Now, hear me out on this review before you thumb this down right away. This review contains some spoilers.
Let me start off by saying. I LOVED Arkham Asylum. It literally is the best game based on a comic book EVER. The graphics, story and gameplay was simply flawless. The Music was epic and the Island where Arkham was fun to explore. The best part about Arkham Asylum had to be the Scarecrow moments. The only downfall to Arkham Asylum was the boss fights. It literally was the same thing over and over. Here is a Big Nasty Guy...fight Him. Ok, Now here is another Big Nasty Guy, but with Thugs fight them! Here is a Big Nasty Guy that looks like The Joker, Fight him! Here is Killer Croc, whenever he gets up, throw a batarang at him and render him useless for some odd reason and continue walking.
Arkham City...I knew another Batman game was being made, strictly because of how awesome the first game was. You literally have an entire City to explore and deal with different gangs on different turfs. The Story is amazing, The Graphics are a bigger improvement from the last game. voice work is amazing and its fun prowling the streets as the Worlds Greatest Detective. Sadly...the game falls short on the same problems the first one had. Boss Fights are the same and too easy.
Perfect example is Two-Face. You would think with the Villain Trailers they had posted weekly all the boss fights were to be epic at some point or another especially with the Man who Batman fears more then the Joker. But sadly...they were not.
Batman: How can I defeat Two-Face AND save Catwoman? ....Hmm....I know! I'll beat down these 8 thugs and let the cutscene that ensues after take care of the rest and, hopefully whoever has this game new can finish out this story arc as Catwoman.
Most of the boss fights are ether, fight these guys, or duck this big guys attacks while attacking machines that will disable him
Penguin for some odd reason has an Australian accent because we all know Penguins come from Australia. Trust me, this isn't just sour grapes, but Penguin is pretty much a financial genius and mastermind of running Underground Gang Activities. Why is he talking like Jason Statham attempting to sound smart and mobster like? You could have totally played a Two-Face Penguin Chapter out with Batman playing Penguin and Two-Face against each other (because Penguin and Two-Face are always seen at odds with each other having turf wars against one another in the comics) so that the end result of that "chapter" could have resulted in a Two-Face/Penguin vs Batman Boss Battle after Two-Face and Penguin come to realize that Batman played them and was able to get what ever information he needed because they were too busy against each other.
Race Al Ghul (That is how they pronounce his name in the game, even though its pronounced Rah-Z) fight was pretty much half scarecrow half fight Raz while fighitng 7 other guys (where I have seen that before?)
I'm not trying to sound ignorant, and I'm not downplaying this game because it is extremely fun but...when Gamespot reviewed this, they said the boss fights were too easy...which is true...but they also forgot to mention that the Boss Fights are the same thing over and over again with no variety what so ever.
Graphics = 10
Gameplay = 10
Music = 11 simply because it reminds me of the Danny Elfman Era
Environment = 10
The Voice work for the game is great! I still don't understand why the Penguin has an Australian accent though.....It really doesn't make any sense. Why would someone who is a financial genius who dresses very nicely and sharp like a mobster talk like Jason Statham? I would expect a man with a great vocabulary with a dark exquisite voice that has been used since the 60's. That is how bad the Penguins voice annoys me. Straight up.
overall I give this game an 8/10. Only because of how weak and over hyped a lot of the boss fights were promoted. Now...The game is extremely fun and maybe I'm just being an extremely negative person. But vvhen the last boss battle in Arkham City is THE SAME THING from the end of Arkham Asylum, my BS detector instantly goes off. C'mon. You fight yet ANOTHER big freaky guy which is Clayface instead of The Joker and after the first round, you fight Clayface again but this time.....with MOAR THUGS! Its like they are pretty much saying Two-Face can't take Batman or Catwoman on his own, He has to have thugs with him because apparently Two-Face can't even fist fight. Fighting the Penguin with Thugs and Solomon Grundy? Yeah, that is actually right, that is something I would have no problems with. But Two-Face? C'mon. Whats up with Two-Face getting no love? First Nolan has Batman Kill him in the movie The Dark Knight which pretty much by default makes the Batman Character and his views now worthless in Nolan's universe, now that bs? That is up there in lame-ness with the Killer Croc fight from Arkham Asylum. Granted, one of the major saving points for this game I haven't really seen anyone mention is the New Game+ Feature. When you beat the game, you can replay through the whole game again with all your upgrades and gadets you brought from the last, but when you do that, the A.I changes and all your counter icons from the fight are no longer there to let you know when it reverse. Just like the first game, I feel this will be better played and have a high replay value if you play the game on the highest difficulty. That is how I play a lot of my games today anyway. you get more satisfaction and gameplay hours for your hard earned spent money.
Great Game, Same Old/Easy Boss Battles that I played before in Arkham Asylum.