Game  Batman: Arkham City

Developer  Rocksteady

Publisher  Eidos

Platform(s)  XBox 360, PS3 (PC and Wii U versions to come)

Rating  9.5

Reviewed by Patrick Garcia

For those not interested in reading a lengthy review just to get to the bottom line, know this:  Arkham City is awesome.

After having already released what was easily revered as the greatest Batman video game made, fans of Arkham Asylum may have been wondering what the good guys at Rocksteady could possibly do to improve upon their 2009 runaway hit with their highly-anticipated sequel.  Although it seems there’s a higher success rate with sequels in video game media versus film, there are definitely still challenges that present themselves, especially when following up such an amazing first act.  When you play Arkham City, it’s apparent that Rocksteady was not intent on resting on their laurels, and they avoid the old “less is more” adage by providing their customers with more bang for their buck…like, A LOT more bang for their buck.

“It’s billionaire, Vicki, millionaires are so last year” — B. Wayne

Arkham City has been given quite the overhaul:  bigger map, more gadgets, an increased repertoire of combative moves, sexier vixens, higher volume of Riddler Challenges, broader storyline, additional playable characters, and more villains and side quests than you can shake a stick at.  However, this is not some game plagued with over-ambition whose scope gets lost in the sea of content; everything has been skillfully managed and paced as to not overwhelm the player.

The bigger map is balanced-out by Batman’s increased maneuverability.  Batman can now run and shimmy ledges faster.  Additionally, his grapnel gun has a farther reach to get from one building to the next with decreased time.  There’s also the new ability to dive in and out of glides, allowing the player to soar across the city with ease.  For added speed, players can use the grapnel between glides and double tap [A/ X] to give Batman a boost and launch him past the building to continue gliding.

“Where does he get those wonderful toys?”

Batman is coming in hot with an arsenal of several more handy gadgets that are only a utility belt away.  Aside from the gadgets we have already seen in AA, the additional ones can be found 2-clicks away on the D-Pad control that appears on the HUD when accessed (one over from the originals on AA’s 3×3 grid) and include:

Smoke Pellet — If you become spotted by several baddies armed with guns, this becomes very handy.  When they begin opening fire, the player receives a prompt to press [Y/ Triangle] to drop one of these pellets.  Batman will become veiled in smoke, keeping the enemies from being able to see you and giving you plenty of time to make your escape.

Remote Electrical Charge — This device is mainly used to open powered doors and change the polarity of electromagnetically-charged boxes, but is also helpful as a quick-launch gadget in combat situations to temporarily stun foes.

Freeze Blast — These canisters are initially received to navigate through a flooded area that the player will encounter during the campaign, but they have their place in combat as well.  As another quick-launch gadget, Batman can throw them at enemies to freeze them in their place.

Disruptor — There are a few applications this device has that are acquired through upgrading as the story progresses.  Where it really comes in handy is with “predator” situations where Batman must stealthily take out several armed guards in a room.  In addition to disarming mines, the Disruptor can also remotely disable guns without their owners knowing.  There is a 2 item limit to this that takes some time to recharge after each use, so it should not be seen as a crutch to get through these situations.

There are more new gadgets that can be unlocked, but they are done so through completing the side missions, which I am still working on (I only had a 38% completion total upon beating the game).

There Will Be Bludgeoning

One of the most intriguing elements from the first game for me was the unique combat system it utilized.  As someone who greatly enjoys beat ‘em up games (God of War, Castle Crashers, TMNT games, Ninja Gaiden, etc.), I was content to think that Arkham Asylum could just as well be a re-skin of God of War because I would still happily buy and play it.  To learn that the combat system went much deeper than simply mashing buttons was an amazing revelation.  I had grown complacent with the ease at which most of these games can be played, and to suddenly feel challenged and the need to have to actually focus was a real game changer; in fact, it’s probably not even fair to group the Arkham games among the others.

Arkham City keeps everything that made the combat system from AA so good, but with some tweaks and added abilities to greatly enhance the combo possibilities.  There are a number of little things that I could list, but I’ll stick to what I feel is the most impactful of them.

It is now possible to counter two enemies at once, which is extremely helpful and looks damn awesome!  Previously, if you countered an enemy, another could land an attack while you were still handling the first.  Now when you see multiple enemies with that “incoming attack” warning flash above their heads, Batman can handle it (the maneuver used to do so changes depending on the positioning of Batman to the incoming attacks).  This vastly changes how you might approach a brawl.  For me, in the first game I would avoid countering when the enemies became very tightly clustered around me and opt to evade instead.  With the advent of multi-countering, you don’t have to be so focused on isolating the opposition to take them on one at time; it now feels more like you are truly engaging them all simultaneously.

Any Cons?:

One thing I was slightly disappointed with is the lack of Scarecrow-like sequences.  In the first game, there were moments when, affected by Scarecrow’s fear gas, Batman would begin hallucinating.  The environment around you would seamlessly begin changing in subtle ways, leading to a psychosomatic run-in with Scarecrow (these were some of the coolest campaign sequences I have seen in any game).  The closest Arkham City comes to achieving this is with an encounter with Ra’s Al Ghul while experiencing the same afflictions Joker has from the Titan serum.

Bottom Line:

As stated before, get this game if you haven’t already and you’ll thank yourself immediately if not sooner.  Arkham City took everything that was great about the first game and heavily expanded on it with superb results.

Favorite Moments (Items that contain spoilers will be grouped at the end and marked as such):

-Fighting as Bruce:  At the beginning of the game, Bruce Wayne is brought in as a prisoner of Arkham City, allowing the player the chance to play as him without the cape and cowl.  There’s a really cool sequence here when you break free of the handcuffs.

-I’m the goddamn Batman:  After Bruce breaks free, the first thing he does is call in an equipment drop from Alfred.  The moment when he gets suited up consists of a series of close-up shots; an awesome homage to the late 80’s/90’s films, sans the homoerotic undertones provided by the latter Schumacher atrocities.

-Going toe-to-toe with Ra’s Al Ghul and the Leage of Assassins

-Joker’s heart-warming message to Batman in which he serenades him with his own twisted rendition of “Only You” during the game’s ending credits.  This is easily one of Mark Hamill’s greatest moments in his tenure as the voice of everyone’s favorite villain.

******MONDO SPOILERS, DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE YET TO BEAT THE GAME******

********YE HAVE BEEN WARNED********

-Facing off with Clayface.  The sequence where he is revealed is a lovely bit of animation, reminiscent of that legendary scene from the Bruce Timm cartoon where, after being defeated by Batman in the security monitor room, begins rapidly changing to all the past people he had taken the form of previously, all while the camera did a 360 degree rotation around him.  I was surprised that the game used the original Clayface (Basil Karlo) over the second (Matt Hagen), given the fact that none other than Paul Dini, who had a large part in writing the cartoon series (which used Hagen), wrote the story to this game.