I can handle the comparisons between heists in GTA Online and those in Payday 2, even though heists in the latter are clearly, inarguably better. I can rolls my eyes and bite my tongue when people say that League of Legends and Dota 2 are basically the same game. But every ounce of self-control I have cannot quiet my protests when someone compares the combat in any of the Batman Arkham games to that of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
I was able to stumble through this asinine comparison when Shadow of Mordor came out, but these talks are back with a vengeance now that Batman: Arkham Knight is in the near future, and it needs to stop.
See Also: 8 Things From the Comics and Films a Batman Fan Would Like to See in Arkham Knight
I get it: they have similarities, in that they have a button to attack and a button to counter an attack, prompted by an on-screen indicator. They even have finishing moves that you can unlock by getting a high (pfft) combo multiplier. Beyond that, the skill floor in Arkham combat starts at Shadow of Mordor’s skill ceiling, and people need to learn the truth before Batman: Arkham Knight comes out and reviewers start talking about how Shadow of Mordor “ruined it” for them, or some other crap like that.
Let’s cut the generalizing, and get right down to it. Here are four things Shadow of Mordor does with its combat that make it inherently inferior to Arkham.
Four Reasons Arkham Combat is Better than Shadow of Mordor
-
It Auto-Targets Enemies
You don't have to look at who you're attacking in Shadow of Mordor, nor do you have to move your character with the direction buttons. Hitting the attack button will automatically move your character to the nearest person and attack them.
Arkham requires some ... I don't know ... thought. If you try hitting the attack button when there's not an enemy right in your grill, you'll find Batman punching the air in front of him, breaking the combo and making you vulnerable. You always need to be shifting focus during attack animations to plan out who your going to attack next and how, or else you're toasted.
This simple mechanic turns a cinematic snore into an interactive challenge. All you need to do is mindlessly mash the attack button in Shadow of Mordor; you don't even need to look at the screen. Although, I did once see a video of someone beating an Akrham Asylum combat encounter with a blindfold - on easy difficulty, and he lost about 3/4 of his health. Congrats.
-
You Can Interrupt a Strike With a Counter
This is simply indefensible: Shadow of Mordor allows you to hit the counter button after you've already initiated a strike. This requires no thought, and certainly no commitment to a plan of action. Especially since you auto-target, you only need one hand to succeed in the combat. Just mash the attack button, and hit the counter button when an indicator pops up. Suddenly, you're on your way to a 50-hit combo and no damage taken.
Try the same in Arkham games. Sure you might live, if you play it on easy difficulty, but you certainly won't get a high combo, and you're definitely going to take some damage because Arkham games don't allow you to in essence "take back" a hit thrown just because you hit the counter button. Once you hit the attack button, you can only counter after that attack has landed. If you get hit in between that time, too bad.
This creates a high-risk-high-reward scenario: if you go for that last punch to knock down an enemy and increase your combo, you risk not finishing the attack in time and getting hit by a bystander. This is not replicated in Shadow of Mordor.
-
Missing a Counter Doesn't Interrupt Your Combo
That is, if you initiate a counter when no one was trying to hit you, Shadow of Mordor pretends that nothing happened and allows you to keep hitting everyone else. So go ahead and throw in some counters preemptively - the worst thing that can happen is ... well ... nothing.
Arkham games treat a missed counter as a failed move; the combo breaks, and you're like a turkey on Thanksgiving to nearby enemies. This makes it so you have to pay close attention to your surroundings to see who is going to hit you. In Arkham City, enemies would sometimes run up to Batman from the edge of a room as though to hit him, but would back off. If you tried to preempt this strike with a counter, joke's on you.
-
Dodging Makes You Invulnerable
This is the most comparable aspect of the two combat systems, and Shadow of Mordor still falls short. When you vault over enemies in Shadow of Mordor, you can't take damage, and your combo doesn't break. Period. Need to get a better position? Just hit the dodge button. About to get hit? Just hit the dodge button.
Dodging in Arkham is known as redirecting, and you need to do it to avoid knife hits, taser shocks and shield bashes. You can also use it to avoid taking a punch coming at you. It's subtly, but importantly, different in Shadow of Mordor. While it's possible to still take a hit at the back end of a redirect in Arkham games, the most danger comes from thugs with guns. Despite how good Batman is at dodging, he can't jump away from bullets.
But apparently, archer enemies in Shadow of Mordor can't hit a moving target to save their lives, because they will miss 100 percent of the time you're dodging.
Also, because Arkham games don't auto-target, you risk performing a ground jump if you spam the dodge button, something that can potentially break your combo and leave you vulnerable. Shadow of Mordor simply lets you jump to and over the nearest enemy. No risk.
