Batman Vengeance

Other products by UBI Soft

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00005R5PV
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: January 30, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,290 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: Xbox

Amazon.com Product Description

In Batman: Vengeance, the gritty underworld of Gotham ignites as Batman becomes the target of a nerve-rattling conspiracy. After the Joker plummets to his death in an attempt to kill Batman, Gotham's criminals quickly escalate their schemes to gain power. Batman discovers subtle links in these seemingly unrelated crimes, but is forced undercover after being framed for an attack on Commissioner Gordon. Hunted by the police, the Dark Knight must pinpoint the unseen enemy weaving this sinister web before Gotham City falls to a fiery demise.

Batman: Vengeance introduces the most versatile 3-D Batman game yet, with more than 500 animated movements, special fighting moves, and a multifunctional cape with its own AI. For the first time, players can journey through a fully rendered 3-D Gotham City with Batman's sleek weapons and devices at their fingertips, including the BatGrapple, BatScope, Batarang, BatLauncher, flash bombs, and more. There is a huge array of gameplay modes: exploring, fighting, first-person shooter, driving, flying, freefall, and puzzles.

The Gotham City environment, reconstructed in full 3-D, contains 19 playable maps, including the rooftops, Gotham Industrial Research, and the Batcave. There are also more than 40 minutes of cinematics featuring the original voice cast of TV's The New Batman Adventures. The game's original story line was collaboratively written by Warner Bros. and DC Comics from the files of The New Batman Adventures. The Dolby 5.1 surround sound soundtrack features original music inspired by the TV series.

Note: This product description refers to the PlayStation2 version.

Amazon.co.uk

There have been more lame Batman games created in the last decade than there are tights-wearing felons in Gotham City, but thankfully Batman: Vengeance hits the Bat-target with the golden Batarang. Because the game is based on The New Batman Adventures (an animated series), the visuals are 3-D versions of the cartoon's very stylized designs. This can sometimes cause the backdrops to be rather lacking in detail, but generally it's an interesting and unusual look.

The gameplay is similar to Soul Reaver, with plenty of Batgadgets to play with, and even a few Metal Gear-esque elements sneaking around. There's also an excellent 3-D combat system and a bunch of driving and puzzle subgames of varying quality. A few obvious flaws do get under your tights, such as the oversensitive controls, the intrusive loading times, and the often frustratingly obscure level designs, but this is easily the best Batgame yet. --David Jenkins

Note: This review refers to the PS2 version of this game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but..., January 1, 2002

By	Jeffrey R. Tilley Jr. "goatman_1" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I expect a lot more from an X-Box game. I understand that this is a game with multiple versions on all the major platform systems. The problem with this type of game is that it's only as good as the weakest system it's made for, in this case the PS2. I don't have any problems with the PS2, but having seen the graphic possibilities from my other Xbox games, I'm a bit spoiled. If this were my first Xbox game, or it were another PS2 game for me, I might be able to go up another star.

The big highlight of the game is the excellent CGI cut-scenes featuring the voice-actors of the animated series. It was those scenes that really created the atmosphere of the animated series and made the game worth playing. Each scene was like a little reward that reminded me of the old-school games from my youth. The in-game graphics also retained that art-deco quality of the series, but not without flaws.

Of course the coolest thing about the game is being able to control Batman and all of his cool gadgets, and it does an excellent job in that respect. I was a big Batman fan as a kid, and even as an adult I have to admit that Batman is still uber-cool to me. It's hard NOT to like Batman. In the game you get to fly the Batplane, beat the crud out of henchmen, whack the Joker with Batarangs, and swing from building to building on a grappling-line. The game tries to do so much, that inevitably there are some weaknesses in the interface, but I didn't find that too irritating.

Unfortunately the novelty of being Batman wears off pretty fast. Some of the missions get tedious, especially the Batplane scenes. If I were a kid or a young teenager this game would be a lot more fun, but as an adult whose played WAY too many games, I found the game play a little too antiquated. It's not bad, but it's old-school console roots made me realize how far games have come.

My biggest complaint however is the graphics. While I like the simple deco style taken from the series, I found the visuls a bit too grainy and rough. As I said before, the graphics are on-par with a PS2 game, but I think other Xbox gamers will agree it doesn't really meet the bar. If I were writing this review for the PS2 version it would be much different I'm sure.

So in summation, if you are in the 14 and under crowd, or just a major Batman fan, you'll probably really enjoy this game. If you're and old fogey like me that expects performance from a game rather than novelty, you might want to skip it or rent it. Either way, it's not a bad game, just not up to my standards.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thank God for Blockbuster, January 14, 2002

By	Disposable Income (King of Prussia, PA) - See all my reviews

I thank my lucky stars that I decided to rent this game prior to purchase. The game itself isn't all that bad, but...

It needs some sort of quicksave. The only way to save the game is to:

1. Quit the game your playing.
2. Save the game.

The problem with this is:

1. It takes far too much time.
2. Your never really sure where the last checkpoint was. (i.e. I saved a game today after an hour or so of gameplay on the same level, finally got to a cut scene and then saved. Turned the game on tonight and I'm right back where I started from today.)

Another major problem with the lack of a quicksave is the same problem Tomb Raider had when it first came out. If you die you have to go through the same portion of the game over and over and over and over (tedious isn't it? well, so is this aspect of the game). This really shouldn't be such a big deal but, it is.

The instruction booklet is a bit vague and I'm not sure about the 500 batmoves that I've seen advertised. Maybe there are that many I just haven't seen them, have no idea how to perform them, or where or how to learn to perform them. Or maybe, "Batman lifts his left foot and bends his knee and moves his left foot forward and places his left foot on the ground" counts as four moves, I don't know.

Other than those major flaws the game is playable but not ownable. The graphics are fairly decent and the cinematic cut-scenes are outstanding.

So unless you are the Number One Batfan of all times rent this game prior to ownership. Dealing with a loss of five bucks is a lot easier to stomach than losing ten times that amount.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very cool...controls a bit difficult, December 27, 2001

By	Happy dad "Happy dad" (Gaithersburg, MD United States) - See all my reviews

Overall, this game is very cool and feels as if you are right in the animated cartoon that this is based on. Graphics are excellent as well as the cut-scense which are nicely done. Batman's movements are very fluid and using the different items we all know and love from the famous utlity belt is great.

My favorite is being able to jump from up high and glide down by extending your cape into a pseudo glider/parachute. Also, free-falling is pretty fun as well ( as in jumping off a bridge to catch someone who has fallen/been thrown off). Thank god that once you catch the falling person in mid-air, the game takes over and grapples you back to safety automatically (I'm only human, ya know)

The only con is that control does take a little getting used to. Most of the time, you move Batman in a 3rd person perspective (like Tomb Raider) but you must often switch to 1st person mode to use the different items such as the bat-grapple and batarangs, etc. While it's easy to switch back and forth, it takes some practice is remember the different controls for each mode....

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