It’s crazy to think that two years after the brilliant Batman Arkham Asylum game, the creators at Rocksteady Studios would be hard at work to create a follow-up that not only promised to be bigger and darker but having the addition of the talent and crew who worked on the visuals and seasoned writers from other Batman-oriented pieces of media to helped to shape this game’s story. It was, in turn, to meet the high expectations of the gamers and fans of Arkham Asylum. This new game, Batman Arkham City, primarily delivered on its promises. While I admittedly prefer Arkham Asylum, I will say it is a game that is at least equally good. It builds upon the previous strengths and highlights new features to create an enthralling gaming experience.
Batman (Kevin Conroy) finds himself in a small super prison in Gothem City known as Arkham City. There, he learns that one of his foes, Hugo Strange (Corey Burton), is working on a titan formula that could doom thousands of lives. After the Joker (Mark Hamill) injects some stolen titan formula in himself, he kidnaps Batman, injects the same formula into his system, and finds out that if he doesn’t find a cure in time, they will both die. It’s up to Batman to find a cure while also beating up and aiding enemies and villains to stop Hugo Strange from accomplishing his mission.
The story is again an outstanding balance between over-the-top cartoon antics and a dark and brutting atmosphere. Keeping in tune with Arkham Asylum, Arkham City’s narrative is unpredictable. There are times when the game will take very dark but also very rewarding turns that will keep the player invested in what will happen to Batman, those he tries to protect, and the villains he attempts to stop. I mean it when I say that the writing is darker than in the last game. It will constantly play with the audience's expectations more than in Arkham Asylum. The voice acting is also unsurprisingly great especially seeing the return of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and Joker, respectively. New characters also arrive on the scene, such as Catwoman, played by Grey DeLisle, Harley Quinn, played by the great voice actress Tara Strong, and Hugo Strange, played by Corey Burton. I wouldn’t think Rocksteady could pull off such an exciting and twisted tale again, but Arkham City shows that these writers have not just hit the wall yet.
The gameplay works like before, but with a few tweaks. The first thing that should be mentioned is a large open area. You must explore Arkham City instead of just the asylum from the last game. I’ve seen bigger and even better laid-out maps from similar games. Still, what Arkham City managed to accomplish is pretty darn impressive. The city is easy to traverse, and many collectibles and badies await you at every turn. Combat has been improved significantly, and beating up enemies and villains has never been more satisfying. You’ll also get new gadgets and improved versions of old ones from Asylum that will help you traverse through the large city or reach hard places where there will be a collectible in store. One of Batman’s foes, The Riddler, has hidden many riddles and trophies that you can find and achieve by using your newfound abilities. Side missions are also abundant from time to time. They are unfortunately not as frequent as they could have been, but the challenges will test your abilities to traverse the cityscape to reach a destination in time or to glide through rings using your Batcape. In some ways, it is more of the same gameplay-wise, but the execution and the map's large scale make this gameplay fresh and quite impressive.
These graphics look great and have all the visual splendor we loved from Asylum and crank up the attention to detail to an eleven. The city of Arkham has that dark and gritty look that even has some bright colors shining through in places. While it is true that the style of the city and its building interiors can look the same from time to time. Rocksteady studios made it their mission to show gamers how far they were willing to go to create an environment with interest and great attention to detail, even with the bigger size of the game’s map. The humans look realistic but with just a touch of comic book-like proportions to some characters like the Joker, who has his iconic creepy-looking smile. Like the scarecrow segments from Asylum, the game will break from its typical visuals and introduce some trippy and weird visuals that fit right at home in a comic book adventure. These usually happen in specific parts of the experience and make fantastic visual eye candy. Rocksteady gave me more of what I liked from Arkham Asylum and kept the visual aesthetic going in Arkham City while mixing up the formula. `
The Music for the game is once again made by composers Nick Arundel and Ron Fish. Like everything else in this game, this score goes big, and I’d say it's even more ambitious than ever. The booming orchestra just took my breath away, and it knows how to bring on the emotions of the dark undertones that almost every fan associates with the Batman name.
Despite my opinions on preferring Asylum, Arkham City is, without a doubt, just as great of a follow-up as any Batman fan can only dream of. I was impressed by the tight gameplay, incredible graphics, and a story that goes darker but always keeps sight of what made the last game such an entertaining experience. I know there is even more to this game, including a paid DLC that has you playing as Catwoman, but I’m only judging this game by its main package, which is already very good. Rocksteady Studios have done it again, and here’s to hoping their next Batman game will be just as good as Arkham City and Arkham Asylum.
(Final Grade: A-)