I had forgotten this game existed and am a huge Batman fan, so I had to have it when I saw it on Lukie. The graphics are fine, much like Season 4 of BTAS, but the controls suck, which takes away from the gameplay. The camera angles are bad, but not bad enough not to play. Reviewed by: (Verified Buyer) Anthony Garcia. With Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Arleen Sorkin, Tara Strong. When an elaborate scheme conceived by the Joker is set in motion, Batman embarks on a perlious journey to save Gotham from the clutches of his most dangerous adversaries.
This article is written from the Real World perspective |
Sorry about the mess, I try to tidy up a bit. This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality. Remove this message when finished. |
|
- See Batman (disambiguation) for other uses of the word 'Batman'.
Batman: Vengeance is a video game set in the DCAU.
It was published by Ubisoft, initially released on November 18, 2001, and was released for Xbox, GameCube, PS2, Game Boy Advance and PC. Its ESRB rating is 't' for teen. There are 19 levels of gameplay in both third-person platform style and driving gameplay.
Overview
Character designs are based on The New Batman Adventures. Spanning 5 episodes, presented in a style intended to emulate that of the animated series, Batman Vengeance takes the Caped Crusader through 19 levels of gameplay up against a series of familiar villains unknowingly involved with one central plot to wreak havoc on Gotham City.
It starred Kevin Conroy as the role of Batman, reprising his role from the series, as did Mark Hamill, who voiced the criminally insane Joker and a character unique to the game, Isaac Evers.. Additionally Diane Pershing (Poison Ivy), Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn), Michael Ansara (Mr. Freeze), Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.(Alfred Pennyworth), Tara Strong (Batgirl) Lloyd Bochner (Mayor Hamilton Hill) and Bob Hastings (Commissioner James Gordon) all reprise their roles from Batman: The Animated Series.
The game presumably takes place before the start of The New Batman Adventures, based on the noticeable absences of Tim Drake as Robin and Dick Grayson as Nightwing, as well as the fact that Freeze appears in the game, but there is no reference to his artificial body or the mechanical spider-legs attached to the bottom of his head. Poison Ivy also has much more noticeable skin tones here, as opposed to her more plant-like form in the series.
Plot
Part 1: A Girl To Die For
At the Gotham Chemicals plant, a young woman, bound and gagged, is struggling on the floor, staring fearfully at a time bomb ticking away a few feet away. Batman comes to investigate and, seeing the bomb, lifts the young woman into his arms and escapes the plant just before it explodes. On Mary's person, Batman finds a ransom note from the Joker, demanding $5 million for the return of her young son, Toby. Later it is discovered the joker has a large plan at the Gotham bridge to kill Batman. Batman follows the Joker's clues to the bridge wear he fights some goons until he reaches the highest part of the bridge. The Joker has Toby in his hand on a large wrecking ball. Batman fights the Joker by throwing batarangs at him while Joker tries to smash him. Joker decides to drop Toby in the river forcing Batman to save the boy so he could escape. Batman catches Toby and gets back on the bridge. It has been discovered that Toby was a booby trap by turning out to be a bomb and exploding. Batman is weakened and it's discovered that Mary is really Harley Quinn. Harley attempts to kill Batman by trying to drop her hammer on his head. She is stopped by the Joker who says that only he can kill Batman. Batman quickly recovers and fights the Joker in hand-to-hand combat. Batman soon wins and knocks him on the edge of a bridge. Batman tries to save him but Joker uses his joy buzzer gimmick and Batman drops the Joker's hand and apparently falls to his death. Harley gets upset and jumps after him but she is stopped by the Batman. Harley then says she is through with crime and walks away.
Part 2: In Cold Blood
Mr. Freeze receives a tape about a miracle treatment known as liquid Promethium, created by a renowned chemist. Angered, Mr. Freeze decides to attack Dr. Evers' facility, freezing security guards who didn't evacuate in time and demanding Dr. Evers. Investigating the facility and saving the guards, Batman eventually comes face-to-face with Mr. Freeze himself, who freezes Batman and absconds with Evers. After an aerial chase between the Batplane and Mr. Freeze's helicopter, Batman saves Evers and asks him about the tape Freeze alluded to. During his response, Evers lies that he has a grant from the Wayne Foundation, mystifying Batman and Batgirl. Traveling to the Gotham Industrial Center, Batman learns that Mr. Freeze has taken over the facility, locking the doors, planting freeze bombs around the facility. After finding out that Evers has locked himself in the facility as well, Batgirl discovers that his Promethium treatment was too unstable to receive government funding, and that every increase in Evers' budget coincided with one of the Joker's bank heists.Batman eventually finds Evers' hiding place, but only finds his computer disk and a murderous Mr. Freeze, who dryly comments that 'the good doctor was making bad medicine'. To defeat Freeze, Batman is forced to plant remote charges on suspended tanks so that they crash down on Freeze. Eventually, Victor's helmet cracks, and Batman is forced to use the villain's own gun to create a protective layer of ice around the agonized villain's head.
Part 3: Plant Food
The chapter begins with Batgirl doing reconnaissance, tracking Mayor Hamilton Hill as he meets with a mysterious trenchcoat-wearing figure by a train station, who hands Hill an unknown vial. Concerned, Batgirl contacts Batman.Meanwhile, Poison Ivy is in her laboratory, when she hears a sound outside, and finds a vial containing a glowing green liquid labeled 'Gotham Chemical' on the ground. After analyzing it, she pours it onto a plant in a nearby cage with a rabbit. She smiles cruelly as the plant rapidly mutates and presumably kills the rabbit offscreen.
Batgirl follows the trench-coated stranger onto the train, but is forced to radio Batman for help when she finds herself accosted by humanoid plant-creatures. Batman boards the train himself, and works his way up the cars to the front of the train, where Batgirl is fighting Trenchcoat. The thug jumps the train and tears off in a car, and Batman and Batgirl give chase in the Batmobile. The pursuit ends in the car crashing, but they find no body, and only an apple. Back at the Batcave, Batgirl finds that the apple contains a writhing, mutated plant of Poison Ivy's creation.
![Vengeance Vengeance](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126032185/519621341.jpg)
Discovering that Mayor Hill has traveled to the plant-infested remains of Gotham Chemical, Batman follows him there and learns from Hill that he and several other major figures in Gotham have been infested by Ivy's mutated plants, which will devour their hosts if they aren't given a certain type of plant food. Being the only person who can provide this food, Ivy is using this to blackmail Hill and extort him.
Shortly after this revelation, Hill flees when the trenchcoat-wearing stranger from before confronts Batman once again, shedding its disguise to reveal that it is one of Ivy's mutated plant-men (as seen in the BTAS episode 'House & Garden'). Knocking it into a vat of acid, Batman finds Hill pleading with an unimpressed Ivy, who is holding the antidote for the plant inside him. Upon spotting Batman, Ivy summons a gigantic plant monster to attack Batman, which uses its three tendrils to suspend itself from the pipes above a vat of burning chemicals. Batman must use his Batarangs to break the creature's grip on each pipe, then open the pipe's valve to release corrosive steam that withers each tentacle. After knocking the monster into the chemical vat below, an unfazed Ivy tells Batman that it will only come back stronger. In response, Batman grapples to the other side of the room, and pulls a lever that causes a massive electric current to flow into the monster, killing it. In its death throes, one of its tentacles connects with Ivy, shocking her into unconsciousness and causing her to drop the antidote. Batman hands it to a relieved and deeply grateful Mayor Hill.
Part 4: Fool's Grave
Boss: None
Part 5: Infernal Jest
Boss: Harley Quinn and The Joker
Other Platforms
That's a lot of credit to give on comic book character, but in my mind, it's right on. What's more important is that Batman, who had become one of the dullest superheroes in the universe thanks to the too many reruns of the once-hip '60s TV series, and his particularly bad role in the Super Friends on Saturday morning TV, was entirely re-invigorated with dark vengeance, superb imagination, and more significantly, a great sense of awe. Once the lame-ass vanilla gadget flunky, he became the Dark Knight, a fearful ruthless, thug punisher, who had strong, deep relationships with his evil nemeses, and a deep, mythic presence, bigger than most people had ever imagined.
Now, almost 17 years later, Batman has set the pace for mass media comic book characters in four live-action movies, a handful of new TV series, and most recently, videogames. And what's nice is that Batman Vengeance, Paul Dini's and Bruce Timm's animated series, gets the whole evil Batman thing quite well. Ubi Soft's Batman Vengeance is a remarkably accurate re-creation of the animated TV series in a videogame in both visuals and presentation, offering a next generation feel, and replete with familiar gameplay elements. Batman Vengeance won't break any molds, but it's a good arcade game that pays admiration and respect to Gotham's vigilant defender.
Presentation
Batman Vengeance is one of those games that gets presentation. When a designer understands this idea, players find that the things they've been slight annoyed about for the last five years have vanished. More importantly, the game, such as Batman Vengeance, is scripted and delivered with such an eye for detail that you, the player, actually feels as if you're experiencing something else. Not just a game, but an experience. Ubi Soft gets Batman (I'm referring to Paul Dini's and Bruce Timm's animated series specifically), and from the very first seconds of this game, you'll feel that you're being given a proper experience, with full respect to the comic book character's true essence.
Batman Vengeance Xbox Gameplay
Intermixing cutscenes and gameplay to start the title off, Ubi Soft runs credits in with simple button commands and delivers the premise of the game in one colorful stroke. Following the initial prologue, players train in the Bat Cave and work out the mysterious details of the game's first set of clues. With Kevin Conroy doing the voice as Batman, and Tara Reid voice acting as Batgirl, the game mimics the show exactly. The animation used in the game initially resembles cel-shading, but isn't. It's a simple flat shading technique that resembles the TV series quite well, and while it's a little simplistic compared to some of the best games on the system, it's quite fitting. And everything else from the score to the artwork, and menu system fonts suggest an eye for style.Gameplay
Batman Vengeance is a story-driven, mission-based game that features all sorts of classic mini-games and Batman foes. The Joker is the first villain to appear, and it is he who sets up Batman in a mystery involving an innocent woman who is nearly killed by an explosive bomb, and her kidnapped son, who is being ransomed for $5 million. But as Batman looks deeper into the ploy, he finds it's much deeper, and involves Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Harley Queen, too.
![Batman Batman](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126032185/424612439.jpg)
The game offers a camera that enables characters to move around without a rigid camera always stuck on Batman's back, and gives them the ability to return them to the behind-the-shoulder perspective with a tap of the R1 button, a nifty solution to getting lost and losing direction. It also offers a first-person mode, which is kind of neat, although limited in use. More on that later.