Batman: Arkham City has earned it's place in the gaming greats. My personal 2nd Favorite behind Arkham Knight, although this game does have some better aspects than knight. The story here is the best with Batman being trapped in a city full of evey villain he's put away. The joker contracting aids from the large epidemic going around, and needs a cure. The game play is a signicant improvement over knight, overhauling the freeflow combat system the game is known for. The side content is so great it doesn't feel like a chore. The story is amplifyed by the side content, but not necessary. The Catwoman segments were just as good as the Batman ones. I recommend this to anyone who wants to get into the Arkham Games as this is a must play. 9/10

Solidified the Arkham Series as the GOAT



I'll admit that going back to play Arkham City after almost 150 hours on Knight is a bit of a chore but looking past the somewhat dated gameplay this game really has it all. It has probably the best story out of any videogame ever, some of the coolest suits in any videogame, and an amazing setting.

The open world was super overwhelming to me at first, and I still think the game's structure, specifically the side content, makes literally no sense with the "muhuhaha you will die by tonight batman, tick tick it's almost time, you will die soon lil bro, maybe find a cure if you can trololol" plot, but I really liked this!

Like, I think the overwhelming feeling was intentional, since Arkham City's one massive fucked up prison, but its pretty weird that we've got him trying to track down Deadshot on a side quest while he's a few hours away from fucking dying, especially when the story keeps pointing out how little time he has left. Makes for really weird pacing, which is funny when that's one of the things Asylum nailed.

I'm okay with that though because the actual gameplay is really solid. Gliding as Batman across the city is EXTREMELY satisfying, especially after you've gotten the grapple boost upgrade, and the stealth/combat is still fun like it was in Asylum. I found the bosses interesting here too (Mr. Freeze's was neat especially). Catwoman's traversal is awful though, and that final mission with her was really annoying.. I find it really funny how the game presents a choice with her, and upon choosing the wrong one the game just rolls the credits. I thought that was neat lol

Everyone who adores this game always points out how good the story is, and while I think the ending is really well done (love that thing with the credits), everything preceding the final hour or so of story was just alright? The story is great in the sense that it finds a good way to weave in as many batman villains as possible without it feeling too game-y, but besides that it's just an alright go-here, find-this-villain, go-there, find-this-villain, though I do question opening the game with the big "HUGO KNOWS WHO BRUCE IS" when literally nothing happens with it. I did like the Talia and Ras part but they feel out of place for whatever reason, just comes out of nowhere I guess? There's this air of stuff being a little contrived, but that's like a really stupid nitpick to make honestly considering this is both a superhero story and a videogame. Also, I have no idea how (un)popular this opinion is, but Arkham Batman/Bruce is pretty meh to me. I understand that he's stoic, and you do see little bits of emotion (he's sarcastic with Oracle sometimes), but he's about as interesting as a plank of wood, and it also sucks that the game's lead people to think Batman's always a dick and smashes random robbers' ribcages on the daily.

As a complete experience, it was pretty good, and ended right as I was starting to get tired of it. I can see why it was so beloved; way bigger scale and more grandiose than Asylum, would've blown 8 year old me's mind. I'll admit the Batman fanboy in me gave an extra half star just because you could play as Nightwing and Robin in the challenge maps (TIM HAS THE RED ROBIN SUIT AAAAAAA) (they have their own animations and gadgets!!)

Speaking of gadgets, I can't help but think of how much better this game handles them and breaking up the flow of the superhero gameplay than Insomniac did with Spider-Man (2018).

neat game !

Senti uma pequena nostalgia pq eu jogava direto esse jogo no xbox360 quando eu era menor, mas nunca cheguei a zera por medo e burrice. Ao mesmo tempo q eu tinha medo desse jogo, eu achava um maximo todo esse Batman Dark e os krl 4.

Dps de um tempo q eu zerei Arkham asylum e ter achado o jogo bom (somente bom), Decidi joga a continuação e QUE CONTINUAÇÃO. Nunca pensei q um desses jogos do Batman iam me surpreender assim.

Eu fico felizao de saber q esse jogo q eu jogava é realmente um jogaço q eu acreditava ser quando menor.

Complex thoughts on this one, while gameplay wise it improves on asylum in every single way, the atmosphere and creativity that made asylum so cool is severely downgraded here. This might be because they wanted a new art direction more inspired by the Nolan movies, and I dont like those movies so makes sense im not as into it.

To add to this, I didnt do any of the side content, imagine its high quality and pushes the game further than the main story, but I just wasnt invested enough to try them. I think the core problem is that I just dont really care about batman, this game bleeds love for batman, and assumes the player has it to, if you dont, I think a lot of the game doesnt hit like it wants to.

Lastly, maybe its in the side-content, but there are not a lot of memorable moments in the game, wonder city and the bossfight with Ras were amazing, and I wish it had more stuff like that. The ending and a lot of other missions felt underwhelming. For as underbaked a lot of asylums gameplay was, memorable moments were NOT missing.

All this being said, a 7/10 is the lowest score I can give, the game is really good, just doesnt do much for me personally. Im sure if I played the side-content (and gave any level of fucks about batman) it wouldhve been an 8 or 9