The Batman: Arkham games are usually pretty short on collectibles, but there’s one in particular the series loves: Riddler trophies. The games are all strewn with little physics and gadget-based puzzles, often to the point of excess. But after three games’ worth of the things, Rocksteady has finally, finally gotten it right.
I’m as shocked as you to be writing this. I didn’t expect to boot up the game and spend a few minutes every session hunting up a few trophies to add to the pile. I expected to be annoyed that, yet again, I was expected to collect these things. But I crack a few more puzzles every session. I’m halfway through, and I might actually collect all of them for the first time since Arkham Asylum.
Part of the reason for this is that Rocksteady used the Riddler to condense some of its other side-mission types into one place. The Zsasz footraces from previous games are now Riddler trophy hunts. The line-of-sight puzzles from Batman: Arkham City have been simplified slightly; now you need to figure out how to use the Batmobile to blow a big-*ss hole in a building instead of spot a question mark in Detective Vision.
Another part is how the puzzles use new mechanics. This is a game that is in hot, sweaty love with its physics engine, and the Riddler puzzles reflect that; apparently the Riddler got a bulk deal on industrial electromagnets. The Batmobile also comes into play in surprising and creative ways.
Just as crucial is what’s missing. By trimming back the number of puzzles by almost half, they’ve put quality ahead of quantity. The game doesn’t recycle that many puzzle types from previous entries and has more distinct one-off puzzles, most of which are intuitive and, well, fun. Part of the reason I keep finding these things is because they have the feel of a great video-game puzzle; the solution isn’t necessarily obvious at first, but once you solve it, everything clicks smoothly into place.
It’s not perfect; you’ll still need to backtrack into dungeons occasionally, and you’ll still need to unlock every last gadget to get every last trophy, which is annoying. But at least they’ve made collecting them all a lot of fun.