Batman on Hard

As mentioned previously I'm playing through Batman on the hardest difficulty setting and it makes a big difference. Such a difference was hammered home by my first true encounter with a Titan Henchman in what seems to be the notorious elevator fight.


Picture the scene - you're in an octagonal room - three elevators in a row on each wall that you can't enter, two electrified gates one either side of them and one more electrical gate opposite the middle of the three elevators.

From the middle elevator (breaking it in the process) comes a Titan Henchman - on their own these are easy to take down. As they charge hit them with a batarang, evade and give them a punching while they're dazed from hitting a wall or a gate. Rinse, repeat except for the odd dodge if they try to through something at you.

That's when they're on their own - he's not. Just after the first pummelling you give him some of his mates join him from the third elevator, five of them to be precise. Now you're avoiding them and the Titan. Oh sure pummel the Titan again and you get to jump on his back and steer him around the room knocking them all down, but once you've taken care of four of them another set arrive. Four in each of the two working elevators. So that's eight henchman and the Titan. Take care of four of them and another two sets arrive - five in each elevator.

Now on normal difficulty I got through this with a sliver of health left - on hard I'm dead. I'm having to pull tricks and stunts I'd never used before just to stay alive; and it's not fun when Chargey-McCharge can adjust his trajectory slightly mid-charge when you're up against a wall. Likewise not being able to interrupt his ground punch attack when you're trapped between him and a wall with no way to evade out of it.

Oh and of course with all the goons around trying to hit him with a batarang mid-charge means either aiming it, thus delaying your evade, or hoping the quick attack will hit him and not the nearest goon. On the plus side I did pull off some of those two-button combos.

Multiple attempts later and I called it a night. I'll try again later.