought it yesterday, and attempted to trade it in today. The guy at EB was so ashamed of how bad the game was, he refunded me the full price.

I thought the power of the Xbox would make this Batman game into one that can step out of the shadows. First things first, the controls are way to buggy, batman runs around like a 1970's funny run, his combat system is never block always get hit, and his gadgets are just badly done. If you are seriously going to buy this game get the guide with it or you will be lost within the first 20 mintues or so of game play. The only good side to the Dark knight is the cutscenes.... THAT IS ALL

I don't even know what to say...
Let me just sum it up this way - I REALLY, REALLY wanted to like this game (I'm a HUGE Batman fan)- Unfortunately, sub-standard graphics, HORRIBLE controls and UNFORGIVEABLE camera angles earned this game a spot on my shelf right next to Superman for the Xbox. If you really want to buy the game, wait a while for the price to drop as this game plainly stinks.

I made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing this game. I attempted to play the game for about a half hour, but gave up out of frustration. Aside from a ridiculously short sequence where you beat up a couple of street thugs, I only got as far as trying to jump across a couple roof tops on the first board. The controls were awkward and unresponsive, which was only complicated by the fact that the camera was constantly switching to different bad angles for what seemed like no reason. Batman's movement was stilted, and it was hard to execute the simplest jump or punch. I spent most of that half hour falling from the roof, because swinging on the batrope, or whatever it's called was impossible. You just hang there, and have to do some stupid jump to move forward from it. Although I did not spend a lot of time with the game I am convinced this is the worst super hero themed video game I have played since Superman on the N64. Do yourself a favor, and learn from my misfortune. Avoid this game AT ALL COSTS!