The Dark Knight Rises iPad Game App Review

Compared to The Amazing Spiderman, the voice acting in The Dark Knight Rises is amazing. The only flawed voice was Bane’s, but somehow Gameloft managed to capture Alfred’s British accent and Batman’s heavy metal voice. This review is both game and movie spoiler free.

Lips Don’t Move

I find doll faces disappointing because gamers have had the pleasure of lip synching since Half-Life. The voice acting may be great, but the experience is ruined when two characters are having a meaningful conversation and you’re left wondering how they’re communicating. My best guess has been that the characters exchange words telepathically. I’m bitching, I know, but I would have preferred Gameloft fine tuned the minor details of Gotham, and left out the leveling up system.

And The World Is Lifeless

Playing as Batman, you’d expect to be saving the petty lives of Gotham’s citizens. But they are no where to see. This is another gripe I have with Gameloft’s Batman movie game, and it’s a similar nuisance I had with The Crappy Spiderman game.

Gameloft is trying to sell an open-worldish game, which is cool, but the iPad has limitations. It can’t render streets packed with screaming citizens and drivers who found their license as a prize in their morning cereal. Neat idea, but failed in execution.

I Really Just Wanna Beat Up Thugs

In the end, beating up thugs is all that’s fun about this game. Missions are tedious, I don’t want to invest my time into leveling Batman up, and I love breaking thugs’s arms. It’s satisfying to hear their bones break, for Batman to head butt them, and grappling a thug from behind, pulling him to his doom while his friends walk away unaware of the fate befalling their friend.

The combat in Batman is based on options. There is the stealthy approach — grappling from ledge to ledge, catching thugs off guard. Them there is the blitzkrieg strategy of jumping into a group of thugs and whaling on them because, of course, Batman is invincible.

Visually Stimulating

This is one of Gameloft’s nicer looking games, and way. Character models are more detailed, the environment have crisper textures, and the dark atmosphere creates an impressionable tone for the game’s narrative.

I was exploring the subway station after putting a group of thugs into coma. Rain water dripped through the cracks in the sky lights. Steam rose from the vents. Lights flickered above graffiti covered walls. And torn pieces of paper were picked up by the wind. I was stunned, to say the least.

Final Thoughts

A nice looking game, fun combat, but encumbered by unneeded features. I do like this game, and I appreciate the voice acting doesn’t ruin the characters from the movie. For 7.99$, though, maybe only fans of the movie and Batman will