Having recently replayed Asylum, I've found a new appreciation for City. Arkham City itself is a really cool setting. The story reasons for it existing are really stupid, but the location itself is really interesting. The open world was much better than I remembered, being small enough to be easy to traverse, while being dense enough to constantly be finding new things and never have it get stale.
The combat in City is much improved over Asylum, feeling more kinetic and more impactful while simultaneously giving you more options at any given moment. The boss fights are much improved, but they still aren't great, the only real highlight being the final boss. I think the Ra's fight is cool conceptually but in terms of gameplay its just a big group of normal enemies to fight.
My only real complaint here is the story. It has it's moments and in general is pretty good but it drops the ball at times it really shouldn't. Hugo Strange is wasted here. They spend the whole game building up Protocol 10, but when it comes time for it to happen it doesn't feel like a massive event it just feels like they got more invested in the Joker story but realized last minute they had to wrap up both Strange and Ra's al Ghul's story so they just kinda rushed an ending. Sadly, that goes for the actual ending too. It feels rushed and while what happens is impactful, it needed more buildup. It feels like about half of that entire Joker story happened right there in those last couple cutscenes and it needed more room to breathe. Most of the game is well paced but after a certain point it felt incredibly rushed. I also don't like the way Harley is just kinda thrown to the side for most of the game. The only times she actually does anything is at the beginning and in the DLC.
I actually really liked the DLCs. The Catwoman stuff was really fun and a nice change of pace. I actually really like Catwoman in this game in general. I like her design a lot and think she's a really fun character. The other DLC that takes place after the end of the game was a nice epilogue that I felt the game itself was sorely lacking. For starters, they actually gave Robin something to do instead of the one cutscene he gets in the main game. It also is the only time in the game Harley feels like she's actually doing something. I like her mourning design a lot too.
The combat in City is much improved over Asylum, feeling more kinetic and more impactful while simultaneously giving you more options at any given moment. The boss fights are much improved, but they still aren't great, the only real highlight being the final boss. I think the Ra's fight is cool conceptually but in terms of gameplay its just a big group of normal enemies to fight.
My only real complaint here is the story. It has it's moments and in general is pretty good but it drops the ball at times it really shouldn't. Hugo Strange is wasted here. They spend the whole game building up Protocol 10, but when it comes time for it to happen it doesn't feel like a massive event it just feels like they got more invested in the Joker story but realized last minute they had to wrap up both Strange and Ra's al Ghul's story so they just kinda rushed an ending. Sadly, that goes for the actual ending too. It feels rushed and while what happens is impactful, it needed more buildup. It feels like about half of that entire Joker story happened right there in those last couple cutscenes and it needed more room to breathe. Most of the game is well paced but after a certain point it felt incredibly rushed. I also don't like the way Harley is just kinda thrown to the side for most of the game. The only times she actually does anything is at the beginning and in the DLC.
I actually really liked the DLCs. The Catwoman stuff was really fun and a nice change of pace. I actually really like Catwoman in this game in general. I like her design a lot and think she's a really fun character. The other DLC that takes place after the end of the game was a nice epilogue that I felt the game itself was sorely lacking. For starters, they actually gave Robin something to do instead of the one cutscene he gets in the main game. It also is the only time in the game Harley feels like she's actually doing something. I like her mourning design a lot too.