Reviews October 28, 2011
Batman: Arkham City
Reviewed by: Bryant Crawley
System: Xbox 360 (Also on the PS3, PC)
Genre: Third Person Action/Adventure
Rated: T
Players: 1
Cost: $59.99
Release Date: 10/18/2011
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
In just about every other medium, “sequel” is a reviled term that represents a lack of originality and the ultimate decline of a beloved product. Such is not the case for video games; sequels in this industry have been known to represent massive strides in quality. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves famously made light of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. And, think back a few decades, which Super Mario Bros. game is most fondly remembered? Oh yeah, that’s right, Super Mario Bros. 3. That being said, it comes as no surprise that Batman: Arkham City shows monumental improvements over its predecessor. Arkham Asylum enjoyed two years in the spotlight as the finest super hero game ever crafted. That time has come to pass, however, with a sequel that is not only the best game to ever be focused on a comic book icon but also one of the best games of any genre, period.
Batman: Arkham City takes the Caped Crusader out of the loony bin and places him firmly in the loony town. His last adventure was confined to Arkham Asylum, a prison for the criminally insane. As the title indicates, Arkham City places our hero in a more open city environment, one crafted by the villainous Hugo Strange. Strange’s creation is a section of Gotham walled off in order to segregate the city’s alarmingly large population of antagonists from the rest of civilization, and in doing so cultivates a setting akin to massive gang warfare. The streets are lined with thugs of notorious super villains all competing to establish themselves as the top dog. The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face and, yes, even the Joker have made Arkham City home to their mischievous pissing contest.
As the Dark Knight, it becomes your duty to root out the worst of the worst in Arkham City and control the chaos within its walls. In doing so, you’ll encounter the many villains listed above as well as a large number of other nemeses from Batman lore. On paper that may seem like overkill similar to what was witnessed in Spiderman 3, but due to the particular plot of this game it all comes together well and makes plenty of sense. Normally such a concession to popular characters is done so purely as fan service that does little to move the narrative forward, but a majority of enemies included do serve an important part to the goings-on of Arkham City. Though, yes, Calendar Man is in the game. And, yes, he is one hundred percent fan service. Is that such a crime?
What has made the Arkham series of games so successful isn’t just a strong comic book plot; that can and has been done before. It’s all about the Gameplay however! It’s hard to successfully translate these tales of unlimited power of heroes into a compelling action game, but Rocksteady Studios has once again made the transition. Gliding over the streets of Arkham City you’ll often find yourself in situations that force you to stop what you are doing and begin beating in skulls. Luckily, that’s even more enjoyable than traveling the environment. With a simple press of the button, Batman flies into a free-form combat stance that has the detective dancing about the screen bashing every thug unfortunate enough to be in proximity. Another button controls counters, and it’s as simple as that. Well, that is, if you want it to be simple. Arkham City does what so many games purport to strive for: choice. If all you want in a super hero affair is a simple button mashing brawler, this game is for you. But, if you want a more diverse fighting experience, it’s just as much for you as it is them. My style tends to be striving for epic fighting experiences; massive combos that incorporate not just my fists, but also my gadgets.
The best moments of Arkham City aren’t spent face-to-face with the enemy, though, they are spent up in the rafters peering down at a handful of baddies ready to pounce the moment they spot you. Suddenly, you cease being the player and become Batman. Where once the game was about choosing how cool you wanted to look while taking down a pack of gangsters, it now becomes a game that also incorporates the when and where into the equation. You can’t just jump down with a “hit them until they pass out” mentality. It doesn’t work like that. Instead, decisions must be made that present the best opportunity to sneak up on an enemy and dispose of them in the most discrete way possible.
This must all sound familiar to veterans of Arkham Asylum, as does this key feature: detective mode. Despite being a vital tool to progression, detective mode garnered a lot of critical heat for taking the focus off of the game’s wonderfully detailed environments and placing it instead on a boring x-ray visual filter. Many would play the entirety of the game in this view, abusing its benefits to the predator portion of the gameplay. Arkham City doesn’t completely eliminate this issue, no, detective mode is still a tad on the broken side. It does discourage the practice, though, and does so by only giving the full skeletal view of nearby enemies; opposing forces at a distance are relegated to a simple aura that merely alerts you to their presence.
One of the most exciting opportunities for Arkham City was in the name alone, expanding beyond a visually similar asylum to a more varied city environment. About halfway through Arkham Asylum, it seemed that you had seen everything there was to see. It’s hard to bolster the visual aspect when your game has what amounts to five different rooms copy-and-pasted all over the world map. That problem has certainly become less prominent in Arkham City, but only for half of the experience. Once entering one of the city’s many accessible buildings, you’ll be greeted to distinct settings. The Gotham City Police Department has nothing in common with the museum or the church; that’s how it should be. As for the rest of the city, what lies beyond closed doors and on the rooftops of Arkham, you see a pretty common pattern. You get the sense that while a lot of effort went into making a compelling skyline, not nearly as much was put into creating unique architecture in the midst of said skyline.
The biggest surprise in Batman: Arkham City comes not courtesy of the story, but from what happens directly afterwards; or during, depending on your attention span and ability to juggle multiple things at once. It seems that the game is juggling two entirely separate narratives, one driven by dramatic cut scenes and the worst of Gotham’s criminals and the other progressed through vague hints scrawled out by the city’s most menacing jester. The Riddler was featured in Arkham Asylum, but was mostly relegated to the musings of achievement gatherers that saw the need to collect every last trophy laid out about the game world. This go around the Riddler has more in store for the player than hundreds of trophies littered around Arkham City; he also graces the game with a demented series of tasks and challenges that provide an experience just as compelling as the main campaign.
Predator gameplay is the original way that Batman games made the player feel like the title hero, but now it is sharing that duty with the Riddler. What the Riddler provides are challenges that test every bit of your capabilities. These aren’t the kind of tasks you can “Run N Gun” through. Instead, they require you to think quickly on your feet and adapt to the troubling situation presented. There’s motivation, of course, the Riddler has made many civilians around Gotham victim to his traps and has required your detective skills to rescue them.
Normally, when I finish a game’s main feature, it’s done. I quickly reach for the eject button on my console and slide it back into the case and onto the shelf on which it sits for many a months gathering dust. Arkham City has forced a change in this habit. Suddenly, I want to confront the many side missions reserved for the end of the game, and that’s the product of an environment conducive to such play style. Batman is a super hero; his responsibilities aren’t complete upon stopping the big bad. There’s always more to do in the life of the heroic. Rocksteady has done an awesome job of creating a sense of immersion that identifies the player with that role. Missions that would usually feel like a throwaway carry a sense of weight that creates a desire in the player to go out and tie up these loose ends.
Let’s just get this out of the way now so the review is a lot less awkward for everyone involved: Catwoman. Yes, Catwoman is a victim of the used games market that has allowed millions of dollars to veer away from the developer’s wallets and straight into those of the middlemen at Gamestop. Those who buy the game new need pay little attention to this discussion: type in the code, download the 200 MB pack, sit down, and enjoy. To access Catwoman for those players that don’t purchase the title new it requires an extra ten dollars added on to the purchase, begging the question of whether or not the content is even worth bothering. The answer to that? Yes, but not without a few amendments.
Arkham City supports four scenes for the Catwoman character of varying lengths and quality. Downloading the Catwoman DLC will grant you with a completely different beginning to the game as well as three other moments that fill holes in the narrative. Two of these are absolutely fantastic pieces of gameplay that alone make Catwoman a worthy entry to the franchise. One of these, the beginning piece, is an insignificant piece that amounts only to a few minutes of game time. The final piece of the Catwoman content is, well…it is what it is. Not the best but definitely not the worst. There is one awesome segment in the Catwoman DLC that I will not spoil but it is a great instance when a moral choice affects the game. These moments are few and far between in any video game and to see how it’s done is truly remarkable.
I know a lot of people were waiting for this game. Comic Book fans, Movie Buffs, Video Game aficionados alike have all been waiting for this game. Was the game worth the wait, YES! There’s no denying that. Many thought that Arkham Asylum was the greatest comic book game ever made. I think that has now been surpassed by Arkham City. The interesting thing though is that I think Arkham City is now on the shelf as one of the greatest games ever made. Period!
Gameplay: 10
The control is regards to combat is unmatched in any game. You can decide to ground and pound or set up a huge massive combo. It’s truly up to you!
Graphics: 10
The level of detail going into the characters, the set pieces, etc. is just well done and spot on!
Sound: 10
The voice over work of Paul Dini is back once again and he also brought back Mark Hamil (maybe last time as Joker) is just awesome. Add to it Nolan North and Corey Burton as Penguin and Hugo Strange respectively gives this a pitch perfect sound cast. Oh, and I forgot to add in the marvelous score that Rocksteady put together.
What’s New: 10
The Riddler Challenges, Enough said!
Replay Value: 10
The addition of the New Game+, but also the Riddler Challenge, and the challenge rooms will have gamers enough to chew on to hopefully the final game in the trilogy comes to fruition!
Final Score:
10
