Into the Fray

     Finally we shall get into the meat of the AR challenges with the Combat maps. While the specifics of these vary slightly the over all idea is the same. The main point is to hit the enemies and not get hit yourself. Most of these challenges will give you bonuses for using variety in your attacks and gadget usage. So while it might seem fun to just keep hitting square (or which ever button on your device) that will be unlikely to gain you all three stars. For starters heres a list of Batman's quickfire gadgets and what their use is.

• Batarang (L2): Basic projectile, can fire a volley of three without breaking combo. 
• Batclaw (L2+triangle): Grabs an enemy and pulls him towards you. Melee after for the Batclaw slam attack. Can also get upgrades to allow for the super cape stun and subsequent melee move.
• REC (L2+O): Shoots an enemy with a high voltage charge to stun. Armed and large enemies may injure allies.
• Explosive Gel (L2+ square): Changed since previous Arkhams, now fires gel at target and automatically explodes. 
• Freeze Grenade (R2,R2): Freezes target in place. Helps with crowd control.

There are also the various combat moves that not only add to your variety bonus, but some may be necessary to takedown certain enemies.

• Beatdown: Stun (O) then press melee. Needed for armored targets. This move is good for getting your combo meter higher. Note, you can break it off to counter an attack then resume.
• Arial Attack: Stun then double tap X towards target. Needed for targets armed with shields. This powerful moves is good for dealing heavy damage, but you are vulnerable if you do not time it right. 
• Batclaw Slam: Batclaw (L2+triangle) then follow it with a melee attack. Deals more damage then normal strike.
• Pickup Weapon: (Square + X) A new feature allowing you to pick up certain weapons such as bats that enemies use. Gives you more damage but it will break quickly. You can upgrade for weapons to last longer.
• Environment Takedown: (Square + X) Another new move. When close to certain objects in the environment you can instantly takeout a blue highlighted target. These include hanging lamps, fuse boxes, and the riot suppressor on the Batmobile. This also makes the idea that Batman does not kill criminals even more ridicules as he smashes them headfirst into a charged fuse box.
• Blade Dodge/Counter: When shown the yellow counter sign above a target you can only dodge by holding the counter button and holding the stick away from him. Once you gain the appropriate upgrade you can counter the attack by releasing the button between swipes. Remember: knifes have three swipes, swords four. 

Using  a high variation of both gadgets and takedowns will increase your score significantly. Also you will receive large bonuses for completing the challenges without breaking your combo and without taking any damage.

#1 Combo Master
This first challenge is actually all about maintaining your combo streak. Avoid getting hit while maintaining your meter is the key. You only have to worry about the normal bad guys in this one.

#2 Tower Defense
This one puts you at the top of Wayne Tower. Follow the above tips and try to avoid breaking your streak or getting hit. And watch out for the one large guy.

#3 Azrael's Atonement

And I thought Man-bat was a copycat.

This challenge puts you under the hood of the mysterious Azrael. Don't get too excited. He is basically a glorified Batman skin. He comes with all of the same gadgets and moves, and, while I haven't done a good comparison, he might even have the exact same animations as the Caped Crusader. The only spin on this one is that you have a few more bad guy types (watchout for the medics and combat experts) and it ends once you get hit.

#4 Gotham Knights

Typical, Dick does all the work, while Bruce just stands there and gets all the credit

This is my personal favorite of the combat challenges. It puts the scum of Gotham against the original Dynamic Duo. Batman and Nightwing (Dick Grayson [Original Robin]) are reunited as you face off against an array of enemies in this tag team style fight. If you finished the questline with Nightwing then this will be very familiar. You can switch between the two at will with the L1 button. When the new meter that appears on the screen is flashing use L1 for a tag team style takedown that also switches characters. Unfortunately Dick doesn't have the same variety in moves or gadgets as his mentor. He can still do the strike, use the bat(night?)claw, stun (along with the associated moves), use the super meter takedown (triangle + O), and throw his escrima (basically the same as the batarang). However he lacks many of Bat's other gadgets. Instead of the gel, L2+square is a move where he slams his escrima sticks into the ground causing a shockwave that staggers enemies in a circle around him. Also his disarm and destroy move is replaced with a special move that involves throwing this sticks around to hit multiple enemies, and his multi takedown special is replaced by one where he shocks nearby enemies with his escrima. While I personally wished that the creators had taken the opportunity to beef up Nightwing's pool of moves, I am glad that he is at least in the base version of the game, and not dlc this time.

Tune in next time to learn how to become a nightmare to the villains of Gotham.