Batman: Arkham City Review (360, PS3)

What do you get if you Cross Arkham Asylum with Spiderman – My game of the year!

Until recently, by favourite single player game of all time was Batman: Arkham Asylum. It featured my favourite super hero and took him right out of his comfort zone. Rather than roaming the streets of Gotham from the rooftops, he was confined in claustrophobic corridors, thug filled rooms, Croc infested sewers and more. The game was balanced perfectly, with the innovative FreeFLow combat system at its core. With careful timing and use of gadgets you could pull off fight scenes that would make Bruce Lee envious. The level of detail and nods to the source material was unbelievable, proving that RockSteady Studios not only understood what makes Batman such a loved character, but that they also loved him as well. My only real complaint about Arkham Asylum was that it ended! Imagine how excited I was when Arkham City was announced. However, I was a little concerned that rather than keeping to the same precise and confined game play of the original, Arkham City was taking a much more open world stance. I was a little worried that this would water down the overall feel of the game. Well, I can tell you now, I should have had more faith in RockSteady!

Without a doubt, my game of the year!

Batman: Arkham City follows on a little after the events of Arkham Asylum. Gotham has decided to put all of its most insane prisoners in a walled section of Gotham, called Arkham City a bit like in Escape from New York. Run by ex asylum warden Hugo Strange, this sprawling prison has been split between several gangs, run by some of Batman’s most famous adversaries. The most commonly seen are the Jokers, Two Faces and Penguins henchmen. However, as the game progresses more and more familiar faces begin to appear. I am not going to go into the story. Much has been said and revealed, suffice to say that comic book veteran and Arkham Asylum script writer, Paul Bini, has done another fantastic job. You don’t need to know the story, that’s why you play the game, but it all starts with Bruce Wayne being put in Arkham City as a political prisoner. Arkham City takes everything that was good about Arkham Asylum and improves on it. Batman: Arkham CityThe first and most notable change is the freedom. You have a whole city to explore now, five times larger than the asylum. The best way to see the city is from above. One of the biggest changes to Batman’s gadget set is the Bat claw. It is worth mentioning first though, that almost all of the gadgets that Batman collected in the previous game are now available to you from the start. Back to the Bat claw. Now you can use it to scale any building you can see. Want to get to the top peak of the church? Just fire your Bat claw and your wish will come true. This couple with your ability to glide, allows you to traverse the city quickly and in style. At first though, I just had to stop and look around. Each area of the city is filled with such intricate detail that it could take you months of exploring to discover everything. Landmarks that will be familiar to every Batman fan have been lovingly recreated and left there for explorers to discover. The overall look of the game is still dark and grimy, it is after all run by criminals and psychopaths – not much use for cleaners here. However, through the grime and the dirt everything is still distinct in style. Jokers area (amusement mile) is my particular favourite. With balloons and a fairground, it just fits him perfectly. There are not enough superlatives in my vocabulary to explain just how wonderful the city looks. Just roaming around the city can be a rewarding experience. As well as the welcome return of the Riddler’s challenges, there are actual side missions and objectives to be explored. Most revolve around rescuing people, but are all a lovely distraction from the main story arc and take you to new bits of the city and in some cases introduce new characters to the game for you. Sitting high above the city is not a silent affair either. If it isn’t the Joker calling you on his personal hotline, it is the chatter of the gangs going on around you. Listen to thugs talking about their bosses, telling stories of what they saw Harly Quinn doing to the Joker or discussing plans to switch gangs. Sometimes they will be bullying some poor political prisoner and threatening to do nasty things to them. Should you choose you can swoop in and deal out your own form of vigilante justice. Batman: Arkham CityAnd what fun dealing out the justice is. The FreeFlow combat system has been upgraded in some beautiful and subtle ways. There are more finishing animations than before. There are more potential combinations available. Multiple attackers are handled much more efficiently. Gadgets can be used much more fluidly during fights. There are also more thug types than before, all of which require different styles to fight. Knife wielding head cases require particular care, with timing of your counters being of utmost importance. Some could argue that many of the fights are nothing more than button mashing, but they would be wrong. Timing is what makes the fights so intricate. Too early with a strike and you will break your combo flow, too late with a counter and you will get a bottle in the face. As with Asylum, there are many parts of Batman’s abilities that can be levelled up, from critical strikes to beat downs to new gadget abilities, the choice is yours as to how your Batman progresses. Another part of Asylum that some (myself included) were not too happy about was the detective mode. This mode allows you see thugs through walls, look for weak spots in walls and also follow clues and trails. However, in Asylum you actually spent more time in detective mode than in normal mode, so you didn’t really see all of the beautiful surroundings. Well, City has improved on this. First of all, detective mode is not quite so blue and orange. It still is used for the same things, but you can see more background detail. Also, it is not needed as much as before. The other thing that has been added, is detective mode jammers. Some thugs carry these, so are invisible to you if you are in detective mode. Batman: Arkham CitySo far, all I have spoken about is the city from the outside. However, there is so much more. The story will have you inside far more than outside. This is when the game really begins to feel familiar to Asylum Veterans. Each building has a unique feel, from the Justice building, to the frozen lair of Mr Freeze in the GCPD building, to the abandoned subway. Just as with the main city, each is packed with so much detail that you wonder how they had time to finish making the game. Most of these environments lead to some kind of boss battle and each is designed to utilised during the battle. As with Asylum, boss battles are not just a matter of straight up smash mouth confrontation. Careful and tactical use of your surroundings is the only way you are going
to win the day. What is great about this approach is that none of the battles feel samey. Each is unique and enjoyable. The atmosphere that made Arkham Asylum so good, really shows itself in these indoors sections. One moment that stands out for me was during a trip to the under city, I got a little disorientated on the way out and was getting stressed. Once I found the exit, I thought I was safe – but no. I was instead in a room filled with gun toting thugs. These guys are much harder to take out than your standard thugs and in this case had detective mode jammers and heat vision. This meant I couldn’t even hide in the shadows for long. Once I had dealt with them, I finally found the real exit. As soon as I was in the open air and zipping up to the top of a build, I actually felt a sense of genuine relief. I had been on the edge of my seat for about twenty minutes and the wife said I had gone pale through the whole thing! This kind of immersion is a joy and far to infrequent in games. I have spoken a lot here and I doubt all of it is that interesting. The trouble is this game is HUGE. Not so much in the scale of the city, but just in what there is to do and see. I have barley scrapped the surface of the secrets that are there to be discovered, but I will say make sure you go to the top of the big wheel in Amusement Mile and also try to find Calendar man at Christmas! Batman: Arkham CityOnce you have finished the main story, the game is not over. There are still hundreds of Riddler trophies to be collected and puzzles to be solved. There are secret characters to meet and side missions to finish. Once all that is done, there are challenge rooms to be played in, not to mention a whole story arc centred on Cat woman to be played. If I could complain about one thing, it would be great to see a co-op mode, but that is just a wishlist add on rather than a complaint about the game! If you are a Batman fan, then stop reading, go, and buy the game. There is nothing here for you to dislike. You get cameos from your favourite good and bad guys, references to the books that will leave you smiling and a game that captures everything about Batman that you love. This is as much a detective game as it is a combat game. If you are not a fan, then still buy this game. You don’t have to like Batman to enjoy this game. The combat, the exploration, the freedom and the story all come together to make the perfect single player experience. I just can’t fault it. It looks amazing, sounds amazing, and plays amazingly. It is just amazing and that is not a fan boy reaction. I have not had a better single player experience since Arkham Asylum. Without a doubt, my game of the year!

The Good: Looks stunning. Perfect single player experience. Keep you occupied for weeks.;
The Bad: Not a thing.


Catwoman Kicks some Butt Detective Mode is back Multiple Attackers Joker has seen better days Just hanging around 


Diamond Y AwardDiamond Y Award
5 5 / 5

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