Batman: Extreme Predator Challeges. Ugh.
Extreme Predator Challenges are 'ugh' for me right now. They occupy a grey area around "this is bloody stupid", "hey, I wonder if I can pull this off?", and "let's see how the stealth system operates."
What aggravates the situation a bit is that I'm not entirely sure how the stealth system in Batman works. It looks like it has a lot in common with the Metal Gear Solid series, because the AI seems to have four states: calm, alert (nervous/terrified: hunting you down, then panicking), curious/distracted (by a sonic batarang or explosion), and evasion (the AI has sighted you and is attempting to shoot you down). One of the things that I like (because it's entirely plausible) is that once you take your first target out, the rest of the room is permanently set to "alert" mode. The nervous and terrified states, in particular, deserve some further research: a terrified target is actually more of a threat than a nervous one because the former is much less predictable than the latter.
Other than that, it seems to be entirely based on breaking line-of-sight: the guards do not seem to look up or down, nor does their cone of vision seem all that wide, making ledge takedowns possible. Of course, their line-of-sight may increase dramatically when they're nervous or terrified. Logically, a terrified guard would be looking everywhere, meaning that a ledge takedown or around-the-corner grab may not be possible (or it could be easier, who knows).
Nevertheless, the only thing that the Extreme Predator Challenges have accomplished so far is to piss me off: it's experimentation, of course, but I'm failing miserably more often than not. The inability to use the gargoyles has taken away one of the best tools Batman has...which, I suppose, is the point of Extreme Predator challenges in the first place.
Some of the challenges I understand: they're there to point out that "yes, you can actually do this, isn't that cool?" (take the "glide, then chain it into a ground takedown," the around-the-bend trick, or "take down someone through a glass ceiling" as some examples), but some of them are just silly and excessively complicated (like blowing up three separate walls and taking out three targets - one for each wall - simultaneously). It's one of those challenges that (wait for it, /co/) involve far too much prep time for the results you get.
I applaud this, but what aggravates me is that, in story mode, booby-trapped gargoyles are rare. Most of the time, the player is (and I'll admit it) spoiled rotten by having gargoyles whenever they're needed. Thus, Extreme Predator Challenges force you to get off that crutch and actually do some work on the ground, which would be nice if there were an actually compelling reason to do so. (Aside from the trophies/medals, I mean.)
My thinking is that once you go back into story mode (y'know, in case you want to complete the hard difficulty or something), you're popping your grappler right back onto those gargoyles. You might have a ton of tricks up your sleeve, but gargoyles are your bread-and-butter, and there's really no reason to not use them, especially when they're the safest way to go. Sure, the Challenges might prepare you for times when you're not going to have them, but how often is that going to happen, really?
This is probably one of the reasons why, despite being a stealth-oriented player, I tend to spend the bulk of my time with the Freeflow Challenges: those, I can carry over into the game.
What aggravates the situation a bit is that I'm not entirely sure how the stealth system in Batman works. It looks like it has a lot in common with the Metal Gear Solid series, because the AI seems to have four states: calm, alert (nervous/terrified: hunting you down, then panicking), curious/distracted (by a sonic batarang or explosion), and evasion (the AI has sighted you and is attempting to shoot you down). One of the things that I like (because it's entirely plausible) is that once you take your first target out, the rest of the room is permanently set to "alert" mode. The nervous and terrified states, in particular, deserve some further research: a terrified target is actually more of a threat than a nervous one because the former is much less predictable than the latter.
Other than that, it seems to be entirely based on breaking line-of-sight: the guards do not seem to look up or down, nor does their cone of vision seem all that wide, making ledge takedowns possible. Of course, their line-of-sight may increase dramatically when they're nervous or terrified. Logically, a terrified guard would be looking everywhere, meaning that a ledge takedown or around-the-corner grab may not be possible (or it could be easier, who knows).
Nevertheless, the only thing that the Extreme Predator Challenges have accomplished so far is to piss me off: it's experimentation, of course, but I'm failing miserably more often than not. The inability to use the gargoyles has taken away one of the best tools Batman has...which, I suppose, is the point of Extreme Predator challenges in the first place.
Some of the challenges I understand: they're there to point out that "yes, you can actually do this, isn't that cool?" (take the "glide, then chain it into a ground takedown," the around-the-bend trick, or "take down someone through a glass ceiling" as some examples), but some of them are just silly and excessively complicated (like blowing up three separate walls and taking out three targets - one for each wall - simultaneously). It's one of those challenges that (wait for it, /co/) involve far too much prep time for the results you get.
I applaud this, but what aggravates me is that, in story mode, booby-trapped gargoyles are rare. Most of the time, the player is (and I'll admit it) spoiled rotten by having gargoyles whenever they're needed. Thus, Extreme Predator Challenges force you to get off that crutch and actually do some work on the ground, which would be nice if there were an actually compelling reason to do so. (Aside from the trophies/medals, I mean.)
My thinking is that once you go back into story mode (y'know, in case you want to complete the hard difficulty or something), you're popping your grappler right back onto those gargoyles. You might have a ton of tricks up your sleeve, but gargoyles are your bread-and-butter, and there's really no reason to not use them, especially when they're the safest way to go. Sure, the Challenges might prepare you for times when you're not going to have them, but how often is that going to happen, really?
This is probably one of the reasons why, despite being a stealth-oriented player, I tend to spend the bulk of my time with the Freeflow Challenges: those, I can carry over into the game.