The app also plays music during puzzle sequences, much of which is very high quality stuff. It’s a bit odd that it uses both styles, but works well enough. The app has other functions, like many story sequences, both comic book style, and live action news broadcasts, that help tell the story. Still, putting together the buildings like a 3d puzzle is a fun activity, even if it’s not exactly mentally stimulating. I feel like it’s a missed opportunity that we’re not erecting the Way ne Enterprises building, or Arkham Asylum, or the Iceberg Lounge. For example, instead of building Ace Chemicals, you assemble a building next to it, which brings Ace Chemicals into the AR version of the city. The buildings you construct are not exactly what I’d call landmarks of the series, more like props the AR program uses to do some of its magic. In addition to solving puzzles, you’ll slowly build a few model buildings for your miniature Gotham City. The designers seemed to recognize this, because in the highest quality set-pieces, the solutions are not something you could possibly guess, instead using codes or combinations. In the less exciting puzzles this comes as a blessing, but in others you basically finish the puzzle after only a tiny bit of work, leaving the puzzle itself half-solved. The game also uses solutions that are sometimes easy to guess based on the first few decoded letters and some context. This is doubly so when you find a blacklight early on, which is used once at the beginning and then completely forgotten for almost the entire rest of the game. AR will reveal stuff that’s not on the base components, but I can’t help but wonder why they weren’t printed there to begin with. Yet when these puzzles are at their worst, you wonder why the AR is required at all. Some of the puzzles REALLY feel like they were supposed to let you manipulate the AR components in real time, but I guess the technology just isn’t there quite yet. Basically, for the most part, if you move something, you have to wait for the app to re-scan it before it appears again. Manipulating the pieces in the AR world is, unfortunately, not something that’s effectively designed (with a few memorable exceptions). You can scan the various physical pieces, and the app snaps onto them, bringing them into an enhanced AR version of the world. When these puzzles are at their best though, they feel amazing. These were definitely the lows of the game, but very few and far between. However, these stumpers both had some hiccups in design and implementation, not difficulty. None of the puzzles are overly difficult, and only two got my group stuck for any amount of time. The activities are definitely the best part of the experience, using photos, a whole newspaper, and cardboard components to solve puzzles. “Where the leather is scarred, there is a great story to tell” - Red Dead Redemption 2 review Between top-notch voice acting, and a deep exploration of a very undersold villain, you experience and solve a wild heist. The story itself is pretty darn good for a licensed product. Rinse and repeat for 8 chapters, and by the end, you’ll have experienced a story centering on a handful of Batman’s lesser known rogues. So, iPhone in hand, I got the app, and from here the game asks you to open an envelope in the box, perform some mixed reality activities using the components within, and then move onto the next envelope. When they do finally get an Android version out, I suspect that there will be similar limitations, as not all Android phones have the sensors to do AR. To be safe, check to see if you can download the Panic in Gotham app in the App Store before you get this. The iPhone also has to be new enough to have AR capability. I wound up having to borrow an iPhone from someone to even review the game. At the time of writing this, there is still no Android app to play this game. This is where I ran into my first stumbling block in this review. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but there’s a few things I’m going to vaguely talk about to better give folks an idea of what you’ll get in the box.įirst things first, when you open the box, it tells you to go ahead and download the app. It uses an app to guide the progress, but also uses your smart phone’s AR capability to make a bunch of cool things happen, almost like magic. Panic in Gotham City is a group mixed reality game created by Infinite Rabbit Holes. Between your group (some amateur sleuthing citizens of Gotham) and her, you’ll solve a bunch of puzzles to follow a story of crime and punishment in DC’s moody city. That’s right, Harlene Quinzel, AKA Harley Quinn, AKA Joker’s right hand clown before the divorce, has turned over a new leaf and is back working at Arkham Asylum. Someone got her medical license back, and she’s ready to get back to working at Arkham Asylum.
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