Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Solid"

This game got a lot of hype. This hype was certainly well warranted given that Arkham Asylum was the BEST Batman video game ever created. Portraying the way Batman was supposed to be portrayed as a true dark knight set in an atmosphere that was pretty much the polar opposite of the almost cartoony portrayal in Burton's movies.
So with this said, Arkham City does a decent job of picking up where the first game left off. Now I say decent, because the game isn't as great as all the hype built it up to be. Its a great open world game implementing all the gadgets and intricacies of Batman. But the game was short; a much shorter storyline that Arkham City...at least in how long it took me to beat it. It took me almost 10 hours less to beat Arkham City for whatever reason, and this is even with pursuing a fair amount of Riddler trophies and side quests. I certainly like being able to glide from building to building and grapel up to the top and launch right back off again making it almost like flying across the city to get from one mission location to another. The combat system I felt was improved a bit from the first game, but on the other hand, it felt like they were complicated a bit with all the different quick firing gadgets that could be used. Sometimes I would want to use the bat-claw to pull a rifle out of a thugs hands, but ended up quickly laying down some explosive gel instead. It made for some frustrating fights where I was pinned up against 20+ thugs.
Story-wise, the plot was solid. Not very deep, but entertaining nonetheless. I just felt it wasn't long enough. I was definitely left wanting much much more out of this game in campaign length. Sure, you can play the challenge maps, but that really doesn't make up for what really is the bread and butter of the game...the campaign.
I'm looking forward to some worth while DLCs...but based on what DLC was released for Arkham City; I won't get my hopes up.
This game is good, but could easily have been great if more effort was put into the length of the story.