Batman: Arkham City (PC)

**Manco** · December 03, 2011, 09:45 AM

Hello there, fellow TWC'ers. It's been quite a while since I seriously reviewed a game, I'm thinking over 6 years, so please, don't hold back the criticism. I'd like to get my review abilities back up to snuff and commentary and criticism are vital for that.
Thinking about it, reviewing B:AC might have been a bad start for that. As you'll read, I'm praising the

out of this game and the line between attempted objectiveness and subjectiveness becomes very hazy when you absolutely love a game. I hope my next review will allow for a bit more criticism (thinking of doing one for Skyrim).

It's also important to keep in mind I AM easily excitable. That's why, if I keep this up, I intend to revisit a review a week or two later, when I've heard the criticism of others, read different reviews and the initial giddiness has subsided.

But without further ado, scroll to the next post to read the actual review (some more formatting and screenshots will come)

**Manco** · December 03, 2011, 09:53 AM

Batman: Arkham City, the long awaited sequel to 2009's surprise hit Batman: Arkham Asylum, has finally arrived on PC. With Batman's surge in popularity this last decade and the stellar reputation of the prequel, expectations and hopes are quite high.

Plot

We find ourselves in the grim Gothic atmosphere of Gotham City, shortly after the events of the first game. Quincy Sharp, the warden with a secret, has managed to capitalize on Batman's swift -and quite often viscerally brutal- handling of Joker's attempted break-out and bid for citywide anarchy and managed to manoeuvre himself into the mayor's seat.
First order of business after his election, was the institution of a new asylum annex prison. The idea behind it is simple, but hardly elegant: just gather up all the undesirables, throw them in a cordoned off part of the city and check whether they need some food once in a while. At the head of this rather dubious initiative, the shady Professor Hugo Strange, who seems to have no qualms about letting his inmates kill each other off in a major gang war. Oh, and it's probably important to mention that the brilliant Dr.Strange is one of a few people who have deduced Batman's true identity.
Batman, unable to stop Arkham City from being established in his Dark Avenger guise, tries to get it shut down politically as Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy and philanthropist. Unfortunately for him, his political rally is crashed by Tyger operatives, Arkham City's private security force who have taken over many of the GCPD's authority.
Dr. Strange appears to have enough political clout to have his political opponents thrown into his personal prison without due process. Bruce Wayne finds himself in a city torn apart by a three-way gang war; courtesy of the Joker, Harvey 'Two Face' Dent and Oswald 'Penguin' Cobblepot. Now he'll have to stop this war before casualties rise, and find out what Strange's intentions are.
But don't think that this main plot is all there is to do! A hefty portion of Batman's rogue gallery is here, including fan favourites as the Riddler and Deadshot. Some as little more than a cameo, others as part of a sizeable sideplot.

Gameplay

B:AC caters to quite few different play styles, from the straight-up brawler over the hit-and-run skirmisher to the sneaky less-than-lethal (but very brutal) assassin. Do you want to just jump down in the middle of a bunch of goons and start clobbering them? Do you want to maximize the use of all your gadgets, and take out entire groups of enemies in a mere few seconds? Or do you want to carefully analyze the environment with your Detective Mode and pick them off one by one? It's all possible, and the game doesn't shoehorn you into one style. You can go seamlessly from hulking behemoth to techno-wizard without the game handicapping you via upgrades or talent trees. You're the Goddamn Batman, and Batman is a master of all.

The fighting mechanic is quite simple, the brunt of moves are performed by a full 4 buttons. The game doesn't give you the freedom to decide when to kick or punch; positioning, mobility and later on timing are what matters here. The resultant combat is fluid and fun, but does tend to devolve into a bit of a button masher in larger fights, even more when you want to actively use your wide array of gadgets. Some of the more hardcore beat'em up fans might complain about the lack of direct input, but honestly, it just works.
Speaking of gadgets, the classic batarang and batclaw have received the company of several new gizmo's and novel uses of old equipment. A sort of electro-gun and an ice grenade are perhaps the most obvious new ones, both have various uses in combat and to cleverly interact with the gameworld.
Stealth gameplay is similar to the previous game. Gargoyles and grates abound as usual, add some smoke pellets and several new instant knockout moves on your side, and IR glasses and electrical interference equipment on their side... and clearing out rooms silently can be quite the challenge. Especially when one of the smarter foes has decided to destroy your favourite escape gargoyle, just when his buddy with the automatic shotgun has a bead on you.

In the end, the fighting makes you truly feel you're Batman, a physically perfect specimen rigorously trained in a wide array of combat techniques. You're powerful and won't hesitate to engage large groups of mooks, using gadgets and dazzling moves with ease, without making you an invincible god of war. Slip up at the wrong time and you will hurt. Which is doubly painful due to the major villain's scathing remarks at your death.
The game is quite smart in 'forcing' you to use all your abilities as well. Most fights can be finished with the aforementioned 4 buttons. But when encountering enemies with knives or guns, add some gadgets and near impossible, minutes long sludge-fests suddenly become a whole lot more manageable.

To top it off, you also have a few Catwoman sequences. They're no drastic change from the core mechanics, but the variation in combat abilities is welcome and does feel different enough not to be completely superfluous.

Graphics

Unfortunately the promised DX11 mode is broken at the moment. My rig might not be completely up-to-date anymore but a measly and very unstable 20-25 fps is not playable.
Don't fret about that though. The game is simply gorgeous.

The art direction is superb, from the dark and eery Gothic buildings spread over the city over the steel mills in their warm orange glow to the desolateness of past glory in an underground city. The created atmosphere draws you in as not many games do. Comic book villains and their henchman often look silly, to put it mildly, but the artists have made it work. This Joker isn't zany or kitsch, he's gritty, grim and damn dangerous looking. To illustrate further, the game manages to make a mook dressed up as a toy soldier not look silly, but menacing.

Technicalities of graphics aren't my strong point. But even I can say that the attention for detail in models is amazing. Some textures might not be as sharp or load as fast as you'd have hoped for, and there's a few instances where I thought especially character models could have used just a tad more attention. But those all pale into oblivion when looking at the result.
Animations are splendid, Batman and Catwoman's acrobatics feel fluid and smooth while still feeling correctly weighted. Sometimes there's a few hitches in the freeflow combat system where punches don't actually connect, but only a stickler would trip over that. I even have to admit I spent a few minutes just looking at Catwoman's derrière while she was simply walking along.

Sound

What can I say about this? In a game with so many strengths this might be what it does best.
Just look at the voice actor cast: Mark Hamill and his unparalleled Joker and Kevin Conroy with his definitive Batman (Christian Bale doesn't even reach his ankles). Add a whole lot more names from the DC Animated Universe that have shaped how these popular characters sound for a whole generation, and this is a constant feast for your ears.

I'm a big fan of subtle musical scores, I hate it when the music becomes overly loud or bombastic as it tends to pull you back out of the game (in my experience at least). The best music for a game is one that you don't truly notice, as it's a seamless part of the experience. And this delivers just that.

The literally only downside I can think of is the one sound effect when you defeat a final enemy in an area. It just sounds a bit wrong to my ears. But this is really trying to find a flaw.

Replayability/longevity

The main plot will keep you occupied for quite a few hours itself, if I make a rough estimate based on my Steam stats it will take about 14 hours for that alone. But that's not including the sidequests, the Riddler's euh... riddles and challenges and the many challenge maps. I can't give a decent estimate of those as I've barely touched them after 18h of playing.
And that's not even mentioning the plus mode that unlocks after finishing the main plot once. In this mode you replay all your gadgets and unlocks are immediately available, but your enemies have become faster, tougher and more heavily armed as well.

Once all that's done, I'm fairly certain you'll be saturated for a while and you won't discover anything new anymore. However, this is one of those high quality games that months later will be a blast to play, even if you've essentially seen it all and done it all before.

Final verdict

Simple, this is a must-buy for anyone even remotely familiar with the concept of either Batman or action/adventure-games.
There's a few down sides, like the retarded use of GFWL, some minor console port issues (texture loading, some awkward controls). But these are hardly noticeable compared to the pile of yummy goodness this title delivers.

I'm not a big fan of giving scores, but people seem to like'm, so here they are

gameplay: 9/10
plot: 8/10 (this score is a bit hard to reflect in the actual body of a review without spoilering everything)
graphics: 8/10 (would be higher, but a DX11 game with a barely functioning DX11 functionality is a big no-no)
sound:10/10
replayability/longevity:8/10

Final score (not an average): 93/100

**Boustrophedon** · December 07, 2011, 04:07 PM

Good review

I'll probably buy this game once prices have dropped...

**Manco** · January 30, 2012, 04:01 PM

I know I said I was going to revisit this review.
But frankly, I stand by it. This is a damn good game

**Silent Assassin** · January 31, 2012, 12:12 PM

Yes the game is good and the lenght of it is nice even if you don't do all the sidequests

**Lord Rahl** · January 31, 2012, 03:43 PM

I played this game on the 360 but it should be known that the beginning of the game is one of the coolest you'll ever play in a video game.

**King Gambrinus** · February 08, 2012, 05:24 PM

One really annoying thing I found was getting to side missions that looked interesting, but we're just too hard to find. Like that weird Alien guy that you meet at the start. I was like "wow this looks awesome" but finding him in an entire city with no hint whatsoever is really frustrating. Also Mr Freeze's side mission was impossible to find...

I don't know why, but I preferred Arkham Asylum. The mechanics fitted well in that environment, and it felt more spooky and mysterious. It seems like Rocksteady just took the game mechanics to a free roam Arkham City, which in theory sounds pretty orgasmic, but didn't really work in Arkham City. While moving about is fluid and well executed, you almost always get detected while free roaming, and just hearing gunfire makes my blood boil if I'm Batman. Stealth should've been far more polished and reviewed in that respect, instead of taking the Asylum model.

Otherwise, it's a superb game, great review.

**Stívarðr Reynitré** · February 08, 2012, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by Lord Rahl

I played this game on the 360 but it should be known that the beginning of the game is one of the coolest you'll ever play in a video game.

I like a game that oozes atmosphere from the onset; one that engulfs you within it's world and casts reality aside for a few hours.

A game that has you considering the possibilities within the first few seconds. If you believe the world you exist in, even in just that split second, your heart skips a beat when you return to reality and realise that this is something you want to keep throwing yourself back into.

Dramatic, yes.

But sincere? Don't you doubt it, people.

**Lord Rahl** · February 08, 2012, 05:47 PM

I agree with you. In some ways the game was better than Arkham Asylum, with the improved, or what I consider to have been improved, combat fluidity, added gadgets, and Catwoman, but I think they pushed just a bit too far with the game. Having a much more open world was a logical step forward but in some respects it didn't feel open enough (or in other words, too tightly packed) and it also changed the "feel" of the game, as you mentioned. Arkham Asylum made you feel much more of a lone stealthy predator. Also, while the addition of more villains is welcome, having too many can be a problem, an overload.

But still, the game is very well done, extremely fun, and damn well worth purchasing.

You mentioned an "Alien guy". I'm not exactly sure who you're talking about. Maybe Azrael? You're having the same problem my friend had with finding him, if that is who you're talking about. He shows up randomly and always a fair distance away just standing. In that way he's supposed to be mysterious because you sometimes don't see him if you're not paying enough attention. Oh, and if you see him and throw your remote-controlled batarang at him he'll catch it and you'll get an achievement for it, at least on the 360.

**rkoziol7** · February 25, 2012, 05:27 AM

I have heard that the console version of the game is better than PC one. But what could be different about it?

**Ishan** · February 25, 2012, 08:58 AM

I ended this game 3 times already

so replayability/longevity is definitely there something i didn't find in AC:Revelations (although quite different games), just saying.

Both BM: AA & this one are both awesome, although in this one i quite enjoyed the fact that there wasn't any ghostly crap like the one scarecrow gave in the former game, hallucinations and such, there was something similar like demon stage\fight with Ras al ghul in this one & the mad hatter stage but i enjoyed it more.

Side quests are really awesome too, they help is delaying the actual game, i mean in such games i don't wanna rush out and end it, just sit back and go slow and easy on the game. Also if someone is going to start playing this game then i recommend to use 2 upgrades, the "critical strike" and "combo x5" one first of all and then later on workout on other upgrades, these 2 upgrades help in collecting more experience in early stages on the game when enemies are very easy to beat and rack up flawless combos.

Btw i really found that political prisoners quest quite funny. "Where are my cigarettes? I told you to get me some. Now i have to break your finger." I usually waited a while before i rescued them lol.

Also always sit around a while and listen to the convos, they are really interesting and in fact in some places quite helpful. I mean i heard a few convos before entering the museum and it really scared the crap out of me and that stage was quite awesome.

Originally Posted by The Illusionist

One really annoying thing I found was getting to side missions that looked interesting, but we're just too hard to find. Like that weird Alien guy that you meet at the start. I was like "wow this looks awesome" but finding him in an entire city with no hint whatsoever is really frustrating. Also Mr Freeze's side mission was impossible to find...

Yeah that's the guy Rahl's talking about, he is' quite easy to find really, (just cruise around using detective mode and find a single guy being highlighted as blue in an absurd location):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Spoiler for What i found hard:

**King Gambrinus** · February 26, 2012, 07:03 AM

@Ishan : Thanks a lot. +rep

I think I'll follow your advice and really go through the side missions instead of rushing through the game next time. The main story is also really good though.

I'll also decide to ditch Bruce with catwoman next time to see what happens

.

I think that part was specifically put there so you could get used to the dive and its mechanics, which early game I just couldn't get to grips with, but after you get used to it its quite useful.

**Captain Arrrgh!** · February 26, 2012, 07:01 PM

I was addicted to the fighting bonus levels for the longest time. Pulling off uninterrupted combos was really satisfying. I ended up liking these side challenges with the DLC characters more than the main game. Nightwing's moves were just too cool.

**Ishan** · February 27, 2012, 09:23 PM

@Illusionist.
No problem mate & i can understand it was also tempting for me to quit the side stuff and get on and continue with the main story.

Originally Posted by Captain Arrrgh!

I was addicted to the fighting bonus levels for the longest time. Pulling off uninterrupted combos was really satisfying. I ended up liking these side challenges with the DLC characters more than the main game. Nightwing's moves were just too cool.

Very true & maybe it's just me but night wing's movement or combos are a bit slow as in they add an advantage to rack up more hits without enemy attacking from behind when performing a special combo move.
Small small things in this game are really cool, like when batman grabs a bat and breaks it into small pieces lol or when he disassembles a gun.