Finally picked this back up. My few months old complaints still definitely hold up but I enjoyed the latter half far more than the first. Origins and Knight are both of my most anticipated games I'm so glad I finally get to play them.

I'll start with the bad since it stands out far more than the good. Asylum was this super grounded small-scale story that utilized every single location and character at its disposal as well as they possibly could. This takes that groundedness and turns it into this massive ultra scale "all the villains are here at once and YOU get to fight them!" slop-pile. They have a gripping ass Joker VS Batman tale but we constantly get ripped away from it by these boring ass side villains that don't need to exist yet. Ra's al Ghul has and never will work as a gripping Batman villain please get his face off of my screen.

The second and most noticeable problem is the map. One of the most ugly, convoluted, and poorly crafted maps I've ever seen. Instead of making something that'd fit their narrative they made some playground for fanservice needy 10 year olds. It's annoying as shit to traverse the city not only because of the terrible map design but also due to getting fucking sniped every 5 seconds by some Joker goon. Then you have to go beat them up which completely distracts from the mission and leaves you with a shitload of wasted time. It's also always so dull and dark and like that might be the point but you can at least make it look interesting? Batman Begins did it The Batman did it ffs Arkham Asylum did it it's not that difficult to make a decent map. I'd say this isn't that big of an issue but I'd be lying because a solid 80% of this game is spent traversing the map and it lowered my enjoyment by a solid margin.

If they wanted to expand on the narrative and world they should've been patient with it. You don't need to have EVERY villain and EVERY inch of Gotham just add a few things. In the first game we didn't even get Gotham basically anything would've been satisfying if they utilized it well but instead they rushed it and gave us this overly massive sloppy mess of a map that's too much for its own good. If you want to add new villains good go ahead but why do we need ALL of them? The Ra's al Ghul and Mayor subplot was so fucking mid dawg I wanted to fall asleep playing ts. Even the bossfight was underwhelming as shit the early Ra's one was decent but still doesn't make up for how boring his existence is. The only thing we actually gained out of the Ra's plotline was Talia who they actually did a really solid job with. They had gold with this Batman VS Joker plot but tainted it with all of these weird ass plotlines that for some reason felt more like the main threat than Joker did for a solid majority of the game.

Even tho I have a LOT of issues with this there's a lot to love. Batman VS The Joker here is so fucking gripping and the ending is near-brilliant. Every time The Joker was on screen I would immediately turn off my music and listen he's so damn entertaining. His little phone calls and gags were so funny and charming they reminded me of James Jonah Jameson in Marvel's Spiderman. Mark Hamill did a fantastic job he's so easily the best part of these games so far.

The boss fights were my biggest problem with Asylum and they're massively improved here. We get to fight fucking everyone in this game and even if it makes the story clunky and convoluted it at very least makes for some really fun boss fights. Mr. Freeze might be my favorite I'm not sure they're all great.

The gameplay is also massively improved. So much smoother, so many more gadgets, and any movement problems I had in the first game are pretty much fixed here. We also get to play as Catwoman here and she's really solid I like her different movement sets and gadgets a lot.

The final scene between Joker and Batman was immaculate. They've been in this never-ending loop for years. They'd never get out of it because Batman isn't gonna stop being Batman and Joker isn't gonna stop being Joker, and in the end, it's them being who they are that concluded their dynamic. Batman's true to his morals while The Joker is a care-free maniac and both of them being those things is what killed Joker in the end. Perfect way to end their dynamic I might've been spoiled that The Joker comes back in Knight and if that's the case ima be pretty upset because I doubt I'd get a better conclusion than this.

Arkham City attempted too much for its own good and as a result ended up as a convoluted mess. There's some great and there's some bad but I don't think either of them weigh each other out. The good doesn't make up for the bad and the bad doesn't ruin the good. I'm glad I played this even though it was a bit tough to get into at first.