N-Philes

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu

Posted by Archived.

Of all comic book superheroes, my two favorites have to be Spiderman and Batman. While the webslinger has enjoyed some videogame success (Maximum Carnage and the last few 3D titles), the Dark Knight has thrown nothing but duds. Kemco's Batman: Dark Tomorrow was supposed to revolutionize the way we look at comic book games, but at the end of the day, it was just like all the others before it. But when Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu arrived on my doorstep, I discovered it was from Ubi Soft, one of the industry's growing leaders, and had hope that perhaps the Caped Crusader would have an adventure that didn't absolutely suck.

Story

There's been a massive breakout at Arkham Asylum and Stonegate Prison, and some of Gotham's most fiendish felons are out on the loose. Specifically, for the purposes of our story, Bane, Scarecrow, and Clayface are all working in league to bring down Batman. Our hero does not believe that any of those three is cunning enough to coordinate such a breakout. Somebody else must be pulling the strings, but whom? Well, if you were astute enough to look at the title of the game, you'd know that is the mastermind is the diabolical Sin Tzu.

But wait, who the hell is Sin Tzu? Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu is unique in that it is the first videogame to premiere a new character in the Batman mythos. He's the sort of character that feels unfulfilled by all of his previous opponents and strives to defeat Batman on his own turf. And, oh yeah, he's also got mad-crazy Martial Arts skills. There's also a book based off of the game, the first chapter is entirely available on the disc, if you are interested in such a thing. What I especially liked was that Rise of Sin Tzu utilizes unconventional Batman villains, not the mainstays like the Joker and Mr. Freeze, which creates a more interesting plot and atmosphere for the entire game.

Gameplay

When I fired up Rise of Sin Tzu for the first time, I was expecting a hardcore adventure title with the Dark Knight flexing his detective skills. I envisioned a big open Gotham City that I could cruise around in the Batmobile with. Much to my surprise, I got a beat-em-up game. These games were great about ten to fifteen years ago, but they seem to have lost their luster for the most part. Even so, I'm usually willing to have a little fun button mashing in a nostalgic universe (the most recent Ninja Turtles game), regardless of how shoddy the gameplay is.

You start off with the choice of four main characters: Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin (Tim Drake, Dick Grayson is Nightwing). Each character has different speeds and strengths, with Batman being the strongest yet slowest and Robin the quickest yet weakest. Depending on which character you pick, the storyline will be slightly altered.

Upon beginning the game, you realize that this game is clunky. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks lightning-smooth compared to this one. Sometimes I will only press the Punch button twice but Batman will let out three. There's a Dash move that unfortunately takes about half a second for the game to register and isn't useful for escaping an attack like I constantly relied upon in TMNT. Fighting is a simple matter, just button mash, until you get ganged up upon. I just wish that some beat-em-up title would develop a reliable system to switch targets; I find myself swatting in the air too many times. Rise of Sin Tzu is not that challenging of a game, most games where you just have to push B and A faster than your opponent rarely are, so it depends on cheap tactics like hitting you in the back with you unable to escape. One Clayface's boss battle, I got knocked behind his clay tentacles and kept on getting slammed to the ground every time I was trying to get up. I lost an entire life simply because I couldn't move.

At the end of every level, you get a point score depending on your time consumption and combat effectiveness, among other things. With these points you can buy new Combo moves. Most of these are rather difficult to pull off in a combat situation and arguably don't do any more damage that the traditional "push Kick or Punch three times in row." One move, the Shoulder Throw, gives me some confusion. I used it against Scarecrow, and picked him up to throw him (I guess), but somehow he got stuck on my back and I couldn't get him off. I pushed every button with no luck. I started running around and he came off, but the second I stopped, he popped back on. This incredibly bizarre glitch forced me to restart the level and never ever try the shoulder throw again. While there are about a billion different moves to purchase, I spent mine on little coins, all of which can be used in the Trophy Room to buy comic book covers, 3D models, and other cool things. Each difficulty level has a different colored coin, which can only buy certain items, encouraging you to play through the game multiple times.

Despite all its shortcomings, after a while I really started to enjoy Rise of Sin Tzu. Once I had figured out the enemy's tendencies, I began to have some real fun. I usually have fun button-mashing and beating up stuff and it was the same here. Each level has a mission where you either have to save hostages or defuse bombs. Basically, they're stationary objects in the middle of levels, so they're not hard to miss, and you have a timer that tells you how long you have to reach them. If you fail, then you lose a life and are given about fifteen more seconds. Most of the time, you reach them with tons of time to spare, so it's really not much of an issue. It was just something added in to make the game a little more difficult.

The boss battles are especially fun. On these, you don't feel like you're playing your standard beat-em-up game. The Clayface one gave me the most difficulty, but I loved it for that very reason. Clayface has these giant bladed tentacles that you have to dive out of the way from to throw your Batarang at two electrical generators, shocking him and allowing you to hit him. It's a diabolical chess match and you have get him to miss you and yet give yourself enough time to throw the Batarang. Meanwhile, clay soldiers are attacking you from all sides. Oh, what a challenge, but I so loved it.

Visuals

The game heavily borrows from the animated television show. All of the character designs and cut-scenes mimic the art style perfectly. I love the cut-scenes; they are well directed, informative, and above all, interesting, and the plot was the main thing that kept me going through this game. You can go back and watch any of the cinematics whenever you want, by the way in case you zone out while playing games, which I'm known to do. While those were great, each of the loading screens were surprisingly my favorite part visually. Each before-level screen features a dark menacing comic book drawing of our hero and the villain, and I would honestly love to make posters of them and put them on my walls. That's how cool they were.

As for the in-game graphics, I wish I could say the same. They're not very detailed to begin with, and a lot of characters are rather blocky, and when more than five bad guys get on screen the framerate starts to drop and the slowdown begins. This is just unforgivable in a beat-em-up such as this. There are different types of bad guys, and they are all equally differentiable, so you can go after the weaker or stronger ones first, depending on your preference. Sin Tzu still provides a few nice graphical touches though, like reflective floors. On the Scarecrow levels, some of the bad guys use a bomb that makes the entire screen hazy. It's a rather neat effect and is pulled off wonderfully. At the same time as that, all of the bad guys costumes change to depict the hallucinations Batman is having. At first I dreaded the smoke bomb, but I soon grew to like it, and wish it would happen more often. Is that bad? Probably.

Audio

I think they must have gotten the vocal talent from the animated show to do the voices, because they are spot-on. They help move along the great plot with acting that is unparalleled in a videogame. There are the occasional one-liners, like Batman's, "Are you scared," but they never get so repetitive that you get annoyed. The music for the game is also very dark and moody, which is perfect for the game. Each song works perfectly for its purposes.

This game gets an N-Philes score of C.

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu is a sort of mixed bag. On one hand, I had fun playing it, but I enjoy playing button mashers, and this one is lower on the scale of games I've played. On the other hand, I've never seen better vocal acting and cut-scenes in a videogame. It's just like the cartoon show, only more mature. If anything, the only reason you'd even toil with Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu's ho hum gameplay is for its excellent storyline.

Posted in: Reviews

Comments (0) | Permalink | Digg | Reddit