Players also have access to the Dark Knight's collection of wonderful toys to aid them in their adventure – most of which are unlocked at the beginning of the game, setting Arkham City head-and-shoulders above every other superhero game sequel in existence right from the start. Detective Vision, which allows players to note the position of antagonists through walls, as well as switches, vents and trophy positions, makes a welcome return.
The lion's share of their activities will involve fistfights, following clue trails, solving puzzles, collecting trinkets and using Batman's agility to navigate the huge environment in the game.
Players who picked up a copy of Arkham Asylum will find a lot of elements in Arkham City familiar. Gothic spires point accusingly at the night sky, gargoyles leer down on the alleys below and the city's landmarks and streets look dilapidated and broken.įurthermore, the whole environment is huge when compared to the area housed in Arkham Asylum, and players will want to explore every inch of it in their quest to end Strange's reign of terror. The huge, sprawling super-prison of Gotham looks like something out of a dystopian nightmare. Rocksteady have outdone themselves in the creation of Arkham City.
#BATMAN ARKHAM CITY REVIEW PC GAMER FULL#
Suspecting that Strange might not be playing with a full deck, Batman decides to head into the prison to check things out. His hands-off approach in the actual running of Arkham City has led to a vicious turf war for control of its the streets, with most of the prisoners joining gangs that are run by Batman's most nefarious foes. Arkham City is run by an enigmatic figure called Hugo Strange who is brutal in his treatment of any criminals who try to escape, but seems wholly unconcerned with what goes on inside the prison walls. It seems the power-that-be took offence to the Joker's shenanigans in the last game, and so, with a nod to John Carpenter's Escape From New York, they've turned several neighbourhoods in Gotham into a maximum-security prison to house Arkham's former inmates. It's a testament to the studio's creativity, then, that instead it used the gameplay and structure of Arkham Asylum as a starting point and then built on these foundations.Īrkham City's story begins several months after the events that took place in Arkham Asylum. Given how perfectly formed the mechanics in Arkham Asylum were on its release – and remain to this day – Rocksteady could have easily got away with setting its game in a new environment, adding a new story and a few new characters – and then leaving everything else untouched. It's worth bearing all this in mind, because Batman: Arkham City, Rocksteady's follow-up has a higher standard to live up to. Batman: Arkham Asylum was clearly the work of Batman fans who knew the terrain, and whose love for the character was evident. All of it was packaged together with a fantastic story and presented with delightfully Gothic trimmings. What made Rocksteady's game sublime was that the developers exploited the core of Bob Kane's finest creation the different facets of Batman's character informed the gameplay mechanics, which moved seamlessly from puzzle-solving, to agile platforming to brutal combat. This is because, up until Batman: Arkham Asylum swooped in, nearly every single video game starring the caped crusader was utterly awful.