Tops Arkham Asylum In Every Way
Where Arkham Asylum may have felt limited, in terms of environment and character inclusion, City is much bigger. There are more villains to fend off and a bigger, more dangerous environment to navigate. But again, what isn't broken isn't fixed, so anyone who played Asylum will be familiar with what's here. Our story opens with Bruce Wayne in the custody of Hugo Strange, a famous Gotham psychiatrist who has deduced Batman's secret identity and has plans for him, which involve Strange's new prison for Gotham's greatest criminals: a chunk of Gotham City cut off from the rest and turned into the city prison Arkham City. It would also seem the Joker has plans for Batman, and the majority of the game is spent seeking out a cure to the Joker's new ailment, one which will kill him, and you, if this cure is not found.
For comic book fans, this should be as giddy and adventure as the first game was. You will encounter numerous villains and take a journey through a world richly crafted after Batman lore. From the Penguins museum, complete with his psychotic personality and love of aquatic animals, to Ras Al Ghul's mind trip of a lair, you will find yourself immersed in the world of Batman. What's best of all is that this is a completely new story to the Batman world and it works extremely well, pitting villains against one another in some very entertaining moments both familiar to Batman fans and new. The story in and of itself is quite entertaining and filled with enough personality from the long standing series that you can't help but smile much of the time as you watch your favorite familiar characters interact.
Like the first game, the gameplay shines here as well, with very little changed. The environment is bigger, so there is more to navigate, from Arkham Cities rooftops to it's sewers, there's a great deal of personality and detail placed into the city itself. This makes moving swiftly through it interesting. Combat is relatively simple, with a button to attack, a button to counter, and a button to daze opponents. Used in a particular order, and you can chain effective combos. You will also find fighting off hordes of enemies impressive and easy, with the additional use of being able to use your gear during combat. This makes for good combat variety and can add some impressive strategy to your battles. Of course, like Asylum, there's more than just combat to the gameplay. You'll have to use your detective skills to gain information, overcome several platforming puzzles, and partly think your way through this game as you fully become Batman. It's, once again, a very impressive and rewarding effort from the team that brought us Asylum.
It really is hard to find fault with City. Perhaps if you're not familiar with Batman, you'll have no interest in the game. It does, after all, seem to require that you know who these characters are and that you have familiarity with Asylum as well. Yes, there are introductory files to each character, but the game picks up as any comic series in the Batman line might. However, despite this need for familiarity, it's still a great game that I have very, very few complaints about. If you even just liked Asylum, you'll LOVE City.