Batman: Arkham City Review
"Batman: Arkham Asylum" was a game that no one really expected to be much good, so when it came out to positive consumer and critc reaction it was a bit of a surprise. However, by making such an engrossing game, Rocksteady had shot themselves in the foot a bit. A sequel was now expected and it was expected to be bigger and better. The difficult second game has laid waste to many a brave developer by crafting a new world but not populating it enough or updating mechanics at the expense of the story. All of these traps Rocksteady somehow managed to avoid and create a game that surpassed "Asylum" in almost every possible way.
The story picks up a few months or so after the ending of Asylum, with the now rather battered Arkham Island being replaced with Arkham City, a new initiative introduced by Hugo Strange, a sinister Professor who commands his own personal Tyger security force and has all the events of Arkham City in his thrall. Once more Batman must enter Arkham to find out what's going on and stop Strange's plan once and for all. The secondary plotline is that the Joker is dying due to his Titan-infected blood from the end of the last game, yet despite this, he manages to maintain a malign presence over Arkham, even though you don't see him face to face that often.
A number of other well-known villains make appearances in the main story too, the Joker is obviously back, as well as new faces including Mr. Freeze, Penguin and Two Face. Most of the villains are given a chance to shine in one way or another, the only character who I felt wasn't really done justice was Two Face, who only appears at the start and once more later on. All characters are voiced very well, with particular praise going to Maurice LaMarche's Freeze and Corey Burton's best Christopher Lee impression as Strange. There was only one voice that I felt was off and I won't say who for fear of spoilers, but I will just say that, they're the boss you meet when you venture into Wonder City, in the foundations of Arkham. Some of Batman's allies turn up too, with Alfred speaking into your ear this time rather than Oracle (at first anyway) and Catwoman playing a substantial role, which I'll speak about more later.
The main gameplay in Arkham will be familiar to Asylum players, but Rocksteady have upgraded the chassis with a variety of new moves, gadgets and abilities. Most notable of which are the new glide mechanics and combat techniques. Being so much larger than Arkham Asylum, getting around Arkham City is a chief concern, so you are now able to dive and then pull up while gliding to increase your speed and (once you've obtained the upgrade) use the grapnel gun to boost your flight speed and height. This makes coasting around the city a lot of fun, perhaps even more so than web-swinging in Spider-man games.
The combat engine remains basically the same, but both Batman and his foes have adapted to fight better. Enemies are now much more likely to pick up discarded weapons and in predator sections, use high-tech kit to prevent general Batmannery, like a jammer to stop your detective vision, proximity mines and thermal scanning to spot you on gargoyles. Of course Batman came prepared too, there are a number of highly useful and effective upgrades on offer, such as the weapon destroy combo which prevents other enemies from picking up a gun or bat, smoke bombs to escape from gunfire and the ability to combo using the grapnel gun. It's this kind of thing that really makes you feel like Batman, you can scope out a situation, jam a henchman's gun remotely, use a smoke bomb to disorient, then divebomb in and start punching.
Another big addition is a second playable character in the form of Catwoman (it should be noted that Catwoman is only available with new copies of the game, as an incentive to buy new over used, used buyers will have to download the DLC for a price later). Catwoman's chapters in the game serve as enjoyable interludes to the story, showcasing a different playstyle and quicker, more agile combat though they don't really add a lot to the story. She gets round the city using her claws for scaling buildings and her whip for long range jumps. While not as fast as Batman, scaling rooftops is quite exciting in an "I'm a ninja" sort of way. Her final chapter is a little frustrating though as it pits you against a respawning room of enemies, where you have to try and stealthily take out the boss, who has a healthbar, requiring multiple guerilla attacks to win.
One thing thoroughly criticised about Asylum was the boss fights. Many repeated minibosses, rather dumb main ones with little effort or intelligence required. While City's won't blow you away they are much improved, with the four main encounters being very enjoyable. While some of them still follow the "huge brutish boss" angle, they are more elegantly executed than Bane or Croc from Asylum. The best being a showdown with Mr. Freeze about 3/4s into the game. It's one of my favourite boss battles in any game because it really gives the sense that your enemy is as smart as you and one of the few bosses that learns from their mistakes. I'd say the weakest is probably Solomon Grundy (which is lucky because the other two are a tad spoilery to mention), simply because it's the most formulaic, but even that is much more involved than "dodge and let them crash into a wall."
However it's the impressive variety and dedication to making the side-missions worthwhile that sets this game apart. For example, the sub-missions in the Spider-man free-roam games, tend to be "help this generic passer-by" or "find this thing for that dude" or "race here," where you're basically just assisting random people; in Arkham City, pretty much all the side-missions are tied to a specific character such as Zsasz, Deadshot or a couple of mystery figures.
Zsasz's missions in particular are very well done. Since he's just a normal man, having you fight him outright would be a pretty dull segment; instead you must answer the payphones he calls around the city and then race to another to stop him from killing a hostage. Once you answer the second phone, you're given the chance to begin tracing his location.
The effort to make these secondary objectives as interesting as the main one, is what make Rocksteady such a great developer. They managed it in Asylum with the Riddler trophies too, by having each unlock a little something, or draw your attention to the neat easter eggs hidden through the world. The Riddler challenges return for City too, but in a much bigger way; not only is obtaining the trophies themselves more difficult, but once you've collected enough you are given the opportunity to save a hostage from a trap room set by the Riddler. The
more you collect, the closer you get to the Riddler's actual location and thus closer to the sweet taste of victory that comes only from punching him square in the face.
Arkham City has set the bar incredibly high for any future Batman games, so I rather hope Rocksteady will call it a day and move on to another franchise in need of a solid game (Superman...). It's by far the best of superhero genre and will most likely influence the way other such games are handled in the future.
Graphics: 9/10 - Excellent
Sounds: 9/10 - Voice acting, music and sound effects all top-notch, point lost for mis-chosen character voice :P
Gameplay: 10/10 - Varied, compelling and fun
Overall: 10/10
Best bit: The City and all the varied side-missions
Worst bit: Lack of Two Face and a slightly rushed conclusion to the Strange plotline.
The story picks up a few months or so after the ending of Asylum, with the now rather battered Arkham Island being replaced with Arkham City, a new initiative introduced by Hugo Strange, a sinister Professor who commands his own personal Tyger security force and has all the events of Arkham City in his thrall. Once more Batman must enter Arkham to find out what's going on and stop Strange's plan once and for all. The secondary plotline is that the Joker is dying due to his Titan-infected blood from the end of the last game, yet despite this, he manages to maintain a malign presence over Arkham, even though you don't see him face to face that often.
A number of other well-known villains make appearances in the main story too, the Joker is obviously back, as well as new faces including Mr. Freeze, Penguin and Two Face. Most of the villains are given a chance to shine in one way or another, the only character who I felt wasn't really done justice was Two Face, who only appears at the start and once more later on. All characters are voiced very well, with particular praise going to Maurice LaMarche's Freeze and Corey Burton's best Christopher Lee impression as Strange. There was only one voice that I felt was off and I won't say who for fear of spoilers, but I will just say that, they're the boss you meet when you venture into Wonder City, in the foundations of Arkham. Some of Batman's allies turn up too, with Alfred speaking into your ear this time rather than Oracle (at first anyway) and Catwoman playing a substantial role, which I'll speak about more later.
The main gameplay in Arkham will be familiar to Asylum players, but Rocksteady have upgraded the chassis with a variety of new moves, gadgets and abilities. Most notable of which are the new glide mechanics and combat techniques. Being so much larger than Arkham Asylum, getting around Arkham City is a chief concern, so you are now able to dive and then pull up while gliding to increase your speed and (once you've obtained the upgrade) use the grapnel gun to boost your flight speed and height. This makes coasting around the city a lot of fun, perhaps even more so than web-swinging in Spider-man games.
The combat engine remains basically the same, but both Batman and his foes have adapted to fight better. Enemies are now much more likely to pick up discarded weapons and in predator sections, use high-tech kit to prevent general Batmannery, like a jammer to stop your detective vision, proximity mines and thermal scanning to spot you on gargoyles. Of course Batman came prepared too, there are a number of highly useful and effective upgrades on offer, such as the weapon destroy combo which prevents other enemies from picking up a gun or bat, smoke bombs to escape from gunfire and the ability to combo using the grapnel gun. It's this kind of thing that really makes you feel like Batman, you can scope out a situation, jam a henchman's gun remotely, use a smoke bomb to disorient, then divebomb in and start punching.
Another big addition is a second playable character in the form of Catwoman (it should be noted that Catwoman is only available with new copies of the game, as an incentive to buy new over used, used buyers will have to download the DLC for a price later). Catwoman's chapters in the game serve as enjoyable interludes to the story, showcasing a different playstyle and quicker, more agile combat though they don't really add a lot to the story. She gets round the city using her claws for scaling buildings and her whip for long range jumps. While not as fast as Batman, scaling rooftops is quite exciting in an "I'm a ninja" sort of way. Her final chapter is a little frustrating though as it pits you against a respawning room of enemies, where you have to try and stealthily take out the boss, who has a healthbar, requiring multiple guerilla attacks to win.
One thing thoroughly criticised about Asylum was the boss fights. Many repeated minibosses, rather dumb main ones with little effort or intelligence required. While City's won't blow you away they are much improved, with the four main encounters being very enjoyable. While some of them still follow the "huge brutish boss" angle, they are more elegantly executed than Bane or Croc from Asylum. The best being a showdown with Mr. Freeze about 3/4s into the game. It's one of my favourite boss battles in any game because it really gives the sense that your enemy is as smart as you and one of the few bosses that learns from their mistakes. I'd say the weakest is probably Solomon Grundy (which is lucky because the other two are a tad spoilery to mention), simply because it's the most formulaic, but even that is much more involved than "dodge and let them crash into a wall."
However it's the impressive variety and dedication to making the side-missions worthwhile that sets this game apart. For example, the sub-missions in the Spider-man free-roam games, tend to be "help this generic passer-by" or "find this thing for that dude" or "race here," where you're basically just assisting random people; in Arkham City, pretty much all the side-missions are tied to a specific character such as Zsasz, Deadshot or a couple of mystery figures.
Zsasz's missions in particular are very well done. Since he's just a normal man, having you fight him outright would be a pretty dull segment; instead you must answer the payphones he calls around the city and then race to another to stop him from killing a hostage. Once you answer the second phone, you're given the chance to begin tracing his location.
The effort to make these secondary objectives as interesting as the main one, is what make Rocksteady such a great developer. They managed it in Asylum with the Riddler trophies too, by having each unlock a little something, or draw your attention to the neat easter eggs hidden through the world. The Riddler challenges return for City too, but in a much bigger way; not only is obtaining the trophies themselves more difficult, but once you've collected enough you are given the opportunity to save a hostage from a trap room set by the Riddler. The
more you collect, the closer you get to the Riddler's actual location and thus closer to the sweet taste of victory that comes only from punching him square in the face.
Arkham City has set the bar incredibly high for any future Batman games, so I rather hope Rocksteady will call it a day and move on to another franchise in need of a solid game (Superman...). It's by far the best of superhero genre and will most likely influence the way other such games are handled in the future.
Graphics: 9/10 - Excellent
Sounds: 9/10 - Voice acting, music and sound effects all top-notch, point lost for mis-chosen character voice :P
Gameplay: 10/10 - Varied, compelling and fun
Overall: 10/10
Best bit: The City and all the varied side-missions
Worst bit: Lack of Two Face and a slightly rushed conclusion to the Strange plotline.