Batman Arkham City Review
Developer Rocksteady
Publisher Warner Brothers
Platform PS3, Xbox 360
Release Date Out Now.
Batman Arkham City is the follow up to Arkham Asylum and as you may expect it’s bigger and better than ever before. There was not a whole lot wrong with AA when it released in 2009 so the team at Rocksteady had a great starting point for building Arkham City. Set around the comic book Batman rather than the recent films and penned by the veteran writer and author of Arkham Asylum Paul Dini so it holds on to that same dark feel but has a much larger area to play with this time.
AA brought it some heavy weight voice actors most noticeably Mark Hamill as the Joker one of the best game characters ever encountered and Kevin Conroy who takes on the role of Batman again. Along with the Joker and Batman there are a number of new and old foe’s to contend with. The Penguin, Mr Freeze, Harley Quinn and Bane to name just a small fraction of the huge supporting cast.
The city itself is around 5 times the square acreage of AA and it is a stunningly, grim and damp open world. Arkham City is a purposely fenced off area of Gotham that houses the city’s worst villains. As the game opens Batman finds himself locked inside the super jail and completely outnumbered. It is exactly what fans of Batman want. To glide across the massive city scape, dropping in on bad guys knocking heads and disappearing into the dark of the night just as quickly as he arrived.
One small complaint about AA might have been the detective mode making it too easy. No fear this time as Arkham City is a lot more tasking than its predecessor. The enemies are far smarter, more ruthless and armed to the hilt. Even just getting the drop on them can be more difficult as there are so many enemies and on so many different levels it is often quite hard to sneak in and out without stirring someone.
Combat is still the same, you counter by pressing triangle and attack using square to unleash a number of combo’s which can be upgraded throughout the game along with your suit and gadgets. The weapons are much more use this time especially since so many enemies now have guns you can’t just walk up to them. Although the combat might seem simplistic it is anything but, and at the end of the day you are not just an ordinary Joe soap you are Batman you are meant to kick ass.
DLC : As a bonus for user who purchase new there is an additional Catwoman DLC made available, it is recommended to install this before starting as it takes place within the game although it you choose not to pre install it can be accessed on its own afterwards. Of course if you don’t have an internet connection you are punished as you can’t access the content even if you purchased the game brand new which is a point of contention.
There are also a number of other pre order bonus items that can be downloaded unlocking new character skins and challenge maps.
Overall : Batman Arkham City is pretty much the perfect game, it looks and plays amazing, is really well written and voiced superbly. In the light of other potential GOTY titles that disappointed in so many departments it was great to see Batman live up to all the Hype. The main story is brilliant and while the city offers plenty to keep the player going with additional side missions once the main story is finished.
This game is pretty much perfect.
Score 10/10
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