Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu Review (no fat)

Game Description

Batman has had many, well, incarnations. He's been a comics character, a plastic figurine, a Hollywood star, a cartoon character, a mascot and, at a certain point of his life, a video game character. Batman games are notable for being inconsistent. A few were good, a few were bad, and the consistent ones were rather mediocre. Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu is Ubi Soft's attempt to raise the reputation.

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu - Waging war

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu brings up a typical Batman plot. This time, the one you will have to fight is Sin Tzu, a Gotham City criminal and a great admirer of the other Sin Tzu, the author of The Art of War. He is using the teachings of the great Chinese general to take control over the crime world in Gotham City and, as usual, you are the one who must stop him

Who you are depends on your choice. You can pick to play as Batman (Bruce Wayne), Robin, Batgirl and Nightwing. This is a good addition, meant to improve the replay value, but its implementation is a bit too shallow. Although the characters look and feel entirely different, the difference is created only by a simple strength/speed meter and the look of the moves. For example, Batman is the strongest, but also the slowest character around, with Robin at the opposite end of the stick. However, this does not translate in one character having a special move that makes him completely different from another, or reflect a different way of solving some puzzles. The moves they can perform are the same, although they differ slightly in appearance. Such an oversimplification is present in many other areas of the game as well.

The game, in its essence, is a full-blown arcade game that drives away from the last Batman incarnation from Ubi Soft. We are no longer facing a platform-action game with elements of adventure. What we have now is a complete action-driven game, with the fighting part playing the main role.

Fighting will drive you around Gotham City. You will find yourself on the Crime Alley for a quick training session, in the City Hall, in the Arkham Asylum and in a chemical plant. These settings are nicely rendered, and stand well on the art side. While beautifully rendered and designed, the settings have a distinct simplicity, which is (unfortunately) reflected in the gameplay itself.

The dominant note of the game seems to be this simplicity. Fighting, for example, is going to give you some mixed feelings. On one hand, it will feel fun and interesting at first, and the prospect of advancing are excellent: there are 35 moves which the characters will learn as they accumulate experience, and some skill will be required to master them. On the other hand, as you are halfway to the game, you will realize that nothing has really changed too much. The missions are the same: defuse bombs, save civilians, then go to the next level, save some more civilians, defuse another bomb...

Fighting is not much better than that either. The moves get increasingly fancy, but the reward is simply visual and nothing more. You can literally finish the game without learning new moves if you are pragmatic enough. Although the fight, as simple as it is, is fun at first, it simply gets too boring after a while.

This lack of imagination is also seen in the bosses. Each level has its own boss, except for the first one, the Scarecrow, they are a bit uninspired. Their only feature seems to be that they are as ugly as hell. Aside from that, there's little to see.

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu - Goodie, goodie

There are two other ways to test your skills besides the single-player, story mode. One of them is the cooperative mode, which is nothing more interesting unfortunately. The other one is the challenge mode.

It's not that the fighting system is too challenging, or that the fights themselves are challenging in any ways. The things you unlock are more fun. The developers have included a lot of things, from 3D models to concept art and even a "Making of..." documentary. The documentary itself is quite fun, and enough to keep you striving to get it for a while.

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu - Gotham City lights

The first thing that will strike you when playing Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu will surely be the art. The graphics of the game are inspired by the cartoons, and everything is drawn with a fine brush. The characters are drawn like in a caricature: one of their physical features is intentionally exaggerated, representing their moral features better. The art level is very fine as well: the shadows are realistic, the smoke feels like smoke and Gotham City feels like the same city from the Batman story. Some effects are also interesting, like Scarecrow's hallucinogenic bomb, which results in a strange distortion of the image.

The music is going to delight techno fan (although there is a bit of rock included), while not annoying those who don't have an ear for the genre. It comes as a good addition to the action.

The artistic side of the game is what literally shines. You will simply love the way the game looks and feels on your screen. A big plus for the art team.

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu Price

You can buy Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu for $19.99 US