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I Am The Night - or play the whole game without dying once
I'm a fan of the Batman Arkham games. Have been since I first played Asylum on my dad's PS3 back in 2011. Since then I got a PS3 of my own, and decided to get Arkham Asylum, City and Origins (due to my lack of a PS4 or Xbox One I have yet to play Arkham Knight). Since buying them I have beaten the three of them multiple times, with my favorite being Arkham City for the improvements it has over Asylum while also not being as buggy as Origins.
Over quarentine I decided to play them all again. However it turned out I was still part way through my playthrough of Arkham Origins New Game Plus (specifically, the part where you have to take out Firefly on the bridge). After finishing New Game Plus and getting the trophy for it, I decided to give one last mode a try, that mode being "I Am The Night".
For those who don't know, New Game Plus in the Arkham games consists of restarting the story with all the upgrades you got in the first playthrough but considerably harder enemies, plus the removal of counter symbols when enemies attack you. Thus you have to pay attention to the actual enemy rather than the little sign above their heads, which can throw you off the first time you play it. I Am The Night mode is basically the same as New Game Plus, except you have to beat the entire story mode without dying once. If you die, the game boots you back to the beginning of the story. Fortunately, you don't have to beat the entire thing in one go - you can play for a few hours, then turn off the system once it's saved and go back to it later.
This was something that had piqued my interest ever since the game came out back in 2013, however I'd never beaten the New Game Plus until a few days ago. I got close once, but unfortunately got stuck on the Deadshot side mission because it's a buggy mess. And no, that's not me making excuses, it is just a horrible mess of a mission.
Anyway, so I decided to give the permadeath mode a go and see how far I could get. Realistically I wasn't expecting to get any further than the first fight against Bane because he always gave me trouble in the past, but I still wanted to at least give it a shot. So I progress throught the story, doing quite well and making good headway. I get to the bossfight against Deathstroke, where the lack of a counter button is pretty alarming the first time you do it on New Game Plus. But I manage pretty well, and continue on. On my first foray to the GCPD building I almost get killed during a Predator sequence, but manage to get some health back by taking out a Crime In Progress. I finish that, continue on through the game. Beat Copperhead without too much trouble, make my way through the Gotham Royal Hotel. Get to the first fight with Bane, which is where I expected to die, but somehow didn't. I find myself quite surprised, the last time I'd attempted that fight I died about five times. I continue through the game, and get to the point where you have to fight Firefly. It's probably the most spectacular looking boss just because of the times where Batman's flying through the air after him with his grapple.
Once again, I somehow manage not to die despite Firefly's best attempts to turn me into barbacued bat. Before I knew it I was at Blackgate, the final area of the story mode, and the location of our rematch with Bane.
The second fight with Bane seemed to go much worse for me, however. Everytime he charged, I seemed to keep getting caught by him, I got punched against a wall, just everything seemed to be going wrong, until I had a smidgen of health left. Seriously a light breeze would have killed me, and this steroided up luchador dickwad was still trying to turn me to jam. I was absolutely panicking, thinking everything was done and I would have to restart hours of progress. And then, I won. I don't know how, but I managed to beat him.
However as those who have played the game know, that is not the end. Bane decides to inject himself with an experimental drug that makes him the approximate size of the Hulk in order to truly end Batman once and for all. As Alfred tells you over the radio, if you don't beat him within ten minutes the next time Bane hits you it'll all be over. The whole point of this next encounter is hiding, sneaking up on Bane and trying to run him into walls and electric gates. Trying to take him head on is a surefire way to end up a red smear on the wall. The problem is, if you try and attack him from grates or vents, he will learn and destroy any that he comes across. Even worse, your "Detective Vision" (basically X-Ray vision) will get jammed after a few minutes, so you can't even rely on that to keep track of him.
Despite the odds however, I managed to defeat Bane for a third and final time. After that, you just have to find and kick the shit out of the Joker, which is both easy and extremely satisfying. And with the final mash of the square button, I finished the story mode, and received the trophy telling me that I am in fact, The Night. If ever there was proof that I am in fact Batman, it can now be found in my PS3 trophy collection.
Over quarentine I decided to play them all again. However it turned out I was still part way through my playthrough of Arkham Origins New Game Plus (specifically, the part where you have to take out Firefly on the bridge). After finishing New Game Plus and getting the trophy for it, I decided to give one last mode a try, that mode being "I Am The Night".
For those who don't know, New Game Plus in the Arkham games consists of restarting the story with all the upgrades you got in the first playthrough but considerably harder enemies, plus the removal of counter symbols when enemies attack you. Thus you have to pay attention to the actual enemy rather than the little sign above their heads, which can throw you off the first time you play it. I Am The Night mode is basically the same as New Game Plus, except you have to beat the entire story mode without dying once. If you die, the game boots you back to the beginning of the story. Fortunately, you don't have to beat the entire thing in one go - you can play for a few hours, then turn off the system once it's saved and go back to it later.
This was something that had piqued my interest ever since the game came out back in 2013, however I'd never beaten the New Game Plus until a few days ago. I got close once, but unfortunately got stuck on the Deadshot side mission because it's a buggy mess. And no, that's not me making excuses, it is just a horrible mess of a mission.
Anyway, so I decided to give the permadeath mode a go and see how far I could get. Realistically I wasn't expecting to get any further than the first fight against Bane because he always gave me trouble in the past, but I still wanted to at least give it a shot. So I progress throught the story, doing quite well and making good headway. I get to the bossfight against Deathstroke, where the lack of a counter button is pretty alarming the first time you do it on New Game Plus. But I manage pretty well, and continue on. On my first foray to the GCPD building I almost get killed during a Predator sequence, but manage to get some health back by taking out a Crime In Progress. I finish that, continue on through the game. Beat Copperhead without too much trouble, make my way through the Gotham Royal Hotel. Get to the first fight with Bane, which is where I expected to die, but somehow didn't. I find myself quite surprised, the last time I'd attempted that fight I died about five times. I continue through the game, and get to the point where you have to fight Firefly. It's probably the most spectacular looking boss just because of the times where Batman's flying through the air after him with his grapple.
Once again, I somehow manage not to die despite Firefly's best attempts to turn me into barbacued bat. Before I knew it I was at Blackgate, the final area of the story mode, and the location of our rematch with Bane.
The second fight with Bane seemed to go much worse for me, however. Everytime he charged, I seemed to keep getting caught by him, I got punched against a wall, just everything seemed to be going wrong, until I had a smidgen of health left. Seriously a light breeze would have killed me, and this steroided up luchador dickwad was still trying to turn me to jam. I was absolutely panicking, thinking everything was done and I would have to restart hours of progress. And then, I won. I don't know how, but I managed to beat him.
However as those who have played the game know, that is not the end. Bane decides to inject himself with an experimental drug that makes him the approximate size of the Hulk in order to truly end Batman once and for all. As Alfred tells you over the radio, if you don't beat him within ten minutes the next time Bane hits you it'll all be over. The whole point of this next encounter is hiding, sneaking up on Bane and trying to run him into walls and electric gates. Trying to take him head on is a surefire way to end up a red smear on the wall. The problem is, if you try and attack him from grates or vents, he will learn and destroy any that he comes across. Even worse, your "Detective Vision" (basically X-Ray vision) will get jammed after a few minutes, so you can't even rely on that to keep track of him.
Despite the odds however, I managed to defeat Bane for a third and final time. After that, you just have to find and kick the shit out of the Joker, which is both easy and extremely satisfying. And with the final mash of the square button, I finished the story mode, and received the trophy telling me that I am in fact, The Night. If ever there was proof that I am in fact Batman, it can now be found in my PS3 trophy collection.
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