The timer marked 22.6 hours when I completed the story of Batman: Arkham City (PC). I went in wanting more Batman as defined by Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I got exactly that. I ran to performance issues early on that took some fiddling with the video settings to iron out. Even after that I experienced some strange hiccups as the game was running, making me wonder if my video card is showing its age or if the game isn't as optimized as I thought.

The story is not better or worse than Arkham Asylum's; serving best as an excuse to bring a good chunk of Batman's rogue gallery together to be beat up by the caped crusader. The much larger Arkham City overworld brings many opportunities to glide and grapple as well as pummeling or subduing aggressive inmates. Navigating Arkham city can be a bit awkward at first, and it's not helped by the game hiding the important grapple boost upgrade in the AR training side mission. The simple and stylish combat from Arkham Asylum has been upgraded with more gadget short cuts and special moves. The combat is largely the same and can be quite tricky in large groups of enemies. The stealth portions of the game have received a boost in variety to avoid Arkham Asylum's overpowered gargoyle vantage points. New enemy gadgets such as mines and thermal goggles mean the Batman will have to be a better silent predator.

I enjoyed playing through Batman: Arkham City, though the game's narrative left me wanting more. Hopefully Rocksteady can have a break from Batman and gain the opportunity to work on something fresh.