Let's be honest. Batman fan or not, if you played Arkham Asylum you were probably pretty entertained. The first installment in the series was nothing short of a pleasant surprise and was met with good reviews and a rejoicing community. Although the game series was heavily inspired by the Batman series, and followed most of the backgrounds and villains from the comic books, the game offered so much more. Loved by fans of the Batman series, but also adored by admirers of the action-adventure genre. Arkham Asylum set the pace by offering smooth gameplay, an open space, a deep and entertaining storyline, and all of the Batman goodies for the fans. So, with such a great release, and such an entertaining game, how could the developer Rocksteady possibly craft a better sequel? Where would they go and what could they do to make things any better than they already were? Enter Arkham City, to answer those questions.

gameplay

If you played Arkham Asylum, you aren't really going to see much change in the way that the game moves and feels. The combat is still pretty much the same. A lot of the same combat movements and it is still very fluid in nature. The way that you move your character is very much the same too. Slightly sticky sometimes, and can be difficult to try and move quickly on the fly, but for the most part the running, sliding, rolling, all of it is still spot on as it was in the first title.

A lot of the old weapons are back here. The batarangs, remote batarangs, batclaw. A lot of oldie but goodie things reappear in that sense. But that doesn't mean there isn't a good amount of new weapons. You have things like a Remote Electrical Charge gun, or a freeze blast grenade. These things add new and challenging depth to the puzzles that are strewn throughout the title and also help to add new depth and control to the combat system.

Speaking of puzzles, The Riddler plays a large part in the "side-questing" of Arkham City. He has hidden over 400 trophy's, clues, and riddles, all throughout the game, which really helps to up the amount of hours you will actually put into the title. That isn't to say that this is the only sidequest here. You've got a good amount of them, all sprinkled into the main storyline, and most of them have something to do with a Batman villain, which really brings in a lot of the other villains that Batman fans want to see.

That's the one thing that really shines here. It is obvious that Rocksteady wanted to see how much of the Batman universe they could place into one game. The storyline is clever here, in that sense. Bringing all of the favorites from the asylum into Arkham City, which has become somewhat of a makeshift prison, which means that other Batman staples are running rampant throughout the area. This won't necessarily matter for those who just enjoy the game for its actiony feeling, but those who really follow the Batman comics will be rather impressed by how many characters were actually included in the game.

Although, I will be honest in saying that the storyline is a little flat here compared to what it was in Arkham Asylum. It isn't a "bad story," but it is incredibly short if you look at just the main pieces. From point A to point B and ignoring all side quests, the title is actually quite short in both substance and game time, and leaves much to be desired. It is safe to say that the addition of so many characters into the game made for very little room for a balanced storyline for each one.

But when all is said and done, the gameplay really shines due to the "open world" aspects. Arkham Asylum was slightly open world, in the sense that you were "free" to walk around the asylum. But in some spaces it felt pretty small. Arkham City is literally as it says, a city (well, blocks of a city). Because of this, it is much more open and offers much more space to travel around in. From the beginning of the game you are pretty much free to travel wherever you wish. It does limit you to some areas, as you need "unlockables" and whatnot to travel there, but it is much more wide open and playful than Arkham Asylum was.

graphics

Great! The character models look really good here. But the genius comes from the animations. All of the character animations (combat wise) are incredibly well done. They look good, mesh well, and animate as flawlessly as possible. And the character animations are spot on for each characters personality. It really helps to watch the characters body language and the way they emote. It captures the feel and attitude of each character, and adds great depth.

As far as the graphics everywhere else? They definitely set the Batman tone. Dark, gritty, seedy, these words best describe the feeling that the visuals set in the game. The city looks good and is modeled quite well. There may be some places here and there where a texture is off, but for the most part it all looks good. I didn't necessarily experience any technical issues, graphically (or gameplay for that matter).

Graphics aren't really what will sell you or push you away from this title. They are right on par with the rest of the gaming world, even a little above average.

sound

Sound is great. It really helps to add immersion to the title. Environmentally the sounds work very well. Wind noises, steam, water splashing, all of it subtle in nature but adding great audible depth. The weapon noises are all pretty much the same as they were in Arkham Asylum. They all work well and sound like "one would expect" them to sound like, if that makes any sense.

When it comes to the musical score, it excels in the tone that the game sets. The music is somewhat dark, gritty. It fits, in the simplest sense. It isn't overly abundant in the game and it doesn't "force" itself upon you. It is subtle and instead of overpowering the gameplay it simply undertones it, making the experience more pleasing.

The real beauty of the sound comes in the voice acting. All of it is spot on. The characters sound like you would expect them too. They match the personalities extremely well. This is where a lot of the good immersion comes in, in the interaction between the characters. Its like watching a story unfold, an A-Rated movie with great actors, all while playing a game.

replay value

Good, fairly high. The replayability here comes in the form of two things. New Game Plus, and challenge maps. New game plus allows you to travel through the game again with all of your unlocked weapons, skills, and discovered trophies and riddles. It is said that the enemies and bosses are also slightly tougher than before, adding a new element of difficulty to the playthrough. Aside from that, you'll have challenge maps to play through. These maps are scenarios that offer medals if side challenges are completed. For example, subduing a group of enemies without being heard, or surviving a wave of enemies as long as possible.

But if you are looking for something that you will play over and over for month and moths, this may not be it. Although there is a great amount of length to the game if you wish to do everything, I don't see many people wanting to do it again.

bottom line

Arkham Asylum set the tone here, but Arkham City took it to the next level. Sure, the storyline is a little flat compared to its predecessor, and you may not see the same story length that you did in the first title, but the new open world approach and the smattering of enemies and villains into the mix added an amazing air of excitement to the new title. There is so much going on at once it may seem overwhelming, but at the end of it all it is simply a well crafted and designed game.

Great voice acting, great graphics, awesome gameplay, and a rich world filled with many story arcs all culminates into what I consider to be a greatly successful sequel. There may be some of you diehard fans out there that still feel that the first title was better crafted than this one, but most of you will probably welcome this game with open arms. It met my expectations and then some.

Review by: Russ Boswell
Posted: 12/13/2011

Gameplay:	9.5
Graphics:	8.5
Sound:	9.0
Replay Value:	7.0
Bottom Line:	9.0