Thanks for being here! Check out our podcast - Lore Dump - below. This is the episode where we covered Metal Gear Rising and it was a laugh. ruclips.net/video/tpQZr3eT3KY/видео.html
Oh, Monty, did you know? If you shoot the TYGER Helicopters before Protocol 10, it makes the guards angry enough to shoot at you. Also, if you don't trace Zasz's call throughout the sidequest, you get an extra two calls and then Batman will automatically solve the tracker puzzle for you.
Something I've always loved about Arkham City is how much weight it gives to the Joker's death. The power of that shot of Batman carrying joker out of Arkham City holds so strongly in your memory that even when Joker comes back as a hallucination in Arkham Knight it serves more as a way to highlight his physical absence in the story than it does a way to bring back the character.
True. Joker didn’t feel too cheap in Knight, more like he was watching Batman from the sidelines. While I still wish he was completely gone, I don’t mind it as much as I should because of this.
@@goroakechi6126 I think it would have been worse if he wasnt there at all. the series was essentially the story of their relationship, having the last game be just totally unrelated would have been... weird.
I hated that personally. Joker is trash and shouldn’t be treated with any respect or remorse. I prefer their relationship written with joker as a character Batman wants gone but won’t kill.
In the Arkham games, I feel Batman's fatal flaw is his inability to place his trust in his friends. He refuses Robin's help, which leads to him going down into Wonder City without backup. He never thinks to call in the help of the myriad of other heroes and vigilantes he calls allies. He mistrusts Mr. Freeze, leading to the fight that allows Harley to steal the cure out from under him. In the sequel, he makes mistake after mistake in his belief that he has to shoulder the burdens of the world. He never thinks that maybe, Atlas should shrug, and share the weight of the world with another.
While I can agree with that, I can't really blame the Mr. Freeze fight on Bruce since Victor is the one that kickstarts the problem. That said, I also feel like the circumstances that led to said fight are pretty contrived to begin with given that Freeze is trying to blackmail the guy that saved his wife to begin with (by his own admission in the Arkham City interview tapes). That's in addition to the fact that Bruce has one foot in death's door, which isn't exactly conducive to a successful rescue.
Beautifully said friend, well said indeed. In a poetic way I think that's the flaw of batman (or weakness) just as every other hero and villains weakness has. Batman could very well be the most bad ass talented , wisest and smartest person to exist but that doesn't change the fact that he's still only human despite being the most talented of humans. He still has flaws and issues and imperfections just like any one of us do . That's what makes him so special. Despite those flaws that's like a double edged sword Batman still finds a way to overcome and find a way and solution to compensate for that issue he has. It can be seen by his over performance of work, time and dedication he puts in. That's what's so inspiring about him
@@alchemistofsteel8099Batman did knight all in one night. Sure if they follow every plan/order Batman tells them sure it will take less time, but if they mess up it might prolong it.
For me, Batman's fatal flaw is his isolation. Often, Batman keeps pushing himself to be alone over and over again because he doesn't want anybody to have the same tragic day be did when his parents were murdered. As a result, he goes into most situations alone after a certain point because he doesn't want any of his family or friends to be hurt. Often times leading to himself and others being hurt much more. How many times in this game would it have been useful for batman to do one thing and either of his Sons to do the other? Personally as well, as demonstrated by your catwomen example, him opening and up and being happy would effectively kill the batman. As a human, he needs to be happy. As the bat, he must be alone. To me saying Batman's tragic flaw is his no killing rule betrays the point of Batman. No one deserves to die. If not for the life of the person but for those who are scarred from it. After all batman was scarred by the murder of his parents, it sent a wound larger than any gunshot. If he killed joker, would Harley take her own life? I think so. If he killed penguin, would a power vacuum cause a gang war claiming dozens of more lives? I think so. Batman to me represents the end to a cycle of death that murder and killing brings with him. To me, It'll never be a flaw that batman never takes a life. It is the ultimate strength that makes him not just the world's greatest detective but the world's greatest hero. And to you my Scottish RUclipsr pal. I found your channel through your Arkham asylum video and it has single handedly gotten me back into reading comics again. I cannot describe how grateful I am for that, it's a medium like no other that tells stories no one else can. And it's touched me in a way I will never forget. So thanks for that
I’ll never forgot opening this up on Christmas morning in 2011 when I was ten unaware of how much impact it was going to have on my life. A masterpiece through and through
Thank goodness youtube recommended me your bioshock infinite critique out of the blue, you've quickly become one of my fave channels to go and watch in the background while working on art (and also to sleep, not that the content is boring I just have ADHD and need to have something on lol) I think you're also the first content creator to actually make a joke about that and go "sweet dreams" which made me go from half asleep to wide awake in .5 seconds
@@MontyZander FGHBFBA IT'S ALRIGHT THE SENTIMENT WAS APPRECIATED NONETHELESS o7 we need more unapolagetically left leaning youtubers with this style, I think the only other one that comes to mind is hbomberguy
Lmao same thing happened to me when I listened to that episode, pretty sure I know which one you’re referring to, and it immediately made me go “oh god they’re listening to me again” and then “oh it’s Monty being cheeky lol nvm” which made me giggle for about a solid minute. Very interested in the art you mentioned working on tho tbh 👀 Not… Not in a creepy way. Just in a, I can’t art and I love to cheer on artists as I live vicariously through their talent, way. ^_^;
Arkham City is such a great superhero game. After liking Asylum... I LOVED City. In a lot of ways, the jump felt like the jump from Uncharted 1 to 2. From a decent, exciting start to a fully-fledged, groundbreaking display of a cohesive vision. Bigger and better in every way. And I always get weirdly excited to see just how fucked up Batman's suit gets over the course of the game lol
The fact that they didn’t put Robin’s Arkham City look in Arkham Knight as a DLC is a crime. They gave Batman his first suit from Arkham Asylum. Why not give Robin his?
If I had to challenge one thing you said, it'd be that Batman's hamartia is less his inability to kill and more his inability to make a meaningful, lasting change. As you touched on earlier, he saw the corruption in the asylum and did nothing about it. It apparently just washed off of him. Throughout the games, Bruce has a tendency to be somewhat dismissive of the criminals or insane as people as well, with even Oracle pointing out that it's okay Deadshot is shooting people because "they're all bad guys". Bruce doesn't counterattack that Strange is just as likely to have thrown minor offenders into Arkham City as murderers or that even the worst of the worst don't deserve to just be gunned down like animals, but instead talks about the innocent people that have been locked up instead. Even in Arkham Knight, should you manage to lock up Riddler before the Joker Hallucination is gone, it mocks Bruce to point out that beating up Edward is a much easier solution than doing anything to actually address his mental illness to prevent him from finding value in his supervillain persona.
Which is weird because comic’s Batman takes a fierce stance on wanting to reform criminals whom possess the potential to do so. The exception is the Joker who he still wants to help in spite of zero redeeming qualities because he sees him in himself.
I always found it very bizzare how Talia was handled in this game. Bruce is willing to let hundreds/thousands of people die despite knowing that any number of people have been thrown into Arkham unfairly, himself included, let alone the fact that Batman has such a strong moral compass that he won't even let The Joker die if he can help it. Yet at the very end, when Talia dies, he practically forgets about her and she completely disappears from the game right before the Clayface reveal.
Also the game portrays Talia as Bruce's great love but she leaves him to die in the steel mill when Protocol 10 starts. Whereas Selina leaves her loot to save him.
Brother, good pum can make any man crazy. Wars have been fought over it 😂 As for the Selena vs talia. It’s very simple. Bruce is Selena’s true love. Talia is Bruce’s true love.
So a few things I want to say: 1. I am also not a big Talia as Batman's love interest guy but i do feel like in the Morrison Run (specifically Batman Incorporated vol.2 but honestly since the start of their run) she is actually a great villain because she becomes a Supervillain who's whole gimmick is being Bruce's ex which imo surprisingly works. 2. About Batman's hamartia. I'd personally argue that it's not that Batman is unwilling to kill but that he cannot accept any death at all. From fighting with Alfred about saving Talia because her life is more concrete then the nebulous victims of Protocol 10 to grieving over the joker to the point of retreating into himself like he did (that he was only barely able to shake off by saving Harley from the same grief) Bruce is still that small child who cannot fathom death due to the trauma of his parents death. 3. Also just wanted to shout out your short read of the Tom King Batman/Catwoman run/saga and how you get that the messiness and complexity is exactly what that run was going for which a lot of people seem to have missed. 4. unsurprisingly the two batman villains that only work in the one story they were pretty much created for are the two worst missions in the game? who could have seen that coming? Anyway great video as always. Very excited for the last video of the trilogy (maybe a detour through the cash-grab spin-offs as well VR and Origin?) and for everything afterwards
@@MontyZander my pleasure and thank you for the compliment. I have a small obsession with superheroes/mental health dynamic so I spent way too much time thinking about exactly that 😅
At what point is it the police’s fault that Joker and other villains don’t die. They put the entire city’s crime in Batman’s hands and then blame him when he doesn’t fix everything for them
It's not really the police's job to execute criminals. That's more on the courts for allowing them to be funneled into a failing institution. Even after Arkham City, the courts rule that just about every supervillain has to be set free because Arkham City was a human rights violation, which seems nonsensical. Just because Arkham City was unconstitutional doesn't erase the records of criminal activity that people like Riddler had beforehand.
@@TheAzulmagia Exactly! They'd be put on death row at the front of the line on the spot, especially people like the Riddler, he'd be killed for his sheer arrogance and hatred that no prison cell is suited for him. Frankly I feel that Arkham city was the best choice, same with protocol ten. Except it's more a planned execution of all the criminals rather then a security breach. Which lets be honest, in real life the super villains would totally deserve being put down, the public wouldn't stand them always walking free or off to an asylum that no one would really use.
Remember when Monty Zander said 'It's critiquing time!' and critiqued all over the place? On a serious note, I am so ready for this video. I hope it gets all deep, philosophical, thought-provoking and shiet. Love you content, MZ!
Now that I've finished the video, I have two take aways: 1. They definitely should've used Mask of the Phantasm as the core inspiration for Talia’s story. Imagine a strange masked figure saving Bruce a few times, he meets Talia/Andrea in Wonder City, he shares a couple conversations with the Phantasm, and Bats is saved again during that last struggle through the steel mill. That's when their identity is revealed and she makes a deal with Joker. It would even provide a stronger subversion of the expectations for the Fake Joker reveal, where she has a scene very similar to the one in MoP where she disappears with Joker, only for it to be cut off by the real Joker killing her. 2. I live in both dread and excitement for the day you get to Arkham Knight and Shadow of Mordor, two of my most nostalgic games and some of the few games I'll replay despite their flaws. Knight is still the most visually stunning game I've ever played, almost a decade later, and I think, for better and worse, it does a better job at establishing Batman’s emotional connection to those he loses or thinks he loses throughout the game. I just wish they didn't waste such a badass adaptation of Scarecrow on playing third fiddle to Ghost Joker and DEFINITELY NOT Jason Todd As always a great watch!
I played all of the Batman Arkham games, because they were on sale some time last year on Steam. I enjoy them a lot, after knowing the praise they got over the years, and I even played them in a row. I did not get bored by the recurring mechanics and theme. I really appreciated the evolution of the series. So far I watched all of videos of these games and I am really excited for your take on Batman Arkham Knight. Keep it up Monty!
“Two games had released that year where North played the main character” *Shows Ezio Auditore, famously voiced by Roger Craig Smith* Seriously though, I loved this video, that moment just gave me a good chuckle
There’s an aspect of Arkham City’s lore that a lot of people miss and it makes me sad because I think it adds so much to Ra’s Al Guhl’s character in the game. Wonder City was built by Ra’s Al Guhl 200 years before the events of the game and (in this universe) is where he first discovered the Lazarus pits. Ra’s overuse of the pit would wind up driving the citizens of Old Gotham mad. I really like this addition because it acts as a subtle implication for why Gotham is such a haven for the criminally insane and makes Ra’s come off as even more of a scumbag because it recontextualizes Protocol 10 into being less about “the greater good” and more about a petty man trying to wipe away his past mistakes without actually trying to do the hard work to fix them.
I really don't understand the complaint about the free flow focus; I believe it's a good trade off, everything slows down a little bit and can still use all non-gadget/special moves. Personally in a big group of enemies with shields, swords, stun batons, and armor that slow down helps a lot especially against ninjas. As with all combat encounters in the Arkham series it's best to take everything in and take your time
I am HERE for the Talia Al Ghul slader Ngl, her blandness, her honestly terrible in-game model, and how they shove her into such a central role in the plot was the one GIANT problem I had with City.
Her original model looked way better, the remaster horrifically butchered her in particular, it sticks out really badly when Ras grabs her. Her hair was recolored very poorly and she was given a very heavy and extremely noticeable spray tan, and they removed her belly piercing for some reason.
Great video as always! 2 small corrections: 1. It’s not snowing because of Freeze’s experiments, it’s just simply because it’s the middle of winter, possible late Dec-Jan, on the US east coast. 2. It’s just regular supervillain-grade acid Catwoman is hanging over, not Titan.
I'm genuinely hyped to see if you'll review origins or knight next. Origins really needs some love in the form of a long review like yours. (Yes, even the surprisingly fun multiplayer that still works on xbox and even pc if you edit the game file correctly to re enable it)
Just wanted to say that your videos are phenomenal. I’ve watched loads of critiques/long form essays and very few RUclipsrs can achieve this level of quality and polish. Please don’t stop doing these.
Can't believe I didn't get a notification for this. Excellent video, really enjoying your videos on this series. As for Batman's fatal flaw, I think it is his inability to expose others to the truth of the horror is his most important flaw. Batman, as a result of the Asylum, refuses to expose those he holds close to the true horror and rot he saw. He has others he could call on to help him fight against it and fix the system, and a lot of deaths and harm could have prevented had he done that, but he can't expose them to that. He was so focused on Talia he would have left thousands of others to die had he not been talked out of it. He was so focused on keeping Robin safe that he sent him back out of the city, meaning he had no back up going into Wonder City and only had one pair of hands to work with at the critical moments of the story, when even one more set could have done so much good. This refusal to expose the truth of the horror is also evident at the end of last game. He refuses to allow the public to know about the truth of the horror. You touched on it in the video, but he refuses to expose this horror, thinking he is the solution to the problems and the rot of the system, and want to protect others. This fits well as a fatal flaw, because it is a flaw in this setting, but perhaps not others. It is heroic in a sense, shouldering all of the burdens onto himself to protect others. But in this story it is a flaw because it limits him from doing more good. I think Batman learned a bad lesson from Asylum, in that he can withstand and power through the rot and evil and horror he finds on his own. He learned he could do it on his own, so he now does it on his own so he can protect those closest to him from the horror. I think that does tie into your complaints about the DLC to some degree. He could work with Robin, but he believes he can take it all on his own, so he does so, keeping Robin away. He doesn't seem to learn that he can really on his allies in this game. It is still a poor gameplay choice that they didn't include it, but it does make some sense from a character level.
What I've found in GORGING on your content is that I can't help but question with greater depth, my passion and love of many of the games you and I have completed. Critical thinking is a beautiful thing and you've got a KNACK for engaging my brain in that way. Thank you!
My favorite part of Kevin's performance is how he'd switch so effortlessly between his Bruce voice and his Batvoice. So you'd get these moments where you'd have this goofy, frat boy, silver spoon fed ass voice momentarily coming from the personification of vengeance 🤣 or you'd have this rich playboy goof suddenly transform into a brooding focus instrument of justice as soon as he's out of the public eye.
Memories of playing hopped up on NOS so I could unlock the Batman Beyond costume and caving in faces to The Crystal Method's intro on repeat. For some reason I was blown away by the detail of the wings appearing when gliding and stunning. I figured they'd just make the cape transparent and call it good.
As a bit of a cinematography nerd, my favourite bit about the Grundy boss fight is just the build up to it. There’s a snap zoom and rocksteady executes with such flair and conviction that I had a wide grin when I first played that fight. And speaking of cameras, I think rocksteady does a fairly good job with implementing and evolving its use throughout their trilogy… Great work on the analysis. Keep up the great work!!
Kinda upset that you didn't mention the song Coheed and Cambria did for Arkham City and how it both perfectly reflects Bruce and Joker's relationship/situation and the utter tragedy of Arkham City as a whole.
Your stealth breakdown is perfection especially for the the freeze bossfight. It's a shame they have fallen so far from grace. Suicide squad is the most generic and by the numbers game. Arkham city and Asylum are my favorite games of all time.
Monty is the kind of critic that critics will struggle to critique - I love the way that he can offer both heartfelt praise and unforgiving criticism within minutes of one another, seeing games that he loves not just as the sum of their parts, but also for the level of quality that each part presents. Too many reviewers view their final opinion on a game as a thesis that must be proven at every opportunity, and in trying to smooth over the flaws, fail to achieve that goal - good games are good not despite their flaws, not if their flaws are overlooked, but in the context that there are enough great qualities married to the flaws, coalescing to a final product that gets as much right as it can, and still has room for improvement. Thank you, Monty, for making reviews which are not only informative, but wholly sincere.
@@MontyZander Like my grandpa used to say, "If you're shitting yourself, you're doing it right." I'm still not sure if I trust his wisdom, but c'est la vie, c'est la merde.
Monty liked my post from the asylum video and I knew at that moment to be patient for the upcoming video essays. Thank you for answering my prayers sir.
I know what I'm watching while I do initial rough sketches for a challenging new illustration as I wait for the new The Last of Us episode to drop tonight!! LOVED your previous Arkham video, and I've been rewatching yout BioShock videos again. Currently nearing the end of 2. EXCELLENT video, btw. Keep on keeping on, man!
I think that Batman's fatal flaw for me has always been his hypocrisy and I don't mean his No killing rule but his constant need to stand on the hill of WHY he doesn't kill people because "Everyone can get better I wont give up on Gotham or its people because it can get better" but he himself gave up on getting better the moment he became Batman he preaches that people can be helped, but never committed to actually helping himself just surviving as Batman
I really really love your long reviews, Monty. They are always so well structured, and you have always more to say than: game good/bad. Even though I do not share all the opinions you express in your reviews, I always enjoy your insight. So thank you for doing this.
Yet another banger Monty! I love how deep you go into the game down into it's soul. I can't wait for the Arkham Knight video and how you will deal with the twist in that one.
I've been listening to your critique of Asylum over the past several days, so super excited to listen to this one. Really glad the algorithm helped me stumble upon your channel.
i have been waiting so excitedely for this one, audibly said "Ohohoho here we go". I replayed the whole Arkham saga since your first Batman Arkham Asylum video just to be able to relate or disagree with your critiques. This is amazing content.
something interesting to note regarding the absence of talia is that she was supposedly going to have a bigger role, with character models being found referencing clayface possibly impersonating her
One thing I hated about Harley Quinn’s Revenge was that all the characters (Batman, Harley, Robin) all end the DLC in the same place as characters as at the beginning of the DLC. No character growth or change whatsoever. Would have liked to see Batman learn to rely on his bat family in his grief or learn to let go of some guilt over joker’s death by the end of the story. Fun gameplay, but a horribly depressing way to end that always left me deeply unsatisfied.
Yeah, Harley Quinn's Revenge is entirely pointless in the grand scheme of things. Aside from Robin getting a bit more to do, there wasn't really any value to the story. Even worse is that all of the characters are basically STILL more or less in the same place by the time of Arkham Knight, minus Harley's attempt at suicide.
Wow Monty never realized the Cain and Abel painting of a brother killing a brother With a huge muscular Cain carrying his thin brother Was litterally a picture of Batman carrying the joker Two sides of a coin forced to be at odds bc of the world
Your videos are amazing Monty. Absolutely incredible the amount of effort and editing you put into your videos. I wish i could make video's like you. Keep up the great work!
ok... didn't expect you to make for all the arkham games. Seems like i have to not just play arkham asylum but also city and knight... God tier content but man you are killing me with all these games i now want to play.
YAY!! After watching your Arkham asylum video, I was so excited to watch this when I got the notification. Love these videos!!!! 💙💙💙 definitely the best I’ve seen of the Arkham series on RUclips, great job!!
In Arkham City, I'm pretty sure you actually can listen to the interview tapes out of the menu, you just have to press the touch pad/map button to close the interface rather than 'O'/Back, because that button stops the playback. As always seriously great video, I'm on a marathon of your critiques right now I can't get enough of them!
Just discovered your channel with your Hollow Knight and Batman Arkham critiques and I love your content! Subscribed immediately. Thanks for your work!
That "Themperors" line at 26:58 is brilliant and super appreciated! (I'm Non-binary) Fantastic videos by the way, been busy binge watching the Batman ones.
I found your channel through the Bioshock retrospectives, and I'm glad I did. Each video of yours I've seen has been well thought out and much more interesting than the average retrospective, and this one is no exception. I know you're probably going to cover Knight for next video, but I do hope you'll give Arkham Origins the same treatment at some point. One thing I'd like to add to the Catwoman section: something that makes the initial decision to lock her sections behind the DLC wall all the more pointless (and low key scummy on the part of Warner Brothers) is that Arkham City got a Game of The Year re-release (roughly about a year later I think) which included all the DLC on-disc, with all the Catwoman sections fully integrated in the main game right where they were supposed to be.
Full truth, people keep telling me what an interesting, complex character Talia is. But I have been digging through comics from her very first appearance forwards, and I am 30yrs deep into Talia-history, and I have yet to see her be anything other than a sexy (occasionally villainous) lamp. Where is this interesting Talia? Somewhere between the late 90s & 2005? Because everyone seems to *hate* her after Damian gets introduced, and I just can’t find- The most complex choices she’s made have been things the plot needs to have happen for whatever reason (Bruce can’t escape on his own, Talia will break him out! We need to return to the status quo, can’t have that baby stick around!) that she does with at most a single panel of set-up, and in her first ever appearance she tells Bruce she’s a medical student, something we see no evidence of at any point in that or any future appearance. [deep breath] Also, it’s kinda funny that people say her drugging & assaulting Bruce is an OOC retcon, given in her 3rd ever appearance, she… drugs Bruce, marries him against his will, tells him his consent doesn’t matter, and then spends the rest of the arc prancing around the Gotham docks in her underwear for no apparent reason. A sequence which “Son of the Demon” *directly references* literally just a page or two before Talia & Bruce decide to go to town on eachother. It’s easy to see how Grant Morrison misremembered that scene as including the drugging, and there is solid precedent for Talia trying to do that sort of thing to Bruce. Big fuckin’ yikes, sure, but hardly OOC. Finally, “Son of the Demon” is pretty rich with Bruce directly saying he’s never experienced the joys of fatherhood until he found out Talia was pregnant, and never mentioning Robin *once.* Like, that story came out in 87. Way to piss all over Bruce’s relationships with both Dick & Jason (WHO WASN’T EVEN DEAD YET) who are??? Presumably just sitting at home, wondering why Bruce has disappeared off the face of the Earth??? At least Dick was busy with the Titans, but poor Jason…
Gonna have to listen to this at work. I just subscribed to you like yesterday, and I get a new video while I have a backlog to go through. I feel spoiled.
Love how your going into all of my favorite games. Just out of cursoitiy, you ever gonna do a critique on Little Nightmares? The series is one of the scariest amd weird Ive played and the two games could probably be done in a single video.
A little nitpick: At around 43:30 you say: “Its snowing, not because it’s winter but because of Freeze’s experiments” After joker kicks you through the window at the steel mill Alfred has a line where he says “It is the middle of winter out there” Just wondering if you missed that or if you meant that it is winter but the reason that it’s snowing is because of Mr. Freeze.
The temperature readout when you're tracking Freeze down is only a few degrees below freezing. It seems likely that Freeze's influence made the difference between snow and freezing rain.
Thanks for doing these, Monty! i fell off of these after the first one, i really tried but i couldn't get into to the 2nd one and after that i just stopped bothering. So your perspective is interesting.
Yay a new Monty Vid 😀 This makes me even more depressed knowing what we just saw of gameplay in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, battlepass, purple crap to shoot on enemies, & they have the audacity to say it’s set in the Arkham verse, it’s not grounded or gritty enough to be set in the Arkhamverse, what with all the Fortnite/Crackdown jumping around lol, really excited to see your critique on this upcoming game because right now, it looks like it’s gonna piss a lot of Rocksteady fans off
Monty I just want to say you inspire me as a creator and I hope I can make videos of the same quality that you make one day, I enjoyed the video mate, youre a great narrator
I really, really like Arkham City. It took whatever good stuff Asylum had and was like "Hey what if we just made it better in every way?" I know some people prefer Asylum for being more "compact" and "tight", but I couldn't disagree more. I love the open world aspect of City, the freedom and exploration it allows, and using Strange as the primary antagonist is always great. To this day it's my favorite Batman game and was my favorite superhero game until Marvel's Spider-Man eclipsed it (I like Spider-Man much much much more than Batman, so that helped).
I got this game for my birthday as a little kid not in 2011 but earlier on in the 2010s and I knew it was my favorite game from the moment I wanted it, my love for Batman and superheroes in general I felt like the gameplay was so cool and the story was amazing I remember if I wasn’t playing it I would watch videos about it on my little tablet. I genuinely love this game, it does have flaws but despite that playing this as a kid will forever be an amazing memory
1:49:00 While taking care of Strange first does, perhaps, result in a more poignant note due to the death of the Joker and focusing on saving the many instead of 'the few' is perhaps a more 'Batman' approach... it also isn't the most logical choice. Joker has the cure, and stands to become immortal. Wouldn't it make far more sense to try and cure Bruce and try to prevent the reign of terror of an insane, immortal Clown Prince instead of trying to claw through a small army? Obviously he's 'The Batman', but he did collapse, he did start to break. But his deteriorating state basically gets ignored until after Strange is dealt with. Perhaps instead of the Steel Mill, we could have dealt with 'The Joker' in The Monarch Theatre before it began to collapse, resulting in the same outcome. From there, have us climb the tower in order to get to strange... and, perhaps, proverbially decent into hell as we crawl through lower portions of the tower and back into Wonder City, with the final fight taking place in another theatre far below to mirror things. Maybe give Ra's more involvement than 'well, guess I'll just stab myself with my own sword and land on a fence'.
Arkham City is the source of one of my favorite memories playing video games: I'd just started the game and had just escaped Two-Face's courthouse. I was on the roof and at the front entrance to the court house were two guards posted up. I listened to their chatter a bit and as I jumped off the roof I heard an exchange that went something like: "There's no way the Bat is getting out of here, we've got the entrance covered." "What about the back entrance?" "There's a back?!" As soon as the henchman finished saying "There's a back?!", Batman landed an aerial double takedown (or maybe it was just a single takedown, I can't remember if aerial double takedowns were a thing) with PERFECT timing. It was something from the Nolan movies, I had to pause the game just so me and my little brother could lose our minds at how awesome it played out.
Thanks for being here! Check out our podcast - Lore Dump - below. This is the episode where we covered Metal Gear Rising and it was a laugh.
ruclips.net/video/tpQZr3eT3KY/видео.html
Oh, Monty, did you know? If you shoot the TYGER Helicopters before Protocol 10, it makes the guards angry enough to shoot at you. Also, if you don't trace Zasz's call throughout the sidequest, you get an extra two calls and then Batman will automatically solve the tracker puzzle for you.
@@TheAzulmagia I didn’t know this!
The cryptographic sequencer is the best part of the game. So engaging.
26:33 ive never seen this? how do i get these to appear
Hugo Strange is 100% correct.
Something I've always loved about Arkham City is how much weight it gives to the Joker's death. The power of that shot of Batman carrying joker out of Arkham City holds so strongly in your memory that even when Joker comes back as a hallucination in Arkham Knight it serves more as a way to highlight his physical absence in the story than it does a way to bring back the character.
True. Joker didn’t feel too cheap in Knight, more like he was watching Batman from the sidelines. While I still wish he was completely gone, I don’t mind it as much as I should because of this.
@@goroakechi6126 I think it would have been worse if he wasnt there at all. the series was essentially the story of their relationship, having the last game be just totally unrelated would have been... weird.
What I hated was the Joker takeover section was too short and confined. I wanted to drive out into the streets in the Jokemobile and kill people.
And it mirrors the Cain and Abel painting the game opens with.
I hated that personally. Joker is trash and shouldn’t be treated with any respect or remorse. I prefer their relationship written with joker as a character Batman wants gone but won’t kill.
"take my blood. I wish someone would. The stuff is killing me" one of my favorite lines
I love the ‘nice of you to say, but you of all people would know, there’s plenty wrong with me’
In the Arkham games, I feel Batman's fatal flaw is his inability to place his trust in his friends. He refuses Robin's help, which leads to him going down into Wonder City without backup. He never thinks to call in the help of the myriad of other heroes and vigilantes he calls allies. He mistrusts Mr. Freeze, leading to the fight that allows Harley to steal the cure out from under him. In the sequel, he makes mistake after mistake in his belief that he has to shoulder the burdens of the world. He never thinks that maybe, Atlas should shrug, and share the weight of the world with another.
While I can agree with that, I can't really blame the Mr. Freeze fight on Bruce since Victor is the one that kickstarts the problem. That said, I also feel like the circumstances that led to said fight are pretty contrived to begin with given that Freeze is trying to blackmail the guy that saved his wife to begin with (by his own admission in the Arkham City interview tapes). That's in addition to the fact that Bruce has one foot in death's door, which isn't exactly conducive to a successful rescue.
Imagine how quickly arkham knight could have been solved if Batman was more coordinated with the Robin's, the creeper, catwomen and Black canary
Beautifully said friend, well said indeed. In a poetic way I think that's the flaw of batman (or weakness) just as every other hero and villains weakness has. Batman could very well be the most bad ass talented , wisest and smartest person to exist but that doesn't change the fact that he's still only human despite being the most talented of humans. He still has flaws and issues and imperfections just like any one of us do . That's what makes him so special. Despite those flaws that's like a double edged sword Batman still finds a way to overcome and find a way and solution to compensate for that issue he has. It can be seen by his over performance of work, time and dedication he puts in. That's what's so inspiring about him
@@alchemistofsteel8099Batman did knight all in one night. Sure if they follow every plan/order Batman tells them sure it will take less time, but if they mess up it might prolong it.
The reasoning behind it is that after Jason ‘died’. He was too afraid to lose anyone else.
For me, Batman's fatal flaw is his isolation. Often, Batman keeps pushing himself to be alone over and over again because he doesn't want anybody to have the same tragic day be did when his parents were murdered. As a result, he goes into most situations alone after a certain point because he doesn't want any of his family or friends to be hurt. Often times leading to himself and others being hurt much more. How many times in this game would it have been useful for batman to do one thing and either of his Sons to do the other?
Personally as well, as demonstrated by your catwomen example, him opening and up and being happy would effectively kill the batman. As a human, he needs to be happy. As the bat, he must be alone.
To me saying Batman's tragic flaw is his no killing rule betrays the point of Batman. No one deserves to die. If not for the life of the person but for those who are scarred from it. After all batman was scarred by the murder of his parents, it sent a wound larger than any gunshot. If he killed joker, would Harley take her own life? I think so. If he killed penguin, would a power vacuum cause a gang war claiming dozens of more lives? I think so. Batman to me represents the end to a cycle of death that murder and killing brings with him. To me, It'll never be a flaw that batman never takes a life. It is the ultimate strength that makes him not just the world's greatest detective but the world's greatest hero.
And to you my Scottish RUclipsr pal. I found your channel through your Arkham asylum video and it has single handedly gotten me back into reading comics again. I cannot describe how grateful I am for that, it's a medium like no other that tells stories no one else can. And it's touched me in a way I will never forget. So thanks for that
I also feel like the death of Jason Todd adds to this flaw, as he doesn’t want anyone else to suffer the same fate for his crusade.
I’ll never forgot opening this up on Christmas morning in 2011 when I was ten unaware of how much impact it was going to have on my life. A masterpiece through and through
So relatable… this game changed my life
Thank goodness youtube recommended me your bioshock infinite critique out of the blue, you've quickly become one of my fave channels to go and watch in the background while working on art (and also to sleep, not that the content is boring I just have ADHD and need to have something on lol) I think you're also the first content creator to actually make a joke about that and go "sweet dreams" which made me go from half asleep to wide awake in .5 seconds
Oh god sorry!!
@@MontyZander FGHBFBA IT'S ALRIGHT THE SENTIMENT WAS APPRECIATED NONETHELESS o7
we need more unapolagetically left leaning youtubers with this style, I think the only other one that comes to mind is hbomberguy
@@chaoticduk7515 TRUE!
Lmao same thing happened to me when I listened to that episode, pretty sure I know which one you’re referring to, and it immediately made me go “oh god they’re listening to me again” and then “oh it’s Monty being cheeky lol nvm” which made me giggle for about a solid minute.
Very interested in the art you mentioned working on tho tbh 👀 Not… Not in a creepy way. Just in a, I can’t art and I love to cheer on artists as I live vicariously through their talent, way. ^_^;
@@lizabee484 You don't sound creepy at all ghsbha you're good!! I can show some of it off on twitter or somethin.
Arkham City is such a great superhero game. After liking Asylum... I LOVED City. In a lot of ways, the jump felt like the jump from Uncharted 1 to 2. From a decent, exciting start to a fully-fledged, groundbreaking display of a cohesive vision. Bigger and better in every way. And I always get weirdly excited to see just how fucked up Batman's suit gets over the course of the game lol
Man you've perfectly summed it up some of my favorite games of all time.
Comparing Arkham Asylum to Uncharted 1 is a bit of an insult lol. Arkham Asylum is a much, much better game than that.
The fact that they didn’t put Robin’s Arkham City look in Arkham Knight as a DLC is a crime. They gave Batman his first suit from Arkham Asylum. Why not give Robin his?
If I had to challenge one thing you said, it'd be that Batman's hamartia is less his inability to kill and more his inability to make a meaningful, lasting change. As you touched on earlier, he saw the corruption in the asylum and did nothing about it. It apparently just washed off of him. Throughout the games, Bruce has a tendency to be somewhat dismissive of the criminals or insane as people as well, with even Oracle pointing out that it's okay Deadshot is shooting people because "they're all bad guys". Bruce doesn't counterattack that Strange is just as likely to have thrown minor offenders into Arkham City as murderers or that even the worst of the worst don't deserve to just be gunned down like animals, but instead talks about the innocent people that have been locked up instead. Even in Arkham Knight, should you manage to lock up Riddler before the Joker Hallucination is gone, it mocks Bruce to point out that beating up Edward is a much easier solution than doing anything to actually address his mental illness to prevent him from finding value in his supervillain persona.
Which is weird because comic’s Batman takes a fierce stance on wanting to reform criminals whom possess the potential to do so. The exception is the Joker who he still wants to help in spite of zero redeeming qualities because he sees him in himself.
I always found it very bizzare how Talia was handled in this game. Bruce is willing to let hundreds/thousands of people die despite knowing that any number of people have been thrown into Arkham unfairly, himself included, let alone the fact that Batman has such a strong moral compass that he won't even let The Joker die if he can help it. Yet at the very end, when Talia dies, he practically forgets about her and she completely disappears from the game right before the Clayface reveal.
Also the game portrays Talia as Bruce's great love but she leaves him to die in the steel mill when Protocol 10 starts. Whereas Selina leaves her loot to save him.
Brother, good pum can make any man crazy. Wars have been fought over it 😂
As for the Selena vs talia. It’s very simple.
Bruce is Selena’s true love.
Talia is Bruce’s true love.
Fully agree on the Talia point. Selina understands Bruce so much more and has less beef with him.
Babe, wake up, new Monty Zander video
Ture
Don't call me babe, we broke up 5 months ago!
@@loubloom1941 move out then
W boyfriend
@@loubloom1941 hollup... let him cook
The Fact that Freeze isn't in the challenge map is ridiculous. They could've even had a few thugs thrown in to make it more difficult.
So a few things I want to say:
1. I am also not a big Talia as Batman's love interest guy but i do feel like in the Morrison Run (specifically Batman Incorporated vol.2 but honestly since the start of their run) she is actually a great villain because she becomes a Supervillain who's whole gimmick is being Bruce's ex which imo surprisingly works.
2. About Batman's hamartia. I'd personally argue that it's not that Batman is unwilling to kill but that he cannot accept any death at all. From fighting with Alfred about saving Talia because her life is more concrete then the nebulous victims of Protocol 10 to grieving over the joker to the point of retreating into himself like he did (that he was only barely able to shake off by saving Harley from the same grief) Bruce is still that small child who cannot fathom death due to the trauma of his parents death.
3. Also just wanted to shout out your short read of the Tom King Batman/Catwoman run/saga and how you get that the messiness and complexity is exactly what that run was going for which a lot of people seem to have missed.
4. unsurprisingly the two batman villains that only work in the one story they were pretty much created for are the two worst missions in the game? who could have seen that coming?
Anyway great video as always. Very excited for the last video of the trilogy (maybe a detour through the cash-grab spin-offs as well VR and Origin?) and for everything afterwards
Holy shit I love your hamartia reading. Thank you for this!
@@MontyZander my pleasure and thank you for the compliment.
I have a small obsession with superheroes/mental health dynamic so I spent way too much time thinking about exactly that 😅
At what point is it the police’s fault that Joker and other villains don’t die. They put the entire city’s crime in Batman’s hands and then blame him when he doesn’t fix everything for them
It's not really the police's job to execute criminals. That's more on the courts for allowing them to be funneled into a failing institution. Even after Arkham City, the courts rule that just about every supervillain has to be set free because Arkham City was a human rights violation, which seems nonsensical. Just because Arkham City was unconstitutional doesn't erase the records of criminal activity that people like Riddler had beforehand.
@@TheAzulmagia Exactly! They'd be put on death row at the front of the line on the spot, especially people like the Riddler, he'd be killed for his sheer arrogance and hatred that no prison cell is suited for him. Frankly I feel that Arkham city was the best choice, same with protocol ten. Except it's more a planned execution of all the criminals rather then a security breach. Which lets be honest, in real life the super villains would totally deserve being put down, the public wouldn't stand them always walking free or off to an asylum that no one would really use.
@@shcdemolisherthat’s the point of asylum, you cannot execute someone who’s insane, so that’s why none of Batman’s villains can be executed
Remember when Monty Zander said 'It's critiquing time!' and critiqued all over the place?
On a serious note, I am so ready for this video. I hope it gets all deep, philosophical, thought-provoking and shiet. Love you content, MZ!
I love having his critique all over my face
Now that I've finished the video, I have two take aways:
1. They definitely should've used Mask of the Phantasm as the core inspiration for Talia’s story. Imagine a strange masked figure saving Bruce a few times, he meets Talia/Andrea in Wonder City, he shares a couple conversations with the Phantasm, and Bats is saved again during that last struggle through the steel mill. That's when their identity is revealed and she makes a deal with Joker. It would even provide a stronger subversion of the expectations for the Fake Joker reveal, where she has a scene very similar to the one in MoP where she disappears with Joker, only for it to be cut off by the real Joker killing her.
2. I live in both dread and excitement for the day you get to Arkham Knight and Shadow of Mordor, two of my most nostalgic games and some of the few games I'll replay despite their flaws. Knight is still the most visually stunning game I've ever played, almost a decade later, and I think, for better and worse, it does a better job at establishing Batman’s emotional connection to those he loses or thinks he loses throughout the game. I just wish they didn't waste such a badass adaptation of Scarecrow on playing third fiddle to Ghost Joker and DEFINITELY NOT Jason Todd
As always a great watch!
I absolutely agree with Scarecrow part.
8:01 Actually we also see Deadshot who is the thug waiting in line in front of Bruce Wayne. So many great details as always with Arkham Games intros
I played all of the Batman Arkham games, because they were on sale some time last year on Steam.
I enjoy them a lot, after knowing the praise they got over the years, and I even played them in a row. I did not get bored by the recurring mechanics and theme. I really appreciated the evolution of the series.
So far I watched all of videos of these games and I am really excited for your take on Batman Arkham Knight.
Keep it up Monty!
“Two games had released that year where North played the main character”
*Shows Ezio Auditore, famously voiced by Roger Craig Smith*
Seriously though, I loved this video, that moment just gave me a good chuckle
Yeah my bad - the footage was meant to be of Desmond but the clip I wanted just refused to download so I went with a generic trailer!
There’s an aspect of Arkham City’s lore that a lot of people miss and it makes me sad because I think it adds so much to Ra’s Al Guhl’s character in the game. Wonder City was built by Ra’s Al Guhl 200 years before the events of the game and (in this universe) is where he first discovered the Lazarus pits. Ra’s overuse of the pit would wind up driving the citizens of Old Gotham mad. I really like this addition because it acts as a subtle implication for why Gotham is such a haven for the criminally insane and makes Ra’s come off as even more of a scumbag because it recontextualizes Protocol 10 into being less about “the greater good” and more about a petty man trying to wipe away his past mistakes without actually trying to do the hard work to fix them.
I really don't understand the complaint about the free flow focus; I believe it's a good trade off, everything slows down a little bit and can still use all non-gadget/special moves. Personally in a big group of enemies with shields, swords, stun batons, and armor that slow down helps a lot especially against ninjas. As with all combat encounters in the Arkham series it's best to take everything in and take your time
I am HERE for the Talia Al Ghul slader
Ngl, her blandness, her honestly terrible in-game model, and how they shove her into such a central role in the plot was the one GIANT problem I had with City.
Her original model looked way better, the remaster horrifically butchered her in particular, it sticks out really badly when Ras grabs her.
Her hair was recolored very poorly and she was given a very heavy and extremely noticeable spray tan, and they removed her belly piercing for some reason.
Great video as always! 2 small corrections:
1. It’s not snowing because of Freeze’s experiments, it’s just simply because it’s the middle of winter, possible late Dec-Jan, on the US east coast.
2. It’s just regular supervillain-grade acid Catwoman is hanging over, not Titan.
And you can't take thug's shield with a batclaw.
I'm genuinely hyped to see if you'll review origins or knight next. Origins really needs some love in the form of a long review like yours. (Yes, even the surprisingly fun multiplayer that still works on xbox and even pc if you edit the game file correctly to re enable it)
Just wanted to say that your videos are phenomenal. I’ve watched loads of critiques/long form essays and very few RUclipsrs can achieve this level of quality and polish. Please don’t stop doing these.
Bro out here gonna make one of the best Arkham essay series of videos I've seen on YT. Keep up the amazing work! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Can't believe I didn't get a notification for this. Excellent video, really enjoying your videos on this series.
As for Batman's fatal flaw, I think it is his inability to expose others to the truth of the horror is his most important flaw. Batman, as a result of the Asylum, refuses to expose those he holds close to the true horror and rot he saw. He has others he could call on to help him fight against it and fix the system, and a lot of deaths and harm could have prevented had he done that, but he can't expose them to that. He was so focused on Talia he would have left thousands of others to die had he not been talked out of it. He was so focused on keeping Robin safe that he sent him back out of the city, meaning he had no back up going into Wonder City and only had one pair of hands to work with at the critical moments of the story, when even one more set could have done so much good.
This refusal to expose the truth of the horror is also evident at the end of last game. He refuses to allow the public to know about the truth of the horror. You touched on it in the video, but he refuses to expose this horror, thinking he is the solution to the problems and the rot of the system, and want to protect others. This fits well as a fatal flaw, because it is a flaw in this setting, but perhaps not others. It is heroic in a sense, shouldering all of the burdens onto himself to protect others. But in this story it is a flaw because it limits him from doing more good.
I think Batman learned a bad lesson from Asylum, in that he can withstand and power through the rot and evil and horror he finds on his own. He learned he could do it on his own, so he now does it on his own so he can protect those closest to him from the horror. I think that does tie into your complaints about the DLC to some degree. He could work with Robin, but he believes he can take it all on his own, so he does so, keeping Robin away. He doesn't seem to learn that he can really on his allies in this game. It is still a poor gameplay choice that they didn't include it, but it does make some sense from a character level.
What I've found in GORGING on your content is that I can't help but question with greater depth, my passion and love of many of the games you and I have completed.
Critical thinking is a beautiful thing and you've got a KNACK for engaging my brain in that way.
Thank you!
My favorite part of Kevin's performance is how he'd switch so effortlessly between his Bruce voice and his Batvoice. So you'd get these moments where you'd have this goofy, frat boy, silver spoon fed ass voice momentarily coming from the personification of vengeance 🤣 or you'd have this rich playboy goof suddenly transform into a brooding focus instrument of justice as soon as he's out of the public eye.
Memories of playing hopped up on NOS so I could unlock the Batman Beyond costume and caving in faces to The Crystal Method's intro on repeat.
For some reason I was blown away by the detail of the wings appearing when gliding and stunning. I figured they'd just make the cape transparent and call it good.
As a bit of a cinematography nerd, my favourite bit about the Grundy boss fight is just the build up to it. There’s a snap zoom and rocksteady executes with such flair and conviction that I had a wide grin when I first played that fight.
And speaking of cameras, I think rocksteady does a fairly good job with implementing and evolving its use throughout their trilogy…
Great work on the analysis. Keep up the great work!!
Kinda upset that you didn't mention the song Coheed and Cambria did for Arkham City and how it both perfectly reflects Bruce and Joker's relationship/situation and the utter tragedy of Arkham City as a whole.
I don’t know who that is
Your stealth breakdown is perfection especially for the the freeze bossfight.
It's a shame they have fallen so far from grace. Suicide squad is the most generic and by the numbers game. Arkham city and Asylum are my favorite games of all time.
Bruh Suicide Squad hasn’t even come out yet lol wait to judge til then
@@IliterateFoo So what if it hasn't come out. They showed us what we'll be getting. I've been on the money thus far.
Monty is the kind of critic that critics will struggle to critique - I love the way that he can offer both heartfelt praise and unforgiving criticism within minutes of one another, seeing games that he loves not just as the sum of their parts, but also for the level of quality that each part presents. Too many reviewers view their final opinion on a game as a thesis that must be proven at every opportunity, and in trying to smooth over the flaws, fail to achieve that goal - good games are good not despite their flaws, not if their flaws are overlooked, but in the context that there are enough great qualities married to the flaws, coalescing to a final product that gets as much right as it can, and still has room for improvement. Thank you, Monty, for making reviews which are not only informative, but wholly sincere.
Shitting myself as I work through this Origins critique now that I do all of that ^
@@MontyZander Like my grandpa used to say, "If you're shitting yourself, you're doing it right." I'm still not sure if I trust his wisdom, but c'est la vie, c'est la merde.
@@averymccoytarnished6782
"If you're shutting yourself, you're doing it right." _he shits his adult diaper while not doing anything_
Monty liked my post from the asylum video and I knew at that moment to be patient for the upcoming video essays. Thank you for answering my prayers sir.
Bro I fell asleep with RUclips on and that whisper “One, Two, Three” woke me up and scared the fucking shut out of me
I know what I'm watching while I do initial rough sketches for a challenging new illustration as I wait for the new The Last of Us episode to drop tonight!!
LOVED your previous Arkham video, and I've been rewatching yout BioShock videos again. Currently nearing the end of 2. EXCELLENT video, btw. Keep on keeping on, man!
I think that Batman's fatal flaw for me has always been his hypocrisy and I don't mean his No killing rule but his constant need to stand on the hill of WHY he doesn't kill people because "Everyone can get better I wont give up on Gotham or its people because it can get better" but he himself gave up on getting better the moment he became Batman he preaches that people can be helped, but never committed to actually helping himself just surviving as Batman
Ahh love this. Super depressed about it . But it love it all the same.
the turn around on these vids is crazy, excited to watch this
Have I ever played this game? No.
Am I going to watch a 2 hour critique of this game? Yes.
I really really love your long reviews, Monty. They are always so well structured, and you have always more to say than: game good/bad.
Even though I do not share all the opinions you express in your reviews, I always enjoy your insight.
So thank you for doing this.
oh ive been so excited for this one. Monty your critiques are always so good man.
Yet another banger Monty! I love how deep you go into the game down into it's soul. I can't wait for the Arkham Knight video and how you will deal with the twist in that one.
Just got here right after finishing your Asylum video. Glad to have found your channel, man. The meaning of critique eludes many but you got it.
You deserve millions of views on your videos for the quality content you produce man
I seriously hope you’re working on an Arkham Knight analysis video cuz this and your Asylum video are dope.
Super rare, barely an inconvenience??
I see what you did there.
Understanding a reference with a slight change of words is TIGHT!
I've been listening to your critique of Asylum over the past several days, so super excited to listen to this one. Really glad the algorithm helped me stumble upon your channel.
i have been waiting so excitedely for this one, audibly said "Ohohoho here we go". I replayed the whole Arkham saga since your first Batman Arkham Asylum video just to be able to relate or disagree with your critiques. This is amazing content.
something interesting to note regarding the absence of talia is that she was supposedly going to have a bigger role, with character models being found referencing clayface possibly impersonating her
This week has been a good week to stumble on your channel and binge your long form essays
Monty: "Bats are terrifying creatures of the night"
Actual bats: _Sky puppy noises_
I was so genuinely upset about the wedding in Tom King's run being a fake out that I ended up dropping the run there.
One thing I hated about Harley Quinn’s Revenge was that all the characters (Batman, Harley, Robin) all end the DLC in the same place as characters as at the beginning of the DLC. No character growth or change whatsoever. Would have liked to see Batman learn to rely on his bat family in his grief or learn to let go of some guilt over joker’s death by the end of the story. Fun gameplay, but a horribly depressing way to end that always left me deeply unsatisfied.
Yeah, Harley Quinn's Revenge is entirely pointless in the grand scheme of things. Aside from Robin getting a bit more to do, there wasn't really any value to the story. Even worse is that all of the characters are basically STILL more or less in the same place by the time of Arkham Knight, minus Harley's attempt at suicide.
Outstanding. I just started watching your channel yesterday, and now there's an arkham city video. Perfect timing.
Wow Monty never realized the Cain and Abel painting of a brother killing a brother
With a huge muscular Cain carrying his thin brother
Was litterally a picture of Batman carrying the joker
Two sides of a coin forced to be at odds bc of the world
"Ladies, Gents, Themperors."
...
I love it !
Your Themperor has spoken!
I said you were my favorite! And here I am, 2 hours into the vídeo, you've proven me right once again
I like how strange is in control of EVERYTHING. From catwoman and two face beef to freeze being catured everything
The two guns bitch line is one of my favorite things to come out these games
Monty loves batcat, just like me. I knew I could trust you monty
Your videos are amazing Monty. Absolutely incredible the amount of effort and editing you put into your videos. I wish i could make video's like you. Keep up the great work!
it's been too long since I got so excited for a youtuber uploading as I get when you do
ok... didn't expect you to make for all the arkham games. Seems like i have to not just play arkham asylum but also city and knight... God tier content but man you are killing me with all these games i now want to play.
YAY!! After watching your Arkham asylum video, I was so excited to watch this when I got the notification. Love these videos!!!! 💙💙💙 definitely the best I’ve seen of the Arkham series on RUclips, great job!!
In Arkham City, I'm pretty sure you actually can listen to the interview tapes out of the menu, you just have to press the touch pad/map button to close the interface rather than 'O'/Back, because that button stops the playback. As always seriously great video, I'm on a marathon of your critiques right now I can't get enough of them!
Just discovered your channel with your Hollow Knight and Batman Arkham critiques and I love your content! Subscribed immediately. Thanks for your work!
That "Themperors" line at 26:58 is brilliant and super appreciated! (I'm Non-binary)
Fantastic videos by the way, been busy binge watching the Batman ones.
I love Azrael's Knightfall costume :(
I found your channel through the Bioshock retrospectives, and I'm glad I did. Each video of yours I've seen has been well thought out and much more interesting than the average retrospective, and this one is no exception. I know you're probably going to cover Knight for next video, but I do hope you'll give Arkham Origins the same treatment at some point.
One thing I'd like to add to the Catwoman section: something that makes the initial decision to lock her sections behind the DLC wall all the more pointless (and low key scummy on the part of Warner Brothers) is that Arkham City got a Game of The Year re-release (roughly about a year later I think) which included all the DLC on-disc, with all the Catwoman sections fully integrated in the main game right where they were supposed to be.
Full truth, people keep telling me what an interesting, complex character Talia is. But I have been digging through comics from her very first appearance forwards, and I am 30yrs deep into Talia-history, and I have yet to see her be anything other than a sexy (occasionally villainous) lamp. Where is this interesting Talia? Somewhere between the late 90s & 2005? Because everyone seems to *hate* her after Damian gets introduced, and I just can’t find-
The most complex choices she’s made have been things the plot needs to have happen for whatever reason (Bruce can’t escape on his own, Talia will break him out! We need to return to the status quo, can’t have that baby stick around!) that she does with at most a single panel of set-up, and in her first ever appearance she tells Bruce she’s a medical student, something we see no evidence of at any point in that or any future appearance.
[deep breath] Also, it’s kinda funny that people say her drugging & assaulting Bruce is an OOC retcon, given in her 3rd ever appearance, she… drugs Bruce, marries him against his will, tells him his consent doesn’t matter, and then spends the rest of the arc prancing around the Gotham docks in her underwear for no apparent reason. A sequence which “Son of the Demon” *directly references* literally just a page or two before Talia & Bruce decide to go to town on eachother. It’s easy to see how Grant Morrison misremembered that scene as including the drugging, and there is solid precedent for Talia trying to do that sort of thing to Bruce.
Big fuckin’ yikes, sure, but hardly OOC.
Finally, “Son of the Demon” is pretty rich with Bruce directly saying he’s never experienced the joys of fatherhood until he found out Talia was pregnant, and never mentioning Robin *once.* Like, that story came out in 87. Way to piss all over Bruce’s relationships with both Dick & Jason (WHO WASN’T EVEN DEAD YET) who are??? Presumably just sitting at home, wondering why Bruce has disappeared off the face of the Earth??? At least Dick was busy with the Titans, but poor Jason…
I was waiting on this, still one of my favorite games ever.
Gonna have to listen to this at work.
I just subscribed to you like yesterday, and I get a new video while I have a backlog to go through. I feel spoiled.
I am so glad I found your videos, I love video game deep dives, especially long ones with intellectual nuisance.
Comments for algorithmic reasons because I love this channel
Love how your going into all of my favorite games. Just out of cursoitiy, you ever gonna do a critique on Little Nightmares? The series is one of the scariest amd weird Ive played and the two games could probably be done in a single video.
Huge fan of Little Nightmares! Probably not a full critique anytime soon but I might touch on it the future!
@@MontyZander As long as you know it exists. I'm fine with it.
43:30 actually it’s winter. Alfred says that after Joker poisoning Batman. I think some calendar in game shows that it’s February
I'm happy you have good opinions regarding Catwoman being the one for Bruce and Talia being boring and bad for him
I swear I get the most random urge to play all 4 games every few months
A little nitpick:
At around 43:30 you say: “Its snowing, not because it’s winter but because of Freeze’s experiments”
After joker kicks you through the window at the steel mill Alfred has a line where he says “It is the middle of winter out there”
Just wondering if you missed that or if you meant that it is winter but the reason that it’s snowing is because of Mr. Freeze.
The temperature readout when you're tracking Freeze down is only a few degrees below freezing. It seems likely that Freeze's influence made the difference between snow and freezing rain.
Thanks for doing these, Monty! i fell off of these after the first one, i really tried but i couldn't get into to the 2nd one and after that i just stopped bothering.
So your perspective is interesting.
Also, i was alot more stupid back then!
Best kinds of videos to watch up to. Keep up great work.
loving the content , put true time and effort into this and it shows , good job, loving the channel cant wait to delve into it.
Commenting again because this series inspired me to do a replay of the series. Now on Arkham Knight and making my Monty predictions
Your videos are an absolute joy to watch.
Yay a new Monty Vid 😀 This makes me even more depressed knowing what we just saw of gameplay in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, battlepass, purple crap to shoot on enemies, & they have the audacity to say it’s set in the Arkham verse, it’s not grounded or gritty enough to be set in the Arkhamverse, what with all the Fortnite/Crackdown jumping around lol, really excited to see your critique on this upcoming game because right now, it looks like it’s gonna piss a lot of Rocksteady fans off
Caught this at the perfect time, Ready for another amazing upload!
You can listen to the interview tapes out of their individual menus but you have to press the options button instead of goin back
Not nearly enough views...this channel is awesome!
Monty I just want to say you inspire me as a creator and I hope I can make videos of the same quality that you make one day, I enjoyed the video mate, youre a great narrator
I really, really like Arkham City. It took whatever good stuff Asylum had and was like "Hey what if we just made it better in every way?"
I know some people prefer Asylum for being more "compact" and "tight", but I couldn't disagree more. I love the open world aspect of City, the freedom and exploration it allows, and using Strange as the primary antagonist is always great. To this day it's my favorite Batman game and was my favorite superhero game until Marvel's Spider-Man eclipsed it (I like Spider-Man much much much more than Batman, so that helped).
These vids are great! Would love to see an analysis on Origins and/or Knight in the future
I didn't see this in my feed yesterday, would have watched it on the spot.
It just went live there! Was unlisted for patrons yesterday that’s why the dates look funky
@@MontyZander Ahhhh, didn't know you had a patreon, might have to sub...
@@mahic98 you gave me an excuse to talk about it in the comments - that’s enough!
I got this game for my birthday as a little kid not in 2011 but earlier on in the 2010s and I knew it was my favorite game from the moment I wanted it, my love for Batman and superheroes in general I felt like the gameplay was so cool and the story was amazing I remember if I wasn’t playing it I would watch videos about it on my little tablet. I genuinely love this game, it does have flaws but despite that playing this as a kid will forever be an amazing memory
i know it’s such a small part but themperor was a nice thing to have in a video 😌 always in for a good time when a monty zander video is released
The next two hours: this (love your vids and your presentation on critique
1:49:00 While taking care of Strange first does, perhaps, result in a more poignant note due to the death of the Joker and focusing on saving the many instead of 'the few' is perhaps a more 'Batman' approach... it also isn't the most logical choice.
Joker has the cure, and stands to become immortal. Wouldn't it make far more sense to try and cure Bruce and try to prevent the reign of terror of an insane, immortal Clown Prince instead of trying to claw through a small army?
Obviously he's 'The Batman', but he did collapse, he did start to break. But his deteriorating state basically gets ignored until after Strange is dealt with.
Perhaps instead of the Steel Mill, we could have dealt with 'The Joker' in The Monarch Theatre before it began to collapse, resulting in the same outcome. From there, have us climb the tower in order to get to strange... and, perhaps, proverbially decent into hell as we crawl through lower portions of the tower and back into Wonder City, with the final fight taking place in another theatre far below to mirror things. Maybe give Ra's more involvement than 'well, guess I'll just stab myself with my own sword and land on a fence'.
Arkham City is the source of one of my favorite memories playing video games: I'd just started the game and had just escaped Two-Face's courthouse. I was on the roof and at the front entrance to the court house were two guards posted up. I listened to their chatter a bit and as I jumped off the roof I heard an exchange that went something like:
"There's no way the Bat is getting out of here, we've got the entrance covered."
"What about the back entrance?"
"There's a back?!"
As soon as the henchman finished saying "There's a back?!", Batman landed an aerial double takedown (or maybe it was just a single takedown, I can't remember if aerial double takedowns were a thing) with PERFECT timing. It was something from the Nolan movies, I had to pause the game just so me and my little brother could lose our minds at how awesome it played out.