I wish more open world games during the 2010s took cues from this instead of Skyrim and Far Cry 3.
- A lot of open world games seem to completely neglect level design, but Arkham City puts so much of it's content in interior areas where it gets to make use of some more focused level design akin to the first game. It doesn't feel like the open world has replaced the game, but rather compliments it.
- The world isn't ridiculously big, but it's dense and full of interesting nooks and crannies to explore.
- Side content was very well done. Each sidequest line was distinct and made great use of Batman's rogue's gallery. Challenges were varied, fun and well paced. Even the collectibles, like Riddler trophies, were often accompanied by a decent little puzzle rather than the freebie that most open world collectibles end up being.
- The world seemed to be reactive to your game progress. Liked that thugs would frequently reference the state of the story.
- Traversal feels amazing. A lot of open world games are huge but feel like a slog to get around in, but you can tell making it fun to get around the map was a huge priority for Rocksteady with how good they made gliding and grappling feel. In many ways, this is a precursor to the highly praised traversal mechanics in the Insomniac Spiderman games, and I dare say that I actually prefer Arkham traversal in some ways.
Game definitely has some rough spots, like the boss fights are straight up not good, and the story feels like it's overstuffed. But damn even though this came out in 2011 it's still better than 95% of open world games today. Hoping the new Spiderman can give this a run for being the best comic book game. (Edit: It did not but it was still very good)
- A lot of open world games seem to completely neglect level design, but Arkham City puts so much of it's content in interior areas where it gets to make use of some more focused level design akin to the first game. It doesn't feel like the open world has replaced the game, but rather compliments it.
- The world isn't ridiculously big, but it's dense and full of interesting nooks and crannies to explore.
- Side content was very well done. Each sidequest line was distinct and made great use of Batman's rogue's gallery. Challenges were varied, fun and well paced. Even the collectibles, like Riddler trophies, were often accompanied by a decent little puzzle rather than the freebie that most open world collectibles end up being.
- The world seemed to be reactive to your game progress. Liked that thugs would frequently reference the state of the story.
- Traversal feels amazing. A lot of open world games are huge but feel like a slog to get around in, but you can tell making it fun to get around the map was a huge priority for Rocksteady with how good they made gliding and grappling feel. In many ways, this is a precursor to the highly praised traversal mechanics in the Insomniac Spiderman games, and I dare say that I actually prefer Arkham traversal in some ways.
Game definitely has some rough spots, like the boss fights are straight up not good, and the story feels like it's overstuffed. But damn even though this came out in 2011 it's still better than 95% of open world games today. Hoping the new Spiderman can give this a run for being the best comic book game. (Edit: It did not but it was still very good)