I know it's based off the Arkham games, but how does it actually play? A number of early access reviews said the combat felt "clunky." Have they smoothed out the wrinkles in the release version?

It doesn't compare favourably to Arkham Asylum, yet it doesn't feel clunky to me. Combat it short enough that there aren't much things to complain. Though combat will never be the strong selling point the unique mix of RPG, Card Deck, Action Sequences game is.

Combats gets a solid and proud "meh" on my Shadow of Mordor skewed scale.

Not as smooth as Arkham but still smooth, I like it. I only wish I can turn off the slow motion power attacks and maybe add a stamina meter to limit the amounts of roll you can do.

It's way too easy imo.

I got the second artefact and now enemies are getting tougher and tougher, I like the difficulty as it was before, though I admit the first two or three bosses were too easy, but I'll grant them the tutorial bonus.

Clunky but fun. Keyboard control are average. Weird using a mouse but it works.

I'm on the tenth boss run now, and so far only died twice ( and at least one of those deaths was rather cheap, because of a particular nasty card, not regular combat ) so difficulty seems just right. Combat is exciting, and I've had many close calls, but as long as you keep moving and use your equipment/special skills wisely you can usually emerge victorious.

I'm kind of hoping and expecting that the game isn't over after the 12 main boss monsters are down. Since you only take on the Jack, Queen and King of each suit during the main storyline, do you think there's "Aces", too? Still haven't tried Endless Mode, either. And for what it's worth, the late game dungeons are much tougher and longer than the first half of the game.

I only tested it quickly and looks very interesting.

It is definitely a twitchy game, if it comes to combat. You might be best off to use some sort of controller or other form of joystick instead of a keyboard. The mouse is in combat merely used to left- and right-click.

p.s. I just ordered one xbox controller to see how this works on PC, since it seems to be standard in new games.

Good. Elements are introduced slowly. The difficulty increases at a reasonable rate.

The first three 'stories' were a piece of cake for me. Then I started dying as often as I succeeded for the next three. As of right now I'm on what I think is the last mission and I'm happy if I get to the final sub-level without keeling over.

There's a Batman-Like counter system that utilizing is usually, but not always, the best option. You need situational awareness and reflexes to succeed. It's a lot easier if you roll around the arena like a fool, but stationary traps begin to be introduced to mitigate (but not eliminate) that strategy. There are five general types of enemies (who gain abilities every couple of successful 'stories' so as not to be outpaced) and your strategy has to vary a bit when you encounter different mash-ups.

If you fight 'safe' it becomes harder to get your 'rage' higher, prolonging the fight and placing you in (reduced) risk longer. Going toe-to-toe requires a nice gamer flow-state of hitting, shoving, countering, running (the right way), and dodging (the right way) that is pleasant when you can find it and makes dispatching enemies a breeze, until you misstep.

Fights are generally short - the longest one I've had was a minotaur who took +/- 3 minutes, the shortest a handful of bandits who took maybe ten seconds to dispatch.


Another important question is 'How is the choose-a-card mechanic?' That's harder to decide on. For many of the challenges you're presented with four cards of various results (Great Success, Success, Failure, Great Failure) and they are flipped to show their backs, stacked and then separated, sometimes multiple times. If you're quick you can watch the card you want and figure out where it is in the stack, then figure out where that card goes when the stack is separated. It's often challenging and the consequences of failure can be quite severe.

Better than I thought it would be, based on the couple of video reviews I'd read. I just finished the Queen of Dust this morning, and it wasn't too difficult (using a controller). So far, it's been pretty fluid - granted, not as fluid as Arkham, but it didn't seem as bad as some had made it sound.

As some have said, situational awareness is the key - knowing when to dodge, when to shied bash and when to attack. Thus far, I haven't been bested in combat. I have a couple of blessings and only one curse so far (and the curse isn't too terrible yet). I have some decent equipment and just got an update to my starting equipment. I'm thinking the kid gloves are about to come off soon, so I'm prepping myself for an uptick in difficulty.

Flynn