For starters, take a look at the graphics. They're pretty dang good, but what I'm most impressed about is the way the look captures everything about Batman. It's dark, gritty and decrepit. It suits Batman's universe so well. The characters also look great. They are all very cool and suited to the art style. Enough about the graphics though, what truly defines these characters are their actions, motivations and personality. You can see these in most of the villains like Mr. Freeze and the Joker, but there are some characters which aren't fully brought out to meet their true potential. Joker is present the whole game, less so then Arkham Asylum, but still there. You understand his motives and style through encounters and the messages he leaves you. Mr. Freeze is also a fairly present villain, and because of that he is intersting. But there are a few villains who don't quite get it...say, Poison Ivy and Two-Face. These are some of the baddies that feel as though they were added in because the developers had some cool ideas, but their characters are seen for a total of...maybe 10 minutes for Two-Face and a minute and a half for Miss Isley. If they included these guys, then why not give them bigger parts? Anyway, onto the only other slightly disappointing aspect of the game. The story. It's actually a pretty solid narrative, but the way it's told sometime hurts it. You have to go to the next objective, but because of the open world nature of the game you do lose track of the story a little. When you go off and beat up goons, or do side missions or whatever, you may forget why you're going after Penguin in the museum when you were just at the Steel Mill fighting with Joker. You lose the feel of the story if you take too big a gaps between missions, which you will probably do because the game is so much fun otherwise. Nevertheless, it's still well told with a lot of fan service inside.
The Gameplay...wow. Words can't describe it...oh hold on
The gameplay is fast paced, yet very deep. Arkham City follows the same system as Asylum, losing nothing except the throw ability and adding in so much more. Every time you hit someone your combo increases. If you miss a hit or get hit yourself and your combo breaks and you have to start all over again. You have to build up a combo to be able to pull off special moves like a one hit takedown or a weapon break or mega stun. Or if you don't want to use them and just keep going, you need to build an even higher combo to get freeflow focus which makes everything move slower except you. Basically, you want to keep dat combo. However, not every thug goes down easy. Some enemies have knives that have to be countered differently, some have tasers that you need to jump behind. Some have riot shields that you need to perform ariel attacks to get around. Some have armour that you have to perform beat downs on and well, yeah...a lot of variation. It's a lot to think about in such a small space of time and if you break your combo, you really kick yourself. Very rarely will you get frustrated when you break it though, because the combat makes it very hard for anyone but you to make the mistake. Hardly ever the game's fault, almost all the time yours. Once or twice I thought it was questionable on how my combo broke even though I moved the control stick in the right direction, but hey. New stuff has been added to make combat more interesting and varied. There's freeflow focus as mentioned before, beat downs which see you unleashing quick blows to take down a single enemy while he remains standing, ariel attacks which are needed for riot shields, mega stuns which knock an enemy to the ground if performed and four special moves which are awesome. Gadgets have also been better incorporated into fighting. You can quickfire the batarang as always and the quickfire batclaw comes with a special move which is pretty handy. You can now quickfire explosive gel, but I find this clunky and hard to use. The remote electrical charge is useful every now and then but one of the best standouts is the freeze bomb. You throw it and an enemy will be frozen for a long period of time. Mad fun. The other aspect to beating up goons is stealth. You can grapple up to the gargoyles and plot your next attack, or be really aggressive and try to take down everyone as fast as possible, your call. Stealthiness is less suicidal though. You can use Batman's gadgets to find inventive ways of taking down enemies along with silent and not so silent takedowns. It's thrilling to take down a guy and make an escape just before somebody sees you. Stealth is freaking awesome in short and there are both Combat and Predator Challenge maps to get medals in. Additionally to the crime fighting you'll be doing in Arkham City, the Riddler has also made a return. He leaves riddles which are harder to find because City is much larger than Asylum making it more difficult to see the answer, and trophies. Most trophies have a tough puzzle solving them which make them more rewarding to find. You also unlock rewards like Challenge rooms and character trophies and concept art with more frequency than in Asylum. Riddler stuff overwhelming you? Can't find the answers? You don't have to do them, but if you want to, there is a new system which helps you locate the trophies easily. At time, you'll se a thug lit in green. This indicates he can be interrogated for Riddler secrets. The catch, you must beat everyone but he. It's interesting trying to keep your combo going while still trying to keep him conscious. The reason for solving Riddles is much better now. Riddler has taken hostages and he will only reveal the location of said hostage when you've found enough secrets. When you find a hostage, you have to rescue them from a Saw like Death Trap. They're fun too. There are a fair few side quests that are also very cool. More so, this game makes you feel like you're Batman. Everything you do feels like something the caped crusader himself would do. Catwoman is in the game too, but she's DLC...sort of. I'll give a review of her later, but this game can be considered a masterpiece by any standards. I have heard people say that they prefer Asylum, and I can see why, but City is a much more fulfilling experience WITH POTENTIAL FOR A SEQUEL!!! I love this game. If only Skyward Sword wasn't standing in the way then it would be my personal favourite game. A masterpiece. A godsend. It's not the game we deserve, but the one we need right now. Amazing. Have you bought it yet?
Can I have a medal please?
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