An amazing sequel to an amazing game!
Batman: Arkham Asylum was a fantastic Batman game with fun gameplay, legendary voice actors and a lore heavy environment set deep in the Batman DC universe and the sequel was just as fantastic if not better!
Gameplay: Batman: Arkham City is a 3rd person, open world, Beat ‘em up, Action-Adventure Semi-RPG game taking place in a closed off section of Gotham City now called Arkham City. The combat works in different ways with a combo based, beat ’em up fighting style where you can strike combos and keep them going from enemy to enemy to get a higher rank and XP to unlock things, doing side missions and content also gives XP you use in a skill tree all of which see some improvements since the first game. Another big mechanic is stealth which has only gotten better and more fun to use this time around. Many gadgets and mechanics return like the Xray (Assassins Creed style Eagle Vision) mode that allows you to see enemies’ weapons and important things in the environment, but we also see the addition of some new gear like the freeze grenades or the improved grappling system. Batman unlocks a wide variety of satisfying gadgets to help him find collectibles and hidden areas along with fighting enemies and progress the story. Aside from the main story there are a bunch of side missions and quests to do with solving enemies’ storylines, saving people, doing challenges or doing Riddler trophies… which this time around they are a lot more intimidating and annoying to find with some having weird puzzles to solve and some being just flat out frustrating to get to. Riddler still has riddles to solve just like the first game, but they aren’t super difficult to figure out. I have done the Riddler challenges in all of these games and I can’t say why but I think I hated them the most in this game, they were so tedious and annoying. There are also some cool DLC expansions for this game like the Cat Woman side story that lets you play as Cat Woman and explains what she is doing while most of this game is going on. They also have a Harley Quinn storyline where you play as the 3rd Robin Tim Drake as he looks for Batman sometime after the events of the game. The Cat Woman one is cool and lets you freely switch between Batman and Cat Woman but the Harley one felt a bit short to me and more or less pointless, but it was still fun to play for sure.
Graphics, Voice Acting& Music: The graphics look great, and all of the environments are interesting and fun to explore and take in. There are A LOT of easter eggs and fun lore hidden everywhere making exploration very fun and satisfying. The voice cast from Arkham Asylum and the Batman Animated series returns and just like the first game are incredible with great performances from Kevin Conroy’s Batman and Mark Hamill’s Joker, this has to be one of my favorite comic book video game franchises I have ever played next to the Spiderman games. The music and environmental OST are pretty well done as well making the ambiance of each area and the Dark Knight come to life.
Story/ Minor Spoilers: The story goes much harder in this game than the first one where we see Batman at his most vulnerable with a conspiracy of different foes coming together to once again take down Batman. A lot of new villains we didn’t see in Asylum make an appearance here and add a new dynamic to the story that takes the player on a much more epic journey than the first game did. I don’t want to spoil much about the story, so I won’t say much because A LOT happens in this game that has huge impacts on the Arkham storyline. All I can say is that if you love DC, Batman, Comics or Beat em’ Up games you’ll probably love this one.
Not many Negatives I can say about this game. 9.5/10
Batman: Arkham Asylum was a fantastic Batman game with fun gameplay, legendary voice actors and a lore heavy environment set deep in the Batman DC universe and the sequel was just as fantastic if not better!
Gameplay: Batman: Arkham City is a 3rd person, open world, Beat ‘em up, Action-Adventure Semi-RPG game taking place in a closed off section of Gotham City now called Arkham City. The combat works in different ways with a combo based, beat ’em up fighting style where you can strike combos and keep them going from enemy to enemy to get a higher rank and XP to unlock things, doing side missions and content also gives XP you use in a skill tree all of which see some improvements since the first game. Another big mechanic is stealth which has only gotten better and more fun to use this time around. Many gadgets and mechanics return like the Xray (Assassins Creed style Eagle Vision) mode that allows you to see enemies’ weapons and important things in the environment, but we also see the addition of some new gear like the freeze grenades or the improved grappling system. Batman unlocks a wide variety of satisfying gadgets to help him find collectibles and hidden areas along with fighting enemies and progress the story. Aside from the main story there are a bunch of side missions and quests to do with solving enemies’ storylines, saving people, doing challenges or doing Riddler trophies… which this time around they are a lot more intimidating and annoying to find with some having weird puzzles to solve and some being just flat out frustrating to get to. Riddler still has riddles to solve just like the first game, but they aren’t super difficult to figure out. I have done the Riddler challenges in all of these games and I can’t say why but I think I hated them the most in this game, they were so tedious and annoying. There are also some cool DLC expansions for this game like the Cat Woman side story that lets you play as Cat Woman and explains what she is doing while most of this game is going on. They also have a Harley Quinn storyline where you play as the 3rd Robin Tim Drake as he looks for Batman sometime after the events of the game. The Cat Woman one is cool and lets you freely switch between Batman and Cat Woman but the Harley one felt a bit short to me and more or less pointless, but it was still fun to play for sure.
Graphics, Voice Acting& Music: The graphics look great, and all of the environments are interesting and fun to explore and take in. There are A LOT of easter eggs and fun lore hidden everywhere making exploration very fun and satisfying. The voice cast from Arkham Asylum and the Batman Animated series returns and just like the first game are incredible with great performances from Kevin Conroy’s Batman and Mark Hamill’s Joker, this has to be one of my favorite comic book video game franchises I have ever played next to the Spiderman games. The music and environmental OST are pretty well done as well making the ambiance of each area and the Dark Knight come to life.
Story/ Minor Spoilers: The story goes much harder in this game than the first one where we see Batman at his most vulnerable with a conspiracy of different foes coming together to once again take down Batman. A lot of new villains we didn’t see in Asylum make an appearance here and add a new dynamic to the story that takes the player on a much more epic journey than the first game did. I don’t want to spoil much about the story, so I won’t say much because A LOT happens in this game that has huge impacts on the Arkham storyline. All I can say is that if you love DC, Batman, Comics or Beat em’ Up games you’ll probably love this one.
Not many Negatives I can say about this game. 9.5/10