If you like Batman, comics, video games, fun or quality entertainment, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.
The game starts off with a bang, one which comic fans will definitely appreciate. With a series of shock sounds and screams you are introduced to Hugo Strange, the main antagonist of this tale (and one of Batman's oldest enemies within the comics), who has captured Bruce Wayne and deduced his identity. Not to give too much away, what follows is an expertly crafted intro sequence that shows you many of the main characters and gets you acquainted with the prison you will proceed to spend the rest of your in game time exploring.
The gameplay itself isn't changed much from Arkham Asylum, but adds new twists to the formula. Batman can now counter multiple enemies at once, and has a wider range of gadgets and moves that compliment his existing abilities and arsenal, which is a much more preferable alternative to the Metroid style "lose everything you earned last game" approach, keeping the game fresh while also not forcing any repetition on fans of the previous title. There is also a much larger variety of enemies to take down, which forces you to learn on the fly and adapt quickly to maintain a good combo.
The stealth sequences also offer a number of new take downs and approaches towards enemies. The indoor areas are much larger and vary from place to place, with enemies that are smarter this time around and who will try to trip up the player by taking hostages, setting mines, shooting are gargoyles, and many other tweaks to behavior. Though the basic behavior is the same for all enemies, different gangs and enemies will react differently to the environment, which really keeps you on your toes and scrambling to outsmart and defeat your enemies through a mix of strategy and brute force.
The open world environment is much more ripe for exploration then the previous game, and goes a long way towards making you feel much more like Batman. There are a variety of side missions to complete, as well as rewards and riddler trophies to discover and many secret areas and Easter eggs that can have dedicated players playing for hours. The different side missions also have the bonus objective for the developers of introducing as many of Batman's rogues gallery as possible without the game feeling too stuffed, which gives it a natural feel to the world of Batman.
As before, immersion was a key focus on developers trying to let players "become" Batman. Though he is a bit easy to control at times in a fight or stealth sequence, it makes more sense to have a super powerful Batman then a weaker Batman who has a harder time putting up a fight. Many of the game's set pieces and sequences occur in gameplay and allow you full control, with very few cutscenes lending to the immersion but still offering a cinematic angle to the tale.
The story can be a bit convoluted at times, but considering the hefty backstory and world Batman lives in the comics, it's very fitting. With a great comic book feel, the story is full of twists and turns and ends up succeeding in maintaining a focus while surprising the player until the very end, where a fantastic final sequence awaits. The game even goes the extra mile in offering extra bits of information throughout the world, with story and intrigue around every corner, from wondering how a dead body came to become dead, to intriguing tidbits of information spoken by enemies as you listen in. It also helps that developers went and crafted a very elaborate series of audio tapes and story threads you can hear and read that explain how Arkham City came to be.
The game does have a few problems though, which keep it just shy of Batman gaming nirvana. The open world of Arkham feels a bit like it was just a compromise between a true large open world like in inFamous and the more focused Asylum in the first game, which can leave the game feeling a bit inconsistent at times. The game can also feel a bit unnatural in certain areas with enemies in one spot having guns, and one room away enemies being completely unarmed just for a battle with Batman, which is good for pacing but sometimes isn't explained away very well. This is compounded by the detective vision's incredible ease of use only rarely being unavailable to easily find and dispatch enemies.
The Catwoman segments are also unfortunately given with a code requiring a download, which isn't a big deal for those who buy new or can buy the code, and doesn't affect the game's quality itself, but is still an unfortunate direction for the series to go in a world of online passes and somewhat greedy publishers we already live in, especially when the segments are such a big part of the game and offer a significant amount of content to the already big game. The game also doesn't feel significantly different from Arkham Asylum, but when the mechanics are already so tight its hard to complain that we get more of it, especially with the changes offered.
Considering how hard it is to come up with legitimate complaints for the game, it really showcases the quality and amount of love Rocksteady put into this amazing game. If you like Batman, comics, videogames, or anything that can be considering quality entertainment, you owe it to yourself to check this game out. Much like how The Dark Knight blew away fans of Batman Begins in the movies, Batman: Arkham Asylum will definitely surpass expectations on what you thought licensed games were capable of before Rocksteady got a hold of Batman. All I can say, is just buy it.