"Batman: Arkham City" Refinement over Innovation
Batman Arkham City is a game of refinement not innovation. Batman Arkham City is the sequel to Rocksteady Studios' Batman Arkham Asylum. In many people's mind Arkham Asylum was the 2009 game of the year, so naturally, expectations were high coming into this game. Rocksteady definitely made another great game, but don't look for something new.
Arkham city keeps all the same aesthetic you would want in a current Batman game. You feel like a predator while in stealth, every thug is scared to death of what you might do to him, and the combat system still feels ridiculous and satisfying to keep a combo chain going, while knocking out everyone with a well placed counter or kick to the head. There are still ledges to sit on in a room and keep an eye on the action from above and detective vision to survey who is the most dangerous threat.
There are a few new weapons that vary from helpful in puzzle solving to amusing to screw with the enemies. The smoke pellet is great for running away or confusing your enemies to gain an early advantage in combat. The freeze bomb is probably the best all around new gadget. It completely freezes one enemy in place, while allowing the player time to worry about the others enemies in Batman's field of vision. Also, the freeze bomb is necessary to get some of the harder Riddler trophies in the game, so patience is a necessity for the completionists out there.
The combat is still probably one of the best hand to hand combat systems out in games right now. You feel like Batman from Batman begins in that when surrounded no one can touch you unless you screw up yourself. The new enemy types keep things fresh and interesting throughout the game. The best are the game's own acknowledgement that everyone hides above the thugs and uses detective vision too much, so the game made a thermal scanning thug and a vision disruptor henchman.
One misnomer about the game is that the name Arkham City implies that it is an open world game like Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row. The game takes place in a sealed off section of Gotham City. Essentially, Arkham City is where all the villains of Arkham Asylum were thrown into after Warden Sharp became Mayor of Gotham. There are no pedestrians or traffic to speak of, but it definitely feels larger than Asylum did. The whole game takes place at night so don't expect to see a lot of detail on the city, because black is definitely the color of choice in Arkham City. The lack of a lot of color helps with the feel and tone of the game in that it is a miserable place to be and the worst of the worst definitely live in this makeshift prison.
The cast of villains this time around is really the ones you would want in a Batman game, not to take anything away from Killer Croc in Asylum. In Arkham City Batman has to face off with Two-Face, The Penguin, Zsazz, The Joker, Harley Quinn, and more. The story primarily is about Hugo Strange's odd takeover of Arkham City and the Joker's suffering from the effects of Bane's Titan Serum from Arkham Asylum and he's trying to find a cure, while the other villains are causing anarchy and plotting to take over Arkham City if Joker dies. The main story and side missions are well done and you kind of feel bad for Joker, which is not any easy thing to accomplish. I wish they gave you more context when the game starts as to why the people of Gotham were okay with giving up a third of their city to house criminals. It is explained eventually, but it's a story thread that bothered me throughout the game.
If you choose you can download the content pack to play as Catwoman in addition to Batman. She plays pretty similar to Batman, but she can climb on the ceilings to drop onto enemies heads or use her whip to climb buildings and trip enemies in combat. She can't glide like Batman, but she can move and fight just as quickly as he can. She has her own trophies that she can collect but her puzzles to get them are really easy and kind of tedious. It's nice that Rocksteady put her in the game for story purposes, but I would say her content isn't all that exciting.
The challenge maps are back again to keep you occupied when you complete the game. Each has certain conditions to achieve the maximum score and time on the online leader boards. Also, if you have an alternate Batman costume the only way to see it is if you beat the game or play in the challenge rooms. It's a real shame that you can't just start the game with them, because some of them are really great to see, especially the Frank Miller one.
The game is a great for lovers of Arkham Asylum and new players too. It's everything that you loved from the previous game with a few new tweaks here and there. I hope that if Rocksteady decides to makes a third game that is a new innovation on the series, because playing with these mechanics for three games in a row will probably get old. Until then, enjoy a great game that will last you at least 8-10 hours, explore the world of these insane characters, and feel like the ultimate badass while choking out thug after thug in really satisfying ways.
