Batman: Dark Tomorrow (2003) Review 🦇🌃💩

Batman Looks Like He Needs To Take A Shit And The Game Won’t Let Him

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

Wait I swear I saw something, lolo.

Before we get into this review, I thought now would be the perfect time to look back at some older Batman games. Why? Well, with the recent release of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which I genuinely consider one of the best Batman games I’ve ever played, I started thinking about Batman’s history in video games.

We’ve had the Arkham games.

We’ve had the LEGO Batman games.

We’ve had some genuinely fantastic Batman games over the years.

And then we have Batman: Dark Tomorrow.

Yeah.

We don’t talk about Batman: Dark Tomorrow.

Actually, screw that. We’re talking about it today because I suffered and now all of you have to hear about it.

Also, yes, did I play this game?

Yes.

For a little bit.

Then I got lost, became annoyed, remembered I have absolutely no patience when it comes to games that refuse to explain anything, and gave up way too early. So I looked up the rest of the gameplay, watched the rest of the game, and saw what I had apparently saved myself from.

Oh boy.

This game is awful.

And before someone tells me:

“You didn’t experience the entire game yourself!”

You’re right.

I experienced enough.

If I eat one bite of rotten chicken, I don’t need to finish the entire chicken to confirm something has gone horribly wrong.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Batman: Dark Tomorrow follows Batman during one particularly terrible night in Gotham City. A gang war has broken out between Black Mask and the Ventriloquist, Commissioner Gordon has been kidnapped, Arkham Asylum is experiencing problems, and Batman is running around Gotham trying to figure out how all of these events connect.

Eventually, Batman uncovers a much larger plot involving Ra’s al Ghul and a weapon capable of causing mass destruction.

On paper?

That actually sounds like a pretty good Batman story.

You have Black Mask.

The Ventriloquist and Scarface. Who somehow can speak with

Commissioner Gordon.

The Joker.

Ra’s al Ghul.

Arkham Asylum.

A massive conspiracy.

Batman doing detective work.

How the hell did you make this boring?

The game has all the ingredients of a great Batman story and then puts them inside gameplay that actively fights against the person holding the controller.

The story itself isn’t even necessarily the biggest problem. It’s the fact that experiencing the story requires you to actually play Batman: Dark Tomorrow.

And that’s where everything goes wrong.

Character Rundown

Batman is obviously our main character, and I will give the game this: it does at least try to portray Batman as a detective.

He investigates crime scenes, searches for clues, uses gadgets, and slowly uncovers a larger conspiracy. This isn’t Batman running around Gotham with a tank blowing up unmanned drones for twelve hours. The developers clearly wanted Batman to feel methodical and intelligent.

Unfortunately, Batman controls like Bruce Wayne has never used his legs before.

I’ll get to that.

Commissioner Gordon spends much of the story as someone Batman needs to locate after he’s kidnapped. Gordon’s disappearance is one of the major events pushing Batman through the early portions of the game.

Black Mask and the Ventriloquist are involved in the gang war tearing Gotham apart. I actually like the idea of these two criminal organizations fighting for control of Gotham while Batman is stuck in the middle. Again, there’s a good Batman game buried somewhere underneath all this garbage.

The Joker appears because apparently a Batman game from this period legally couldn’t exist without somebody opening the Joker box and letting him out.

Then we have Ra’s al Ghul, who becomes incredibly important to the larger story. Ra’s is probably the most interesting villain involved because his plan gives the game a much larger threat beyond Gotham’s gang war.

The problem is that none of these characters can save the game.

You could put every Batman villain in this thing.

Mr. Freeze.

Scarecrow.

Two-Face.

Bane.

Clayface.

Condiment King.

Calendar Man.

The fucking Penny Plunderer.

It wouldn’t matter.

Batman still walks like he desperately needs to take a shit.

Pacing / Episode Flow

The pacing is abysmal.

The game constantly has Batman traveling through environments while giving the player very little useful information about where they’re supposed to go.

This is one of those games where you can spend an embarrassing amount of time walking around thinking:

“Okay, clearly I missed something.”

Then you walk backwards.

Nothing.

You check a door.

Locked.

You go down an alley.

Nothing.

You use a gadget.

Nothing.

You question your life choices.

Still nothing.

The game seems to confuse being difficult with refusing to communicate.

There is a difference between a game making me solve something and a game simply not explaining what the hell it wants me to do.

A good puzzle makes me feel stupid when I finally solve it because the answer was sitting in front of me.

Dark Tomorrow made me feel like the developers forgot to put a road sign down.

The camera also makes exploration considerably worse. You’ll enter areas and suddenly the camera decides it has found a wall particularly interesting. Batman will move in a direction you weren’t expecting, the perspective changes, and now you’re trying to mentally recalculate which direction you’re holding.

It’s like Batman is being controlled by a drunk security camera.

Then you get into combat, which somehow makes walking around aimlessly seem exciting.

Pros

I will start with the biggest positive.

The story has potential.

That’s probably the nicest thing I’m going to say about this game.

The idea of a gang war between Black Mask and the Ventriloquist escalating while Gordon is kidnapped and Batman slowly discovers a larger Ra’s al Ghul plot is genuinely interesting. It feels like something that could have been adapted into an animated Batman movie.

The game also deserves some credit for trying to use Batman’s gadgets as actual tools. Batman has Batarangs, a grappling device and other equipment that should theoretically make you feel like Batman.

I emphasize the word theoretically.

The developers clearly understood that Batman is more than a guy who punches criminals. They wanted investigation, stealth, traversal and gadget usage to matter.

I also appreciate some of the villains they selected. Black Mask and the Ventriloquist aren’t always the first villains games reach for, especially compared to Joker.

And that’s about where my compliments end.

Enjoy them.

We’re going downhill now.

Cons

Where the fuck do I begin?

Let’s start with Batman walking.

What is that animation?

Batman walks like he desperately needs to take a shit but Alfred told him the Bat-Toilet is currently being cleaned.

His entire body looks stiff.

His legs look uncomfortable.

His arms barely seem to understand what the rest of his body is doing.

Every time I watched Batman move, I wasn’t thinking:

“I am vengeance.”

I was thinking:

“I am desperately searching for the nearest restroom.”

And the controls don’t make it feel any better.

Moving Batman around feels abysmal. Everything is stiff and awkward, and simple actions feel considerably harder than they should. Batman is one of the most physically capable human beings in the DC universe, yet controlling him here feels like you’re trying to move a refrigerator through a narrow hallway.

Combat is horrible.

You walk up to an enemy.

You try to attack.

Batman awkwardly moves.

The enemy attacks.

You try to reposition yourself.

The camera has a stroke.

Batman is now facing the wrong direction.

Excellent.

I feel just like Batman.

The fighting lacks any satisfying rhythm. Years later, the Arkham games would show everyone how Batman combat could work. You could flow between enemies, counter attacks and feel like Batman was always thinking several moves ahead.

In Dark Tomorrow, Batman feels like he’s trying to remember which button punches people.

Then there’s the camera.

Fuck the camera.

The fixed camera angles constantly make navigation harder. You’ll move into another section and the perspective changes, which can completely screw with your movement. This was already annoying in older survival horror games, but at least those games were usually built around slow movement and tension.

This is Batman.

I’m trying to navigate Gotham, fight criminals and use gadgets.

I shouldn’t be fighting the cinematographer.

The game also barely tells you what to do.

This is why I gave up so quickly.

I have admitted multiple times that I don’t have much patience when it comes to difficult games. If I’m wandering around for too long with absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to do, eventually my brain goes:

“Yeah, we’re done.”

And that’s exactly what happened here.

The game expects you to notice certain things, use specific gadgets and travel through areas without giving you enough information. Some people will call that old-school difficulty.

I call it:

TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK I’M GOING.

There’s also a difference between rewarding exploration and wasting my time.

The difficulty can become ridiculous because the controls themselves are working against you. If I die because I made a bad decision, fine.

If I die because Batman turned around like a delivery truck and the camera decided to relocate itself to another dimension, I’m blaming the game.

The graphics haven’t aged particularly well either.

Now, yes, this came out in 2003. I’m not expecting Batman: Arkham Knight.

But some of the character models look lifeless, Gotham can feel incredibly empty, and Batman’s cape occasionally looks like it has more personality than Batman.

The cutscenes are also bizarrely stiff.

Characters stand around delivering dialogue while looking like action figures someone forgot to move.

Then we have the ending system.

Oh boy.

This game has multiple endings, and getting the best ending requires the player to perform specific actions involving Ra’s al Ghul’s doomsday weapon.

If you don’t properly disable the weapon?

Congratulations.

You can beat the final boss and still get a bad ending.

Batman basically stands there thinking he saved the day before the weapon activates.

WHAT?

Imagine beating a Batman game and the game turns around and says:

“Actually, Batman forgot something. Everyone dies. Fuck you.”

The requirements for getting the proper ending are not communicated well enough, which perfectly summarizes the entire game.

Batman: Dark Tomorrow loves knowing information that you don’t.

Final Thoughts

Batman: Dark Tomorrow is fascinating to look back on after playing LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

Not because they’re similar.

Because they’re complete opposites.

Legacy of the Dark Knight understands why controlling Batman should be fun. The puzzles make you think. Gotham encourages exploration. Batman’s gadgets feel useful. Movement feels responsive.

Dark Tomorrow asks:

“What if Batman couldn’t walk properly?”

The sad thing is I don’t think this game was made without effort.

That’s what makes it frustrating.

There are ideas here.

The story has potential.

The villain selection is interesting.

The game tries to emphasize Batman’s detective abilities.

The developers clearly wanted to make a serious Batman experience.

But almost every gameplay decision makes actually experiencing those ideas miserable.

The camera is awful.

The combat is awful.

The movement is awful.

The navigation is confusing.

The game barely communicates what it expects from you.

And Batman looks like he’s been holding in a shit since Crime Alley.

I played a little bit of this game before giving up because I got lost and ran out of patience. After seeing the rest of the game?

I don’t regret giving up.

I saved myself time.

Maybe Batman eventually found that bathroom.

Rating

1/10

The one point is for the story having some interesting ideas.

Everything else can be thrown into the Lazarus Pit.

Actually, no.

Don’t revive it.

Spoiler Warning

Everything below this point contains full spoilers for Batman: Dark Tomorrow. I’m going to discuss Gordon’s kidnapping, the gang war, Ra’s al Ghul, the doomsday device and the multiple endings.

If you genuinely plan on playing this game?

Good luck.

You’re going to need it.

Spoilers

The game begins with Gotham basically falling apart.

Black Mask and the Ventriloquist are at war, criminals are running around the city, and Commissioner Gordon has been kidnapped. Batman immediately begins investigating and slowly works his way through Gotham trying to locate Gordon and understand what is happening.

Again, I like this setup.

A gang war is exactly the kind of problem Batman should be dealing with. It allows the story to use multiple villains without immediately feeling like:

“Every villain in Gotham has teamed up because the game needs boss fights.”

Batman eventually discovers Gordon and continues investigating the larger conspiracy.

The story expands beyond the gang war and eventually leads Batman toward Ra’s al Ghul.

Ra’s has a doomsday weapon capable of causing mass destruction, and Batman has to infiltrate his operation and stop him.

This is where the game’s infamous ending system comes into play.

You can fight Ra’s al Ghul.

You can defeat him.

You can think you’ve completed the game.

And still lose.

Why?

Because you didn’t properly disable the doomsday device.

The game expects the player to complete specific steps to stop the weapon before finishing the final confrontation. If you don’t do that, the device activates.

That’s such a massive piece of information to hide behind vague gameplay.

Batman defeats Ra’s and the game essentially says:

“Great job.”

Then five seconds later:

“Actually, you fucked up.”

Imagine if Arkham City ended with Batman defeating Hugo Strange and then a message appeared saying:

YOU FORGOT TO UNPLUG PROTOCOL 10.

Gotham explodes.

Credits.

That’s Dark Tomorrow.

And apparently one of the game’s biggest challenges isn’t Ra’s al Ghul.

It isn’t Black Mask.

It isn’t the Ventriloquist.

It isn’t the Joker.

It’s figuring out what the developers want from you.

The better ending obviously requires Batman to successfully stop the weapon and prevent the disaster, but the fact that so many players ended up with the bad ending says everything about the game’s communication.

And that’s my biggest problem with Batman: Dark Tomorrow.

I don’t hate difficult games simply because they’re difficult.

I hate games that make me feel like I’m missing instructions.

This game constantly feels like someone handed me page four of an instruction manual and then became angry because I didn’t read pages one through three.

So yeah.

That’s Batman: Dark Tomorrow.

A Batman game with a genuinely decent story buried underneath some of the worst controls, camera mechanics and navigation I’ve seen in a Batman game.

And after LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight?

Looking back at this is almost educational.

We’ve come a long way.

Batman can finally walk like he doesn’t need to take a shit.

Progress. 🦇