The scare crow parts are cool as heck!
Yep, they were one of the few parts in the game that I thoroughly enjoyed [apart from that memory flashback scene to elicit pathos which elicited yawns from me].
Actually playing Dead Space has helped me to formulate why I had such a bad reaction to AA. Essentially they use the same game design of being narrative driven and using NPCs to tell the player where to go and what to do. It's essentially the same process in each game but in AA the implementation is just pretty crass. A door gets shut in a cinematic making it obvious that Batman can't access the area through that door. What does the game do? Does it assume the player has the intelligence to realise this and leave it to them to find an alternative entrance just a few feet away? Does it fuck. Batman immediately says to himself "Hm, I can't get through there. I'd best look for another way in." No shit Sherlock! They don't call you the world's greatest detective for nothing! *rolleyes*
It's not so much that the game leads you by the nose that I dislike so much because it's the same in Dead Space, it's that it is so unsubtle and crass about it. It is effectively saying "you playa we no u is stoopid and/or not payin attention so dis is wat u gotta do rite". FFS, at least give me a couple of minutes to faff around demonstrating that I am stupid before you tell me what to do! Or....do what Dead Space does, tell you where to go and what to do but let the player work out the finer details.
I know a great many games lead the player by the nose when it comes down to it. The difference is that the good ones hide it well. In AA it's just so in your face it's insulting.
So the other aspect that I disliked and which is somewhat related to the first is that I never really felt that engaged in the game. I think it's because there was precious little challenge. It was always blindingly obvious what needed to be done. There was never any real chance that I would get stuck, not knowing where to go or what to do. So I was effectively playing the game on autopilot with my brain in neutral. A very similar experiece to watching many big budget mainstream movies I have found. I just found that boring. Oh it's got all the pretty pictures to look at and the amusing scenes with the Joker and H Quinn but meh. That however is the trouble with a narrative driven game, especially one that costs so much to produce. The player is not allowed to not finish the[ir] story that cost so much.
End 'rant'.
That pretty much covers it. Some of you were curious why I had complained about AA so there you are. Of course this is just my reaction and many of you have found the game to be an utter delight. I am pleased for you and merely sorry that I didn't share that reaction to the game because on paper it should be right up my street. Oh well
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