I bought Arkham Asylum the day it came out at midnight. I hadn’t played a decent Batman game in a long time, if ever. I had fond memories of renting the NES game based off of the first Tim Burton movie, but that was about it. I skipped over Vengeance and the other games that reviewed okay to horrible.
After the buzz all over the internet and the preemptive reviews praising the game (across the board) and the voice actors from the 90’s Animated Series being hired on (my favorite Batman series of all time and the beginning of the epic DCAU) I had to get in on this game. The first game was an experience that every Batman fan had been waiting for. The game made you feel like Batman, fighting techniques, predatory stalking, gadgets and all. The only thing the game lacked was real freedom to explore a massive area. Don’t get me wrong, Arkham Asylum as pretty big, but still felt confined at times.
I have a first shift and decidingly more professional job now (though not higher paying) and I couldn’t deal with a midnight opening with Batman: Arkham City, so I had to sit through the torture of being at work and thinking all day about soaring from building tops instead of the asylum walls. To clean up a good chunk of Gotham’s crime as I dealt with whatever crisis was thrown my way.
When I got the actual game it was all I had been waiting for and maybe more. I gave a short description above of the original game, so I won’t go into that whole range of explanation. In Asylum you could glide short distances, and it was mostly used as a type of attack, but in City, it is half of your main mode of transportation. Where as Asylum mirrored Metroid as far as discovering things and going back to areas when you have new gadgets and whatnot, City mirrors Oblivion (or Skyrim) as far as your fully free range exploration. Granted it isn’t as wide as Oblivion or Skyrim, but it is a lot taller.
The story is the warden of Arkham Asylum becomes Mayor of Gotham and gives Hugo Strange the permission to take part of Gotham and turn it into a prison. This part of Gotham is allowed to descend into anarachy and the criminals are left to their own devices. Gangs are formed and it becomes a very bad place to be. Bruce Wayne is captured and put into Arkahm City (in public so he can’t fight his kidnappers), but soon finds out Hugo Strange is up to no good and knows a secret of Bruce’s.
Bruce escapes, suits up and tries to figure out the mystery of Protocol 10. There are tons of other things going on in Arkham City, from side missions with Mr. Zsasz , to working with Bane for a common goal to dealing with assassinations of political enemies to the infamous Riddler trophies from the first game.
Speaking of, they have really upped the anti with the riddler trophies and riddles and even some traps that can kill Batman. There are like four times as many Riddle oriented things to do. You can gain information by interrogating Riddler informants instead of collecting maps, which adds a lot of tactic into your battles to not knock out the glowing green informants.
The enemies are quicker to spot you during predator sections and the fighting sequences are a little different. There are different enemies that need different tactics, and some of the older ones react differently. You can dodge the enemies with blades or broken bottles now, but it’s really really hard, I’ve successful dodged their full attacks twice, but it results in an automatic take down. There is a special move that allows you to break the weapons of the attackers, but not take them down, which is really handy in situations with a lot of weaponized goons.
There are new gadgets, some given to you by an old foe, some moves you gain from the new AR sequences, but these allow you to deal with the higher difficulty of your attackers.
Then there are the Catwoman sequences. If you get the game new or used at Gamestop, you can download the Catwoman sequences for free, which I recommend, and download it before you start the game so it flows correctly. Catwoman plays completely differently than B-man. She is quicker, can’t glide, and has fewer, but different gadgets. Her sequences are only about 10% of the game, but adds a break from all of the brooding and detecting. Her motives aren’t nearly as noble, so it’s fun to see this world from a darker side.
The DLC that I’ve gotten has consisted of the costumes (which are all available now) and the Nightwing pack. The Costumes are cool. They cost $5, but when you’re playing New Game Plus (a harder mode unlocked after beating the main game where you keep all of your gadgets and combat scenarios don’t give you warnings to avoid damage) it breaks up some of the monotony. My personal favorite is the Sinestro Corp. outfit, but you can use the Year One, Dark Knight Returns, the blue 70’s version, the no caped Beyond, the odd looking, but awesome, Animated Series, or Earth One as well.
The Nightwing DLC is for the Riddler single serving challenges and is fun. Nightwing plays differently, but I still find myself wishing he was in the actual campaign. There are only two achievements for Mr. Grayson and that’s for beating the Riddle missions completely, which is hard and kinda sucks that you don’t have any mid range achievements (or trophies).
I do not have the Robin DLC, but I’m assuming it’s a little similar to the Nightwing, but I’ll get back to you on that.
There isn’t a lot to complain about in BAC, some of the Riddler oriented things are difficult, and I still have a lot of that to go. The New Game Plus is worth playing the game over again and the story is enthralling and pulls you into the middle of Batman’s battle for justice, especially if you’re a Batman fan. Even if you’re not, it’s still a great game all around.
I give it 5 out of 5 wingdings…
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