Continuing with my reviews of the Batman: Arkham Series, I shall now go over my thoughts on Arkham City: the much heralded pinnacle of the franchise. I played this directly after Asylum, aware of how praised this game is, so bear that in mind as I lay out my perspective on it.
This game takes place over a year from its previous entry, with Arkham Asylum closed, and replaced with Arkham City, a cordoned off area of Gotham now used as a makeshift prison for the inmates of the Asylum and various other criminal bodies, run by Professor Hugo Strange, a nefarious figure absent from the last game but with a history in the Asylum, who captures Bruce Wayne with the knowledge that he is Batman, and places him inside the city. Playing as Batman, you must uncover Strange’s plot as he counts down to Protocol Ten, whilst contending with a slew of iconic villains, such as The Penguin, Mr Freeze and a terminally ill Joker, on the brink of death for what he did to himself in the previous game, as well as Batman himself poisoned and looking for a cure for the both of them. As Batman, you feel this overwhelming burden whilst playing the game, and makes every victory that more satisfying with the stakes on the line. Whilst this story plays out, you are also able to play as Catwoman, in her efforts to retrieve her property and escape the City.
This premise, although initially seeming unnecessary and forceful in order to churn out a sequel, actually works surprisingly well in providing the player with an open-world format to an Arkham game, while at the same time staying true to the precedent set by its predecessor. Despite having an open world, you actually feel even more trapped than you did on Arkham Island, as the gliding mechanic makes it easier to move around, and consequently makes moving from one end to the other quick and effortless. That, along with enemies that occupy the world, once again add to the isolated atmosphere, with limited contact to the outside world, and less empty places to reside in. There is no secret Batcave underneath the City, and you are forced to stay there not out of moral obligation, but by literal gunpoint, as you will be fired upon and forced to swing around if you attempt to glide over the large, foreboding walls.
The militaristic and propagandistic nature of the place put me in mind of Airstrip One from 1984, with all the bold posters, speaker announcements and surveillance cameras, making you feel like every movement you make is being monitored, further adding to the confinement, as now you don’t just feel like you’re trapped in a prison, but instead are one of the inmates, which, technically speaking, you are.
Another environmental detail that the game does very well is the actual locations you can visit. From the underground train systems leading to Wonder City, to the derelict police station, the Theatre and crime Alley and Sionis Steel Mill, each location is unique, memorable and relevant, serving as level areas key to the story. Additionally, due to the gang war going on between The Penguin, Two-Face and the Joker, each location falls under the occupation of a particular villain, making the world feel purposeful and dynamic, and seeing this conflict progress throughout the story demonstrates just how much of a step-up this game was from the first entry in the series.
There was also a number of technical improvements in terms of graphics, controls, combat and traversal, with a variety of new gadgets and new applications to the old ones, all intended for a sleeker and more refined experience in the role of Batman, vastly improving that of Asylum.
Various voice actors, such as Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their roles as the characters, along with new returning voice actors, and some new ones for alternate portrayals of classic villains, such as Nolan North playing a cockney Penguin instead of the bulbous, aristocratic version in the animated show. Each one gives it their all in what may be their standout performances of the characters, and the dynamic between Batman and the Joker is really able to flourish with a larger threat making them both forced to confront each other at their lowest points.
Not only does this excellently follow up on the gritty world of Gotham shown in Asylum, but adds to it immensely, showing the corruption and villainy start to spread into Gotham as a whole and adds an escalating sense of Batman’s endless and futile attempts to hold the madness in check.
This game also improves the boss fights immensely, with more of them and a wider range of ways to complete them, even if some mainly consist of spam-throwing an item at the right moment to do some damage.
My few gripes with the game come in the side content. Once again, the Riddler trophies have infested the game as infuriating collectable items necessary to defeat the Riddler and gain 100% completion, only this time there are over four hundred of them swarming across the map like a plague. Instead of dialling them back and focusing on a different side of the character (one that actual focuses on, you know, riddles), they are quadrupled down upon, with over four hundred Riddler challenges to complete if you hope you complete his quest. What’s worse, is that until you find and unlock every gadget and explore every location and finally unlock Catwoman as a fully playable character not just excluded to specific levels, a huge number of them will be impossible to get, and make post-game extremely dull and tedious, with entire sessions dedicated to hunting them down.
It would have been more interesting to focus on the Ridder hostage encounters, which make you utilise your whole array of gadgets to save the captured police officers from the Riddler’s death traps, which is meant to be the whole point of the character, not laying down neon punctuation behind contraptions that are only suited to gadgets that Batman literally has to construct or borrow mid-way through the game, or to Catwoman, who has no relevancy in the Riddler’s plan, only to extend the length of the game.
I will admit, the addition of Riddler informants in combat or stealth encounters to interrogate and find the locations of Riddler related objects is a welcome addition, but with the sheer quantity of Riddler trophies, I almost forgot to mention this feature completely.
The other side missions also felt a little lacking in my opinion. Most of them involved finding or doing the same thing multiple times in various locations to find a criminal, and with some detective work along the way, this could be fun, but the almost always end up in an encounter far too short to do the villain or the build-up the justice that it deserved.
Ultimately, I would give this game an 8.5 out of 10. The setting the characters, the story all mesh into the ultimate Batman experience, with only the infernal Riddler trophies and a few lack-lustre side quests to detract from it.
SPOILER SECTION
I really liked the inclusion of less mainstream villains, such as Deadshot, Hush and Clayface, as my familiarity with them along with the way in which they were integrated into the dark world of Arkham was very welcome. The boss fights with Solomon Grundy and Mr Freeze are standouts in particular, although I think I needed to put myself on a higher difficulty setting to fully appreciate the latter, and the way in which you have to use a variety of tactics, as no one method will work more than once, but on the whole, they were very enjoyable.
Hugo Strange was, for the most part, a very intimidating villain. All we saw of him until very late game was his introduction in the beginning when he threatened to make public Batman’s secret identity, and his announcements over the speaker-system made him seem like an intangible threat, untouchable to a man who primarily solves crimes and fights bad guys. The reveal that he worked for Ra’s Al Ghul made sense, even if it did detract from his authoritative nature, and his willingness to take Ra’s down with him once he was betrayed played into the idea that, although he put himself above the rest of the villains that he hoped to eradicate, he was just as likely to act in his own self-interest in the face of a power greater than him.
The death of The Joker was unfortunately known to me prior to my playthrough of the game, but it was poignant nevertheless, as despite his wicked nature, his obsession and juxtaposition with Batman was always endearing, making his accidental destruction of the cure after Batman had taken it a fitting end for him to go out – destroyed not by the man who he had always tried to make kill, but by his own impulsiveness and desperation. Batman’s sombre expression as he carried out the body of his enemy, and the thugs believing he had killed him marked new ground for the character of Batman, and teased a new direction for the character, now without an arch-enemy and feared not only as a hero, but also as a murderer. It would be quite a feat to try to continue the series after this point.
UP NEXT
Tomorrow, I will finish my reviews of the Arkham trilogy with Arkham Knight. I’ll see you then.
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