Batman: Arkham City Review

Overall Rating: 9.8/10

Graphics: 9.5/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Story: 10/10

Dialogue/voice acting: 10/10

Bruce Wayne is imprisoned in the new super-prison, Arkham city, along with the rest of the criminals from Arkham asylum. Bruce wayne’s secret is still safe, no one except Hugo Strange knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, but everyone may be in danger due to Strange’s secret program “Protocal 10.” It’s up to Batman to stop Hugo Strange, and the rest of the criminals in Arkham city. 

    

This game is friggin awesome. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Batman: Arkham City, the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, and has received positive reviews from everyone, mostly because it’s hard to find something wrong with this game. Firstly, I’d like to talk about the story. It’s really involving, especially if you really like the Batman universe. There are a lot of references to different characters, events and places in the universe, even if they’re not central to the game. At most points in the game you’ll have an objective to go to, but along the way you have access to various side quests as you encounter them, which can vary from finding titan containers for Bane, to helping prisoners on the street. These side quests make the game feel full, and add a lot of depth to Arkham city. It’s full of cool plot twists, and they fully exploit the Batman universe. I don’t want to give away too much about the story, but if you like Batman, play this game.

Characters

Batman Arkham City brings back a lot of characters from the first game, like Bane, The Joker, Harley Quinn, Zsasz, Killer Croc, and Poison Ivy. In a departure from the first game players can even play interludes as Catwoman. Other differences include more free roaming, lots of new gadgets, and way more uses for gliding. Riddler trophies are also more integrated into the game. You can also expect more side quests than before.

***Spoilers***

They bring in a lot of new villains, Like Penguin, as a sort of mob boss in an area of Arkham city. His base of operation is in a museum, where he’s trying to turn his enemies in to a real life wax museum. And two-face makes an appearance, playing a small role in the beginning, where he’s captured Cat Woman.

Mr. Freeze is involved in a storyline involving the Joker, and you’ll need to break him out of Penguin’s Museum. There’s an awesome side Quest with the Mad Hatter, starting with a crazy tea party that leads you down  a rabbit hole!  

***End of spoilers****

Side Quests

Now I’d like to Talk about the side quests. The Riddler plays a big part In this game, which requires you to run around finding Riddler trophies for the entire game.  Solving a certain amount of riddles, and finding his trophies helps to reveal the location of his hostages, and culminates in a final showdown. You’ll have the chance to run into Bane, where he’ll tell you to destroy six crates of titan (the drug that makes him bane) Hush has a side quest, you run into the mad hatter, dead shot, Clayface, and Killer Crock has a cameo (if you can find him.) The reason why I’m focusing on these is because they add so much to the game, making the player really feel immersed in the universe. 

    

Challenge maps

The Game also features Challenge maps. These are little maps where you can fight  AI opponents for points, outside the narrative of the game. Though some of these maps do have plots or stories, but if you ever feel like beating the hell out of everyone for like 10 minutes try it out.

DLC

There is a lot of DLC for this game, and there will probably be more to come. The downloadable content ranges from new Batman suits, to challenge maps, and even story missions. I’d like to talk about Harley quinn’s revenge, which came out recently. This mission is really cool because you get to play as Robin in a story environment, whereas in the rest of the game you can only use him in challenge maps. You also play as Batman in this mission, but you can find out more by playing it. 

Sequel? ***Spoilers***

Bring it on. In Arkham city, there’s a huge amount of foreshadowing which could mean a sequel. For starters, You can find scarecrow’s mask in a hay bale ontop of the bridge, which is strange, since killer crock was supposed to have killed him in the first game. Perhaps we will see him again? You might also run across Harley Quinn’s positive pregnancy test in the steel mill, which is where the Joker’s hideout was. Joker baby? There’s a skyline of Gotham City reflected in a puddle. The puddle is inside a building,  where there is no skyline.

If you like Batman, you should get this game. It is by far one of the best super hero games, that has been made so far. Pow!