I really wanted to like this game more. The VA and music are all pretty good, and while I didn't love the artstyle it was definitely unique. But once I saw the game's "true" endings I didn't have any motivation to continue exploring other routes. The main issue is that the game is full of these meta elements that are cool on paper, but doesn't do enough for me to actually care about the characters and world that contextualize the cool meta things the game tries to do. So ultimately, none of the game's big moments and grand reveals really had much impact for me.

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)

Level design seemed like a step up from what I played (not a high bar given how terrible this aspect was in the first game). But this retains the same problems with the moment to moment movement and combat feel that the first game had. For a game about the lightsaber fantasy it simply just does not feel good to play and swing your lightsaber around. There's too many good games out there and I know I'm probably wasting my time given how I've felt about this series so far so I dropped it like 8 hours in.

Story was pretty good and I liked the overarching themes. But I don't think they explored the alternate history angle enough and the romance was really badly written. But otherwise enjoyable and the voice actors all did a fantastic job. Cutscene cinematography and direction is far ahead of most shooters out there.

Gunplay felt a bit off to me, it felt good enough to control but the audiovisual experience was underwhelming. The game's pretty visually busy and often the enemies kinda blend in with the backgrounds. The enemies don't react enough to getting hit and I also felt like the gun sounds were mixed weridly and lacked punch. Definitely a game that could have used hitmarkers to enhance the shooting feedback.