Punching a shark in the face is awesome. Totally awesome. What wasn't awesome was freeing one of the cops from a block of ice, being told to free the other two cops from blocks of ice, but not seeing an obvious path to do so. My problem wasn't that the solution wasn't obvious, but that two other unrelated paths were a billion times more obvious. To save the cops, I'd need to cut a rope suspending a raft with a Batarang, then use the raft to get to the iced cops. However, I interpreted that hanging raft as a hanging platform, as there was already another raft on the other side of the pool. For a while, I thought I might need to break a path through the ice to use that raft, but after being eaten a couple times, I realized that wasn't going to get the job done. Frustrated, and having struggled for enough time to assume that these frozen police weren't in any timer-related risk of dying, I decided to move on to the easily accessible left path.
That's when Batman decided to chime in-- something about "needing to save those men." I'd only gotten half way down the left hallway when he offered this warning, so I immediately feared that leaving the room would result in those cops dying while I was gone, so I turned back. Now, it was time to try the 2nd most obvious path: going straight across the room from the entry point. For some reason, this room where I would confront the Penguin was accessible to me, even though I couldn't possibly defeat him without saving Fries and accessing his suit. At a loss, and long past caring about Batman's pleas for the lives of those frozen cops, I took to the internet for answers.
I got them. I cut down the raft, I freed the guys, and then I continued on to the right hallway, leading to the exhibition room where Vic's suit was on display, and where I'd experience another dose of frustration due to Batman's vague and useless communication through the 4th wall.
In this room, three cops are being held hostage by Penguin thugs. As I would find out repeatedly, taking too long to knock them all out would allow one of them to grab one of the hostages and put a gun to the back of his head. If that thug sees you, he kills the hostage. It's impossible to sneak up on him, as the game will take control away from you once you enter a roughly three foot radius of the guy, even if he totally couldn't have possibly seen you. Dead hostage. Taunt death screen from Penguin, referencing a Batman death that never happened.
The only reason I was taking my time with the takedowns in this room was the presence of a Riddler informant. He would have to be the last one conscious for me to interrogate him, but it was always a non-informant putting a gun to the hostage's head. When the thug would do this, Batman would say something to the effect of, "The only way to keep him safe is to be sure they don't see me." Great. What do I do while they're not seeing me? Leave the room? OK. As I head for the door, Batman chimes in again, "I can't leave, I have to save these men!" Which is it, Bruce!? Save the men, or don't be seen? Is this another situation where your warning doesn't mean anything, and I could safely leave and re-enter this room with no harm coming to anyone? Are you actually advising me against my, and this cop's, best interest? That's not a very Batman thing to do.
So, I swooped down behind the thug, got locked out of controlling Batman for the few seconds it took for him to spin around and see me, and watched the guard get shot again. Taunt death screen from Penguin referencing a Batman death that never happened.
Finally, I just went in balls out, disregarding whatever information that Riddler informant might have. I knocked all of the bastards out in what seemed like less than a minute, ensuring none had time to grab hold of the hostages.
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