Batman: Arkham City is a “U.S. Prison Systems” simulator and open-world “metroidvania” superhero game developed by Rocksteady, whose previous creations include the middle-ground Urban Chaos: Riot Response and the critically acclaimed influential Batman: Arkham Asylum. The road to creating the sequel was easy, having teased an easter egg in Asylum beforehand relating to the blueprint layout of Arkham City hidden behind walls in Warden Sharp’s office. The game would be inspired by numerous different comics in the Batman mythos, specifically No Man’s Land (where a major earthquake hits Gotham City and separates it from the rest of the country) but apparently also has influences from various other runs like Batman: Hush, Tales From the Demon and Prey according to numerous different fans. I know nothing about any of these except the No Man’s Land run which I heard was legendary, but I am aware that the game was also promoted with two different tie-in comics (“Arkham City” and “Arkham Unhinged”. Other apparent ideas thrown out were a considered multiplayer component, which while later reused for the prequel Arkham: Origins, was thrown out here in order to focus on a quality single player game, along with the idea of putting in different narratives for Batman, Catwoman AND Robin and while Batman and Catwoman were put into the game, it’s only for short set-pieces while Robin was left out except for in Harley Quinn’s Revenge. Regardless, the game debuted as one of the best games in 2011 next to The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim along with being one of the best video games of all time and released for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.


I had loved Arkham City A LOT as a young lad, eagerly playing it and excited after having played and beaten Asylum, the imagination racing through my mind as I wished for a Batman open-world Gotham game where you investigate and stop villains and the ability to halt crimes in free roam. Like Arkham Asylum, I believe I may have played this twice back on the Xbox 360 days though I’m honestly not sure and I’m not going to claim that I legitimately did it twice. However, I’ve always remembered this game in the positive light, proving to be superior in every way to the previous title from plot to gameplay mechanics and everything else and held up in the highest corners of my mind. However, I have since focused on many different games which I became obsessed with and while I’ve always loved Batman, I never bothered to re-visit the games really as the last Batman game I had played was Arkham Knight on the Xbox One. However, I saw Arkham: Origins videos on the Youtube Shorts feed and wishlisted every game in the series and as such, the magical Steam game genie DinoRaptor gifted me Asylum, City and Origins during Christmas. Having felt the need to de-stress and beat up criminals to soothe anxiety while apartment searching, I had installed it again after beating Asylum and gave it a run, slowly beating the game over the next month or two. Why a month or two? How has the game held up since I last played it?

The game opens with Bruce Wayne giving a speech outside the walls of Arkham City, a brand new prison created by the likes of former Arkham Asylum warden and now Mayor of Gotham City: Quincy Sharp. Bruce Wayne is, surprisingly, politically aligned and is firmly against the new prison. However, if there’s one person who doesn’t like it, it’s Arkham City’s psychologist Hugo Strange and his merry band of armed mercenaries: TYGER. TYGER raids the press conferences and captures Wayne in a frustrating but normal American violation of human rights and throws him into Arkham City with the rest of the criminal scum. However, Hugo Strange knows a secret, specifically Wayne’s secret identity. So why does Hugo Strange know, and why does he decide to let in the guy who cosplays as an angry Bat with bulging muscles and is known to ruin people’s plans with single handed determination? Who knows, but Bruce Wayne is left alone with a guard and after knocking him down to steal a special computer chip, he’s thrown out into the world with all of the prisoners. In the introduction, you actually get to see some cool cameos if you’re paying attention: Black Mask is in the corner fighting off some guards, walking through the line is where you’ll see Deadshot (or white Deadshot if you consider Kill the Justice League canon??) point his finger guns at you and up on a rooftop you’ll have Azrael looking down upon you. Of course, being processed will lead you to run into crime boss Oswald Cobblepot, who has a huge grudge with the Wayne family and proceeds to gang up on him. This backfires through, with Wayne single handedly kicking everyone’s ass in a way that I’m surprised no one thought he was the Batman. After knocking out Penguin, Wayne climbs up the buildings to the roof of the nearby Axis Chemicals where Alfred has a dead drop which contains the Batsuit and some gear ready to go.

His first act is to see what’s going on at the nearby courthouse after hearing from the TYGER communications that Catwoman has been captured. In the very beginning, you’ll actually play as Catwoman as she goes to steal something from Two-Face’s safe, only to be captured. Back in the present, Batman sneaks his way into the courthouse and manages to save Catwoman from becoming an acid-shishkebab, defeating Two Face and his goons in the process. Asking Catwoman what’s going on, they proceed to discuss what PROTOCOL 10 is, only for Batman to foil an assassination attempt against Catwoman. Tracking the ballistics reveals that it came from the top of the nearby Gotham Church; heading inside, he finds Harley Quinn and her goons holding the nearby medical workers hostage. While Joker’s favorite punching bag leaves, Batman picks off the goons one by one before heading up to the tower, and it’s up here where Joker exchanges some “explosive” banter before the place literally blows up. Batman proceeds to glide over to the Steel Mill and infiltrates it to learn from a hostage that the Titan transformation from the last game REALLY screwed the Jonkler over medically and that he’s in a very sick state. Infiltrating the main office leads to Batman being knocked out and captured, with Joker injecting him full of the diseased blood. Now with time ticking against the clock, Batman is forced to be Joker’s errand boy and find a cure for the Titan disease.

Joker also reveals another special surprise: he’s been making blood donations to various hospitals in Gotham to spread the poison. In desperation, Batman seeks out Mr. Freeze, who has been kidnapped by the Penguin and trapped in the Iceberg Lounge. Batman infiltrates the base and not only defeats Penguin and his goons, but lays the smackdown on the undead Solomon Grundy. Rescuing Mr. Freeze along with police hostages, they reunite in the lobby where it’s learned that Penguin has a habit of kidnapping and displaying his conquests in the museum section. One of these displays is a League of Assassins member, and when Freeze discusses a potential cure thing with Batman with Ra’s Al Ghul’s healing factor brought up, this assassin gets pissed and tries to escape. Batman follows the trail and manages to bug the assassin after stopping Robin from intervening. This moment will come to mark something in the next game, but for now Batman sends Robin out of Arkham City to track down the Joker contaminated blood in Gotham City. From here, Batman tracks the assassin into the sewers, the subway station and into the nearby Wonder City. Here he encounters Ra’s Al Ghul and his daughter/former love interest Talia Al Ghul. Being forced into “joining” the League to find a cure, he manages to trick them by stealing some of Ra’s blood before leaving to meet up with Mr. Freeze at his lab, the converted Gotham City Police Department. It’s here however where the two get into a forced misunderstanding due to Batman’s gruffness and a boss battle plays out, the cure being stolen in the process by Harley Quinn’s goons. Mr. Freeze asks Batman to find his wife (side mission) and Batman races over to the Steel Mill to get his cure. It’s here when he seemingly finds the Joker in perfect health. They clash in combat before Hugo Strange finally activates PROTOCOL 10: a systematic execution of all of the prisoners in Arkham City.

A missile rocks the Steel Mill and buries Batman under some rubble, however Joker stops his execution attempt when Talia Al Ghul comes back with an offer: he’ll be taken to the Lazarus Pits for immortality in exchange for Batman’s life. Batman nearly goes after Joker and Talia but is instead convinced to stop PROTOCOL 10, and as such he makes his way to Wonder Tower to finally put an end to Hugo’s plans. After infiltrating the tower and stopping the plans, who's the mastermind of the game revealed to be? Ra’s Al Ghul, which isn’t a surprise considering Hugo’s headquarters is right next to the Al Ghul’s along with the simple fact that this is the type of plan that the League of Assassins would do. Regardless, Ra’s doesn’t take failure well and stabs Hugo, but not before he reveals PROTOCOL 11 and self destructs the tower, taking Batman and Ra’s out into the sky nearby. Ra’s attempt at stabbing Batman fails and is instead forced to commit Seppuku before falling onto the gates below and impaling himself. From here, Joker contacts Batman and threatens to kill Talia unless Batman meets him in the Monarch Theatre and from here it gets a whole lot stranger. Joker demands the cure in “healthy form”, and Talia manages to get the drop on him and stabs him. However, this Joker isn’t actually Joker; he’s Clayface. It was a part of a bit by the actual Joker to look strong against his opponents and as such the real Joker is still dying. Joker pops Talia violently before Clayface engages in a boss battle and as such is defeated. However the floor is blown up, revealing the Lazarus Pit below. Batman drinks some of the cure before blowing up the Lazarus Pit to stop Joker from using it. Batman seems to be debating about curing Joker when the dude decides to jump to stabbing him, causing Batman to accidentally drop it and shatter it. Ironically, Batman was going to save him anyways so he ended up screwing himself over and dying. The game ends on the final image, Batman carrying the dead Joker in his arms as Harley Quinn sobs in the background, the accusation that Batman killed his arch-nemesis. Cut to black.

Catwoman’s campaign is a smaller and simpler set, mostly focusing on Catwoman’s quest to start a heist into Hugo Strange’s confiscated goods vault, which has her goods and a lot of money. She gets Poison Ivy to help her out and at the end of the day she gives up on the heist in order to save her on/off again lover Batman in the final act. She also steals her goods back from Two-Face’s goons after her apartment gets blown up but truthfully there isn’t much here plot wise.

There’s another DLC as well: Harley Quinn’s Revenge. The DLC cold opens to Robin searching through the Steel Mill for Batman, who disappeared attempting to search for missing police officers two days before. Apparently, Batman had changed since the Joker died and Barbara Gordon is worried sick about him. Infiltrating the Steel Mill, he finds that Batman’s tool belt has been laid on the ground, confirming the fears that he was captured. Rewinding back, Batman talks to Commissioner Gordon, who reveals the situation and Batman infiltrates the Steel Mill himself to find the hostages, following a trail to the nearby Shipyard hidden behind a TYGER checkpoint. He’s warned beforehand however that Harley Quinn blames him for Joker’s death, and WILL be out for blood. Batman is able to free some police officers before being knocked out and captured trying to save another. The perspective is changed to Robin again as he finds Batman, this time trapped inside of a mechanical Joker statue. Learning that Batman will die without intervention and that Harley holds the key, Robin finds her and her goon squad and absolutely eviscerates them in order to get the key. Robin manages to free Batman from his mechanical Joker statue and gives him his belt back. Batman orders Robin to get the cops back to safety after bombs are revealed and Batman spends his time shutting down the explosives. Batman manages to escape with Harley, and after a fake-out scare with Robin’s (not) death, survives an assassination attempt from Harley. Batman leaves the area and Gordon asks if he’s okay, with certain shades of uncertainty. Something has changed, and seemingly for the worse since the Joker has died.

The plot for the base Arkham City game is pretty astounding, surprisingly shorter than I thought it would be but in all honestly it feels like the perfect length. It has an interesting hook with the prison, searching for the Joker’s cure actually feels like more than a fetch quest. I think sometimes it’s a bit easy to guess certain plot twists, like Ra’s Al Ghul being the final mastermind behind the Arkham City Protocol 10 thing. Honestly I don’t really have too much I can say about this plot other than again, it’s the perfect length and was interesting and I like how it incorporates DC lore into it. I think if there’s any sort of plot thing that falters, it would be Catwoman’s plot and the Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC. Playing as Catwoman is great, but there isn’t anything substantial that really gives her anything to do in the story and you only play as her for brief intervals anyways that it doesn’t really matter much? I’m not going to complain about playing as her but I wish they did more with her. The DLC felt like the only real purpose was to counteract the “pregnant Harley test” easter egg thing in the base game along with showing what the death of a substantial figure does to two completely different people in one’s life: Harley goes into extreme mourning while Batman just shuts it all down and hides it all inside. That being said, while playing as Catwoman for the DLC is technically mandatory if you buy the game of the year edition, it’s not really mandatory to the story and you would be ok with skipping Harley’s Revenge IF you wanted to.

I’ll just start off gameplay wise by saying this: it is a literal improvement in every single way from Arkham Asylum both fighting and stealth wise. The combat for example, while great in the previous game, feels even more fleshed out and powerful with new additions like the beatdown, which involves stunning someone with your cape and then just wailing on them with your fists repeatedly by tapping the punch button. You can also counter more people at the same time (though only up to two for the most part), do aerial attacks (stomping people out from the air) and catching stuff being thrown at you. The usual enemy types are there from the previous game like the knife guys and you can dodge their attacks by holding the counter button as they go on and there can be a LOT more goons to juggle this time, though luckily not enough to overwhelm the player as they go. One thing I want to mention as well are the gadgets, like explosive gel and the batarangs which were available in the previous game and are pretty damn good right? I’m surprised that game wise however, you’ll still be spending your time re-earning these gadgets as you go on instead of having them all dropped in. Batman is usually crazy prepared, and while I understand that gameplay wise you HAVE to have some sort of progression as things can get stale after a while, you still do get some new gadgets to use. One of those like the Electric Gun, basically you shoot it at someone and it causes them to have a bit of a knee jerk reaction, which when mixed with a gun or a hammer can lead to some painful or distracting combat advantages. You’ll also find other things like Ice Grenades (which you can freeze enemies and water for trophies) and the Disruptor, (which can shut down guns entirely). Even old tools like the Cryptographic sequencer has some new tricks like being able to track down radio signals or the line launcher having you be able to switch directions in mid-air. Stuff like this is a nice improvement to what the original game’s formula provided and as such. Catwoman as well as Robin and Nightwing have their own gear to use like Caltrops for the Cat or a shield which stops bullets for Robin, though none of these characters sadly feel as good as Batman to play.

In fact, this is where I’ll bring up multiple character switching: in the single player you can play as either Batman or Catwoman. For the most part you’ll be Batman, but after certain story beats you’ll be put into the role of Catwoman herself before switching back to Batman. At the very end of the campaign, you’ll have the choice to switch between the both of them at different stations on the map. While Batman has his own arsenal and way of getting around, so does Catwoman though this involves grappling with whips along with climbing up walls while seemingly taking part in a rhythm game of sorts, pressing the climb button just as the circle hits the right spot as she climbs. She has her own set of riddler trophies and combat challenges (which I’ll get into soon), though it’s miniscule compared to Batman’s entire checklist. The main things I don’t personally like are this: certain Riddler trophies have you going back as Batman to open certain paths BEFORE she can get in and it can get really annoying having to travel to a waypoint, only to have to travel back to switch to Batman and open it and do all of this back and forth shit. Also, Catwoman compared to the others just feels way weaker in comparison? I get that Batman is a tank and so are his proteges, and also that Catwoman is very much a stealth oriented character but it just feels weird in comparison dealing between the two. As for playing as Robin and Nightwing, you can only play as Robin in the Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC along with the combat arenas while Nightwing you can only play as in the combat arena. I’m actually surprised they even bothered putting anything in with Nightwing personally due to the fact he doesn’t seem to show up at all except in the arena challenges.

What’s the open world like in Arkham City? Well it’s not an open “world” per say as much as it is a small city district or two but they’re pretty gigantic compared to the first game and allows for a lot more exploration of alleyways, rooftops and into some interiors like the Wayne Courthouse or the Gotham Police Department. With the game being a “metroidvania” of sorts, you’ll have a lot of interior spaces to go through and to backtrack through as well to get to new areas. Before I go into this next bit, I want to say that I appreciate the open world replayability by having respawning thugs to fight as I think that shit’s amazing. How about the side quests? How does that affect the open world? Well, most of them are fine to be honest and actually quite interesting in their own unique ways: one of them you search for victims of the Identity Thief killer and scan the crime scenes for forensics, same with Deadshot and his sniper victims while others require time trials or searching for phone booths to trace calls for Victor Zsasz. All of these are harmless enough, are interesting and provide some interesting background lore and plot points for this game as well as the sequels. HOWEVER, let’s just bring up the elephant in the room: the Riddler trophies. Jesus H Christ, if you thought it was annoying in the last game then wait til you get to this one! There are 440 riddler trophies and challenges overall, 40 (not including 5 combat challenges) require Catwoman but otherwise you’re kind of just going around, scanning the environment to solve riddles, collect trophies and destroy environmental interactions again and doing all of this again rewards you with challenge maps, interview tapes as well as story text which gives flavor to the world of Arkham City. Scanning for riddles might be a joy for me, but slugging through to find hidden Riddler trophies in the Steel Mill or destroying gargoyles on the climb up to Wonder Tower is tedious and frustrating. Some of these Riddles only come around AFTER completing certain events too like saving Mr. Freeze’s wife, which tells me this fucking guy has way too much time on his hands. These trophies are what caused me to play this over a month, because this shit’s a slog and sometimes I just don’t want to deal with it. Nothing wrong with replayability, but on future playthroughs of Arkham City I won’t even bother with doing all of the Riddler trophies because it’s a pain in the ass to be honest, and while it’s satisfying finally encountering him in the flesh? Sometimes it feels like it was worth way too much for too little, though luckily you don’t need to do EVERY trophy to get him, just most of them.

One little thing I’ll throw out here: the Easter Eggs and references yet again show the love and reverence these guys have for the DC Universe and it’s fascinating. You can find Harley Quinn pregnancy tests (positive in base game, negative in the Revenge DLC) which could’ve been an interesting tease! Calendar Man is encountered in the basement of the court house and gives you tales of his exploits on a bunch of major holidays (along with the day of Rocksteady’s founding). You can find Scarecrow’s secret boat along with fear toxin tests that reveal his fate after Arkham Asylum, and if you head back from Wonder City the way you came then you can get a cameo from Killer Croc in the sewers. There’s fucking Lost references in the dialogue, there’s a whole bunch of shit referencing all sorts of different shows or DC references, even some of the thug dialogue has them bringing up villains like Crazy Quilt. If you scan “healthy” Joker’s body, then you’ll find no skeleton which is a reference to the Clayface twist. I’ll just be honest, I’m going to post a link down below but honestly, it’s amazing how much stuff they packed in here and I love all the little details.

The last two sections I need to address here: The DLC/Combat Arenas and New Game Plus. I’ll start with New Game Plus by saying I didn’t really do it. It’s the same as every other one, you bring over all your skills and abilities though with the added frustration of turning off the “Batsense Dodge Counter” thing that appears above your head along with enemies being tougher. If that’s your thing, god bless but I don’t really feel like having that extra difficulty. The DLC however for the most part consists of the Arenas and Harley Quinn’s Revenge. Revenge is a simple story DLC that can be completed in an hour or two and mostly has you investigating the Steel Mill or flying around the Steel Mill section of the map as Batman. The only real side quest here is to cut down 30 balloons which is still a pain in the ass but less of a hassle. The real meat of the DLC comes from the Combat Arenas, of which there are so fucking many it’s insane. You play as the four characters from above, and can choose each of their skins; some of it is beating people up while dodging attacks like usual and some consist of the stealth sections which revolve around sneaking up on people or grappling on nearby gargoyles to monitor the situation. They each have goals like “Get 20,000 points” or for the stealth ones, they’ll consist of three different mission objectives like “Pull someone off a ledge” or “Knock someone off of a ladder as they climb it”, stuff like that. All of this stuff? Awesome, though it’s a pain in the ass if you’re trying to 100 percent as while they all have the same maps, they all have different progression. You could get all 164 campaigns (an overexaggerated guess) done as Batman but you’ll still need to do them as Catwoman and Robin along with Nightwing which fuckin’ blows. However, there are still some cool maps with my favorite being the side-scrolling beat’ em up one with Black Mask showing up as a cameo thug.

The sound design for Arkham City is low-and-behold, pretty goddamn solid if you ask me. Just like the last game, the combat punching sound effects are astounding and feel immensely satisfying pulling off combo after combo. The way the cape flutters as you soar against the winds of Gotham City and into the air over criminal’s heads captures that Batman essence. There’s hardly a sound effect that I could really sit there and say would sound remotely bad in the slightest so I can’t really speak for much else there. The score for the game, composed by returning composers Ron Fish and Nick Arundel range from somber string tones to bombastic combat music which basically just feels like Batman. The game also came out with Batman: Arkham City - The Album, which apparently contained tracks by artists such as The Raveonettes and Panic! At the Disco and I’ll be honest with you, this captures the Early 2010s perfectly, which can either be a good or a bad thing depending on what you’re really into? I’ll be straight up and tell you that this album was NOT created for the likes of me through The Years by Crosses is actually a pretty decent vibe/youtube montage piece. I guess Drown In You by Daughtry pulls off the early emo metal vibe which sounds decent though then again this isn’t my genre of music so I can’t really pop shit here. Basically, the last couple of tracks seem to pull off the vibes a lot more than the rest of the album.

Voice acting for Batman: Arkham City consists of the two heavy hitters: Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as The Joker which of course what the hell can I say about their performance except that they EMBODY the characters. Nolan North voices The Penguin in what I felt was almost unrecognizable as a cockney gangster (with some thug cameos also being voiced by Nolan North lol). Troy Baker is instantly recognizable playing Troy Baker as always, though they decide to puppet his voice behind the player model for Robin. Grey Delisle is also amazing as Catwoman, playing the flirtatious and confident love interest/foil to Batman himself with a lot of what the kids would call “swagger” and bravado. Everyone does a good job here in the main cast, like Corey Burton as Dr. Strange (though I thought it was Tom Kane for a second), Kimberly Brooks as Barbara Gordon and David Kaye as her father but the five on the top were the most recognizable to me (though Troy Baker was because he sounds like himself in almost every role good or bad). Overall, the sound design is great, and while nothing really popped out to me as “wow this is amazing”, sometimes the game doesn’t need to pop out with everything in order for it to be good, as immersion is also just as valid and you definitely feel immersed playing this. Also, as always it’s funny as hell flying over the goons as they discuss their numerous crimes, the exploits around Arkham City, gossiping about their bosses, or taunting Batman (clip located below). It’s like a running Three Stooges skit and it’s fucking hilarious.

The atmosphere for Arkham City feels a lot more graphic, dark and grimy than I would say Arkham Asylum ever did. It’s a lot less fun and goofy then the previous game and honestly was the right direction for the game to go in my opinion. The colors consist of grays, dark greens, blacks and all sorts of uncomfortable colors that make you feel unwelcome yet at home in this sectioned off Gotham City. While gliding through snowfall, you’ll see the destroyed wrecks of buildings that sunk into the nearby water during the Earthquake or leveled due to bombs planted by the Penguin. The theme of Arkham City is isolation, and isolation in life is one of the most depressing things I’ve ever felt in my life. Everyone is trapped in all sorts of different corners of the map, and the only one who could really gain access to anything trapped behind the walls of this oppressive prison is literally the Batman himself, able to glide over the map as you witness the carnage around you. If Death Stranding was the game during the Covid-19 era, then playing this game feels like the antithesis of what Death Stranding was for. I love this game, and while I played it during a period of high stress which might have soured the game a bit for me, that can’t really be helped (except for the Riddler trophies, fuck that shit) and as a Batman game itself? It just feels fantastic atmospherically. The graphics to the game are pretty solid and while I’m not sure I could 100 percent say that it was “better” than the previous game, I would say it has some improved textures and a much darker and more serious art style than before. Hell, to really set the point home, some of the Riddler’s traps in this game straight up remind me of the SAW films, which would only get way worse in Arkham Knight. This feels like a Batman game, and it’s what I feel a Batman game should look like (though other representations are valid too).

One thing I will mention in this section before finishing the review are the costumes, of which there are a lot more than Asylum though not as many as the later games. My favorite costumes are the Animated Series ones, of which there’s a costume for each playable character in the game. However, there are others like the Long Halloween Catwoman (yuck), a Batman Beyond skin, a Sinestro Corps skin (included in some Green Lantern movie tie-in) along with the testicle chinned looking Year One costume and more. They all add a bit of variation and are pretty solid, though some just look better than the others. Another last minute addition to this would be the gang costumes, which along with the environments the gangs control just look pretty solid. I’d say the most aesthetically pleasing is Two-Face’s gang, which actually feels “gangster” in spirit, split in the middle like their boss between gray and black with the masks representing burn victims. Penguin’s gang looks much more militaristic with balaclavas and vests, like former U.S. marines hired to protect their bosses interests while the Joker’s looks…predictably clownish to be honest but it’s a classic vibe. There are regular orange jumpsuit prisoners, fish out of water types who don’t fall into any gang while the TYGER guards give off this imperialistic police state vibe which of course makes sense considering their benefactor’s goals. Overall, I love the art direction and it only excels the oppressive atmosphere that the game puts itself through.

Overall, I loved playing through this game a lot, WITH a bit of a caveat in a strange reversal from my frustrations of Arkham Asylum. If you play through it with patience or doing it for the story and to beat up dudes, then that’s totally valid. HOWEVER, buying the Game of the Year Edition on Steam will give you A LOT of content for the money which is amazing. The Riddler trophies took me a long time, mainly because of work and other obligations, but also because they gave you 440 different collectibles and a lot of them require constant backtracking, especially if you play as Catwoman as getting certain Riddler trophies means opening up certain areas as Batman. Capturing Riddler was a drag, and the last thing I would ever want to do is play against the Riddler again. You’ll also get the combat/arena challenges, which as always feel great but there’s so many medals to collect between the four different characters (Batman, Catwoman, Nightwing and Robin) that you’ll be spending a lot of time trying to master them all. Regardless though, the quality of the gameplay along with the improvements, the dirty and grimy Gotham style that makes it feel empty and finally being able to fight criminals in an open world leads this game not only to be a classic like Arkham Asylum, but an even better one due to the improvements. I loved this game a lot, and while I won’t be touching the rest of the series for the rest of the year I feel due to the Riddler trophies and other stressors, I enjoyed my time and I would love to play this game again in the future. As for the future, what happened to the future of Arkham from here?

Well, honestly the game sold a hell of a lot of money! But just like Arkham Asylum, Arkham City set up a lot of different plot threads for the next unannounced sequel in the Rocksteady Trilogy: Arkham Knight. The ominous prophecy from Azrael, the disappearance of the Identity Thief, the secret Scarecrow references along with the vague foreshadowing of Calendar Man would come to fruition in the sequel released nearly 4 years later. In the near immediate future however would reveal the release of Arkham City Lockdown, a sort of fighting game phone prequel to Arkham City along with a Wii-U port later on. In 2013 would come the release of the “black sheep” prequel game: Arkham Origins developed by WB Montreal, which while not a groundbreaking game, was a game that I felt was good enough and very much remember tackling over a Christmas break back in my high school days. However, that’s really a tale for another review in the future; regardless, Arkham City became the definitive Batman game for the Arkham Franchise along with one of the best superhero games ever along with the likes of Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

Links:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2011/02/14/batman-arkham-city-gotham-on-lockdown?page=2

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2011/sep/02/batman-arkham-city-interview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Batman:_Arkham_City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jejMZWfPanU&ab_channel=killsensei

https://arkhamcity.fandom.com/wiki/Easter_Eggs_in_Batman:_Arkham_City

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Arkham_City

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4T9wrtXySVA