Few were pining for Batman:
Arkham Asylum before its release, but it hit with a monumental force and
redefined comic book video games in one fell swoop. Batman: Arkham City has been yearned for and it delivers on almost
every promise and expectation.
Batman: Arkham City is the real deal for Batman fans. The inclusion of Easter eggs, a
plethora of DC Universe references in dialogue and just about every Batman
villain you could possibly care about is almost too much for a Batman fan. If
you've ever loved Batman, you will love this game, if you've ever loved Batman: The Animated Series, you will
love this game. If at any point you've heard of the character Batman, you will
love this game. It will be hard for
developer Rocksteady Studios to top the package they've put together here.
So what makes Arkham City a worthy successor to Arkham
Asylum? The combat system has received tweaks and changes that draw it ever
nearer to idealized perfection, the greater open world exploration makes you
feel more like Batman and the game has a layer of polish that elevates it over
the rest of the field.
The "freeflow" combat from Arkham Asylum is reborn here with a handful of tweaks.
Gadgets have been introduced into combat, allowing Batman to combine his
devastating punches and kicks with smoke bombs, electric shocks, the trusty
batarang, gel explosions and the like. It's another tool in Batman's arsenal
and adds a hefty amount of diversity in taking down your thug foes. Combat feels good and the speed that you can engage enemies, defeat them and move on never allows the game to bog down.
The environments in Arkham
City are beautifully grimey and destroyed and an expansive playground for
Batman to do vengeful things. You'll spend most of your time flying from
rooftop to abandoned work crane via zip line, grapple hook and good ol' cape
flying, so it's easy to miss the down-on-the-street detail that Rocksteady put
into this game. Good thing they also felt the need to include several Catwoman
sections of the game, which give you a far more street-level look at the world.
As Catwoman you'll explore the space on more of a surface level, cling to the
side of buildings and beat fools down with a handful of cat burglar tricks and
gadgets. The Catwoman sections add that "something more" to this game that
elevates it over Arkham Asylum. Rocksteady
made more than a Batman game, they made a Batman Universe game.
Arkham City will run you about 15 hours if you play through
the story mode and do a good chunk of the side quests; if completion is your
game, you'll be spending a lot of
time hunting down Riddler trophies, side missions and activities over every
nook and cranny of Arkham City; the
freedom and amount of activities will feel like a boon to some, but early on it
can overwhelm and intimidate.The game does fall a bit prey to the idea that
more is better and can overwhelm players with a multitude of side missions and
activities. A quick scan of the map in the opening hours of that game can cause
paralysis; there are a staggering amount of icons and notifications thrown about
the map that show off all that you can do (and there's honestly a hell of a lot
you can do.) It's both this game's blessing and curse.
One of those aspects that's just too much is the sizable increase of Riddler trophies spread around every
corner of the city. I would rather have had 100 trophies that
were hard to find rather than 400 trophies scattered across every foot of the
landscape.
Arkham City also stumbles
story-wise in its final act; the story slowly builds tension about the
situation inside the walls of Arkham City, but towards the end there's a rush
of information and actions that come out of left field and then there's an
abrupt end. Rocksteady got perhaps a bit too married into the idea that this
series needs every Batman villain they can think; when they start throwing more
and more villains at the story towards the game's conclusion it just becomes
confusing and the payoff doesn't fully work.
Even with my concerns about the story's quick resolution,
the enemy round robin and the plethora of Riddler trophies, I think Batman: Arkham City is one of the best
games of the year and easily a top contender for Game of the Year. Unlike Spider-Man: Edge of Time, which didn't
impart a feeling of actually being Spider-Man, Batman: Arkham City makes you feel like Batman to the bone: the
gadgets, the terrorizing of thugs, the epic conflicts with over-the-top
villains. I've never felt like a superhero more in my life and that's a good
thing.
Version Tested: Xbox 360
