What's wrong with Arkham City?

 

Hey guys, we all love Arkham City.  It's a truly great game.  I figure the adjustable difficulty levels would allow it to be accessible to everyone (wouldn't know, I don't try them) and it's really hard to find something wrong with it.  I take that as a challenge.  Here, then, is a list of the things I found upsetting about the game.

Green
Why is it that everyone has green eyes and are very bright in that?  This is a rather surprising element they missed.  Don't they have to make new models for the various different characters?  After seeing people with Venom/Titan zoomed in on their green eyes in Arkham Asylum, I've grown to associate strong green eyes with something more than human.  Another thing with green is how many spots will glow green even when they are completely unrelated to the Riddler.  I see far more EXIT signs show red than green in real life.

Gliding
I think it's great to have a bunch of new things.  If you have a lot of tools to use, that makes for a far more creative experience.  Gliding is a particularly useful tool for getting around the city, especially with the Grapnel Boost upgrade.  What gets me is how much they put into it.  I didn't like the AR training at all.  It literally felt like the developers were putting the story on hold and trying to handhold you, the player, outside of the game.  It's especially heinous when you have to go through a particularly difficult course with armed enemies all around you.  I basically had to clear out the whole Bowery before trying that.
As for the Riddler challenges, I understand they have to deliberately make them hard.  It doesn't mean I have to like it.  I'm most concerned when it requires you to dive bomb so that you can pull up and effectively fly straight for a while.  The timing is really tight in many instances, requiring you to "just know" when you have to pull up and precisely how to aim it.  It feels like it belongs in more of a puzzle game than an action game.

Identity Thief
I won't get into a whole lot of detail on what's involved with this mission, though I don't think it would be much of a spoiler.  I had a strong feeling of what was happening as soon as I found the first victim.  Anyway, there really isn't anything to help you with this mission.  I think I remember Oracle helping lead you to one victim, but if she does, she really takes her time.  This was one of the last missions I finished in my replay of the game, and there's just nothing to even hint at where you go to find the 2nd victim.  After that, I had a basis to get all "detectiv-ey" and resolve the rest of it.

Detective Mode
I'm not really sure what to think about Detective Mode.  It's only in here because strictly speaking, it is less functional than it used to be.  I basically went through all of Arkham Asylum without seeing the actual environment.  Now you see a lot less than what you used to see, and you can actually miss a tremendous amount of stuff if you keep to this.  It also becomes slightly more important to use in combat.  Yeah that makes it useful, but it feels a little cheaty.  It mostly applies in the more challenging Combat challenges when you're surrounded by enemies with different weapons so you can see exactly what they are.  There's at least 3 instances when you can't just blindly strike (such as the stun sticks from Aslyum).

Old tricks don't work
There are some things that just don't work anymore.  Granted, that's really outnumbered by how many new tricks you have, but still disappointing.  For one thing, we all have a registered thing with titans (it's been a few years since Asylum, you should know that Titan would be back by now).  You hear the roar, you know it's coming, you throw a Batarang at it and prepare to ride the disoriented bull.  No such luck anymore.  Instead you have to rely on the new ultra stun (also not a spoiler, they teach you as soon as you see the first titan) for a more honest fight.
Another issue is when I hear someone's about to throw something at me, that used to be unavoidable.  Evade was basically the catch-all to be nearly invincible for a moment.  I've been caught by thrown objects while evading.  Now that's replaced by 1) catching the object with your parry button, 2) getting the enemy before he throws, or 3) detonate the propane tank with a Batarang if applicable.
Thirdly, you don't have the Ultra Batclaw or Triple Batarang anymore.  I don't know if Freeflow Focus Gadgets allows this, but it would be rather small potatoes if it did, anyway.  Just about everything you do now will only affect one specific enemy.  Honorary mentions to this: I have not encountered the counter issue described by the Ctrl + Alt + Delete webcomic, only my own inability to hit counter quickly enough.  I don't know if this got patched before I got around to playing.  Another honorary mention: don't use the RT+RT quickfire gadget (you get it near the end of the game) on a downed enemy unless you'll use it again on someone standing soon.  An affected enemy on the ground won't register well with going for a ground takedown.

This list will be updated when I think of more.  I think I more or less got it.  As you can see, they're mostly little things.  The game overall is still incredible and for all these problems, the new benefits are beyond exponentially better.