Review: Batman: Arkham City
By Dustin Mendel | October 21, 2011 | Reviews | No comments | Share
Shortly after the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009, I wrote an article condemning the idea of an inevitable sequel. As fans flooded the internet, begging for multiplayer and an open world Gotham City, it seemed more and more likely that a sequel would betray what made Arkham Asylum so good. Having now played the game, I can safely say that I was a fool for ever doubting the developers, and that Batman: Arkham City is every bit as good as its predecessor, and in many ways better.
Story
A year after the events of Arkham Asylum, Gotham City has become a very different place. Quincy Sharp, the former warden of Arkham, has been elected Mayor, and his first order of business was to construct a makeshift prison in the middle of Gotham to replace Arkham and Blackgate Prison. Under the watchful eye of its administrator, Hugo Strange, the inmates of Arkham City are free to roam the streets, where they have divided into various gangs depending on which supervillain they hold allegiance to. As the game begins, political figures who had publicly opposed Mayor Sharp are being rounded up and sent into the new Arkham, leading Batman to enter the walled city in an effort to get some control on the situation.
If they make a sequel to Horrible Bosses, they might want to call Hugo Strange.
Leading up to the game’s release, Rocksteady seemed to imply that the story would revolve around rescuing Catwoman from Two-Face, while dealing with a sicker than usual Joker and Hugo Strange, but this doesn’t even begin to cover the plot of the game. Where Arkham Asylum’s story was fairly straightforward, the sequel is a complicated mystery, featuring a surprising cast of villains and a story that goes far deeper into the Batman canon than the previous game or most of the Dark Knight’s feature films, for that matter. If you’re more of a casual Batman fan, you might want to peruse the Arkham City comics that were released to get a better idea of what to expect in the game; I’ve been an avid Batman reader for a while now, and even I was surprised at some of the game’s sub-plots. It must also be said that the game’s conclusion is a thousand times more satisfying than the ending of Arkham Asylum, in case you were worried.
As with Arkham Asylum, the game’s villains are a huge part of what makes the game so good, and for the most part, each member of Batman’s rogue’s gallery is represented perfectly. Without even discussing the villains that make surprise appearances (and there are several), characters like The Penguin and Mr. Freeze are as good or better than the villains from the first game, and particularly Mr. Freeze, who thankfully erases the memories of Batman and Robin and provides one of the better boss fights in the series.
This is about as emotional as things get for these two.
A few of the major characters come up a bit short, however, which is unfortunate considering the role they play in the story. As the central antagonist in the game, Hugo Strange does little more than make cryptic announcements over the prison’s P.A. system, and Catwoman’s relationship with Batman consists of little more than longing glances and quick one-liners. The game more than makes up for this with the other characters, including the Joker, who is as entertaining as ever, but in a game as deep as Arkham City, glossing over the complicated relationships of Batman, Catwoman and Hugo Strange is a surprising misstep.
Why so...dude what's wrong with your face?
The roster of villains is much larger this time around than in the previous game, which may seem a little overwhelming at first, but that’s exactly what Rocksteady was going for, and they achieve this perfectly. Players will get a true sense of what it is like to be Batman, one man battling insurmountable odds in the same vein as the legendary Knightfall story arc. At any given moment, you could be racing across the city to your next objective, desperately avoiding armed gunmen dotting the city’s roofs, only to stumble across one of the Riddler’s puzzles, while in the background you hear the faint sound of a payphone ringing, knowing that if you don’t answer it in time, Zsasz will claim another victim. It’s a daunting task to deal with so many irons in the fire, but it’s also incredibly fun, and the closest thing to truly feeling like the Dark Knight in a video game.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Arkham Asylum, particularly the combat system, was pretty close to flawless, and yet Rocksteady has managed to make improvements in every possible way. In terms of combat, Batman has learned awesome new moves like double and triple takedowns, new special moves you unlock as your combo meter builds, and the ability to completely disable enemy weapons in addition to taking out the guy using them. As with the previous game, the freeflow combat mechanics are easy to learn and incredibly difficult to master, and Rocksteady has upped the difficulty even further by including more enemy varieties so that in addition to the clowns and inmates, you’ll find enemies brandishing shields, body armor and knives, each requiring a special input to take down. Prepare to get your ass handed to you a lot, particularly if you skipped Arkham Asylum, but once you get the hang of things, watching Batman glide from one enemy to the next, countering attacks and disarming opponents, it’s like watching poetry in motion.
One half of the scariest siamese twins ever.
As soon as Batman arrives in Arkham City, he has nearly every weapon and gadget from Arkham Asylum at his disposal, which is a refreshing change from the usual reset that games force you into, and Rocksteady has added a handful of cool new items to play around with. For instance, to help you get around the giant map, Batman’s gliding abilities have undergone some massive improvements, allowing you to dive bomb enemies or use your grappling hook to boost yourself from building to building, allowing you to fly for as long as you’d like. When guns come into play and a straight up fight doesn’t make sense, you’ll be taking to the rooftops just like last time, clearing rooms while staying out of enemy sight. The bad guys now have proximity mines, sniper rifles and night vision goggles to make your life miserable, but stalking your enemies and watching their heart rate skyrocket is as fun as it was in Arkham Asylum.
Boss battles return in Arkham City, and feel a lot more authentic this time around. If you find yourself up against a supervillain who you know couldn’t put up a fight against the Dark Knight, they’ll probably go down in a few punches, with the challenge coming from actually reaching them. Bigger, tougher adversaries will either require quick thinking or mastery of the combat system. Every boss battle is a ton of fun this time around, so don’t worry about having to creep around on floating boards or any villains jumping the shark just to seem like a physical threat (sorry Titan Joker).
If you don’t pick up the game new, you’ll want to seriously consider picking up the Catwoman DLC. I’ve never been a big fan of Catwoman, but her story missions serve as a nice intermission from Batman’s campaign, and her moveset is different enough from Batman that it really freshens up the gameplay. Catwoman is the first in at least three additional characters that will be released, with Robin and Nightwing on the way shortly (although if you bought the game through Best Buy, you already have Robin, you lucky devils). Each character comes with additional challenge maps and Riddler trophies to add to the existing 400 found in the game.
Extra Content
Speaking of the Riddler, he has a much larger presence in Arkham City than he did last time, and his handiwork can be found in every corner of the game. As I already mentioned, the story contains hundreds of trophies to find, as well as riddles you’ll have to solve by searching the city for Batman memorabilia, like posters for the Flying Graysons or costume pieces of some of Batman’s most notorious adversaries.
The Riddler is apparently a fan of the Saw movies.
If that weren’t enough, the combat and predator challenges from Arkham Asylum are back, and the Riddler has stamped his seal of approval on them as well. Riddler’s Revenge contains two dozen challenges, and new to this game are the Campaigns, which consist of three predator or combat challenges which you have to complete back to back, with a handful of modifiers added to make things harder. In other words, this isn’t a game you’re going to be able to finish over a weekend.
Batman: Arkham City has the unfair burden of being compared to its predecessor, a game that blew everyone away and redefined the superhero game. Arkham Asylum had the benefit of taking place in a Gotham City landmark that was fascinating even without the Joker’s redecorating, whereas Arkham City didn’t have the same initial effect because I hadn’t been reading about it in comics for years. Despite that, Arkham City has managed to surpass the original game with a phenomenal story, stellar performances from nearly every character, and improvements in every area that matters.
Score: 9.5/10 | Read our Scoring Policy |
