Arkham Asylum was the best Batman game ever... until now.
At the start of the game, Wayne is holding a protest rally in front of the prison when he is kidnapped by the prison's Tyger guards and sent inside. As it turns out, the prison's warden, Professor Hugo Strange, knows Bruce Wayne is The Batman, and threatens to reveal his identity if he interferes with the Professor's plans. Naturally Batman is going to interfere regardless, and your first task is to reach your equipment drop on a rooftop and retrieve the Batsuit and other gear. Once suited up, Batman is free to roam Arkham City at will (at least the outside areas). The streets have been carved up by the super-villains and their gangs into territories; The Penguin, Two-Face and The Joker all hold large areas of the streets. But there are far more villains on the prowl as well, including The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and Victor Zsasz among others. Some areas are patrolled by melee thugs, but others are guarded by gunmen, and just as with the Asylum, guns are fatal to Batman. Enemies are not just at street level either, with some patrolling rooftops.
Batman can glide to get about just as before, except this time you have more control over the pitch of your glide and can execute a vertical dive-bomb to surprise enemies below. Dive-bomb, then pull up to use the energy of the dive to glide upwards for a time. The grapnel gun can also be upgraded to grapple-boost and launch yourself off ledges, allowing Batman to cross the entire City without touching the ground. Batman's move set has been expanded and tweaked, and most of your gadgets from the first game are intact, although some have been tweaked to work better. The batarang can now be thrown three times in a row, rather than having separate single and multi-batarang gadgets. The explosive gel still auto-detects enemies, but now waits for your command before exploding. Such gadgets can now be fired off using "quick-fire" to deploy them in a fight without breaking your combo chain. Detective Vision is still as useful as ever, spotting enemies and scanning their equipment. This is a very good thing, as Batman is not the only one with better toys this time round. Thugs in combat can still wield electric batons. Knives are no longer locked to a single thug, but can be dropped and picked up by anyone, and are easier to attack but harder to counter. Thugs with riot shields can block all but aerial attacks, and ones with body armour are impervious to all but a beat-down attack. Boss fights are not necessarily easy but don't require a huge amount of brain power, except possibly for Mr. Freeze who needs a little more than most. Enemies in predator challenges (armed with guns, where you have to sneak around and take them out quietly) still have heartbeat monitors to alert the others when you take them out, but have new toys too. Night-vision goggles let enemies scan vantage points for your presence, as well as see through smoke clouds. Sniper rifles spot and shoot over great distances. Body armour stops you performing a silent takedown, and some enemies are equipped with mines which they place on the ground to catch you when you flee.
Besides the main campaign, there are a number of side missions that can be pursued when you feel like it. Also making a return are the Riddler challenges in the form of riddles and trophies. Except there are a LOT more of them (460 I think). The trophies are also harder to grab this time; most of them are inside special cages which open only when you trigger the mechanism nearby, and working out the mechanism is not easy, since the game doesn't tell you or even hint at what to do, and finding them is daunting. Fortunately, The Riddler has placed informants within the other factions in the city, and can be identified by the green glow. Leave them until last in a fight and you can interrogate them for some riddle locations. The Riddler has also kidnapped several hostages and locked them in special Riddle Rooms, and they are only revealed when you have solved enough normal riddles. Clearing all the riddles and riddle rooms in the game will keep you occupied for hours. Also making a return are the challenge rooms, both combat (score enough points) and predator (fulfil the takedown requirements). New however are the campaigns, which require you to complete three rooms back-to-back with modifiers to make the rooms easier or harder. The only catch is you must use all the modifiers across all three rooms, but you can choose which rooms get which modifiers.
If you buy the game new, you will get a code to download Catwoman's content, otherwise you will have to buy her separately. She has equipment and some objectives of her own throughout the main campaign alongside Batman, can roam the city, and can be used in all the challenge rooms. Also available are Robin (Tim Drake) and Nightwing (Richard Grayson, former Robin) with their own equipment, and can be used only in the challenge rooms. These two characters come with an additional two challenge maps each and a campaign to match. Batman has some additional costumes available as a pre-order, but can now be purchased, and an additional challenge map pack.
Between the campaign, side missions, Riddler challenges and challenge rooms (with every character) this game certainly does not lack content or things to do. The story seamlessly integrates the villains and setting and Batman feels like he owns the city as you fly overhead, randomly taking out thugs below. The other characters also feel unique and powerful in their own way. If you liked the last game, consider this a must-buy.