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Spider-Man by Insomniac Vs. Batman by Rocksteady

Better trio of games

  • Rocksteady | Batman: Arkham Asylum / Batman: Arkham City / Batman: Arkham Knight

  • Insomniac | Spider-Man / Spider-Man: Miles Morales / Spider-Man 2


Results are only viewable after voting.

10v12

Member
Asylum > City = SM2 > Knight > SM1

Only reason SM2 is that high is because the traversal is so amazing. Also the first game to give a next-gen feel in terms of actual gameplay (i.e. going super fast).

Its funny, the two series are basically inverses of each other. The traversal in City and Knight is mind numbingly fucking boring. But once you've actually travelled to the spot, the level design is great. Its why Asylum still ranks first, because it's basically level after level instead of level -> traversal -> level...

On the other hand, the Spiderman series basically lacks any semblance of unique level design. I get it, with Spideys insane mobility, it's probably hard to make unique levels, but at least some effort in this area would be appreciated.
 
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Shakka43

Member
tumblr_mrukjvF9P81sa4prjo8_250.gif

 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
All 3 Batman games were made with an uncompromising vision of the character, going back to the best representations from the comics and animation (voice cast, etc).

The SpiderMan games are forgettable imitations of that formula, and after the first one were completely compromised corporate-friendly iterations with a ton of nonsense current-year lecturing built in everywhere. It feels like committee work instead of something led by a passionate team like the Rocksteady games.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Touché.
However there are at least double the PlayStation fanboys as there are Xbox so my statement is likely still more accurate.

There are double the PlayStation fans worldwide so who cares? There are legitimate reasons for liking Spider-man games more than Batman. Why this kneejerk "gotta be fanboys" nonsense? Stop thinking with a console warrior mindset and you'll be better off. My $.02 anyway.
 

yansolo

Member
arkham games for me, you are basically playing comic books in my opinion

spider-man games are not bad either, but can't stand the trying to be a movie thing sony has been doing
 

Topher

Gold Member
Batman, older Spiderman games were just as good.

Insomniac's Spider-man were much better than the Activision games. Marvel made a point to give Spider-man a better home than with Activision. They is actually said that is why they took Marvel away from Activision.
 

Varteras

Gold Member
There are double the PlayStation fans worldwide so who cares? There are legitimate reasons for liking Spider-man games more than Batman. Why this kneejerk "gotta be fanboys" nonsense? Stop thinking with a console warrior mindset and you'll be better off. My $.02 anyway.

Christ. You defend Starfield. You play mostly on PC. Yet you often agree with PS fans on here. I'm betting next you'll vote Mario Bros Wonder as GOTY. Pick a damn side like the rest of us. STOP CHEATING!
 

Topher

Gold Member
Christ. You defend Starfield. You play mostly on PC. Yet you often agree with PS fans on here. I'm betting next you'll vote Mario Bros Wonder as GOTY. Pick a damn side like the rest of us. STOP CHEATING!

You don't know? I'm here to drive you insane brother. How am I doing?
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Spider-Man looks great, and at first the traversal is really good fun. The story bits are cool and very well done.

But then it gets a bit boring and it's just quite repetitive.

You can level that at pretty much any open world game, and Spiderman does what it does really well.

I would rather another Batman game than a Spider-Man at this point though. Could have had one too were it not for Gotham Knights.
 
I absolutely love the Spiderman games but they are not better than the Rocksteady Batman games. Close but theyre not as sharp around the edges as the Arkham games. Slightly better writing , slightly tighter gameplay even though i do take into consideration how hard it is to make a spiderman game with all that free form movement and i think they do a near perfect job, much better side missions (especially in Arkham City). Its very close though but i give the slight edge to the Arkham games. City being the best amongst the three. Not forgetting Origins just referring to the Rocksteady titles.
 
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Batman by a fucking country landslide. Are we serious?

The Spider-Man games are alright but cmon. You might as well compare Nolan Batman to MCU Spider-Man. As in a passion project that truly cares and wants to take it to the next level vs paint by numbers generic casualized sanitized slop for the masses

Rocksteadys love and care bleeds into every goddamn pixel of all of those games. And WB Montreal for that matter too and their painfully under appreciated work on origins. Spider-Man is more to be compared to other big Sony games like say horizon. Days gone. Ghosts of Tsushima or something. Fine games truly. But Arkham is just trading at a different level
 
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All 3 Batman games were made with an uncompromising vision of the character, going back to the best representations from the comics and animation (voice cast, etc).

The SpiderMan games are forgettable imitations of that formula, and after the first one were completely compromised corporate-friendly iterations with a ton of nonsense current-year lecturing built in everywhere. It feels like committee work instead of something led by a passionate team like the Rocksteady games.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
 

Cashon

Banned
I won't vote, since I've yet to play Spider-Man Miles Morales or Spider-Man 2, but every Arkham other than Knight is better than Spider-Man/Spider-Man Remastered.

Spider-Man does two things better: story and traversal.

Arkham is better in every other way, especially world atmosphere and level design/art direction.
 
The Batman Arkham series created combat that was innovative for the time and felt really good. They continued refining the combat to feel even better, with sound effects that really added to how good it felt. Insomniac's Spider-Man used the same template but didn't play to the strengths of the character in combat as much as it could have nor does it feel as good. It feels like punching Spider-Man is punching someone with a tissue in comparison to Batman.

Hell, Spider-Man Web of Shadows has a combat system that is much more exciting, fun, and fitting of the character compared to the combat for Insomniac's game. Traversal is great in Insomniac's Spider-Man series, though there are only a few instances where it works together with the combat, with the primary example being the Vulture and Electro boss fight in Spider-Man PS4. Web-Slinging and Combat are basically treated as completely separate entities otherwise.

I thought the story for Spider-Man PS4 was mostly great (though Mary Jane was the weakest part of the game). The Arkham series had some great moments and some moments that didn't really work, but overall was more clever in how the story was told compared to the way Insomniac's Spider-Man games tell their story.
 
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All 3 Batman games were made with an uncompromising vision of the character, going back to the best representations from the comics and animation (voice cast, etc).

The SpiderMan games are forgettable imitations of that formula, and after the first one were completely compromised corporate-friendly iterations with a ton of nonsense current-year lecturing built in everywhere. It feels like committee work instead of something led by a passionate team like the Rocksteady games.

Argue Wife Swap GIF by Paramount Network
 
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Pimpbaa

Member
I like both. It’s like asking whether I like pie or cake better. Whatever I feel like at the moment. Unfortunately Rocksteady isn’t making Batman games anymore and Gotham Knights is a far worse game than Arkham Knight. I can’t believe Rocksteady is making a co-op 3rd person shooter. I mean if they were working on a new Batman game for current gen only and was about to be released soon, the hype would be fucking crazy.
 

Warablo

Member
Insomniac's Spider-man were much better than the Activision games. Marvel made a point to give Spider-man a better home than with Activision. They is actually said that is why they took Marvel away from Activision.
While the production value is better with Insomniac, I still remember good times in the older Spiderman games. They weren't bad games at all and rather similar.
 
The Batman Arkham series created combat that was innovative for the time and felt really good. They continued refining the combat to feel even better, with sound effects that really added to how good it felt. Insomniac's Spider-Man used the same template but didn't play to the strengths of the character in combat as much as it could have nor does it feel as good. It feels like punching Spider-Man is punching someone with a tissue in comparison to Batman.
Innovative combat ? Copy straight from Assassin's creed but add more gadgets. You guys talk like Arkham Series invented parry attack in video games :messenger_tears_of_joy:
While I do agree they refines it but let's not pretending like parry doesn't exist before.
 
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Ammogeddon

Member
It’s been a while since I played the Batman games but I recall loving them. Lost interest in Arkham Knight though.

I like Spider-Man 1- 2 but it feels like they they borrowed a few elements from Batman. The main story is fine but generally it’s a little too twee for me.
 

Trilobit

Member
I played the Arkham games this year and then hopped on S-M1 and MM. I was surprised to see how much inspiration Insomniac took from Rocksteady. Some things even felt like copypaste. Great games all of them.
 

Astray

Gold Member
I like Batman: Arkham Origins by WB Games Montréal best and Spider-Man (2002) by Activision's Treyarch is a close second. I guess I prefer the game design of Rocksteady over Insomniac overall.

7020779-batman-arkham-origins-playstation-3-back-cover.jpg
7020776-batman-arkham-origins-playstation-3-front-cover.jpg


4656198-spider-man-windows-back-cover.jpg
4119933-spider-man-windows-front-cover.jpg
Origins had a great story and some really good moments but my god was the open world design was awful, traversing across the bridge was a major pain.

I remember glitches being awful, my progression got blocked on PS3 during the firefly sequence and I just gave up and watched it on Youtube.
 
Origins had a great story and some really good moments but my god was the open world design was awful, traversing across the bridge was a major pain.

I remember glitches being awful, my progression got blocked on PS3 during the firefly sequence and I just gave up and watched it on Youtube.
That is unfortunate. I personally think that the Christmas theme and Cold Cold Heart DLC have no equal in this genre. The open world was mostly me cape gliding and using grappling gun while admiring the snow covered Gotham, so I was too immersed to notice. I am just a sucker for that sort of thing and the dirty, gritty Gotham in other depictions was always hard to admire. Strangely I was able to enjoy the Batman Begins game because I was blown away by how closely it imitated the look of the Christopher Nolan film of the same name, which is still my favorite in the franchise.
 
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SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Spider-Man by a lot, but with the large caveat that Spider-Man is clearly built on the foundation of the Arkham games and borrows heavily from them. These are not contemporary series, Spider-Man picked up where Arkham left off.

But Spider-Man is the better game, the super fun traversal, better combat, and incredible setpieces set it apart, along with the writing.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
I guess that's not a fair comparison

I know that the games are basically all the same, but it's like choosing the favorite child or something. Feels wrong
 
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ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
But Spider-Man is the better game, the super fun traversal, better combat, and incredible setpieces set it apart, along with the writing.
The first Spider-Man is competent with the writing, certainly nothing special, just typical Marvel-safe content.

But after that one, it becomes obvious that SpiderMan is just another empty vehicle for the writers narrow view of the world. They don't even care about giving a classic or faithful representation of Mary Jane or anyone else. It's all secondary to them.

Arkham, on the other hand, was clearly written by people who love the character first and foremost, with zero concern about bringing other agendas into it. Those are the only kinds of people who should be making games.
 

tmlDan

Member
Touché.
However there are at least double the PlayStation fanboys as there are Xbox so my statement is likely still more accurate.
prove it, there seem to be a lot of newer ones or a lot coming out of the wordworks from the past that haven't posted in a long time and are feeling confident since the ABK acquisition
 
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