This review contains spoilers
This review will contain spoilers.
Same as my Return to Arkham Asylum review, I will review the game as normal and comment on the remaster at the end.
There is a reason that this game is considered the best superhero game of all time. Over a decade old and it still holds up sensationally, so much so that it buts current gen releases to shame.
First off I think that the general story is a massive improvement from Asylum, Hugo Strange is a really menacing villain who works as a mysterious main antagonist while Batman is flying around beating up his usual rogues gallery. Speaking of said rogues gallery, pretty much everyone of importance is in this game. Every villain from Asylum (Except Scarecrow) makes an appearance along side other franchise main stays like Penguin, Two-Face, Ras Al Ghul, Catwoman, Clayface and Mad Hatter. Each villain is performed excellently and given a decent amount of screentime despite being mostly side characters.
I found the story to be very short on this playthrough. Considering the main story takes place across the 10 hours before protocol 10, I actually never noticed how quickly the game progressed from part to part. I much prefer the opening part of this game to its later half as I think it rushes a bit near the end. I noticed this majorly after the Ras Al Ghul boss fight and before i knew it I was fighting Mr Freeze then Clayface and then the game was over. I also like the mystery that is prevalent in the beginning half of the game, surrounding the Joker's health and what Protocol 10 is. That being said I love this games ending and the Jokers death is done really well and the twist with the clayface doppelganger is really obvious on replay but still great for first time players. Performances were on point as always the the two goats Conroy and Hamill doing their best work as Batman and Joker.
The boss fights in this game are a massive step up from Asylum. Despite there only being 4 main boss fights it has two of the best in the whole franchise. Mr Freeze and my personal favourite Clayface. The Grundy boss fight is really good aswell but I think the Ras Al Ghul boss is a bit weak compared to the others but I actually liked it a lot more on this playthrough.
Gameplay wise lots of amazing QOL additions to improve upon the groundwork Asylum set out. Great new gadgets like smoke bombs and the electrical gun thing. New enemy types like the body armoured, shield and bladed enemies. Great improvements to the combat to make it more fluid. Along side improved traversal and a much more explorable map.
Im in two minds about the map. On one hand I love the atmosphere and the idea of part of a city being sectioned off to house dangerous prisoners is really dystopian. On the other hand I really dont like traversing around this map. I think that having a big area that you cant fly across bang in the middle of the map really annoying especially when you have to travel from somewhere like the museum all the way to the steel mill which mean you have to zip across the whole map.
Side content wise it actually has some unlike Asylum. However quite controversially I dont care for City's side content at all. I really like the hush and mad hatter missions but apart from that none stand out to me at all. The riddler content in this game is ridiculous and I still havent even came close to completing it and ive played this game like 4 times in my life.
Score and visual wise both have aged amazingly. This games score is heavenly especially that main theme. Visuals looks great both on the old and new versions. I didnt really notice the weird character designs of the remaster outside of the game over screens. So apart from that I dont really have any complaints about the remaster. It provides a way for people to play these games on new consoles and it adds all the DLC for free. I was lucky enough to have no performance issues so I cant comment on the technical side.
Speaking of DLC I will talk about the Harley Quinn one separately but the Catwoman one is a nice change to the pace and also gives screen time to more villains like Ivy and Two-Face. Also being able to play as Catwoman is pretty cool.
Overall, despite all the amazing features this game adds I still prefer Asylum slightly. Both are 9/10's in my book but I give the edge to Asylum for the Atmosphere and Scarecrow/Croc segments. Batman Arkham City is a modern classic and should 100% be played by everyone at some point in their lives.
Same as my Return to Arkham Asylum review, I will review the game as normal and comment on the remaster at the end.
There is a reason that this game is considered the best superhero game of all time. Over a decade old and it still holds up sensationally, so much so that it buts current gen releases to shame.
First off I think that the general story is a massive improvement from Asylum, Hugo Strange is a really menacing villain who works as a mysterious main antagonist while Batman is flying around beating up his usual rogues gallery. Speaking of said rogues gallery, pretty much everyone of importance is in this game. Every villain from Asylum (Except Scarecrow) makes an appearance along side other franchise main stays like Penguin, Two-Face, Ras Al Ghul, Catwoman, Clayface and Mad Hatter. Each villain is performed excellently and given a decent amount of screentime despite being mostly side characters.
I found the story to be very short on this playthrough. Considering the main story takes place across the 10 hours before protocol 10, I actually never noticed how quickly the game progressed from part to part. I much prefer the opening part of this game to its later half as I think it rushes a bit near the end. I noticed this majorly after the Ras Al Ghul boss fight and before i knew it I was fighting Mr Freeze then Clayface and then the game was over. I also like the mystery that is prevalent in the beginning half of the game, surrounding the Joker's health and what Protocol 10 is. That being said I love this games ending and the Jokers death is done really well and the twist with the clayface doppelganger is really obvious on replay but still great for first time players. Performances were on point as always the the two goats Conroy and Hamill doing their best work as Batman and Joker.
The boss fights in this game are a massive step up from Asylum. Despite there only being 4 main boss fights it has two of the best in the whole franchise. Mr Freeze and my personal favourite Clayface. The Grundy boss fight is really good aswell but I think the Ras Al Ghul boss is a bit weak compared to the others but I actually liked it a lot more on this playthrough.
Gameplay wise lots of amazing QOL additions to improve upon the groundwork Asylum set out. Great new gadgets like smoke bombs and the electrical gun thing. New enemy types like the body armoured, shield and bladed enemies. Great improvements to the combat to make it more fluid. Along side improved traversal and a much more explorable map.
Im in two minds about the map. On one hand I love the atmosphere and the idea of part of a city being sectioned off to house dangerous prisoners is really dystopian. On the other hand I really dont like traversing around this map. I think that having a big area that you cant fly across bang in the middle of the map really annoying especially when you have to travel from somewhere like the museum all the way to the steel mill which mean you have to zip across the whole map.
Side content wise it actually has some unlike Asylum. However quite controversially I dont care for City's side content at all. I really like the hush and mad hatter missions but apart from that none stand out to me at all. The riddler content in this game is ridiculous and I still havent even came close to completing it and ive played this game like 4 times in my life.
Score and visual wise both have aged amazingly. This games score is heavenly especially that main theme. Visuals looks great both on the old and new versions. I didnt really notice the weird character designs of the remaster outside of the game over screens. So apart from that I dont really have any complaints about the remaster. It provides a way for people to play these games on new consoles and it adds all the DLC for free. I was lucky enough to have no performance issues so I cant comment on the technical side.
Speaking of DLC I will talk about the Harley Quinn one separately but the Catwoman one is a nice change to the pace and also gives screen time to more villains like Ivy and Two-Face. Also being able to play as Catwoman is pretty cool.
Overall, despite all the amazing features this game adds I still prefer Asylum slightly. Both are 9/10's in my book but I give the edge to Asylum for the Atmosphere and Scarecrow/Croc segments. Batman Arkham City is a modern classic and should 100% be played by everyone at some point in their lives.
5 Comments
@RedBackLoggd That's completely fair, My problem with the Ras boss fight might be affected by the fact that im not really interested in the whole league of shadows aspect of Batman stories so that part of City always drags a bit for me. My opinion on the fight itself has changed a lot from when I first played, after sitting with it for a while I probably hold the Grundy fight and the Ras fight in the same regard. Are you sure that the Catwoman stuff was always part of the main game? I don't remember having it when I first played through City on the 360 but I could be wrong, its been years since I touched the 360 version. As for the map I think its just a personal issue lol, Ive always preferred traversing through the other games maps.
Sorry bud, but nerd clarification - it's League of Assassins. Nolan renamed them the League of Shadows for some unknown reason 🤓
Yeah that's fair, I love Paul Dini but idk what he was thinking making the League Trial this boring flight and fight schematic.
Huh, you know I did some research, and it looks like you're right - unless you had preordered the game (like my copy was), they were made a DLC. So I apologize for that, that's definitely surprising to hear that it was made a DLC technically.
Yeah that's fair, I love Paul Dini but idk what he was thinking making the League Trial this boring flight and fight schematic.
Huh, you know I did some research, and it looks like you're right - unless you had preordered the game (like my copy was), they were made a DLC. So I apologize for that, that's definitely surprising to hear that it was made a DLC technically.
@RedBackLoggd Oh shit so it is haha, cant believe i got that mixed up. I think I've always called it the league of shadows which is embarrassing considering how much of a Batman fan I am.
Yeah it really is just the gliding part because I liked the wonder city part a lot more this time through. Dont really know how following a blue line across multiple platforms proves that Batman is a worthy successor lol
Yeah it really is just the gliding part because I liked the wonder city part a lot more this time through. Dont really know how following a blue line across multiple platforms proves that Batman is a worthy successor lol
You're good, those movies were insanely influential on popularizing the character haha.
LOL
LOL
RedBackLoggd
2 months ago
Great review, though I do have my disagreements - I didn't find the map that overbearing since, once you get the zipline upgrade, it's pretty quick to travel through it.
The Grundy bossfight was definitely weaker than the Ra's one as all you were doing was blowing up the floor reactors. Regardless, they were both miles above the trash in Knight.
Catwoman wasn't a DLC, she was a part of the main game.