Apple App-Aholics Anonymous: [The Dark Knight Rises]

App Name: The Dark Knight Rises
Developer: Gameloft
Launch Date: 7-16-12
Price: $6.99
App-Aholic Rating: 3.8/5
Watch it Here: Official Game Trailer

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To coincide with the film release of The Dark Knight Rises, Gameloft elected to release their game companion one day late, which almost lost it its chance to shine in the App-Aholics Spotlight. Nonetheless, it has made it just in time, but sadly, there aren’t all good things to say about this one.

Starting the game up, you may ask yourself, “Haven’t I seen something like this before?” The answer is: Yes! Recently, in fact. As many speculators originally assumed, The Dark Knight Rises plays very much like Gameloft’s last superhero game (and most recent title), the Amazing Spider-Man, but only in terms of its open world. Other than that, Gameloft has somehow managed to fall a bit short of striking mobile game gold.

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THE BAD: Although the graphics are of Gameloft’s standard quality, there seems to be multiple hiccups and glitches that ruin the smooth continuity of the cutscenes. Second, the random slow-motion sequences that have been programmed to occur during fight scenes are annoying. Speaking of programmed slow-motion, the Dark Knight’s movements are lethargic and cumbersome, an attribute that is not aided by the lack of a run feature. As for a final random bug, Batman is supposed to stretch out his cape and glide to the ground in a safe manner; while he will stretch out his cape, I encountered several instances where he began to glide in the exact opposite direction as I had the virtual stick pointed. Lastly, I normally wouldn’t comment on this type of thing, but the AppStore icon for the Dark Knight Rises looks a bit cheap and underplayed. While I’m not a graphic designer, so I have no suggestions that could further enhance the overall display, I do feel that it’s missing something.

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Well, I feel I should say something positive about this title: The opponent targeting is a nice and welcome feature for the convenience of small touchscreen devices, but this isn’t anything that Gameloft hasn’t showcased in the past. As has been hit or miss in most of their titles, the voice actors in The Dark Knight closely resemble their film counterparts (except Lucius, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman is off by quite a bit, but who else could possibly be Freeman). As was mentioned somewhere above, the ability to somewhat glide/fly is nice. The grappling feature is also welcome. Also mentioned above, the open world, as recently seen in Amazing Spider-Man, is also refreshing in a mobile platformer. Finally, the addition of vehicles are a cool idea, but so far, poorly executed. The bike sounds like it’s moving fast, when in reality, it really isn’t. The movements of the bike (turning) also seems a bit delayed.

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APP-AHOLIC RATING: 3.8; I wanted to like The Dark Knight Rises, but there were too many unexpected (and possibly basic) flaws from Gameloft. Not to mention a similar layout as was seen in Spider-man; lack of creativity.

Bottom Line: Could I just have been in a bad mood last week? Potentially, but probably not. The Dark Knight Rises revealed itself to me as unentertaining. Only the completion of this review (and my $6.99) compelled me to press deeper into the adventure. If you are a Batman enthusiast, your love for the caped crusader may be enough to capture your interest, but sadly, as just a gamer, I’m not interested enough to care. Wait for the $0.99 sale.

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SOUND OFF: Now, folks, it’s your turn! Do you have any thoughts, opinions, or general comments about The Dark Knight Rises and/or its developer, Gameloft? I personally reply to every comment, and I’d love to hear what you have to say! Just take your cranial debris and throw it down in the box below!

Happy Downloading!

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