Batman: Vengeance is like a big beautiful cake.....made of poop.
On the surface this game has everything you would want from a Batman game based on the animated series. All your favorite characters are here voiced wonderfully by the cast from the cartoon. You get Batman, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon, Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Mr. Freeze. The graphics make it look like everything was pulled right from the T.V. show. The character models are pretty much spot on and Gotham City looks breathtaking.
You get to use an entire arsenal from your utility belt...batarangs, nets, grapples, handcuffs, a hammer, and some measuring tape. You get to fly the batplane and drive the batmobile. You get to jump across the rooftops of Gotham while fighting evil henchman, avoiding the police, and looking into peoples windows.
You also get to do all this while using your detective skills. The story seems like it's plucked right out of a Batman cartoon. You use your skills to solve puzzles, pick up clues, and further the story. You actually feel like a detective...putting the case together slowly as you go.
All of this sounds soooo good doesn't it? Again..it's like that big beautiful cake. It sits there. Looking all pretty and nice and round. The frosting looks perfect. It looks as if it is baked to perfection. it's decorated so lovely....then you go in for a bite...and find out that your mouth is filled with some kind of poo substance. So you cough it up and raise your fist in the air and tell your old lady that she can't cook worth a damn. That's what I wanted to yell when I played this game.
Here's the deal. Despite all the good stuff this game has in it, it's just not very fun to play. The problem? The gameplay, controls, and camera just suck. You go around in 3rd person, but have to switch to 1st person mode to do much. So if you see an enemy you want to hit with a batarang, you have to stop, switch to 1st person, find your batarangs, aim it at him and then throw it. By the time you do this the enemy has usually seen you and is currently beating the crap out of your pointy-eared face.
Switching back and forth between 1st and 3rd person is a pain. And maybe it wouldn't be if the controls weren't lousy. The controls have no sense of flow to them at all, so it seems like the action is always oh hold. And the camera while your in 3rd person can't be adjusted...which leads to you falling off of buildings...which leads to you starting the level over...which leads to hours of your life wasted. There is just very little rhyme or reason to how things are set up. A good example is how you can invert the crosshairs movement when in 1st person mode...but not if your flying the batplane..which leads to all kinds of confusion and fist pounding.
This game would have been great if it was made by people who knew how to make video games. I seems like it was made by people who knew how to make dramatic cartoons...which is cool...but it's not enough in this medium. So play the game if you like being frustrated by wasted potential. I wanted to give it a higher score. But I can't...and I won't. Even I have standards. Now excuse me....I need to make a poopy cake.