Batman: Arkham Asylum was an astounding start to what would become one of the best licensed video game series. It wasn’t perfect though and had quite a few rough edges. The combat didn’t really click with me and the boss fights sucked, but everything else was handled splendidly. The claustrophobic hallways and architecture of the asylum painted a grim atmosphere and tone. The boss fights may not have worked from a mechanical standpoint, but the epicness of them and the set pieces they took place on. The interconnected world and how Arkham Asylum basically took the design philosophy of a metroidvania and converted it to a 3D space. The presentation of what was a basic enough story and outstanding performances for characters everyone loves. This game held up so well 14 years later, and served as a warm up for what would come later down the line. That being more ambition and greatness served by the talented souls at Rocksteady Studios.
Just before Arkham Asylum was even released, Rocksteady was already drafting out and working on the sequel. A bigger broader world than the restrictive plains of Arkham Asylum. They were planning to go open world, and one of the reasons they did so was because of an underdeveloped ability in Arkham Asylum. I complained about it in my review, but gliding was never fleshed out. It felt awesome soaring across dangerous pits using Batman’s cape, but due to the restrictive playspace of the asylum it was never properly used besides a couple sections designed around it and outside in the hub world. That main hub area does not contain that many interesting things to do. So Rocksteady realized one of the mistakes they made with the first game and decided that it was time to work more around it. Technology was getting stronger and Warner Bros funded their projects more due to the success of their first game. They brought back Paul Dini to help write the story of the sequel, who outside of Arkham Asylum previously helped with a handful of the older animated Batman series.Eventually, Rocksteady came up with Arkham City. The big follow up to Arkham Asylum and considered one of the most highly acclaimed games ever made.
Arkham City took what Arkham Asylum set up and ran with it. The story was darker and explored a scenario where Batman’s life was on the line. The villains were more diverse as we got to see familiar faces as well as characters who didn’t show up in the first game. Setting was much more interesting and there were more activities to do as the devs filled the open world with side quests. Arkham City is not only an example of what a sequel should be, but how to take an idea based on an already existing property and establish it. The Arkham series could have just received the reaction of, “Oh, it’s just a Batman game,” but Rocksteady and their team of writers were really creating an engaging universe and storyline. Batman: Arkham City is just great. I still don’t really like combat and faced a few performance issues during my time with the game, but I still think it’s excellent. It deserves the praise being given and I can say it’s worth checking out. We’ll be talking about why I love Arkham City and why it deserves your attention.
Story
The game takes place eighteen months after the events of the first. After the disastrous events that happened at Arkham Asylum the warden, Quincy Sharp, takes credit for stopping what had occurred and uses the praise that he is given to run a political campaign and become the mayor of Gotham City. The first order he issues is a transferment of all the evil crooks and villains within the asylum and Blackgate Prison. Saying sealed doors and bars are enough as they will always find a way to break out and cause havoc. He convinces the city council to purchase a low income section of Gotham and section it off. Moving all the poor folks out and building a big steel wall along this sector. They transfer all the crooks to this sector and with the help of Dr. Hugo Strange opens up a new facility labeled Arkham City. A place containing the criminal of Gotham where they can duke it out over who runs the joint. They aren’t aware that Strange is keeping a close eye and he has huge plans for Arkham City.
This brings us back to Batman, or who we secretly know is millionaire Bruce Wayne. He’s right outside the walls of Arkham City holding a press conference on what he thinks. Bruce claims the idea of containing all the crooks in Gotham in a slum is a terrible idea, and that by placing them in the heart of Gotham they will bring upon chaos. He also says there’s something fishy about the place as why would a mad doctor want to bring all his arch enemies to one place? The interview is cut short when TYGER officials, a militia hired by Strange, is sent in to attack Bruce and take him hostage. Bruce is transferred to a medical facility where Strange confronts him. The mad doctor reveals that he knows Bruce is actually Batman. He has the ability to reveal to Gotham that he is the Dark Knight, but instead of doing so he imprisons him in Arkham City. Locking Bruce up in cuffs and sending him to where the Penguin and his gangsters are taking hold. Bruce manages to fight the Penguin and his goons, break out of his cuffs, and run away to the rooftops where he contacts Alfred. He tells him it’s absolute chaos in Arkham City as Penguin, Two-Face, and the Joker are competing over territory. Alfred sends a fully packed container over so that Bruce can suit up and become the Dark Knight once more. Batman is back to bring justice.
Batman explores Arkham City and eventually runs in with a former frenemy Catwoman. He asks her what’s going on with the place since she lives in the slums of Gotham. She doesn’t know and is only staying around to rob Strange of a cache he’s hiding in Arkham City, but a bullet almost manages to kill Catwoman and Batman realizes it’s one of Joker’s henchmen. He knows that the clown is planning something devious ever since their last encounter, and traces him to the iron mill where he transformed the place into a happy funland castle of death. Batman sneaks in and discovers that ever since Joker injected himself with Titan in the last game he’s been suffering the side effects of it. His health is deteriorating, his lungs are suffocating. His skin is peeling off, and he has trouble even standing up. Harley is there to mess with Batman, but while Batman is not looking the Joker manages to inject a needle into him which knocks him out once more. The Joker reveals his blood is toxic, and the needle he injected contained said blood. Batman will suffer the same effects Joker is going through, and unless he can develop a cure he will die. This then leads to Batman going on an epic adventure to develop a cure, encounter old foes, and try to stop the madness happening in Arkham City. All the while Strange conducts new orders from a tower overlooking the place and prepares to initiate an order called Protocol 10.
Gameplay
If you have played Arkham Asylum already then you should already know what to expect from Arkham City. It’s literally Arkham Asylum, but full on open world. You could argue the last game was open world in that you had a hub area, but in that game you transitioned into linear areas. In this one you explore an open world full of skyscrapers, points of interests, and unique encounters like street brawls and side quests. There are still the traditional buildings and areas where you explore enclosed hallways like in Arkham Asylum, but a majority of your time is spent in this open world. However, this is an older title and one of the things I like about the open world here in Arkham City is that it’s not too big but still full of interesting things to do. Everything is where it needs to be and you never feel overwhelmed with the amount of content being provided. It’s easy to get from Point A to Point B now that the distance is not too long, and since the glide ability has been accommodated much better this time around you shouldn’t have to touch the ground and be forced into every street brawl you encounter. You can even use the grappling hook to zip to rooftops and keep yourself in the air much longer.
Stealth is a crucial aspect to these games and it’s still really well done. Sneak up to baddies, hide in places where you won’t get spotted, retreat when a bunch of them are approaching, and get ready to fight once you do get spotted. You can hide behind balls, in vents, or high places cause apparently nobody wants to look up even though they witness Batman flying around everywhere. New addition to this game is the smoke bomb, a tool Batman can wip out when guards spot him and he needs to retreat back into hiding. He can only use it once, so use it sparingly. I like the addition of this new tool, because in Arkham Asylum once you get spotted it’s usually hard to get back into hiding because most likely you were panicking and enemies with guns kept firing at you even when you retreated elsewhere. You can take down two blokes at once now, which is also really great because in the previous game you could only take down one guy at a time and when you take out one guard next to another one they usually spot you instantly. There’s even the new knockout attack which can be performed while doing a stealth takedown. It’s quicker , but it’s more risky as it alerts guards easily.
The combat is… well it’s combat. You wail away at baddies, counter their attacks, use specific abilities to take down certain enemies, and build up a combo meter so you can perform special skills. There’s a more expansive skill chart this time around. More categories and more unlocks for each one. However, they made more compelling combat this time. Not good to remind you, but more compelling. The combo streak isn’t as wonky as before and you have more moves to use when the meter is charged. Takedown maneuvers, a ground slam that hits a certain radius of foes around you, disarm baddies and break their weapons so that other men surrounding them can use it, and you can occasionally pull out your tools during combat. Whether that be Batarangs, hookshot to knock a guy off their feet, ice bombs to freeze foes, and much more. All the tools from the previous return and there’s a couple new ones like those ice bombs and the electrical gun that allows you to stun enemies and interact with certain equipment in the area. Some tools will also be needed to access new areas and you can’t move on or explore more until you unlock them. They made a more refined game with Arkham City. They ended up ditching a couple ideas like the interconnected metroidvania world that opens up with each upgrade, but at least they improved a couple rough edges from the first and a more openish experience for those who were potentially displeased by the restrictive corridors of the first. More on this in a bit. Hopefully Batman can survive the second most dangerous night of his life.
Thoughts
Batman: Arkham City is more than a decade old now much like Arkham Asylum, and just like its predecessor it too holds up really well. I do have a few complaints that prevent me from giving it a high score like everybody else, but I will say this is a great game and I do recommend it. One of the biggest improvements this time around is its story. The last game had a great story, but it was more about the thrills rather than what it had to say. Arkham City has something to say and feels a little more mature. The idea of a place where you can contain the greatest evils, and soon in the story try to destroy it off the face of the earth. You may think that’s a great idea and the crooks hiding away in such a terrible place are getting what they deserve, but realize the flaws as to making this a reality. If you want to annihilate all the evils you see in the world then you are no better than the evils you are up against. The fact that the Gotham city council seized an entire low income area, otherwise where the poor people live, just so they can plop a bunch of crazy people into it and let them cause chaos. You witness political protests against the idea of doing this get thrown into Arkham City. It not only shows that Gotham doesn’t care about who they throw behind bars, but they also don’t care about the poor folks of Gotham and the troubles they have to go through as a rich slob orders his tenth glass of campaign in one night. This is one idea that Arkham City handles really well and they don’t have to shout it into the face of the player.
I still really enjoyed the main story. Batman's life and health is on the line. The stakes are rising and his condition is getting much worse. He has to refight villains of his path and deal with the crap they throw at him. The ingredients and tools needed to craft a cure are always being dragged away the closer he gets to a solution, and the chaos burning outside gets much worse as he runs around finding items for himself. One problem Arkham City and even Arkham Knight runs into is the sense or urgency and how the open world conflicts with it. How you can take all the time in the world to explore, and the threat of the main plot is put on hold as you run around and have fun. I can see some people not liking this aspect, but I still enjoyed what the story did. Batman is being pushed to his limit and he can snap at any moment as time runs shorter. Still he reasons with the people around them. Help them in what way he can and do the right thing even when he’s about to die. That my friend is true heroism.
Now this brings us onto the gameplay. I will admit that I miss the tight claustrophobic hallways and level design of Arkham Asylum. Combine that with the tone and dark shadows, it was a dark and disturbing place to venture through and you never knew what was coming next. You could say it had good horror for a game that wasn’t scary and horror related at all. Arkham City ditches this by giving you an open world, and depending on who you are you either loved this change or hated it. The open world leads to a less focused game. One where you run around aimlessly and content is just dotted about, but like I said earlier everything is where it needs to be and even if you encounter something just laying there it feels natural. Gliding around the city is fun and it never takes too long to get to where you need to go or a point of interest. They give you enough space to work with and even when you are descending towards the ground you can zip towards a high point. I do wish they would launch you back into the air when you are grappling upwards so that you can maintain that gliding momentum. They would improve with Arkham Knight, so at least they learned the next time through. Side quests are fun, but they don’t distract you from the main story. Arkham City was when open world games didn’t become so bloated.
For a game that came out in 2011 it looks great. In fact, it looks better and way more graphically advanced than other games that came out during the same time. The world is dark, but it’s full of color and gleem. Arkham City was this fantastic district of hell to venture through, and one thing I like is how each district belongs to one of three villains. It really makes you feel like they’ve been competing for a long time and they are getting ready to see what sector they should obtain next. The art direction for these games have always been great and here it’s another exception. Performance and characters are all still very splendid with Kevin Conroy, god rest his soul, here once again to deliver his lines as Batman. He still has my favorite voice of Batman to let you all know. Being serious, but not being so edgy that it feels unbelievable. None of the actors felt all too bad, and they helped deliver a pretty good story. The ending was dramatic, but well done as it shows what happens when Batman takes a life. The grief he feels and how no matter how bad a person is it doesn’t mean it justifies murder. Batman literally says “There’s always a choice” and when he sees his main nemesis dies he feels guilty as now he has become what he fears most. A murder. Am I getting this across right? I know the no kill rule has been really inconsistent with every iteration of Batman, but here I feel like they are acknowledging the importance of it.
With all this amazingness out of the way, what is done wrong. Well the combat is still bad. I will say though they have made some improvements. Batman isn’t as tanky to control and the combo meter isn’t so wonky. Disrupting even when you are keeping the pressure up. New moves add ways to dispatch foes, and the boss fights are much better this time around. Being based more around skill rather than weird mechanics. However, problems I had with the last game are still here. Like being unable to block attacks when trying to perform a ground takedown. This time they try to make fights much harder by throwing a ton of enemies at you, but this doesn’t make the combat better. The camera is still bad, and since it’s constantly rotating it makes things dizzying and leads to a couple cheap hits or the game gets confused on what I want to target . Yes, I know this feature can be disabled but it’s on by default so they likely intended it. Stealth is still good, but the open world does not accommodate well. It’s done really sloppily and you can either just run away and pick off men one by one, or struggle to figure out where to hide next in a busy space. I also had quite a few technical issues as the game’s framerate would drop due to the huge detailed world and me trying to move quickly through it. I don't know if I like Arkham City more than Arkham Asylum. They are both great games, but City manages to improve certain aspects while also ditching what made its predecessor great. Still what it does well is done really well. In the end I am going to give Batman: Arkham City a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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