At the very least, Batman: Arkham City is the best superhero game of all time.
First of all, I must say that I loved Batman: Arkham Asylum; it may be one of my favorite games of all time. The combat was unique, the storyline was engrossing and the overall theme was very immersive.
Arkham City takes everything you loved about Arkham Asylum and improves upon it. The freeflow system now encourages you to use more gadgets and special moves while fighting rather than mashing square and triangle. Stealth is much harder as well, now that an improved AI is implemented. All combat systems appear to be greatly improved from the first, and while it does seem like there was no significant change at times, that's not necessarily a bad thing either. Gameplay is still unique and fun.
The city is also explorable now, and with the addition of side-quests and skyscrapers, the game gives the illusion of being a free-roam game. However, it never really is. It has as many free-roam elements as Assassin's Creed, except that there are no civilians or carefully planned out flooring. It still is easy to move around the game, and with systems like dive bombing and the batclaw boost, it is extremely easy to simply fly about everywhere.
The storyline is, once again, immersive and engrossing. I do, however, prefer the story of the first game to that of Arkham City. Arkham City's storyline is full of plot holes and deus ex machinas. Additionally, the plot relies on magic and unrealistic situations. At times, it simply does not make sense. I won't go too in-depth about the story, but if you're the kind of person that prefers realism over Harry Potter, then you might not love Arkham City's story.
I must mention something about the bosses. The game seems to use very minor bosses. I'll just spell them out for you: Solomon Grundy, Ras al Ghul, Mr. Freeze and the last one I won't spoil. Solomon Grundy is not very well-known, even to die-hard Batman fans. Although I've only read a few Detective Comics myself, I've watched the entire Batman the animated series and The Batman cartoons. I've rarely heard of Solomon Grundy. The game also does not really introduce this boss, and he seems to come out of nowhere really. Ras al Ghul is also a pretty minor boss. Admit it, the only reason you know him is because you watched Batman Begins. As for Mr. Freeze, I guess he is fine; however, the last boss is somewhat of a minor character.
The boss fights are also extremely weird. They always seem to want you to use your equipment and environment rather than straight up hand-to-hand combat. While this may sound great, it's actually very gimmicky. Once you actually figure out what equipment to use, the boss becomes really easy. You're also forced to use that piece of equipment for the rest of the battle. Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with the bosses.
I won't dwell too long on the graphics department of this game, but they are not anything fantastic. Don't expect this game to have graphics like Crysis or Battlefield. The visuals are very similar to that of Arkham City with a few minor improvements here and there. There's also a ton of animations in combat. I've always been surprised by the move Batman does next when jumping around from person to person. Sometimes, the animations are sudden or jumpy(I'm talking about you, beat-down attacking) and textures do pop or take time to load, but unless you're a real stickler for graphics, you won't mind.
So, I beat this game this morning and I've played for about 18 hours. I pretty much rushed through the story simply because I wanted to finish as soon as possible. The ending was well-done and shocking; I think people are going to be talking about it for quite a while. However, I do NOT like it at all. I'll put why at the bottom of this review.
Overall, for the 18 or so hours that I've played this game, I'll have to give it at least a 9.0 for fulfilling all my expectations. I've added a little extra because I haven't finished the game yet. I still have to find the 400 riddle collectibles as well as finish the side missions. Then I'll have to play through a New Game Plus Campaign and then do the challenges. It's a good thing I rushed through the main storyline. So, all in all I'll have to give this game a 9.5.
WARNING: SPOILERS
So, the reason I do not like the ending is because major characters died. At the end the death list includes: Hugo Strange, Ras al Ghul, Talia, Clayface and most importantly, Joker. These people DIED. No, they did not simply go to jail or anything, they literally DIED. This means they will never come back again in a sequel or anything. If the game was meant to fit in the standard Batman Universe, this sort of thing should not have happened. Also, why the hell did Joker attack Batman? So a bunch of innocent people died, who cares? Batman never does, he'd still spare the guy. Joker really should have known that. And what did he expect anyway? Did he think Batman would just hand over the cure after he got stabbed? I would destroy it if I were stabbed. And lastly, you can't help but pity Joker. He's supposed to be the bad guy, why does the game make Batman look like the evil one? Is that the great mind-blowing thing about the ending? If so, Rocksteady should really hire a different storywriter.