Number 1 Son Reviews Batman: Arkham City

Here are Number 1 Son's thoughts on the new Batman game:

When I first saw The Dark Knight, I was amazed. It managed to accomplish the most difficult task of a sequel: surpassing the original. The movie managed to be so much better than Batman Begins in just about every single way that it was able to overcome the expectations that the audience already had. I had a similar experience this weekend with Batman: Arkham City.

A while ago I reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum and said that it was a truly amazing game, and one of my all time favorites. Well, Arkham City is better in almost every single way. The story, the characters, the environment, and the gameplay (for the most part) are all vastly improved over its predecessor, and managed to blow me away even after I heard about the fantastic critical reception it received.

I'll start with the gameplay. It's very similar to the gameplay in the first game, with an emphasis on stealth and a free flow combat system, both complemented by a large array of gadgets. Batman still has the option to go into Detective Mode, which highlights anything important, although in this game it blurs almost everything else, making it harder to use it to just run around looking for secrets (and there are a ton, more on that later). Detective Mode is most useful during the Predator parts of the game, where you are in a room (or occasionally outside) in an area with a large number of armed enemies and must take them out without being seen (because guns drain your health faster than just about anything else). These parts were in the first game, though they are more fleshed out. For one thing, the enemies are smarter in this one, and several times noticed the perches in the room that I was using and destroying a few of them to make things harder. There are also a few times where a particular enemy that is messing up your Detective Vision. In a few of the last ones there are guys who lay mines around the room, although a certain gadget can help that.

Speaking of gadgets, this game has a lot of the ones from the first game, plus a few more. One of the new gadgets is a smoke bomb, which allows Batman to escape from gun-wielding enemies ninja style. Another option, though, is to use this confusion to simply beat up the goons using the excellent (though difficult to master) combat system. This, like the Predator missions, has also been fleshed out more, with new enemies that appear (with riot shields, for instance) more frequently than special enemies did in the first game.

There are some changes I don't like. In the first game several gadgets had a key that would just automatically target and launch them. This is true in Arkham City but this time quick firing is done by pressing the key used to equip the gadget twice, which takes longer and can be hard to do correctly under pressure, which is when you most want to use the feature. Also, Batman chooses targets for his grapnel gun automatically. This was true in the first game, but in this game you are in a city, which means that there are a lot more potential targets, and often when I was in a hurry I grappled to something I didn't want to.

Well, that done, let's talk about the story. It's one of the best Batman stories I've ever seen, but I'll need to start with some set up. The game takes place a year and a half after the events of the first game, and Quincy Sharpe (the warden of Arkham from the first game) has now become mayor. In an attempt to rid Gotham of crime, Sharpe has enacted a controversial (and by that I mean highly illegal and unconstitutional) project: the titular Arkham City. Sharpe has bought out a large waterfront portion of Gotham, walled it off, and dumped every inmate of Blackgate (the normal prison near Gotham) and Arkham inside, along with everyone with any sort of criminal record, whether or not they have served their sentence. The prisoners are basically allowed to do whatever they want so long as they don't try to leave, so Joker, Two Face, and Penguin have all formed gangs and are in a bloody gang war. They are kept in by a private security group known as TYGER, whose loyalties are in question, especially as the game goes on.

So, the game begins as Bruce Wayne (voiced by Kevin Conroy, who voiced the Dark Knight in Batman the Animated Series) surprises Gotham with a sudden interest in politics when he holds a press conference to announce that he is beginning a campaign to shut down Arkham City, on the grounds that it is unsafe for the people of Gotham. During the conference, however, TYGER members show up and arrest Wayne, bringing him to Arkham City, where he meets the Warden: Hugo Strange, who reveals that he knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, and has big plans to eliminate both Batman, and the need for Batman. After he is released into Arkham proper Bruce Wayne is dragged off by the Penguin, who has some sort of vendetta against the Waynes, but Bruce breaks free, beats up Penguin's guards, and climbs a nearby building, where his gear is airlifted in. From there he goes to an old courthouse, where Two Face has captured Catwoman and plans to execute her. After Two Face is dealt with, Catwoman tells Batman what she knows, and says that Joker may have some sort of deal with Strange. Since this can't be good, Batman goes after the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill, also as in the animated series) but is captured.

When he comes to he sees Joker for the first time since the events of the first game, and he doesn't look good. It turns out that during the first game Joker's blood was poisoned, and he's about a day away from dying. Batman doesn't really have a problem with this, but Joker reveals that he has transfused some of his blood into Batman as well as sending samples of his blood to emergency rooms all over Gotham, meaning that Batman has just as much of an interest in finding a cure as Joker. Joker says that Mr. Freeze had been working on a cure, but he lost contact, so Batman goes off to find him.

From there the plot turns into a giant race for the cure, as Batman's physical exertion is causing the poison to work faster in him, and Joker (and the rest of Gotham) doesn't have much more time. Along the way, Batman struggles with Mr. Freeze, Penguin, R'as al Ghul and his daughter Talia, and some other villains who make up the side quests in this game. Over all of it looms Hugo Strange, who looks over Arkham City from a tower in the center (think Eiffel Tower combined with Space Needle) and his ominous plans for the mysterious "Protocol 10," which gradually comes closer to initiation.

In short, the plot is amazing. Every time I thought that the game was being really epic, it managed to raise the bar even more, right up until the end. There are surprising turns all the time, and you can never be quite sure what is going to happen. The game as a whole is awesome, one of the best games ever made, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I just hope my bar for Batman stuff hasn't been raised too high for the Nolans' film next summer.