Arkham City

CAUTION: HERE BE SPOILERS...

As I noted in my review of Arkham Asylum I had not been in on the Batman gaming craze up till long after that games release. Luckily enough though it wasn't long till I was finished that game that I was aware of the development of Arkham City:

The trailer above was just a hint of what was to come, already featuring an ailing Joker and Harley Quinn, we saw snapshots of the city/prison itself, the inhabitants, the state of decay, along with hints to the inclusion of Penguin (the Iceberg Lounge), Two-Face and Black Mask. More trailers followed in the lead up to the release of the game alluding to the involvement of all the main villains, as well as the ability to play as Catwoman.

Pictured: Stealth. Not pictured: Appropriate winter wear.

Long months passed and then the big day arrived, the game was released on PS3 and X-Box 360, but us poor PC gamers had to wait as the game faced multiple delays (presumably to sort out a bug involving the loss of saved game files), but eventually the game was released on PC and I was blown away even more so by this game than it's predecessor.

But in the lead up to the games release there was a 12-15 minute video of what I assumed would be the opening level, with Batman rescuing Catwoman from Two-Face in the courthouse in the hear of Arkham City. It was a big surprise then to find the game opening in completely different fashion. You in fact start the game off as Catwoman, who has broken into Two-Face's HQ where you beat down some of his goons and steal a map coded to a memory card. Two-Face though puts a gun to Catwoman's head, and the first level ends.

What follows was all the more surprising, a press conference outside Arkham City is being held by Bruce Wayne who is campaigning to have Arkham City shut down, due to the gang wars happening inside the city between Penguin, Two-Face and Joker's thugs. A private security firm though storms the conference and takes Wayne prisoner. Then you get to say hi to this guy:

One of the trailers mentioned previewed Strange's motivation in that he knew the identity of Batman and as Warden has Wayne captured and placed in Arkham City to avoid interference in 'Protocol Ten'.

I was only thinking to myself that this is the Empire Strikes Back of games in that it takes the established and improves in every conceivable way.

The story, as I said, is engaging, after being placed in the asylum you'll come face to face with even more villains than presented with in Arkham Asylum, some recurring (like Bane, Poison Ivy, Zsasz and the Riddler in side missions) and new ones like Two-Face, Penguin, Mr Freeze and Ras Al Ghul. The way the story is woven is well done, as you have to face off with all these villains in order to advance the story, and no battles or side missions seem thrown in for no particular reason (maybe Poison Ivy and having to fight Bane, the reason for his inclusion though seemed plausible). And each time you encounter them you get something fresh which is a step up from the somewhat repetitive boss battles in Arkham Asylum.

And another bonus to the boss battles is the use of gadgetry. Gadgets never played much of a role in the previous game but to further areas of exploration and continue the story. Here they do do the same thing, but you'll always find yourself using new gadgets in every battle, and collecting more upon the way. There are the old favorites making a return from Arkham Asylum being your never-ending supply of Batarangs, explosive gel, the line launcher, the cryptographic sequencer (which has been overhauled to intercept radio transmissions as well as unlocking doors and bringing down forcefields), and the remote control and Sonic batarangs. All of which (excepting the Sonic Batarang if I'm not mistaken) have been improved upon. The line launcher can now be used as a tightrope and you can also switch directions midway through zipping through the environment, the remote control batarang thankfully has a boost and brake function added, and the grappling gun can be upgraded to allow Batman to shoot from a ledge or gargoyle up into the air to attain flight. Detective mode has also been altered, you'll still be able to see through goons to know who's armed and who's not, but the clarity has been reduced meaning less reliance on it like in Arkham Asylum, where you'd almost have it on through the whole game. This was a good move as the city/prison is just too well detailed to have everything negated out through a blue filter. And occasionally you will find goons carrying jamming signals stopping you from using either Batmans Detective mode, or Catwoman's thief vision, meaning you'll have to take them out if you want to continue your hunt with either mode on your side.

Batman just gotta
tip on the tightrope.

Grappling guns, perfect for pulling
goons off ledges, or Bats into the skies.

New editions to the utility belt are the REC (Remote Electrical Charge), basically a gun which fires non-lethal bursts of electrical energy which can be used on enemies or items reliant on electricity like doors, the smoke pellet, which makes almost too much sense it's amazing it was never there in the previous game which you can use to escape gun fire or throw into a crowd of enemies and trick them into attacking each other. 2 freeze related items that you get courtesy of Mr Freeze in the form of an ice-grenade which can be used to freeze an enemy in place or be used to freeze a pool of water, allowing you to access areas otherwise impossible to enter due to the bodies of water you'll encounter throughout the game, or a freeze cluster-grenade, which can freeze the legs of a group of enemies at once. As well as a jammer which can be used to disable weapons or mines which smarter enemies will lay in throughout predator levels to impede your progress.

Using the REC means goons also fire wildly
in the air, but never at each other, typical.

The freeze cluster grenade
immobilises groups of enemies.

The smoke pellet in action.

On top of gadgets the gameplay, combat, voice acting, the environment, everything has been scrutinised and bettered. The fighting system adds more combos and more takedown moves, and goons wont just line up to attack you one at a time, you'll have to make use of more takedowns and counters to disable 2-3 goons at ones. And the enemies you'll encounter are smarter, better armed and better armoured than in Arkham Asylum. Not only do more goons have more guns than before, but you'll also have to deal with ones with thick armour that can't be taken down by predator tactics (though shooting their metal armour with the REC is amusing), or others that find shields to ram Batman or Catwoman. Goons armed with knives and electrified batons make turn up again to make combat slightly more challenging, but using the grappling gun, they'll be disabled in no time. 

Armed and armoured goons don't let
function get in the way of fashion.

As mentioned, boss fights also get beefed up and instead of ducking and weaving past the main boss while battling goons you'll have more of a challenge on your hand. Solomon Grundy, Ras Al Ghul, Mr Freeze, and the final boss fight stand out not just for the challenge they created, but also for the environment in which you'll have to do battle in. While you have to take on Grundy in a pit under the Iceberg Lounge, and the story has you battling Ras Al Ghul in a surreal desert landscape littered with landmarks of Arkham City, which is not unlike the Scarecrow levels in Arkham Asylum. 

Taking on Ras Al Ghul is on the of games many highlights.

Mr Freeze is, probably without doubt though, the best boss fight in this game, which is remarkable considering it takes place only a little after halfway through the story. You'll have to think on your feet if you want to make it, considering once you use a takedown technique or attack Freeze with one of your gadgets, he'll adapt and you wont be able to use it again, to date this has been a killer level for me as playing through on New Game + you'll need to find about 10 different ways of attacking him, before you can beat him. The environment also is against you as all the platforms reserved for grappling up to have been frozen over, and there's no way out. Freeze will also coat ledges and grates with ice as well, ensuring you'll run out of places to hide.

'You will bring me Nora, or you will die.'

Futurama/The Simpsons/Pinky and the Brain/anything else with voice over work will also recognise the multi-talented Maurice LeMarche voicing Mr Freeze, which I would say is the best casting decision for all voice over actors in this game (barring Hamill and Conroy).

The voice acting is top notch here as was in the previous game. Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy return to voice Joker and Batman respectively, and those who lend their voices to other villains to well, but special mention would go to LeMarche, as well as Corey Burton, whose baritone voice gives life to Hugo Strange (to such effect you'd swear it was Christopher Lee voicing him), and Dee Bradley Baker who voices Ras Al Ghul, who you may recognise otherwise as:

'Ladies...?'

And then there is Catwoman. One of the big selling points of Arkham City was that she would be a playable character. Was it worth it? To be honest, I don't think so. I didn't have to pay any extra for it, but to be honest I'm not sure if I would have gone out of my way to have downloaded the missions you play as her. Grey De Lisle (from among other games, Knights of the Old Republic II) does a fantastic job voicing her, and the look is pretty much perfect for the semi-real universe these games are set in, but the missions she is in are very short, her gadgets are limited to her whip, bola's and caltrops used to trip enemies, and her health is much lower than Batmans, even with the option to upgrade her armour, it still wont hold up too well if you're facing the same amount of well armed, armoured enemies as Batman. Though her combat moves flow better, and I found on the challenge maps that it was much easier to rack up larger scores for the combat maps than it was for Batman. 

And while the score is a standout for the game the menu music in particular harkens to Hans Zimmer's score for the Nolan-Batman films, when roaming Arkham City as Catwoman, you'll hear the same music over and over, wasn't impressed.

I suppose she had headphones in
and was listening to better music.

The city itself is massive. Apparently the map is 5-times larger than Arkham Asylum's playable area and it shows. The scope of the city itself impressive once you first arrive and have the chance to fly over and experience all the different areas and environments. Also to be taken into account is the fact that you have the Steel Mill, the Museum/Iceberg Lounge, the Subway, and the steampunk-inspired Wonder City to roam through and do battle in, not to mention the courthouse, the GCPD building, and the various Riddler rooms in which you have to save hostages from. The attention to detail is outstanding and you don't have to go far to find notable landmarks like the Monarch Theatre and Crime Alley (where a chalk outline of Thomas and Martha Wayne's bodies still lay upon the floor with a nearby bundle of flowers), the industrial zone which has been turned into a fair ground as it's dominated by Joker's troops,the Bowery which takes high class buildings and surroundings and brings them down by scattering Penguins well armed mercenaries around, the urban Park Row, home to Two-Faces crew and places like the ACE Chemical Factory, and Amusement Mile, half swallowed up by water due to an earthquake, where hotels and casinos line the streets. They'll also be posters on walls, shop fronts or other items scattered through the city to be scanned in detective mode to unlock 'Arkham City Stories'. And as you battle your way through the game you'll also be unlocking bios on villains and allies alike, including patient interview tapes as Hugo Strange interrogates the various rogues. 

 

And what after you're finished? Well aside from New Game + there's the challenge maps and campaigns, there's the abundance of artwork and character trophies you'll unlock to appreciate. Downloadable content had also been released allowing you to play through challenge maps as Robin or Nightwing, as well as more skins for Batman (which weren't rendered for the more cinematic cutscenes which was a shame, 1970's Batsuit or the 50+ year old Batman in the Dark Knight Returns skins would've been unintentionally hilarious). A Sinestro Corps skin was also available with the Blu-Ray release of The Green Lantern.

Nightwing ummm...fighting?

L-R: 1970's. Year One. Dark Knight Returns. Earth One. Batman Beyond. Sinestro Corps. Batman: TAS.

And hopefully they'll be more to come, I'm hoping more story content as I only have a passing interest in the challenge maps and don't compete online to get to the top of the leaderboard. There are also persistent questions asked of possible glitches and other unexplored areas of the game, like a building near where you first enter Arkham City which has heavy bass music emanating from it. Or a locked door in the Arkham City processing center which wouldn't be a big deal considering there are hundreds of buildings in the city, but the only locked doors you'll encounter mean you can't enter them at a certain stage, or you can't open them on account of being Catwoman. Glitches or not, there is still huge potential for exploration inside this massive facility.

An excellent gaming experience, not only does the story draw you in, but you will find yourself playing for hours on end either completing the many side missions which sees you teaming up with Bane to destroy containers of Titan which have been captured by the various villains, finding hostages the Riddler has placed in his Saw-like death rooms, stopping Zsasz from killing hostages as you answer phones throughout the city, or completing flight challenges which test your abilities (though this can be a bitch with PC-controls) . You'll also need to complete over 400 Riddler challenges which involved finding Batman and Catwoman-specific trophies, completing certain combat or flight challenges, destroying video cameras, chattering teeth, breakable Penguin's and so on. Or you can just go into free roam and take on the game's never ending supply of replenishing goons. 

Arkham City: 10/10 Batarangs.