Review – Batman: Arkham City

Action/Adventure

BANG! THUD! PEOWW!

Gareth

The sequel to my personal game of 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and my most anticipated game of 2011 has finally arrived. Batman: Arkham City takes place about a year after the original and is of a much larger scope than its predecessor. Have Rocksteady struck gold twice or have they bitten off more than they can chew this time?

The story goes that a section of Gotham has been cordoned off and turned into a prison to house all criminals. Naturally this seems like a awful idea, especially if you put Hugo Strange in charge and Batman heads in to bust some heads. If you focus solely on the main story I can imagine the game, even with its twists and turns, won’t last you very long, but take in the side missions and the full range of characters from the fiction and you’ll enjoy yourself much more whilst also making the game last a lot longer. The atmosphere is the star though, helped by the massive cast of fleshed out characters. Apart from the films and the cartoon I know little of Batman’s world, but both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City make me want to learn more.

Even Batman hates juggalos.

You have a whole city to explore as Batman now, as well as indoor sections. The outdoor section is home to side quests and collectibles mostly, with the main story sections taking place in buildings similar to Arkham Asylum, but it’s an impressive feat. Asylum was a looker when it was released in 2009 and City is no different now but on a much larger scale (even the groups of enemies you face are greater in size) with load times only kicking in when you enter buildings or on occasion if you travel across the world map too fast. When out in the city you’ll also hit pockets of resistance which you can fight or ignore as you choose, although once the enemies get guns this can be annoying as you may accidentally run into a group and be forced to fight or be shot out of the sky.

Again, the hand to hand combat in Arkham City is a joy, just like in Asylum. On the lower difficulties you can button mash your way through it, sure, but in the more difficult battles, and if you want the greatest rewards (or points in challenge mode) then variety is the key. Keeping a combo flowing without stopping or getting hit whilst using as many of Batman’s moves as possible is an amazing feeling, and Rocksteady have done well to incentivise the mastery of their battle system. There are far more moves at your disposal too this time around, all accessible from button combos and quick taps. It is initially a little confusing with so many options across so few buttons but once you get your head around it you’ll get your own rhythm going and you’ll be destroying large groups of thugs no matter what they bring to the fight.

Due to the open nature of the game now there seems to be less stealth, but it is still there and clearing a room of enemies without anyone seeing you is almost as good as mastering the combat. The enemies also have more gadgets to make things difficult, such as thermal goggles, but anything they can do Batman can counter if you have enough XP to upgrade. You gain XP through completing objectives, side quests, finding collectibles and defeating enemies and each time you level up you can unlock or upgrade an ability. You start off with a lot of the gadgets and abilities from the end of Arkham Asylum but there are plenty more to unlock, many of them incredibly useful in both battles and when puzzle solving. For those unaware, the Rocksteady Batman games are Metroidvania in style, meaning you’ll come across areas you can’t access at first, but will be able to return to later with a new ability that will allow you to proceed.

Wait! I was watching that!

Arkham City is not completely perfect however. During combat the camera can have trouble keeping all the enemies on screen at once and it’s incredibly annoying to have your combo broken by someone attacking you from off screen. The traversal also has trouble doing what you want at times thanks to the context sensitive nature of the controls, which doesn’t cause too many problems but when in a tight spot (like in a challenge room for example) Batman grappling onto the wrong thing or climbing over a ledge instead of hanging over it can be the difference between life and death. Also, similarly to Asylum, the boss battles in City are generally quite weak and a bit too ‘gamey’ with you having to dodge projectiles and leap over shock waves. There are exceptions, but the majority aren’t as interesting as the regular multi-man brawls you get into. It could also be said that there are far too many collectibles, even though they tend to be slightly more interesting to find than in your average game.

Other than the main campaign you also get a New Game Plus upon completing it which keeps all your abilities but ups the difficulty and also Riddler’s Revenge. Basically the challenge rooms from Arkham Asylum. In the Ranked variants you either need to fight in a combat challenge and get as high a score as possible or sneak around in a predator room making sure you complete certain objectives (takedown someone through a weak wall or don’t get shot, for example). On top of that there are Campaign challenge rooms which are exactly the same as the Ranked ones but you have to do three in a row with only three retries and variables/perks to activate at your choosing (but all must be used). It’s nice to have a lot of content but this is a little too much like the same content spread incredibly thin across multiple modes. All the DLC character content is also based around these same rooms, which I have to admit struggled to hold my interest, even for just Batman.

Speaking of DLC, the game comes with a one time only code to unlock Catwoman who actually has her own story sections woven through Batman’s. There are four in all and it’s a nice addition but the only problem is that she isn’t as good as Batman. Whereas Batman can glide and grapple across the city Catwoman can only run and has to climb up buildings in multiple bounds. Her special vision also isn’t as good as Batman’s for spotting danger and she lacks a lot of the gadgets too (she does have some of her own). It doesn’t feel tacked on, but forcing it into the story was probably unnecessary and a separate option on the menu would have been more appropriate.

So all in all Batman: Arkham City is more of the same, but that’s no bad thing. The city can be a little daunting at first but once you start to progress and unlock the side missions you will find plenty to do and you’ll realise the city isn’t as large as it first seems. The characters, atmosphere and combat is all top notch but there are a few areas which aren’t quite up to that level like the boss fights and the over reliance on collectibles and reusing the same challenge rooms multiple times. There is plenty of content even if you ignore those minor grievances however and Rocksteady have basically done the unthinkable twice, created a licensed, comic book, superhero game which is excellent.

Rating: 8/10