Batman Arkham City is the continuation of the Batman Arkham franchise from Rock Steady. In the first installment, Joker had a great plan which involved making Batman out to be a terrible monster like the Joker himself but ultimately it backfired.
Now the story continues and Quincy Sharp the old warden of Arkham Asylum is now the Mayor of Gotham City and from it, he created Arkham City a place for all the mentally deranged, criminally insane, and all-around scum of Gotham to be imprisoned in.
Throw into this prison run by Professor Hugo Strange the inmates are left to go about their own business. With the return of the famous voice crew again from Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamil and Tara Strong reprising their roles again for Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn.
Now like its predecessor the musical score is on point bringing great depth and also a grim atmosphere to the area. Where Batman is forced to fight for his life and learn the truth behind Arkham City before countless lives are lost to a madman who lurks in the shadows.
Now in Arkham Asylum, you could only travel to the island where the Asylum was. In this installment of the franchise, Rocksteady has given us a more open-world environment filled with buildings and the chance to explore quite a few of them. However, the scale of the open world is still quite limited but at the time of the game’s release unless you are comparing it to Skyrim the game’s map is quite huge.
However like its predecessor, it still heavily relies on the two buttons used for combat one for attack and the other for countering. Although this makes it simple for newcomers still, the combat is still a bit lacking. Although at times you will have to use two other buttons in conjunction with each other it still doesn’t offer any improvements.
The story of Arkham City though remains very on point, offering a new glimpse at old enemies and new enemies from Batman’s rogue’s gallery with Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, Mad Hatter, and even Catwoman joining the party. Catwoman is a particularly important character that you play through a portion of the story.
Visually the game is breathtaking, both original and remastered the game remains perfect in its representation of what we believe Gotham City should look like from the grim undertones we have been told about it. A place where villains like the Joker and Penguin fight to rule the place and cause chaos.
The game overall shows us and brings to life everything we have expected from Batman from the city he protects to the villains he fights and the people he protects. Like the character jumped from a comic book and into our gaming systems capturing the essence of Batman so well that the differences between comic and game characters are almost indistinguishable.
Like its predecessor, it’s a game I hope comic book fans and even nonfans buy and enjoy. Whether it be the original copy of the Return to Arkham edition the game is worth it and worth every penny.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!