Grumpy Old Nerds

Christian Bale and that thing he does with his voice that sounds like gravel in a garbage disposal can piss the hell off. This right here is THE Batman.

It seems like only yesterday I was trying out Arkham Asylum for the first time. I will admit, my expectations weren’t what you would call, high. Matter of fact, I was only interested in this game because they did the right thing and got THE voices for both Batman and Joker in Sir Kevin Conroy and Sir Mark Hamill (PRETTY sure they’ve been knighted). Regardless of their standing with the Queen of England, the second I picked up that game I was in love. The moment that it ended, I wanted more, and I was equal parts scared to death and overjoyed when I learned that they were to be making a sequel. I read all the hype, all the stories that talked about how much bigger this was going to be in comparison to AA, and I felt myself falling prey to the hype. I’ve had my heart broken by sequels before. More times than not, I was left cursing the bastards that tricked me into buying their crappy sequels. But this…this felt different. It felt real…it felt…right. They said this was going to be big, and I wanted to buy it. I wanted to believe. Guess who wasn’t let down? This guy.

As soon as the game starts up, you feel as though you’ve hit the ground running. A mere four months after the events of AA and there you are, posing as one Bruce Wayne, taking a stand politically against a policy that new mayor, Quincy Sharp (name sound familiar? It better!) has instituted: moving the inmates of Blackgate and the Asylum into essentially a demilitarized zone within Gotham. This section has been dubbed..you guessed it…Arkham City. The entire area is being overseen by Dr. Hugo Strange, a crazy old bastard whose motives are a mystery, so yeah this would be a job for the infamous detective Batman. The Dark Knight Is left alone to face the dangers that this fresh slice of hell on earth has to offer. The ally to Bats in the outside world this time around is trusted butler Alfred instead of Oracle, which adds a much better dynamic to the game. Dry humor and sarcasm is quite welcome, to say the least. Alfred aside, to say that Batman: Arkham City had some big shoes to fill would be one hell of an understatement. But as I conveniently foreshadowed earlier…they did a pretty good job of it.

One thing I will say about the folks at Rocksteady is that they know how to show new players the ropes without it seeming as though you are playing a tutorial. Everything you did to become acclimated to the controls were streamlined into where the story was taking us; much like the first game. Matter of fact, anyone that has played the first game will get a feel pretty quickly; essentially it is the same system with a few tweaks and improvements. The one I noticed the most was the use of Detective Mode.

In the first game, Detective Mode was a huge part of getting through the Asylum, and in all honesty it was a cool feature. The downside to it was that while you had it activated you missed out on the really amazing detail that was made for the environment and the enemies that you encountered. Now, the system is still a big part of the game, but you don’t need to have it on constantly if you don’t want to. The henchmen were essentially the same as well, with a few exceptions; some have specialized weapons while others have extra armor and require a different approach to showing them what’s what.

Another really interesting dynamic in this game is the introduction of the Catwoman missions as well as the relationship with other villains that you find yourself working with at some point in the game. It shows a whole other side to the world of Batman, and reminds you why some of the best villains ever to come from the world of comic books heralds from Gotham City.

As I said, you immediately feel as though you are in the thick of things story-wise. You get dropped in this massive war-zone run by criminals and lunatics (or both). The entire city LOOKS huge, but there are limitations to how much you can really explore in the game. For instance, not all of the buildings within Arkham can be entered, but the ones that can are decent sized maps in their own right. It essentially gives you that sandbox feel without actually giving you a sandbox to play in. And if you take into consideration the main story, the side quests, Riddler challenges, and all the other goodies the game has to offer, you’ll be hard pressed to notice that you don’t have the kind of free reign that say a Grand Theft Auto game has.

I won’t lie to you fine people. I’ve had my heart broken by sequels in the past. Dragon Age 2, Force Unleashed 2, Lost Planet 2, hell…even Starcraft II left me a little pissed off. But let me just go ahead and say this. Arkham City doesn’t run with that crowd. No, no….Arkham belongs in a much more refined crowd. Sure, it isn’t perfect, and it might try a little too hard in some areas, but all of that is overshadowed by the fact that the good things about it are done exceptionally well.

If you are a Batman fan, get this game. If you would like a story where you can understand what Bats is saying? Get this game. If you want a title that you’d be hard pressed trading in… You know the drill.

The Breakdown:

The Good:

*The folks at Rocksteady didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken as far as the feel of the combat system as well as the graphics and art. The Dragon Age folks could learn a little something from THAT.

* Plenty to do in Arkham City, you will most certainly NOT get bored easily.

* The satisfied feeling you get after taking down a gang of thugs and casually grappling up to the next rooftop to do the whole thing over again.

* The main voice actors did a hell of a job with their characters and went a long way to bringing them to life. A Cockney Penguin folks….I have no words to express how cool that is.

* Rocksteady nailed the Batman experience in regards to grappling from rooftops.

* The story feels like a comic arc; I had a few No Man’s Land flashbacks while playing.

The Bad:

* Camera can still be a pain in the ass, and Bats can still move a little stiff, though not as frustrating as it could be in AA.

* The rest of the voice cast. It appears as though the budget was blown on the main characters and then the various thugs and civilians are essentially one or two people. I can understand the need to save money, but it would have been nice if they got some voice actors with a much wider range.

* Boss fights (with the exception of one or two) were a lot easier in Arkham City than in AA. Not a huge negative, but there is a feeling of satisfaction when you take down a tough opponent that you don’t really get with Arkham bosses.

* It feels like they tried to pack TOO much into the game. The number of characters involved, while great from a fan aspect is also a bit of a bummer because of how little time is devoted to a few of them. You can easily find yourself wanting to have more with a character and just not get it.

Numbspoon’s Numeric Value: 9.0/10