Batman: Arkham

Making Batman weak against guns steers players out of brawling in stealth. In stealth sections Batman is useless against armed guards, so playing them like a beat 'em up gets you shot to pieces and pushes players toward the intended stealth mode.

Being spotted is not an instant fail: you can survive long enough to grapple hook back to safety and hide again. Punching is made a bad tactic rather than a forbidden one.

Simple, forgiving inputs turn button presses into cinematic Batman fights. Arkham's free-flow combat uses magnetic snapping to enemies, obvious counter prompts, generous counter windows and patient AI that waits its turn, so spamming punch makes you look awesome instead of punishing you.

Troy Skinner of WB Games summed it up: "In this game you spam the punch-in-the-face button and you look awesome!" Marvel's Spider-Man uses the same approach for its swinging.

Optional removal of counter indicators raises the skill demand for experts. Some Arkham games let players turn off the counter indicators, so they have to read enemy animations to know when to counter.

It changes one specific demand without rewriting the combat, like Devil May Cry's automatic combo mode or Jedi Fallen Order's wider parry windows on easy.

Splitting space into high and low gives the grapnel a clear purpose. Arkham's stealth rooms are divided along a high/low axis, and the grapnel takes Batman to gargoyles high above the room where guards cannot reach.

It is a version of the sea of danger with islands of safety idea from Thief, where other games use light and shadow or, in Hitman, public and private space.

The sonic Batarang pulls guards off patrol by sound. The sonic Batarang is a sound-based lure that exploits guards' simulated hearing to move them off their patrol into a position that favours Batman, such as a dark spot for a takedown.

Simple, forgiving inputs turn button presses into cinematic Batman fights. Arkham's free-flow combat uses magnetic snapping to enemies, obvious counter prompts, generous counter windows and patient AI that waits its turn, so spamming punch makes you look awesome instead of punishing you.

Troy Skinner of WB Games summed it up: "In this game you spam the punch-in-the-face button and you look awesome!" Marvel's Spider-Man uses the same approach for its swinging.

Too little effort can make the power fantasy feel patronising. Because fighting needs only repeated punch taps, Batman snaps to targets and counters are easy to land, the combat looks cinematic but asks so little that it can feel condescending.

"When you don't have to exert all that much effort to get there, doesn't it feel a bit patronising?"

Making Batman weak against guns steers players out of brawling in stealth. In stealth sections Batman is useless against armed guards, so playing them like a beat 'em up gets you shot to pieces and pushes players toward the intended stealth mode.

Being spotted is not an instant fail: you can survive long enough to grapple hook back to safety and hide again. Punching is made a bad tactic rather than a forbidden one.