I had started it a few months ago, on sale naturally, and drifted away at the halfyway marker.  Batman fatigue perhaps.  After playing through Tomb Raider, the itch came back, since the controls are quite similar.

I will say that the game mechanics are better here than in any other game previous.  The combat flows better, the gadgets are smoother, enemies are more diverse.  FF13s “Press A” this is not.  There’s a very strange difficulty curve here in that the mid-point is absolutely more challenging than the tail, solely because of upgrades.

And that gets me to the Disruptor. See, Batman isn’t bullet proof, or stun proof, or knife proof.  All those things hurt, a lot.  The Disruptor prevents enemies from firing guns, restocking, reviving and a few other things.  It essentially turns them into target dummies.  So the game ends up having 2 phases, before the ugpraded Disruptor, and after.

Two of the side missions are to take down enemy fortifications.  These have sensors that shoot if they detect you, small and giant sentry guns, enemies packing more than Rambo, and usually only 1 way in.  They are the dragons of AK, that cannot be defeated until you get the holy sword.  I’m pretty sure this is the reason I stopped playing, now that I think of it.

I like challenges, more specifically I like puzzles.  It is very satisfying to play a stealth event, picking off enemies around corners, using gadgets to distract and disarm.  There’s a logical end.  Combat challenges are more like button mashing fighting games.  I played a lot of them when I was younger, and you needed tight controls and reflexes to make it work.  Batman controls are not agile, they are brunt and blunt.  So throw me in a ring with 10 enemies who can all shoot me, odds are I’m going to die.

So I move forward with the story, unlock more gizmos and then come back.  The combat challenge suddenly becomes a puzzle.  1-2 tries and it’s done.  Odd that.

Tanks But No Tanks

I like the concept of the Batmobile, I do not favor its execution.  Moving, transporting, puzzles – that works.  Me vs 50 other tanks, that doesn’t.  There is one side mission, and one of the main missions that puts you in this combat scenario.  Again, upgrades make a massive difference.  I much preferred the AI hack to take over the big tanks and get allies.  Without a fully upgraded car, some of these would not be possible.  Heck, two of the main boss fights are in tank-mode, and I needed to cheese line of sight to finish them off.

And yeah, let’s believe that Batman, shooting a cannon, is “not killing anyone”.  OK.

Joker’s End

Spoiler I guess?  Well, he’s dead in the last game, less dead here.  It’s a neat effect to have him part of you, adding color commentary throughout.  The final portion makes little sense in terms of gameplay (all of a sudden you’re playing an FPS), but thematically it’s a neat closure.

The game ends as I fully expected it to.  As all Batman series do.  It is so strange that Batman is the only superhero that cannot continue to be a hero and let the public know his identity.  You think that if people figured out Supes was Clark, that all of a sudden he’d leave the planet?  Miller did it first, and it made sense in that context.  Nolan did it, and it made no sense.  It’s done here and makes less sense.

Riddler Can Jump Off a Bridge

Who completes them all?  I mean that seriously.  Who in their right mind wants to explore every nook and cranny.  Who wants to fiddle with the wonky physics engine to make the ball fall just so.  I think the core Riddler work is ok.  It teaches you how to use Gadgets in a different way, and you get to banter with Catwoman.  Cool.

But finding the little trophies, hidden in sewer drains, or taking a picture of a random element at just the right angle.  I’m good.

Overall

Taken as a whole, there’s way more good here than bad.  Combat is excellent, the story is tight, Scarecrow (John Noble) does an excellent job.  The world building is superb.  Side missions make sense.  The high notes are some of the best in all games I’ve played this year.  Even the lows are better than the high notes of some other games.  Well worth the trek to play Batman one last time.

Rise of the Tomb Raider has been on my wishlist for a while, and last weekend it went on sale for 50% off.  I have a general breakpoint for AAA games, and that appears to be $30.  That doesn’t appear to apply to indie games, as I paid full price for PoE, Tyranny, Grim Dawn and quite a few others.  I think it has more to do with expectations, where a AAA game must be super polished, and in most cases, that doesn’t happen until a few months in.  Dishonored 2 is a good example…

Anyhow, back to Tomb Raider.

I had played the reboot a few years ago, and have re-run it a few times since.  It boiled the series back down to basics – exploration, combat, and story.  It played a lot like an action movie.  I much preferred the structure here than within the Uncharted series, which focuses almost entirely on combat and story.  Don’t get me wrong, the story is good, but I can only take so many waves of bad guys before I’m noped out.

So, RotTR takes what the reboot did very well, then expands on it.  There are more options for movement across the world.  Crafting combat aids is now present.  Self-healing, skills, customized weapons, outfits… it’s all there.  So where the previous game had 2-3 options for combat, this one has a solid half dozen or more.  My favorite right now is 3 silent arrow headshots, followed by an incendiary grenade (molotov), a grenade arrow, then some more fire.  You can wipe out entire streams with that.  And the beauty is that combat is usually limited to 5-6 enemies at once, so you strike, move on, and strike again.  Short and sweet.

There’s one fight in particular where you stalk enemies from the water, while surrounded by a haze of gas.  It’s a strike and flee scenario, and it works wonderfully.

Exploration also gets expanded upon, with the majority of content available when you encounter it.  There were only 3 tombs where I needed to backtrack once I had the appropriate skills/tools.  There are more hidden treasures, the lore is all over the place, little nooks to explore, caves to spelunk and animals to hunt.  Animals in particular are an interesting twist, with wolves, tigers and bears coming out of nowhere to lay a beatdown on you.  Killing them gets you some extra resources to further improve your character.

A few spots have actual quest givers, sans question mark, that rewards extra materials or the unique gold currency used to purchase items from the in-game shop.  You can get a silencer, grenade launcher, laser sight… even a tool to unlock the final upgrades on weapons, though that one is supremely expensive.

So combat and exploration have undergone a rather significant expansion.  Great.  What about story?

Tomb Raider has always been about a MacGuffin chase.  Heck, all of these games are based on this premise.  Here it’s a divine source that provides immortality.  You’re competing against Trinity, a secret cabal that’s lasted for centuries, bent on world domination.  Their avatars are an interesting pair, one a fervent believer, the other more practical.  There’s some grey here, and their story is fully exposed.  This provides them motivation that you can relate to – it’s their ethics that don’t line up.

There’s certainly a theme of immortality in many of these games, Tomb Raider in particular.  The last one was about an immortal spirit keeping people on an island, this one is about a tool that gives people eternal life.  It’s certainly a trope, but it works.

Overall, the game is a definite improvement on the previous game and that was the best one of the series in a long time.  RotTR is to me, the best game in the exploration/combat genre, and well worth the play through.

Many RPGs allow you to form a party of motley characters.  Sometimes you make them yourself, sometimes they are preset.  Tyranny follows the latter model, where you make the main character but then get to select up to 3 companions, of 6 total, to accompany you in your travels.

Companions fill 2 roles.  First is the story aspect, where they add color, comments, and context to the events as they unfold.  Maybe one is a hardline militant and another is a hippy. Each brings a unique flavor to the game – or at least they should.  Iron Bull in DA3 is a good example.  Companions in Tyranny do this job fairly well.  I do wish they would interject more often, but each is rather firm in their beliefs.  Verse loves chaos, while Sirin is distrustful of everyone.  It does make it so that you want to interact with the party, and see where the story takes you.  One tweak that I’ve yet to find is a way to expand on a character’s abilities aside from what you see at level 1.  Barik, the game’s sole true-tank, doesn’t allow for armor upgrades.  You’d think that would change over time, especially if he’s always in the party.  Maybe I’m missing something.

The second role is the numbers role – stat machines.  Most events are resolved through either combat or some magical dice roll on other stats.  Given that you’re in a small (4 person) group, and most combat is against groups of enemies, you’re going to want a tank.  Since damage spikes are normal, and you’re going to find some big monsters, you’re going to want a healer too.  Now we get into the damage dealers, and this part gets complicated.  Similar to MMOs, AE damage is everywhere, and that’s a rather massive disadvantage to melee classes.  Stealth plays a very minor part of the game, as it only impacts the start of battle – there’s no way to get back into it.  Positioning also doesn’t appear to have any effect, so no backstabbing here.  Finally, casters are not bound by manage but by cooldowns.  4 spells or so is usually enough for a full rotation.  All told, that means that you’re likely going to want ranged attackers.

So let’s review the companions, in the order I encountered them.

Verse

DPS role, either dual wield in melee or from range with a bow.  She has a stance that improves her damage if she takes damage, but you should only ever have her in light armor.  The ranged skill selection is rather poor as compared to melee, but it’s next to impossible to keep her alive once she gets into the fray.  That said, there are some amazing bows in the game.  Might, Finesse and Quickness are your friends.  The solid part here is that you can set Verse on pure AI mode and not have to worry.

Of special note for Verse in Duelist mode.  Three Whispers stance, Killing Spree, dual wielding, high speed and Volcanic Weapons makes for some rather interesting combat mechanics.  Every hit will shoot out laser beams of elemental damage, and she will be hitting quite a few times per second.  She’s essentially a lawn mower.

Barik

Pure tank, made to take the big hits.  It takes a while for taunt to work on large groups properly, and he lacks defensive cooldowns, but he gets the job done.  Giving him a couple spells to self-manage is good too.  His combo attack with Verse is insane.  Putting stats into Vitality, Might and Finesse are a solid bet.  Unless you’re making your own tank, he is miles away the best option.

Lantry

The source of the healing sigil (talk to him for a bit), he’s a solid mage option to either nuke or support your team.  The only character with a res spell, and he can have the highest lore score of all characters (including the PC) – meaning the most devastating spells.  His combo with the PC is a massive AE heal from the group, which is extremely valuable.  Wits, Quickness and Finesse the stats you want to stack.  He’s the only true healer in the game, and with tweaking can cast the best spells.  Really hard to dismiss that value.

Eb

Casts water and gravelight spells, and is a serviceable mage overall.  She’s quite good at crowd control and knockbacks, as well as draining enemies.  I find that playing with her is more of a skill/talent affair as compared to customized spells – and in that regard, the AI is really the issue here.  I like enemies to stay put on the tank, and that’s hard to do with Eb.  She’s a mage, so Wits, Quickness and Finesse are the stats to take.  A pure DPS mage, you need to invest in her Lore skill early to get enough skill upgrades to work in the late game.

Sirin

The group chanter, which is a similar role found in Pillars of Eternity.  This is a set-it and forget-it character, as it takes a while to build up enough power to cast spells.  I dislike that you cannot build your own songs, and that the ability to sing 2 songs takes until Act 3 to really unlock.  The songs are ok at the start but quickly get eclipsed once you upgrade other characters.  She’s quite strong in AE fights, but when against a boss, she provides little value.  The best benefit from her is a rather deep investment in her talent trees, which is unfortunate.  Wits, Quickness and Finesse here as well.  I like the character story-wise, but always feel hampered when she’s in the team.

Kills-in-Shadows

A melee DPS/tank hybrid that is meant to deal big hits. Some of her best skills are from stealth, so you only get to use them once per battle (if pathing works).  She has next to no armor and takes a massive beating if she does end up tanking, without some talent investment.  She can’t wear armor, but can equip a 2handed weapon in 1 hand.  Might, Finesse and Quickness are the best stats here.  On paper, her best build is an unarmed melee attacker, as when she hits, it’s a massive amount of damage.  In reality, she rarely hits and takes all the hits, dropping like a fly.  There is so much potential here…She even has some late-game accessories that improve her damage further.  There’s a pile of potential here.

Player Character

I play mages in my games.  Tyranny lets you build spells, and the power of them is limited by your Lore ability (which improves as you level).  I can de/buff, heal, and damage – but not tank.  The mage talents are solid enough, especially the last one.  Leadership after that is pretty good too.  Remember to train Lore between level ups.  If you do this every time, then you’ll likely be around 150 Lore at the end game.  Of particular note, Frost deals the most consistent damage, Lightning for the stuns, and finally Fire due to resists.

That said, a tank is also a solid option, as you have tons of customization options available to you.  Barik does a more than serviceable job, but you can be essentially invincible by mid-game.  Even swapping out the shield for more damage is a good option.

Melee DPS, that’s a weak point in this game.  There’s too much AE and you’re made of paper.  Unarmed deals a pile of damage but is bugged.

Ranged (bow) DPS has some solid options, but still feel highly limited when you compare them to mages.

My Party

For now, my Party consists of Barik, Lantry and myself.  Verse is there as a passive DPS increase as she provides more value than Sirin, more area control than Eb, and none of the bugs of KiS.  Once the unarmed attack bug is fixed though, KiS is going to rock it.

I’ve been able to find a few last pieces to get my DH to ilvl 850, which is sort of the cap for casual play I think.  It’s not that he’s immortal but with a particular artifact trait that heals me when I deal fire damage… I can take on 5-6 elites in Suramar without dying.  This is not something my Brewmaster can do.  To top it off, he’s 1 run away from maxing out the Withered Army training – in terms of chests remaining.  And aside from the 400 or so rep provided, the only thing left there is the chance at the cat mount.  My Brewmater long ago finished up that chain, but one of the Monk hidden artifacts is found in that chest… so more runs needed there.

All that to say, that for both of those characters, progress is now “stuck” at running dungeons.  I like dungeons, I do.  Finding time to do them is a bit of a gap now, though I do have quite a few quests locked in there.  Plus the whole Mythic not being part of LFG is a little annoying.  They are both still actively doing Artifact research.

So, that means alts come out of the woodworks.

At 100 I have a Shaman, Hunter, Druid and Rogue (this guy dates from launch in 2005).  2 of them are in the Legion pre-event gear, so around ilvl 700.  The rest are in WoD gear, so around ilvl 640 or so.

That’s a heck of a gap.  I completed all of their artifact quests and got the Shaman to 101.  Those quests all scale with ilvl, not actual level, so there wasn’t a huge challenge.  Scratch that, my Hunter died a half dozen times in that quest.  I went Marksman, which meant no pet…likely the cause of the pain.

Real world questing is something different.  My Shaman hit like a wet noodle.  My Rogue… wow.  I remember this guy just being walking death.  I died on the first quest in Stormheim – twice – not only because damage was so low, but the defense and health was as well.  I stuck with it for a few quests and got 5 gear upgrades along the way.  It’s starting to feel comfortable again.

It’s also a large shift from playing a tank, where the strategy is to round up 5-10 enemies and go to town.  DPS roles are meant to pick their targets, as AE isn’t exactly a strongsuit.  Plus, after years of playing a particular spec (Assassination), it’s rather clear that there’s a better alternative (Combat).  That means I need to hit 102 to unlock that artifact.  Not exactly a challenge, given that I’m likely sitting on 10 levels worth of rested xp.

It’s an interesting progress – going from focused goals and depth, to a more scattershot approach to the game.  I don’t have any particular goals other than just playing and having some fun with the various class quirks.  I figure by the time the rogue hits 110, I’ll just park him and do the various WQs for clear gear upgrades, then work on the next one in the line.

I do have a DK sitting at 94…