Arkham Asylum was a great game and despite having since loved Spider-Man since first engaging with the Arkham series, this is for my money the best superhero game ever. Where Asylum had a simple but effective story, City's story is fantastic. This time it's (from what I know) a mostly unique Batman story, with great twists and turns without straying too much from the source material, but always having its own strong identity. City's world is also fantastic, it feels like a real living criminal underworld with incredibly well done personalities for the more prominent characters. Joker is once again a particular stand-out, but most of the villains more important to the story such as Strange, Penguin, Freeze and Two-Face are very well done too. The side missions are a lot more prominent than the predecessor, where instead of just a pair of collect-a-thons, we have some genuine thoughtful side-quests that give prominent features to some of Batman's less lauded rogues. Zsasz is far better here than he was in Asylum for my money, he is sinister and downright evil as all hell compared to Asylum's portrayal of him as mostly just an obstacle. The Hush missions are phenomenal and only serve to annoy me more that Knight missed the boat so badly with him. Deadshot is done well, Mad Hatter's brief appearance is really strong, and Azrael is interesting if a little underdeveloped. That said there is also the Riddler. I love the Riddler as a character and I think that side of him is done justice here, but i'll be damned if I ever do his side-quest again when I inevitably pick this game back up for another run through. The rescue missions are fun and the final mission is good too, but after the 50th "go here, break a panel and the trophy is behind it" I was really to pull my hair out. I always love the actual riddles in all these games but the trophies have never been something I went after, and unlike my surprise enjoyment of them in Asylum this time I think i'd made the right call previously. It didn't hurt my enjoyment of the playthrough though, because this game and world in general are so damn strong. I'm looking forward to the new Spider-Man 2 game coming out, if only because I desperately crave more games like this one, as I think this is the very peak of a superhero game and one of my favourite games of all time.