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The Dark Knight Rises-The Mobile Game
 The Fire Rises.
This is the second Batman game taken directly from Christopher Nolan’s Bat-Universe. The first being the lackluster game based on Batman Begins. This game, based on Nolan’s final Batman film is made by Gameloft games and is available on the iPad/iPod and Android systems like the Kindle Fire .
OK so hopefully by now you’ve seen The Dark Knight Rises (if not get out there and see it!). What a lot of people don’t know is that there is a game based on the movie. It’s because it is a “mobile” game. This game is far from being just your regular mobile game. I downloaded this from the Apple App store at 12:00am on 7/20. It had the same midnight release as the movie which I thought was neat. I’ve been jonesing for a Nolan based movie game ever since Batman Begins left a sour taste in my mouth. Well let me tell you, Gameloft has delivered.
*So let’s break this game down but first let me go on record to state that I almost played and beat this game exclusively on the ipad with retina display. With the iPod it is the same game play but you cannot fully enjoy the full scope of the graphics on the small screen, which is a minor blip on this game.*
Ok so on to Game play:
 This is a completely open, free roam Nolan-verse Gotham City. You can glide from the top of Wayne tower and on, or go down to the streets of Gotham City. Don’t worry though you have plenty of gadgets to help you on your way. This is a full and true free roaming Dark Knight game. This game plays a lot like Arkham City, so if you have played that then you know what to expect here. You can pretty much go wherever you want from the start of the game, but the game gets more interactive after you play through the first chapter. Some might say that the game seems repetitive but I love the side missions and story missions and have never caught myself saying “this again?”.
 Fighting:
Again if you have played Arkham City then you should know what to expect here. You have a basic punch button that allows batman to do various kicks and punches at random as well as special take downs after the enemy is weakened. You can also do environmental take downs too, but those come through skill point unlocking (we’ll get to that in a bit). You can also do various silent attacks such as sneaking up and putting them in a sleeper hold. Or my favorite the jump from above take down, which you literally jump full weight down on an enemy. There is also a block function and after a couple of fights you should have that down pat. Your final standard button is the jump button. This allows you to jump over “armed” enemies that block to allow you to strike them.
 There are also special environmental take downs where you smash the top of the car/truck Ala the Scarecrow scene from The Dark Knight. This can be done throughout the game but it is a random city event. You have to push the button just right to activate the take down. It neutralizes 2 enemy’s and usually leaves one or two left to fight.
 There are basically 5 different types of enemies in the game (but if you think about it, that’s about as many as there are in Arkham City). Here’s the breakdown:
Unarmed
Armed (with a knife)
Armed (with a gun,snipers)
Armed (with a crowbar)
Armed (with a bazooka)
There really is no limit to the amount of people you can fight at one time. As the story moves on, the more random people you fight in one spot the more your “wanted” level goes up. Also let me note as you reach the highest wanted level they send a helicopter that you have to disable by grappling up and planting a EMP on it.
Gadgets:
As I told you before you have various gadgets to help you fight the scum of Gotham’s underbelly. Let’s run through them real quick:
Batarangs: These can be used at anytime. They are particularly useful against the snipers in a pinch
EMP Batarangs: These are used to disable camera’s and turret guns
Flash Bangs: Useful to disorient a cluster of enemies
Smoke Bombs: Also pretty much just useful to disorient
Zoom Scope: Good tool to see what your getting into
Glide Cape: Yes I threw this in with the gadgets only because you can upgrade it like a gadget.
In addition to these there are Consumables that you can buy via the tech shop. You can replenish your weapons or buy other consumables like a health restorer and more. You buy these with the gold you get from defeating enemies and doing missions. Of course like most games nowadays you can buy lots of gold with real money…which is something I won’t ever do but it is nice to have the option.
Vehicles:
Oh yes, you read that right. There are TWO vehicles in this game. I never expected a “mobile” game to have free roaming vehicles for you to use but Gameloft delivered. Here are the vehicles:
The Batpod: The BatPod is the first vehicle you unlock during the game. The controls take a second to get used to but once you do, oh boy. It might just be the fan in me but there is something truly satisfying about being able to roam Gotham on the BatPod.
 The Bat: Yes the Bat! My favorite vehicle to come out of the Nolan-verse films allows you to take the game to new heights. Literally. The Bat also takes some time getting used to, but once you do it’s very fun.
 Now each of these vehicle’s are unlocked through story progression. After you have gotten past the part with them in the story you can purchase the remote “callers”. This allows you to call your vehicles at anytime. The only downside is that each remote has a cool down. The upside to that is that you can upgrade the remote until you only have a five minute wait until you can call your vehicle again.
Both of these vehicles can also be upgraded with increased speed,handling,armor,weapons and more. Some are done with the use of “skill” points while others require money you earn.
Character:
Yes, He’s The Batman. Just like the other recent Batman games you can upgrade your character. Here are the upgrades you can upgrade either through skill points or money you earn.
Armor
Critical Strikes
Combat Training
Silent Dash
Silent running
Cloak Glide Time
Missile Counter
Batarang Swarm
Zoom Gadget
Environmental KO (this is the environmental strike I was talking about in the fighting section. It ups your chances of doing this)
Story:
This game loosely follows the Movie. It’s not a direct adaptation of the movie but they do have many of the same aspects of the film.*potential Movie spoilers ahead* You do get your back broke and have to climb out of the pit and such. But your experience in Gotham isn’t over so quickly. You have to do side missions to loosen Bane’s hold over Gotham The missions are different every time but after playing it enough you will play a mission that you have played many times before. The recycling of the missions isn’t anything that takes away from the game, to me I’d rather have that then just a plain jane game. Add in the random city events and you have a pretty cool open world Batman game. In this adaptation of the film you have help from Lucias Fox. Who is more or less a replacement for Alfred since he is gone and of course there is no Oracle in the Nolan-verse.
Now I did notice that after your back is broken and you come back to Gotham, the city events happen more often and makes Gotham a lot more interactive. I know I referenced Arkham City a lot but to me that was the true torch barer of Batman games until this one. I have to admit that I do enjoy this “mobile” game more. The free roam world is bigger and the vehicles and random city events keep it interesting and entertaining. There is plenty of replay action as well. After beating the final boss (you know who) you unlock “free roam” mode. Which allows you to switch between both parts of Gotham City….oh yeah I forgot to mention, there are two cities to explore in this game! You can also go back and do the chapters of the game over.
The only negative thing I can say about this game is there are a few bugs. Nothing crazy but there have been a couple of times that the game would crash and I’d have to start over. I’ve also had the vehicles not appear when I’ve used the remote caller but all that can be easier repaired just by restarting. Like I said nothing that should stop you from buying and enjoying a cool Batman game. This is surprisingly one of my favorite games released this year and I never thought I would be able to say this for a while but, this is the best Batman game I’ve played!
You can buy this game in your App store for $6.99…….this is something I would have payed $40 for. Get the game and spread the word about the game! I’d hate to see this game get pushed under the rug with no spotlight when it is a awesome game. If you like Batman, this game is for you.
*NOTE*
As yesterday, 8/13/12 a patch has been released to fix “minor” bug fixes. So this might have fixed the main negatives about the game that I wrote above. I haven’t had much time to explore, but it does seem like they are building towards a true masterpiece.
~Rick Alaia
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