[Review] Batman: Arkham City

FULL REVIEW

Rocksteady’s Batman is an adaptation of modern-day storyline of the character, which is a cynical take on Gotham City and the Dark Knight’s role in it. This re-imagining of Batman’s world was made famous by the works of Frank Miller and more recently by Nolan’s Batman movie trilogy. In this world, Batman is often portrayed as a troubled character struggling with deep seeded feeling of guilt and an obsession of fighting for a city that has all but given up on itself. In some way, this makes for a more immersive experience, but it is far from what one typically expects from a superhero jaunt.

A Dark City

Quincy Sharp, the warden of Arkham Asylum from the first game, has taken over the reins of Gotham City as an elected mayor and has seen it fit to convert an entire district into a prison. This may seem like an obvious recipe for trouble, and hence a weak plot for the game. However, there are larger schemes at work behind this venture that are gradually unveiled, are in line with the cynical theme and makes for a fairly decent plot.

Arkham City, as one might expect, is quite literally a blown-up version of Arkham Asylum, which was the setting for the first game. This has not only given the developers room to experiment with new game mechanics, but also expand on the roster of Batman’s adversaries. While the sequel features far more characters, some might even say too many, the main storyline centers around Hugo Strange, Joker and Ra's al Ghul. Two-Face, Mr. Freeze and Penguin are also tied into to the main plot; while Riddler, Victor Zsasz, Bane, Dead Shot and several others appears as part of side-quests or Easter-eggs.

A man and his toys

Batman in Arkham City starts with the complete arsenal of gadgets that was available towards the end of the first game. This also applies to the melee combat moves and stealth takedown techniques that were introduced in Arkham Asylum. Along the way, Batman gets hold of a couple of new gadgets, Bat Suit armor upgrade and a grappling hook upgrade. Compared to Arkham Asylum, Batman has to do a lot more gliding around to cover the length and breathe of Arkham City. To make this less of a chore, the game has introduced a couple of new techniques that allow Batman to cover large distances without setting foot on the ground, or depending too much on grappling.

The Free Flow Combat system introduced in the first game has been tweaked to make using of gadgets during combat much simpler and increase the likelihood of racking up large combos. The game is quite well balanced between armed and unarmed enemies, and opportunity to engage the enemies using stealth. All in all, except for the boss-fights, the sequel is just as challenging as the first game.

City that never heals

After the conclusion of the game’s main storyline, the game continues to let players attempt and complete side-missions. This works the same way as the first game, with the difference being that there is a lot more to do in this one than just collect Riddler’s trophies. Speaking of which, Riddler makes a come-back in the sequel in a bit more meaningful way. Apart from continuing the current campaign, the player also has the option to start the game again in new game+ mode. In this mode, the player carries over all the upgrades from the first play-through, but this is balanced by tougher enemies and no counter-attack indicators during combat.

Joining Batman at the other side of the ring is Robin (Tim Drake) and Catwoman; not on disc, but as DLC. Catwoman DLC is one of those used-games business busters in the form of redeemable code with each retail copy; while Robin is currently available to those who pre-ordered the game from a certain retailer— lameness all around.

Admirable follow-up

The challenge maps from the first game are retained in the series and are joined by Riddler’s Campaigns that revisit the challenge maps with the added challenges. Between the side-quests, challenge maps and campaign missions, there are plenty of distractions alongside the main missions. This is a good thing too as the gameplay along the main storyline is a bit too short. So, complaints of DLC aside, there is a good deal of content right there on the disc which could make up for the lack of any multiplayer modes.

Arkham City is a respectable follow-up to the first game and Rocksteady could have done a lot worse. If there is one thing about the game that really sticks-out as a blemish, it is that the developers got a bit carried away with adding antagonists in the game. Some of these characters, like Solomon Grundy, are given little more than cameo appearances and this may rub some people off in the wrong way, especially the ardent fans. On the whole however, if you are a fan of the first game, I see no reason why you wouldn’t like the sequel too.