Batman: Arkham City
Riddle me this. What combines RPG games with action and detective parts? No, it’s not the ninja police detective, its Batman Arkham City. Arkham city is the sequel to Arkham Asylum, which put Batman in the asylum and locked the doors, meaning loads of boss fights and many more thug fights. The core has not changed in Arkham City, but it does make everything even better, if not slightly repetitive.
Arkham City has been created by Hugo Strange, the mega-minded villain, who was given permission for this by some bizarre incident which is slowly revealed, and his plot, but what is important is that it’s a prison, where the crimes inside are mostly ignored and the inmates can keep private and work on their evil plans, and in Arkham city there are many plots about these. Batman enters into the city, and has to set things right, one unconscious thug at a time.
There are nearly all the villains in this game, notably Joker, Penguin and Two-face to name the most important. Even more are mentioned in the character biographies, which are unlocked by doing riddles. All these characters are nicely personalised – a cockney Penguin, a techno Mr. Freeze are far more interesting then their comic counterparts in my opinion. Mark Hamill’s voicing of Joker is probably the best voice acting in a game ever (well, apart from Gordon Freeman in Half Life). The main villains have pretty much some part to play, but no Batman mission for Poison Ivy, and only a few missions of Two-face is slightly disappointing, but the rest makes up for that. Thankfully King Toot from the 1960 series was missed out completely, and some of the more obscure characters are given some spotlight.
The city is split up into different sections; Joker is in Industrial, Two-face in Park Row, and Penguin around the museum. Thus then the thugs guarding these areas are related to the area – there are Penguin, Two-face, Joker and even a few Poison Ivy guards, and they all link to the Villain – Two-faces all wear masks with half normal and half burnt, and all the thugs have their own voice lines that change as you continue through the game. This can get annoying, trying to glide just one thing means hearing the same sentence as many times as you do, as at that area the game will instantly play a sentence at that certain point. This can happen quite a lot, for example one riddler challenge of dive bombing onto a panel can take some time.
Gliding was a little thing in Arkham Asylum, only used when gliding down to finish off the final guy, but in City it gets huge changes. As it’s a huge chunk of area, the only way of getting around (apart from walking) is gliding, which becomes more and more natural and is hugely breathtaking, diving and then swooping up is a thrilling experience. Granted the many gliding riddles are incredibly annoying, but the rest mainly isn’t.
Riddler Trophies, Riddles and challenges is the games way of cheating the player. The incessant numbers of green question marks that pop up in the background and you suddenly feel addicted to get it. This is the games answer to collectibles, and it works fantastically, I’ve repeatedly returned to the game just to get that certain question mark, thinking I know what to do. Riddles are great, linking up the past, unlocking little files about things such as the feuding between bosses and the lore behind a character. They’re great to read, the recording are just as good as from the previous game that used recordings from patient inteviews, and make you enjoy the game even more. Riddler Trophies unlock character images and other such rubbish prizes, but even with this terrible reward you still feel compelled to get them. For example I've done loads but haven't even looked at what I've been awarded. In addition to the Batman Trophies there are purple Catwoman equivalents, which can only be picked up by Catwoman, who you can interchange with at the end of the game, which also has little Catwoman sections.
Unfortunately, the Catwoman sections are annoying, boring and tiresome. She lacks any real fight, and you have to use your hard earned points to level her up if you want to be able to use her for getting the trophies at the end. She can’t do half as much as Batman, so she is unable to do most things and the use of gadgets in fights gets increasingly important as the game continues. Her missions are all pretty annoying, she only wants to get some reward and money, and so there is less motivation to complete the mission. As they are dotted around, just when you get to an important point in the game you have to play as Catwoman, even though you desperately want to play as Batman. Catwoman’s wall climbing ability is terrifically tiring, instead of just grappling, you have to whip and then jump at specific points. Thankfully, when the game finishes you can choose when you want to play Catwoman.
There are huge numbers of side missions, including Bane, Deadshot and Zsasz, and all are fun or interesting; scanning a crime scene, rushing through the city to a phone or blowing up containers, they serve as fun interjections to the main plot. There are just a few quick ones – for example swooping down and stopping a beat up is one, although no side mission is as good as the Riddler side missions.
The Riddler missions are fantastic, and probably the point where I enjoyed the game most. The Riddler has kidnapped some police officers, and you have to solve the puzzles to save them. It’s sometimes confusing, but feels great when done. These challenges can only be unlocked by completing riddles or trophies, another incentive for the challenges.
Detective vision was one of the main points of the previous game, and it returns again, but sadly there's less need for it, much of the detective parts has been removed. It's still can be abused in combat though
The main plot rushes away like a locomotive after about the tenth mission, and all the area becomes opened up or fully explorable – little sections become opened up, and the game becomes far more enjoyable. The gadgets are slowly released to you, and with these the fights become more interesting, and more Riddler challenges are available to solve. The gadgets are quite fun to use, and all come in useful
Probably the best mission is the most unexpected - the boss was not released in a video like the others, and you’ll know which mission I’m talking about, but all in all the boss fights are great, except some are quite confusing.
My Rating: 8.7
There are some problems such as grappling is a pain, and combat can be tiresome, but overall an immersive and fantastically thug smashing experience. Catwoman sections are new innovative, but are a sting when you’d prefer to play as Batman. Some addition for her gadgets would make her great. Addictive Riddler trophies and fun side missions top the list of why this game is great.
(stay watching for the credits, a lovely ending pops up)