Batman: Arkham City Review – Or: I’m Batman! Also Catwoman, Depending On My Medication And The Number Of Witnesses

The Gameplay

Arkham City’s gameplay isn’t a massive leap forward from Asylum. Controlling the Dark Knight is similar in almost every way, shape or form to Asylum’s control scheme. If you’ve played Asylum, the learning curve in City is the exact opposite of steep. One welcome addition is the lack of having to build up Batman’s arsenal from the ground up. Most of the gadgets you finished the original game with are unlocked for use from the very beginning and any additions or improvements to your tools will be provided as the plot requires.

Swinging or gliding from perch to perch is still as enthralling as ever. There’s something eerily satisfying about landing a sweep kick from on high to a bad guy’s jaw. Detective Mode returns and the temptation to play the entire game in its familiar X-Ray hue is still present, lest you miss a hidden collectible or brittle wall hiding some new path to explore. Rocksteady thankfully made the wise choice to allow Batman to glide for considerable distances, making traversing the huge game world less of a chore. Hand-to-hand combat is largely unchanged from the previous iteration. Batman is still capable of stringing together long combos and engaging ridiculously numerous opponents at once, providing you master the game’s timing and rhythm based combat.

Swing your partner round and round, slam their face into the ground.

Cannon fodder bad guys are quite easy to defeat, it’s when guns are introduced to the equation that the gaming experience takes a turn for the stealthy. Batman can hold his own against fists and feet, but gunfire will take him down quite easily. He’s the Dark Knight, not the Man Of Steel. Luckily, Bats has a wide variety of ambushes, smoke bombs, and an array of sudden from-the-shadows attacks to even the odds. As in Arkham Asylum, City truly gives the player the impression of being a badass creature of the night. Arkham City provides the complete Batman experience in every regard.

While you can concentrate on finishing the main plot and moving on to another game, you’ll be missing out of a lot of what makes Arkham City so addictive. The Riddler makes a comeback with 400 hidden challenges strewn around the game world. Other collectibles are numerous as well, and will do their best to drag you away from the main story for just one more hard-to-reach trinket to locate for bragging rights.

To extend the game experience, you won’t be able to collect a lot of these on your first play through since many areas and small crevasses are inaccessible until your gear reaches the endgame level upgrades. Luckily, Arkham City is nothing if not friendly to return players. New Game Plus is unlocked after you finish Arkham City for the first time, allowing you to keep all of your upgraded gadgets straight from the start. Also, the difficulty level is ramped up and the composition of enemy mobs is mixed up for more challenging encounters. Taking an amped up Batman into combat makes playing the game a second time totally worthwhile.

If you think this is painful, wait till I come back as New Game Plus Batman.

The Presentation

Normally, I like to start this section off with a quick rundown on the graphics engine powering any given game. However, Arkham City is a title that cries out for recognition for its awesome voice cast. A special shout out needs to be given to Mark Hamill who, of course, voices his second-most recognizable character after Luke Skywalker: The Joker. This is officially Hamill’s last hurrah, he’s passing the reins of the clown prince of crime to another actor from here on out. On behalf of many, many fans: thank you, Mr. Hamill, for 20 years of truly great voice acting and for what many consider the definitive version of The Joker.

Of course, no Batman game would be complete without the voice of the Bat himself, Kevin Conroy, who has voiced the Dark Knight in one form or another since 1992. The pair are joined by a veritable horn of plenty of great talent, ranging from experienced video game actors to several veteran voices of the ongoing animated Batman adventures. All in all, this is a superbly cast and acted video game, a real treat for your ears. Special kudos to Grey Delisle, who really brings Catwoman’s playful sexiness to life.

This calls for a gratuitous butt shot.

Character design is one of Arkham City’s strongest points. The developers used the comic book costumes of their cast as a basis but built several layers of originality and insanity on top of it. Every hero or villain is bigger and meaner looking than their comic book counterpart. Somebody’s been handing out steroids around Wayne Manor. The sultry female members of the cast are sexed up quite a bit more than their comic counterparts to appeal to the game’s target audience, but in the case of characters like Catwoman and Poison Ivy it’s at least in keeping with their femme fatale personalities.

Poison Ivy would infect me with more STDs than a Thailand whorehouse, but I’d be willing to risk it.

The graphics engine powering Arkham City does wonders with its open world. I often found myself climbing the tallest building I could find simply to take in the sights of Gotham City’s nightlife. There are no noticeable lags or texture pop-ins and loading times are minimal, to my great relief. At no point do you not feel the slimy grittiness of Batman’s world permeating every single corner of the landscape. This is Gotham City come to life as never before.

The Verdict:

This is your faithful reviewer’s first perfect score and I couldn’t think of a worthier recipient. Batman: Arkham City is the full package: a great game tied around a better story and enough content to keep you entertained for hours on end. The plot is engaging, the cast of characters will bring a smile to your face whenever you spot another cameo from yet another Bat-villain and you’ll be hard-pressed to finish the game even once, let alone twice, due to the insane amount of bonus content to unlock and find.

Your faithful reviewer,
TheMatt

Whenever TheMatt-signal appears in the night sky, TheMatt-Man rushes to TheMatt-Cave where his loyal butler (read: mom) awaits with his uniform and a grilled-cheese sandwhich. Let evil beware! TheMatt-Man and his faithful (and totally hetero) sidekick prepare to unleash JUSTICE and WEDGIES upon the world.

I SAID TOTALLY HETERO, GOD DAMN IT!

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