Main game on Hard mode – finished.
Stealth based ‘Predator’ challenges – all clocked.
Only one freeflow Combat challenge left to do - the infamous Shock and Awe Extreme.
Now at this point I was pretty slick with the fighting system – having to get good scores on all the other Combat challenges saw to that.
In order to get the maximum ‘three bat’ score in each challenge you had to get over a certain number of points, only really achievable by racking up high scoring combos – which means chaining attacks together, countering incoming blows and not getting hit by the enemy. Basically, don't get hit and don't drop your combos means generally you will get a good score.
But the Shock and Awe challenge had something else to contend with: a strict time limit, that once elapsed would electrify the whole arena floor killing everyone who was still standing. With plenty of henchmen to take down within the four timed rounds of this challenge there wasn't much room for error.
The Extreme version of this challenge was by far the hardest thing in the game. Here’s how it eventually went down.
Round 1
The arena is small –making enemies bunch together, increasing the risk of being hit by combo interrupting blows. Constantly being on the move and flipping over the goons to make more room for yourself is a must.
There are two knife guys thrown in there too – they cannot be attacked directly – either stun them with a swipe of your cape before attacking, or better yet build up your combo on the regular guys so that you can use an instant takedown on the knife wielders, using a grapple move to break a bone or two and take them out of the fight permanently.
This first round is not too hard but mess up too much and you may as well restart the challenge.
Round 2
Similar situation to Round 1, except this time the two knife wielders are replaced by electric baton dudes. You cant attack or counter these guys either – you have to flip over them and hit from behind if you want to preserve your combo. Once again, prioritise using the instant takedown moves on them first.
Another difference to this round: as you are occupied in the fight in the main arena, one of the goons attempts to sneak off to the raised area on the right to open the gun locker, sounding off the alarm as he does so. Rather than give chase though, I let him go, trusting that by the time he comes back with the gun to try and shoot me I will be ready to take him out. Problem is, he drops the gun after being defeated, meaning any regular goon can pick it up to use it in subsequent rounds.
Better keep an eye out for that.
Round 3
This is where the time limit gets really strict. With a combination of knife AND baton guys mixed in with the regular goons, strict crowd control and prioritising who to takedown first is a must.
Also watch out for that gun that's lying around somewhere.
Round 4
The final round – its just about beating the clock really and not worrying about your score. The only way you can take everyone out before the time limit is by continuously comboing them anyway so just by being able to finish within the time limit will probably net you the required points for the ‘three bats’ rating.
I start the round by throwing out the batclaw, hooking the three nearest goons causing them to tumble toward me. Letting them fall to the ground I flip over to the right to start hitting a regular henchman to get my combo up. As soon as its ready I use an instant takedown on one of the knifemen, being sure to flip out the way straight after to avoid the vicious mob closing in around me.
Once the combo is built up again, I flip over a guy to reach the edge of the arena. Unleashing a triple batarang followed by the batclaw again means that multiple enemies fall to the floor, thinning the crowd considerably. This makes it easy to jump from one goon to the next – attack then move – giving them less of a window to strike back.
Occasionally I’ll hear the ominous click-clack of someone picking up the gun and make sure I leap over to take him out before he starts shooting. As the timer ticks down I repeat the process, build up the combo then triple batarang and batclaw to get people on the ground.
Almost out of time! The countdown has just reached zero and the warning siren is going off. There are still a few more guys left standing as the floor starts to glow and hum loudly. In a last desperate attempt I batarang the goons to the floor and pounce on them with a ground pound.
As the last henchman is defeated just in the nick of time - the hum of the glowing floor dies down - mere moments away from frying me.
Round 4 finished. Score over thirty thousand means ‘three bats’.
The platinum trophy pops in the top right hand corner of the screen.
I’m Batman.
21 Mar 2012
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