Anyone who knows me knows that I do not care for superheroes and have not done since even before the MCU took over. I am a certified hater and have been for a long time. However, in 2009 before I received my Hater Certificate from Based University I played Batman: Arkham Asylum and actually wound up enjoying it a lot.

So I'm gonna make a confession. I kinda like Batman. I don't really care for the character himself (cliche backstory, generic personality, silly looking costume imo) but I like the world of Batman, I like Gotham; the villains, the darkness, the (somewhat light) social commentary, I think it's all pretty neat. When Batman: Arkham City came out a couple years after Arkham Asylum, I was pretty excited to play it. But I remember messing around with it for a few hours and it not really jiving with me, perhaps related to the Hater Certificate I had received shortly after my Dad & Brother dragged me along to see shitty-ass Iron Man 2

In the years since, Arkham City has generally gone down as the best of the bunch - an even better game than Asylum and one of the best superhero games ever and I've always been curious to give it another try and see for myself. Some 12-or-so years later, I've come back to give it another whirl and, yeah. I mean, whaddaya want me to say? "It really makes you feel like Batman"??? Well guess what!! It does!! It just fucking does!! That is a true statement! That is an extremely correct thing to say and I'm tired of pretending like it's not! It pulls a bit of DNA from Metal Gear Solid, Metroid and honestly a little bit from Legend of Zelda, but also still manages to create something wholly its own. Over 10 years later now, Arkham City was doing so many of the things that people still pine for from modern video games.

It set the bar for combat in a third-person action game. It hardly looks sophisticated by today's standards, but its job is to make you feel cool - like badass mfin Batman and it succeeds to the point where practically every superhero game since has been copying its style of target-switching, counter-based combat. Almost every combat encounter is fun owed to incredible sound design, responsive and fluid controls and that awesome zoomed-in camera on the final hit of every fight. It's open world, but said open world is not this big, obnoxious, bloated mess of towers and checklists; it's carefully crafted, beautifully detailed and mercifully small. It's not big, it's DENSE. You can get from one side of Arkham City to another in like less than 5 actual minutes, but there's something worth doing in almost every dingy alley and dilapidated building you glide over. Also on the note of the world, a quick shoutout to art and environment design. Well over 10 years after its release Arkham City is still an absolutely peak videogame interpretation of the world of Batman, there is so much detail and artistry in just a single hallway, let alone all the neon green and towering setpieces that adorn some of the game's most memorable locales like the Museum and Wonder City. Penguin's "exhibits" in the Museum are one of the highlights of the whole game for me.

It fires on all cylinders in regards to being a game where you are Batman. Hell, even his running animation looks ripped straight out of the old cartoons from the 70's, it's perfect. With tons of cool gadgets to experiment with, some serviceable stealth and some incredible voice acting performances to match fascinating depictions of so many legendary characters from the mythos, it really does not set a foot wrong in what it sets out to achieve. It's a pretty short game in terms of main story (which was honestly welcome in 2023) but it packs so many awesome moments in that short time, including one of the coolest (pun not intended) boss fights I've ever seen against Mr. Freeze. The story gets spread a little thin between too many villains in the final act, and the last boss is pretty underwhelming, but it's not enough of a blemish to negatively impact my opinion at all. And hey if you didn't get your fill out of the main story, there's tons of worthwhile side content and DLC to boot! It achieves everything it sets out to do to near-perfection. It's goated. Fuck superheroes

Batman: Arkham Series Reviews

Batman: Arkham City is a natural evolution of everything that was introduced in Batman: Arkham Asylum, to the point where it’s difficult to describe the game as anything but Arkham Asylum yet bigger and more refined. It doesn’t really do anything particularly different from its predecessor. Instead, it just expands upon everything that it introduced. You’re no longer confined to the facility on Arkham Island. Now you’re patrolling a decently sized chunk of Gotham that has been cut off from the rest of the city. There’s more gadgets to wield, more enemy types to deal with, more ways to deal with those enemies, more famous Batman villains to face off against, and more characters to play as. Strictly in terms of mechanics and overall scope, Arkham City is much bigger and better than Arkham Asylum.

The titular Arkham City is a fantastic playground for roleplaying as Batman. It’s not something I really noticed while playing it, but the only thing that Arkham Asylum was really lacking when it came to capturing the feeling of being Batman was going from rooftop to rooftop, patrolling a worn down, gothic looking city crawling with criminals. You couldn’t really do that because of the nature of the previous game’s setting, however, you can do that here in Arkham City, and it’s fantastic. Making your way through the city is sheer joy thanks to the expanded gliding and grappling hook mechanics. They make traversal both immensely satisfying and engaging. It’s not the biggest open world in video games, but it is compact and way more detailed than the vast majority of open world games I’ve played.

The City offers a lot to do if you’re keeping your eyes open. The Riddler challenges return and are greatly expanded upon, with trophies generally requiring you to complete more elaborate puzzles that require the use of your gadgets in order to grab them. There are a number of side missions featuring Batman villains who aren’t essential to the main plot that get triggered randomly as you explore. There are some that you can stumble upon yourself, but intentionally trying to get these side missions to trigger can be both difficult and frustrating. A number of them are broken up into sections, with each section having its own random trigger. It’s best to just let those side missions occur naturally, as trying to force them will just lead to irritation. The quality of these side missions is generally pretty solid, with a particularly exceptional one that I always do every time I do a new playthrough of this game. However, there are a few side missions that came off as strong hints towards the series’ future that aren’t really followed up on in a satisfying manner. I’ll elaborate on them more when I review Batman: Arkham Knight, but since these side missions were essentially meant to build up hype for the next game, the fact that they ultimately don’t impact Arkham Knight all that much makes them huge let downs in my eyes.

The horror atmosphere that Arkham Asylum had is mostly gone. In exchange, Arkham City has a gothic noir atmosphere that’s more comparable to that of the comic books and other modern depictions of Batman’s world (at the time of 2011). A very underrated aspect of the game that I love is how you can listen in on conversations of thugs as you patrol the city. They’ll discuss their thoughts on the events that transpire over the course of the story, or they’ll boast about how they could easily take down Batman or other big name players of Arkham City. These conversations can be interrupted at any time by engaging in combat as well, making them feel very natural and giving the city life.

Everything that made Batman feel great to play as in Arkham Asylum returns in Arkham City. Gadgets can potentially play a bigger role in how you approach gameplay. In combat, there are new shortcuts you can input that make them easy to use during the heat of battle. The grappling hook can be used to pull weapons out of thugs’ hands, you can quickly plant and detonate explosive gel on the ground to take out groups of enemies when you’re surrounded, etc. While the gadgets aren’t a strict requirement for combat, they definitely make it much easier to manage and they make it all the more fun. Thugs are way more equipped in this game than in Arkham Asylum. They’ll have body armor, riot shields, blades, all of which need to be dealt with by using either different combat techniques or various tools from your arsenal. For example, you could take out a thug with a riot shield by stunning them and then double tapping the evade button for a specialized take down, or you could use the grappling hook to rob the thug of the shield altogether. The game gives you an abundance of options, and combat feels at its best when you’re rapidly switching between them. Gadgets can also play a role during the Predator segments as well. They offer additional ways to take down armed thugs, such as using the new Disruptor to jam guns or detonate mines that enemies place down. Again, they’re never a requirement for completing Predator segments, but they’re really rewarding to use and a great way to instill further fear and confusion in your foes.

Boss fights see a noticeable improvement coming from the previous game. While they’re still relatively easy, they’re all a far more enjoyable spectacle and none of them become a recurring enemy type. I especially want to highlight the Mr. Freeze fight in particular as one of the best boss battles in the entire series. His battle is essentially a Predator segment where the two of you actively hunt one another. It's a fantastic way to test the player on the many options Arkham City provides to take down foes.

The story is a truly fantastic Batman adventure. It really puts him through the wringer, physically and emotionally. He’s forced to make many hard decisions over the course of the narrative and though he maintains a strong and stoic demeanor, you can tell that the events of the game really take their toll on him. There are some aspects of the story that do let me down a bit though. Without going too deeply into spoiler territory, Hugo Strange, who was hyped up to be the game’s primary antagonist at the beginning of the game, plays far less of a role over the course of the game than you’d expect him to. This was really disappointing for me. Strange is a character that historically hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention as the other members of Batman’s Rogues Gallery over the years, and the premise of Arkham City offered the opportunity to tell a really unique story with him. Yet he doesn’t really have much of a presence in the game at all except for in missable optional content. The game ends in a really surprising manner, however future games take away from the impact the ending has. I’ll elaborate on this more when I review Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight in particular, but if you’ve finished Arkham City as well as played those games, I think you’ll understand what I’m getting at.

Throughout the main campaign, there’ll be times where you briefly switch over to and control Catwoman for a while. She plays as you'd expect her to. There’s more of a focus on her speed and agility, and she lacks the power and impact that Batman has in combat. Traversing the city as her is a lot less enjoyable since she can’t glide and doesn’t have the grappling hook. Instead, she pounces up the sides of buildings, which takes longer to do since she doesn't have a grappling hook that allows her to quickly get to the tops of buildings. Truth be told, I don’t really enjoy playing as Catwoman all that much. Not only is she not as fun to play as compared to Batman, she feels really shoehorned into the game in general. She doesn’t really add a whole lot to the story. She doesn’t detract from the game at all, but she doesn’t contribute much to it either aside from being a different character to play as.

The PC port for this game is better than Arkham Asylum’s. Cutscenes are at a much higher resolution and the game in general still looks really good even without HD textures. I still had the game crash on me a couple of times, but thankfully it didn’t corrupt the file path for the game like the PC port of Arkham Asylum did. Still, I will once again lament about the lack of a PC version of the Return to Arkham remasters of Asylum and City.

All in all, Arkham City is truly the ideal sequel. Everything that made Arkham Asylum great is expanded upon and polished to an almost mirror sheen. It’s a game whose influence is extremely hard to live up to, and in many ways, I feel like Rocksteady peaked with this title. There wouldn’t be another superhero game whose quality lived up to this one until Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2018. It goes hand in hand with Arkham Asylum as an absolute must-play for any Batman fan.

Batman Arkham City is probably the greatest super hero game ever made and a staple of action video games. The world is dark and gritty while never being afraid to have fun with itself; the boss battles are really fun, Mr. Freeze and Clayface being standouts, the locations are detailed and filled with little things that will make any Batman fan happy (Old Gotham is absolutely amazing), the score is so good, the combat is simple but gratifying, and the stealth sections make you feel extremely cool. Despite how great most of this game is, I still have some issues. The side missions are very underwhelming, often just boiling down to doing the same thing like 4 or 5 times and then an actual encounter with the villain that's usually over far too quickly. The Catwoman sections that were added in after the fact through DLC, and mind you, can't be turned off, also just kinda ruin the pacing. Another problem is The Riddler. I have never and I will never fight that guy in any of the Arkham games. It's so lame having to go around the city, collecting trophies and solving riddles, and beyond that the trophies look fucking ugly and often ruin the feel of the world when you come across them. Lastly the story tries to do too many things. It crams in so many villains and characters that you spend very little time with any of them. It's a fun video game story, but put it in a movie and it won't do.

Arkham City is more than just an incredible Batman adaptation and Arkham Asylum successor, it's also a great video game. The gameplay formula being already perfect, this entry makes sure to add in some new simple mechanics and expansion upon it's sets to really add more to the already fun playstyle. Controls are tight, albeit unresponsive at times, but is much more fluent in different areas and the difficulty is much more enjoyably increased. The much more gritty and grounded art direction is appreciated, futher improved audio and iconic music. The level design is greatly changed up due to the now city landscape setting really allowing to creatively add more to this universe and providing many fun opportunities. Though the story is a little bit shorter, the pace does flow nicely and manages to pull off everything, especially with more side quests and better boss fights. Where the game really shines is within the more developed and variety of characters, as well as the simple superhero story that really knows how to make the game non-stop fun from beginning to end.

Fantastic video game. Top to bottom this was an amazing experience. You get a good story, a great cast of villains, fantastic gameplay, all in a prison city made just for you (and a bunch of criminals, I guess) A very very good way to follow-up the first game, it builds on literally everything from the first game. The whole game feels so alive.

The gameplay is improved from Arkham Asylum, more toys to play with, more ways to defeat enemies. The backtracking still exists but it's nowhere near as bad as the first game is in that regard. You get a challenge mode where you can play as Batman, Catwoman (one of the sexiest characters in a game), Robin or Nightwing. Fun to mess around it cause I like to fight random enemies sometimes.

Only real complaint is that you need to get 400 fucking Riddler trophies to finish all the sidequests, I don't mind collectibles but this is ridiculous. Wish there were other things in the game to do instead of 440 Riddler challenges. Final boss was a slight disappointment as well.

Overall it was an outstanding experience and one of the best comic video games ever made. A must-play, even if you don't like comicbooks.

This game is absolutely phenomenal. It's an almost perfect game and a love letter for any Batman and even Non-Batman fans alike.

The story is easily the strongest aspect of Arkham City, it's such a beautifully presented story that you just can't help but love, the pacing works well even with all the things going on. There are parts that feel more like filler than anything, like the Catwoman sections, but other than that it's very solid. The presentation and the atmosphere is unmatched. The gameplay still holds up well although after playing Knight you realize that City lacks some things, the traversal for example, not that great.

Overall, there's not much else I can really say about this game, just nitpicks and what not. It's a masterpiece.

This game made me feel like I was an Italian gay guy playing superhero games.

Batman Arkham City is the perfect way to translate the mythos of the dark crusader on any media: starting from an interesting story going through all the major names in Batman's rogue gallery, written by expert writer Paul Dini who not only wrote the story for the previous installment, Batman Arkham Asylum, but also wrote the best episodes of Batman The Animated Series, which as I said in my Asylum review I loved. All the side quests are just as brilliant, even repetitive ones, you know who I'm talking about...

Gameplay has seen a huge improvement over the previous game, with better free flow, no more batman moaning, and with a new assortment of combo and gadgets that add to both the free roam and combat experiences. Stealth is also greatly improved with more variety of enemies you can encounter. Overall this experience was the best action I could find when I played this game as a kid... And 12 years later, it surprisingly holds up to my standards, being rarely surpassed in how fluid punching criminals is.

On PC the optimization is decently good, prepare for some crashes regardless of your hardware. Though the game still looks beautiful today, it'll be worth it. Arkham City compliments the game with a neo noir setting, full of neon signs and a gritty atmosphere.

I recommend playing it at least once in your life. I think it's not only a perfect game, but a very accessible one.

Arkham City feels unbound by the passing of time. Its ambition and scale is palpable from the second you boot up the game. The opening segment, the pace, the adrenaline. I remember a few of these sequences because a friend used to play this a lot and gosh are these just iconic. City is such a massive leap from its predecessor in terms of everything else that you almost question if they were actually made by the same team. Visually, audibly, mechanically it is lightyears ahead to the point where even today, more than a decade since release it still feels like it came out yesterday. The open-world approach to Batman is completely different from Asylum. Asylum felt enclosed, claustrophobic but City is massive. Traversing the sprawling nightscapes of Gotham as Batman is an indescribable feeling.

The game basks itself in an atmosphere that fills you with this ominous, seeping sensation. The grunts of thugs, the cries for help. The dark, the grime, the wet, the blood and the dirt. The pathetic state of the city. The skyline against the backdrop of a cloudy hemisphere penetrated by a stark moonlight. All of this culminates into a constant image of eerie beauty that is inimitable, but more so oddly soothing. You could spend hours soaking in the feel of Gotham's nightscapes, and that itself is an experience you won't easily find in many games, or even films. Even the latest Batman film is aesthetically derived from Arkham.

Yet if there is one thing from Asylum that City didn't adapt and improve, it's the linearity and focus of its villains. It's the one aspect of Arkham City that hinders it from being a perfect title. That and the main storyline, which aside from being far too short, is also far too unfocused and convoluted. A variety of iconic characters are introduced with unique attributes to test the fluidity of the game mechanics (something which City excels at immensely) and they're all treated as mainline villains at some point just for the sake of it. Asylum had some level of progression with its villains and those villains did have some weight to the story. Here it felt like we were given every villain imaginable, but not one of them left a mark. Except for Joker but even he leaves the spotlight for the majority of the game.

Most would not mind this because of the medium. In a film this lack of focus would be detrimental, but in an open world game where you control your own pacing, it’s not that big an issue. Even so these villains are only tied together by a fine thread, and they don’t bring anything aside from immediate consequences for the plot.

Batman still keeps brooding but he also looks tired. He is tired. By the end of the game he's full of bruises, his cape is all torn up and he looks like he's about to collapse yet he still keeps moving forward. His all black look, and serious tone is well juxtaposed by Selina Kyle, who is elegant, sexy and selfish and even more so by the Joker, who's a joy to watch. His antics are comical. At one point he pulls out a detonator with a big red button. Modern iterations of Batman and Joker, especially post-Nolan, are so self-serious that it sucks the fun out of these stories. These are comic book characters after all and this game is very aware of that fact. Arkham City is a special game made by special people, there's no doubt about that. Yet the story teeters between poetry and conflict. It does not understand who it wants to give the spotlight to and by the time it ends all you can think of is just, "huh, that's it?"

There is no catharsis. There is no satisfaction. The ending is hardly abrupt yet the journey still feels underwhelming. It's so incredibly performed and so vastly impressive yet the story just suffices. Leaving you with nothing but a vague recollection of an immense adventure.

Aside from all that, Arkham City also continues to expand on the lore of hot, flirtatious women with the introduction of Catwoman. This sums up my thoughts on her. There's also a scene where Harley Quinn is tied up and duct taped, and you can remove and put back on the duct tape, how many times you want. I was laughing my ass off at this like the devs have ZERO shame and I’m not even complaining. I know Quinn's relationship with Joker is tragic. It's a manipulative one and Joker is being abusive towards her even when he's on the verge of death. Yet still... goodness gracious…

Rocksteady I was NOT familiar with your game.

8/10

A coisa mais interessante pra mim da trilogia Arkham é como a Rocksteady abraça as idiossincrasias que te fazem perceber na hora que esta jogando um videogame ao invés de tentar criar um realismo, isso pode ser escolha do estúdio ou algo único que só funcione num jogo com o homem-morcego, de qualquer forma, ao invés dessas peculiaridades te fazerem não levar o jogo a sério, elas causam o efeito contrário, pois o jogador também aceita com sinceridade todas essas pequenas coisas porque elas se apresentam dessa forma, sem querer fugir das coisas que tornam Arkham City um videogame, a Rocksteady sabia que jogo eles queriam fazer, entre a sinceridade dessa apresentação e o potencial do herói com o melhor grupo de vilões da DC reside uma das melhores experiencias únicas da indústria.

Embora Arkham Asylum seja o meu preferido da trilogia pelo ambiente claustrofóbico e o uso de alguns truques, é inegável como o Arkham City é superior em quase todos os aspectos, o combate ficou mais visceral, rápido e viciante, você se pega o tempo todo querendo variar seu combo, usar movimentos especiais pra desarmar oponentes, nocautear, usar os gadgets ou simplesmente ver quão alto aquele multiplicador de combo pode chegar, ao mesmo tempo há mais componentes que ajudam a dar uma leve profundidade ao combate que pode ser resumido em “aperte △/Y pra ver a animação legal”, os inimigos tem escudos, facas, bastões de choque e armadura, cada um precisando de uma técnica especifica pra ser derrotado, e embora você possa derrotar todo mundo apenas apertando o botão de ataque até cansar, a Rocksteady fez de tudo pra incentivar o jogador a levar o combate com calma e ser algo além do ato de esmagar botão, há inclusive uma mecânica de golpes críticos onde você aumenta seu multiplicador de combo 2x mais rápido se golpear num ritmo calmo, como eu disse, é uma leve profundidade que se você praticar, vai tirar um proveito maior de algo que já te dá uma satisfação simples.

Eles criaram um ótimo balanceamento entre as seções de combate e as seções de predador, essas em particular são as minhas favoritas, e foi o motivo de eu ter reinstalado o jogo em primeiro lugar, eu simplesmente adoro a evolução que essas seções criam, com os capangas trabalhando em equipe e falando convencidos de que vão te pegar, até que eles começam a ficar nervosos, aterrorizados e nem conseguem trabalhar juntos mais, é um pouco fácil e uma fantasia de poder barato? Sim, claro, essas seções não se comparam a outros jogos que focam no Stealth porém eu argumentaria que comparado a outros jogos que, assim como o Arkham City, apenas tem elementos de Stealth, o mesmo consegue oferecer uma experiência mais intimidadora, você pode argumentar que eles conseguiram isso por causa de estarem trabalhando justamente com o herói cujo trabalho é causar medo em malfeitores, mas a indústria não é nenhuma estranha a fantasias de poder.

Do mesmo jeito que o combate aumenta os riscos com novas ameaças, também aumentam as desvantagens contra o homem-morcego durante as seções de predador, com óculos de visão térmica, minas terrestres, anuladores de visão de detetive e inimigos com armadura, as ameaças não são tão tangíveis que nem no combate, pois a solução pra quase tudo nessas seções é simplesmente chegar por trás e derrubar o inimigo, o desafio e entretenimento pra mim está em fazer tudo sem ser visto e/ou de forma rápida e variada, afinal ficar em uma gárgula por 15 minutos esperando o capanga ir pra onde você quer fica chato rápido, o jogo quer que você tente algo novo a todo momento, mas se você quiser repetir a mesma fórmula toda vez, o jogo não te pune, mas é um sistema que implora pra ser experimentado.

Eu compartilho da opinião que os jogos do Batman funcionam melhor em ambientes mais fechados e acredito que esse mapa é o tamanho ideal, é grande o suficiente pra você levar alguns minutos indo de uma ponta a outra mas o tamanho certo pros desenvolvedores colocarem bastante coisas e te dar a sensação que você pode esbarrar em qualquer situação, eles também mudam o mapa aqui e ali conforme a campanha progride, pontes vão cair, prédios irão explodir e uma chuva de misseis pode estar caindo na prisão Arkham na próxima vez que você sair de um prédio, uma igreja que você visitou pra resgatar reféns pode estar com uma decoração do charada te convidando a entrar, são coisas pequenas mas elas em conjunto ajudam a dar a sensação de que você está num lugar hostil onde você não sabe oque esperar.

Embora eu goste de histórias emergentes, Arkham City podia ter aproveitado muito mais do material que tinham, a introdução é na minha opinião a melhor da trilogia, os riscos, assim como boa parte dos antagonistas e outros personagens, são rapidamente apresentados e você imediatamente sente o escopo e o poder de Hugo Strange, porém, essa sensação de medo e poder nunca atinge esse mesmo ápice, Strange sabe a identidade do Batman mas ele nunca usa isso a seu favor, perto do fim do jogo, a trama dele acaba virando algo secundário em comparação ao conflito do Coringa, até o comandante imortal de uma legião de ninjas que viveu por 600 anos é deixado de lado aos 45 do segundo tempo pra dar espaço pra uma última luta com o icônico palhaço, eu não me importaria tanto com isso se essa realmente fosse a última vez que ele aparecesse. Acho que no fim das contas, eu apenas fiquei decepcionado que Arkham City não se aproveitou mais dos seus vilões pois o Batman tem a melhor lista de antagonistas aí fora, dependendo de como você olha, isso é um elogio e/ou uma crítica.

Batman Arkham City veio como uma surpresa quando saiu e continua tão bom quanto hoje em dia, é o produto de uma desenvolvedora que sabiam oque queriam fazer e que criaram uma experiencia que só podia existir em um videogame, trazendo uma história competente acompanhado por uma gameplay que apresenta o melhor da ação e do stealth, Arkham City é uma obra-prima.

This game sure does hold up. It’s such a fantastic sequel to Arkham Asylum despite lacking some of the unique atmosphere and environmental storytelling that made that game so special. This is a game that has no pretensions about itself and it excels in every way that an action game of this caliber should. The combat system is fluid and satisfying, the boss fights are incredibly varied (a considerable improvement over the repetitive bosses from Arkham Asylum) as well as very enjoyable, the open world level design is consistently strong and the visual style is gorgeously captivating, the side missions are quality pieces of content that are given just as much care as the main missions, the tonal consistency remains intact just as the characterization remains flawless. The story here is great too and the way in which it’s told is still remarkable to this day. The way every villain has time to shine, the way they all contribute to the game in some meaningful way or another, the way they all allow the overall plot to move forward while never once feeling incoherent or messy, never once dragging, never once bringing the pacing of the game to a screeching halt. It’s absolutely masterful writing. Experiencing this story unfold across a gurthy 15 hour campaign (30 hours depending on how much side content you participate in) where we really get a deep sense of this world, as well as these characters within it is incredibly engrossing, while the beautifully understated ending is perfectly put together and it hasn’t lost an ounce of its power or emotional resonance. Arkham City is a game that I’ve loved for so many years and replaying it after so long has only enriched my love for it. It’s one of the fastest selling games of all time for a damn good reason and it remains an unassailable masterpiece within the gaming industry.

I loved Arkham Asylum, but I only "liked" Arkham City. The deciding factor for me is what I suspect other people really love about City: the open world layout of the titular city. I actually think having an overworld to freely explore de-emphasizes a lot of the tight pacing and level design that I really appreciated in Asylum. Is it fun to be swooping around the city and suddenly find yourself drawn into a subplot involving Jarvis Teech? Sure, I suppose I won't contest that. But most of my experience of the titular city is that it's the no-man's land of video game miscellany. Some thugs to fight, some Riddler trophies to collect, mostly things for the player to distract themselves from the main plotline.

If you're into that, cool, you're probably someone who gets a ton out of what Rocksteady was going for here. If not, well, you don't have to do all that. You can just ignore all the unscripted sequences and bop on over to the next storybeat... at the opposite end of the map. For whatever reason, the game really likes placing a lot of its key locations on opposite ends of the overworld's "V" shape. And at a certain point, swinging back and forth ignoring shouts of distress, I sorta shattered the illusion the first game so meticulously set up and stopped feeling like the Caped Crusader.

Look, my point is, there are a ton of memorable moments to Arkham City, but almost none of them actually take place in the overworld.

But those subareas are quite good! The Cyrus Pinkney Natural History Institute is full of fun rooms and set-pieces. The Mr. Freeze boss fight is incredibly well-designed, even if it isn't particularly subtle ("AH SO BATMAN HAS THE ABILITY TO CRASH THROUGH WINDOWS! NOW I KNOW NOT TO WALK TOO CLOSE TO WINDOWS! YOU CAN'T FOOL ME THE SAME WAY TWICE BATMAN!"). Ra's al Ghul feels like a complete sidetrack, but it's a nice change of pace. The final area also lends itself to some good combat rooms, and the final encounter... well, I kinda think Arkham was 0 for 2 with final bosses, but I like how it ends.

Catwoman's fun, too! Her segments are over and done with pretty quickly, but they make for nice diversions. Sorta wish you could do more with her, but w/e. That fakeout bad ending is quite the shock if you actually go for it.

So, like, I got my issues with Arkham City, but I still think it's a fine enough time. I'm given to understand later Arkhams continue to move further away from what I liked about the first game (I have Arkham Knight, just need to get around to it). That's a bummer for me, but if it's what people like, who am I to say no?

...that GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION "10 OUT OF 10" boxart is still utterly ridiculous, though. Are we in agreement on that?

I'm not sure of what to think of this game exactly, on many aspects it surpasses Asylum but also isn't necessarily better on others.

The presentation and map are things I'm mixed on, I like the atmosphere of Arkham City but it feels both too big and small at the same time, gliding around the map is cool but still feels like a chore and collectibles are much less natural to connect. The open world design is also something I'm not necessarily a fan of, the more Metroidvania adjacent style of Asylum made me feel more excited, but this is probably subjective and the side missions are nice.

On the good though, the combat has been polished up and feels much snappier, combos are way more satisfying and you fight more enemies on average alongside having a couple of new enemy types that are sadly rare. Your gadgets start off mostly like what they are in Asylum and you get new ones, with the gadgets overall also integrating better into combat and navigation.

The bosses are more varied and while they're not particularly challenging, I prefer them to Asylum's idea of mostly making them big brutes. They also contribute more to the pacing of the missions.

The story has way more going on and a couple of surprisingly amazing moments coupled with a very powerful ending that hit me hard. Sadly, the GOTY Edition takes away from this by integrating Catwoman's missions into the main game, and they feel awkwardly placed disrupting the pace and even taking away from the ending, I think this could have been handled better because it's nice to switch up the gameplay but it feels like an interruption.

Overall the design of the game map and progression has me mixed, I prefer Asylum but this game is still a great sequel and maybe does deserve its place alongside its predecessor. Play both of them. After playing Origins though, I think you really should play that too, it's City but more focused!

I am currently 60% done with the game, which means I have finished the main storyline but have two side quests yet to complete.

This game was pretty damn good. This makes the original Arkham Asylum game look cheap. I loved the first game, but after I completed the main objective I kinda felt uninterested going back and completing everything else. The story was also really impressive as well as the gameplay. The graphic may not have aged too well, but it didn't really bother me.

Can't wait to play Arkham Knight next.