So I finished Batman: Arkham City after the first of the year. If you recall, I posted recently about the silliness of the Metal Gear Solid villains, and how I am more forgiving of bad villains in the Batman franchise. Well, now that I’ve completed the game, I’ve given it second thoughts.
There are several games out there that I really enjoyed playing, but would never recommend to someone else. Usually, when this happens, it’s because I’m embarrassed by the villains.
I think the most annoying of these villains is Zsasz. All three of the Zsasz encounters (two in Arkham Asylum and one in Arkham City) ended in the same way: Zsasz has hostages, is about to kill them, and Batman sneaks up and knocks him out from behind. No battle, nothing interesting. He’s not colorful. He’s not interesting. He’s just a bald dude with a knife that likes to cut himself.
Perhaps that contrast is the real issue that I was trying to express in the other post. For the real-world nature of Metal Gear, the superpowered villains stand out; for the crazy world of Batman, its the mundane villains that I dislike. We tend to remember villains like The Joker, Penguin, Riddler, etc., is that they are at least somewhat colorful and interesting. Batman brings a larger-than-life world, and with it comes larger than life villains. So when I see Zsasz, Calendar Man, and Dead Shot, I can’t help but notice how amazingly annoying and boring these villains are.
They might as well have Batman squaring off with Charles Manson, The Unibomber, and the DC Sniper.