Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to the popular Batman: Arkham Asylum game. Although the basic concept is the same, Arkham City is a lot bigger. Bigger in the sense that the world is bigger, but also the fact that there are a lot more villains in this one.
The original game had just a few major villains in it and Arkham City has most of those villains, plus quite a few more. The Joker and Harley Quinn make repeat appearances and are joined by Two-Face and Mr. Freeze, to name a couple. This, coupled with the complex story, makes Arkham City very interesting.
On top of all that, you also have the great fight controls that made Arkham Asylum so much fun in the first place. I mean, you can be surrounded by 20 people and seamlessly go from beating one enemy's face to a pulp to dodging and countering another enemy's attack to knocking yet another enemy out.
And in Arkham City, there are even more gadgets for you to use, including several ice weapons courtesy of Mr. Freeze. Not only are there new gadgets, but there are new ways for you to use them in combat as well. For example, now you can throw down some explosive gel in the middle of a group of thugs and stun most of them, making it that much easier to take out a large portion of the rest of them before they get back up.
While the combat with the basic thugs is great, it isn't the only thing about this game that makes it so addicting. One thing the original game was criticized for was the lack of variety in the boss fights. Arkham City's bosses each have a distinctive way to fight Batman, and subsequently each have a different way of beating them. While there is a set storyline to play through, if you don't want to go through the story, there are plenty of side missions and Riddler challenges to satisfy even the biggest completionist.
That's right. The Riddler is back. And he's not too happy with Batman (not going to say why, in case it spoils the story from the first game), so he has scattered trophies and challenges all across the city. While certain challenges are an actual side mission within the game, the majority of them will net you unlockables to be viewed outside of the story mode.
And after all that, there is still more. After completing the story mode, a mode called story mode plus is unlocked. Story mode plus is essentially starting a brand new game. But what's different this time around is that you get to keep all of your unlocked gadgets and Riddler challenges. Keeping your gadgets is awesome because another feature of SMP is the fact that your combat hints (like the counter icon) no longer show up, making the game more difficult. This, coupled with the numerous Riddler challenges gives Arkham City massive amounts of replayability.
Another thing that is pretty cool is the fact that you can play as more than just Batman. Catwoman* has her own storyline that runs parallel to Batman's and she has her own set of Riddler challenges as well. Robin* and Nightwing* also make an appearance, however they are only able to be used in challenge maps. And if that wasn't enough, all of the playable characters have alternate costumes* that you can use.
So in conclusion, Arkham City is a great game to play. It doesn't get a perfect 10 due to some of the loading times being a bit excessive. I highly suggest you try it out, especially considering that you can get it on XBox, Playstation, Wii U (once released) and PC through Steam and OnLive. If I may make one suggestion, however, it would be that if you haven't played Arkham Asylum first, to do that, as there are some spoilers in this game that may ruin the first game's story. Oh, and one last note. You may or may not like the ending, but there is a nice little Easter egg that will make you feel better about the ending.
The original game had just a few major villains in it and Arkham City has most of those villains, plus quite a few more. The Joker and Harley Quinn make repeat appearances and are joined by Two-Face and Mr. Freeze, to name a couple. This, coupled with the complex story, makes Arkham City very interesting.
On top of all that, you also have the great fight controls that made Arkham Asylum so much fun in the first place. I mean, you can be surrounded by 20 people and seamlessly go from beating one enemy's face to a pulp to dodging and countering another enemy's attack to knocking yet another enemy out.
 |
| Batman countering an enemies attack |
And in Arkham City, there are even more gadgets for you to use, including several ice weapons courtesy of Mr. Freeze. Not only are there new gadgets, but there are new ways for you to use them in combat as well. For example, now you can throw down some explosive gel in the middle of a group of thugs and stun most of them, making it that much easier to take out a large portion of the rest of them before they get back up.
While the combat with the basic thugs is great, it isn't the only thing about this game that makes it so addicting. One thing the original game was criticized for was the lack of variety in the boss fights. Arkham City's bosses each have a distinctive way to fight Batman, and subsequently each have a different way of beating them. While there is a set storyline to play through, if you don't want to go through the story, there are plenty of side missions and Riddler challenges to satisfy even the biggest completionist.
That's right. The Riddler is back. And he's not too happy with Batman (not going to say why, in case it spoils the story from the first game), so he has scattered trophies and challenges all across the city. While certain challenges are an actual side mission within the game, the majority of them will net you unlockables to be viewed outside of the story mode.
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| Batman using his line launcher to take out a thug |
Another thing that is pretty cool is the fact that you can play as more than just Batman. Catwoman* has her own storyline that runs parallel to Batman's and she has her own set of Riddler challenges as well. Robin* and Nightwing* also make an appearance, however they are only able to be used in challenge maps. And if that wasn't enough, all of the playable characters have alternate costumes* that you can use.
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| B:AC gets a near perfect 9 stars |
So in conclusion, Arkham City is a great game to play. It doesn't get a perfect 10 due to some of the loading times being a bit excessive. I highly suggest you try it out, especially considering that you can get it on XBox, Playstation, Wii U (once released) and PC through Steam and OnLive. If I may make one suggestion, however, it would be that if you haven't played Arkham Asylum first, to do that, as there are some spoilers in this game that may ruin the first game's story. Oh, and one last note. You may or may not like the ending, but there is a nice little Easter egg that will make you feel better about the ending.
*Other characters and alternate costumes available as downloadable content. Prices Vary.
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