I'm finding combat in this game fairly difficult, I'm not very far and am already banging my head against the wall particularly in this one mission at the bam bam club? Any Kung fu masters out there?

Counter more. Throw guys if you get swarmed. Use environmental kills to instantly take out enemies.

There's also a surprising variety of places you can get a motorcycle into, if that's your thing.

@Garris: My tip is learn the leg break move. Then, once in combat, grapple, leg break (which stuns the enemy), then double tap circle (I'm guessing it's circle, I played it on the 360 and it was B) to finish the enemy off. This should also is going to get you a ton of points towards your mission score.

Also...environmental finishers are a super quick way to dispose of enemies. You don't get a ton of points, but they're quick and can help with crowd control.

@Garris: As most people mentioned, counter. In a fair amount of "boss" encounters you will basically just stand around and counter as that will be your only viable option. When there are a lot of doods just attack the skinny types but whenever you see someone turn red start mashing Y/Triangle and you will counter more often than not even when in the middle of some attack. Apart from standing around waiting to counter something there isn't that much to it. I didn't really use a lot of the dojo unlocks and I got them all. The last one, which is a more powerful counter is neat but even that isn't necessary. A good move I did use semi frequently was the ground tackle that disarms your enemy but not sure how far along in the tree that is.

Basically in the beginning of a fight just stand around and wait for a counter, then pick them up and if there is an environmental kill nearby use that, if not then do whatever, rinse and repeat until you thin the crowd enough where you feel comfortable just straight out combo fighting.

You probably need to counter more!

All right, have you ever played the Arkham games? Do that. Make a habit of watching for the red outline of guys about to hit you. Don't be afraid to stand back from the crowd and wait for counters instead of rushing in head-first. Make good use of environmental kills.

Counter and find all the jade statues u can right now after u get them to appear on mini map. Some locations tied to story but I can get most right now.

I've found the system is easy to cheese, you can finish every fight without ever taking damage by doing nothing besides countering, but I've found it's very hard to feel like a badass like the recent Batman games do. It's actually been a bit disappointing after all the good things I heard about the game. It's basically impossible to do anything interesting in large crowds because as soon as you start a combo someone will try to attack you and you'll have to counter out of it. The majority of the combat turns into <punch> <punch> <counter> and on hard fights you just end up standing around doing nothing but countering.

Focus entirely on countering until you have that mastered.

@StarvingGamer said:

Focus entirely on countering until you have that mastered.

I feel like I'm solid on all counter except with Melee enemies, i don't know what it is, if the window where you can hit the Y is smaller or what but I am constantly getting jacked by melee dudes when it seems like I should have got the counter in.

@garris I suggest doing more of the fight club as practice and getting as many of the statues as possible. You will eventually learn a weapon disarm move that is as effective as the leg and arm break. These are low risk practice areas where you can figure out the mechanics before the missions.

Ok I think I have it figured out I started holding down the y button when I see them go red instead of just tapping it and that seems to be working

@Ravenlight said:

Counter more. Throw guys if you get swarmed. Use environmental kills to instantly take out enemies.

Bascially, what he said. I just finished the game on Saturday. Good stuff. What I did was the environmental kills first and then used whatever weapons if there were any. But if anything just rely on counters to help you.

Countering is the only way to open up the defences of the brawlers so you need to do a lot of that. Punch the crap out of the big guys and take them out early on as they don't block attacks but can be really annoying when they get behind you. Use the charged knee stun ( X, X, Hold X) which will stun then and follow up with a regular hit which will do a good amount of damage. I found it to be the most efficient way to fight and kept enemies down so you didn't get overwhelmed. If you came from Arkham Asylum, you just need to remember that you are far more vulnerable and as you progress through the game, the combat becomes pretty trivial.

You can also grab the brawlers, actually. It's nice for doing leg/arm breaks and then getting a stun follow-up in. After they go down, you can kick the shit out of them and then just pound on those fat guys with basic melee combos.

Countering and using the stun knee combo that is learned fairly early on kept me winning basically all the fights in the game.

I believe I even beat all the fight clubs before I upgraded an entire combat branch in the tree. Countering really helps you out.

Another thing is figuring out the enemy types. The brawlers are counter territory since their attacks are telegraphed then following up with a combo. The grapplers I used to combo at until they wanted to grab me and then I'd try to get out, but if grabbed, I'd just wait for the button prompt instead of panicking. In the beginning, I'd start mashing out of reflex and mess up the prompt and take some big damage (for that time in the game). The regular dudes, as you get better, can be straight comboed up or you can just sit there and counter. They aren't that bad until they're alongside the other two types in larger numbers. Then, I'd just kind of jab at them to interrupt their AI (keep them in that "hit" animation) while I fought the "bigger" guys.