Batman: Arkham City

Batman Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City is a dream come true to anyone who has ever even had a passing interest in comic books. No game has ever made the player feel as true to character as the latest entry from Rocksteady Studios. The only comic game that has ever come close to the level of polish of Arkham City is its predecessor, Arkham Asylum. 

The game is not without flaws, but they are so completely outshone by the rest of the game that the few missteps become inconsequential. This fact becomes apparent as players move through the rather lengthy single-player campaign; any niggling complaints that we had at the beginning of the game about enemy awareness, movement controls, or combat mechanics simply melted away as the game added more and more layers and continued presenting new challenges.

The game was released on October 18, 2011for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and the PC release occurred on November 22, 2011. Widely praised for its graphics, the PC version of the game was able to bring the visual complexity of Arkham City to new heights, which meant that the system requirements for the game did not leave room for the weak of heart or small of budget.

Story

We first find our hero as Bruce Wayne protesting the creation and continued implementation of Arkham City -- an experimental superprison that occupies a large chunk of Northern Gotham and houses all of Gotham City's worst criminals. Even worse, Arkham City is currently being run by Dr. Hugo Strange, who should be immediately familiar to the Batman faithful.

After a quick conversion from Bruce Wayne to Batman, the player is ready to soar over and across the rooftops of Arkham City in search of adventure, excitement, and many thug bones to crack. The city, as one might expect, has been divided into different 'gang zones' that are controlled by some of the major villains Batman has put in Arkham Asylum over the years.

Each different group of villains offers up varied challenges and dialog for Batman as well as plenty of canon fodder for the player to wade through as they make their way to the boss fights scattered throughout the game. One common complaint among reviewers and players alike has been that the boss fights are far too easy and sometimes pale in comparison to the complicated maneuvers that need to be pulled off during combat with regular enemies.

The game is difficult to a certain degree but no enemy or situation truly seems to be Batman's match. Regardless of how many enemies might be piling up or how lopsided the odds seem to be, Rocksteady has managed to always make the player feel that in the end Batman will prevail -- and that is a very odd feeling.

Overall the story is cohesive, interesting, and was unpredictable enough to keep us guessing until the Joker played his final card. The cast of characters is brilliant and works both as tremendous fan service to those who have been along the ride with Batman for all of these years and those who have only had a passing interest in the storyarc. The only complaints we could levy at the game might be that there are too many villains, which can sometimes make the game seem like nothing more than fan service, and that the Catwoman sequences seemed largely unnecessary and actually left us feeling like we were somehow missing out on some quality time being Batman.