On August 25th, 2009, gamers were treated to one of the most pleasant surprises to hit video games since the invention of Jumpman. After being bombarded with an endless stream of terrible superhero inspired video games, Rocksteady Studios finally managed to knock on out of the park with their smash hit, Batman: Arkham Asylum. For the first time in recent memory, there was positive buzz attached to a franchise that hadn’t seen any quantifiably measurable success since the NES era. For this very reason, the hype attached to the game’s sequel seemed nearly insurmountable.

In order for Arkham City to seen as even a moderate success, Rocksteady would need to reach heights that were previously unimaginable. What better way to break the mold than increasing the scope from the confines of an asylum to encompass an entire CITY? But when a tightly woven masterpiece is blown out in such a big way, can it still manage to maintain the core soul that originally led it to succeed?

Game: Batman: Arkham City
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Genre: Stealth Action
Price: $59.99
Pros: Arkham Asylum’s formula is taken to the next level.
Cons: The story seems too eager to overwhelm players with information.
Verdict: A city that is well worth exploring for hours on end.

Acquired via Purchase

Just in case you are new to the Batman themed world that Rocksteady has constructed, don’t expect to be seeing the Adam West themed caped crusader running around in tights. Voiced by veteran voice actors the likes of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, both of the most recognizable voices from the Animated series in the mid-nineties, returned to the characters that they helped define for an entire generation of then young children. Having grown up quite a bit over the last fifteen plus years, this same audience is treated to a far more mature and dark representation of Gotham and its inhabitants.

Virtually all of the characters featured in the last iteration of the series make at least some return to help raise hell in the newly founded Arkham City. For some odd reason the leaders of Gotham thought that instead of keeping this collection of nut jobs incarcerated where they belong, they would instead cordon them off in their own part of the city, in hopes that they would eventually kill each other off. Sure, the logic of this isn’t exactly the soundest, but when you can suspend disbelief long enough to believe that a billionaire would rather be beating up street thugs than chasing the hottest tail on the planet, practically anything seems plausible.

When looking at the impressive mythos that The Batman has helped establish, it is hard to find a villain or protagonist that isn’t accounted for in some way shape or form at some point in the game. This is why the revolving door of baddies encountered in the main campaign is such a treat. As always, Joker seems to be at the heart of all of the shenanigans going on across the city, but there is a surprising amount of involvement from other murderous third parties, all with the unified goal of unmasking Bruce Wayne. What is even more remarkable is that no matter what how fantastical and farfetched the events seem to be, everything seems believable enough to not interrupt the player’s immersion in the richly flushed out world of Arkham City.

One of the most groundbreaking and widely lauded aspects of what made Asylum so remarkable was the intuitive combat system. With relative ease, players could chain together impressive strings of hand-to-hand ass-kicking that would send huge crowds of combatants reeling to lick their wounds. Frankly if it wasn’t broken, there was no need to fix anything, and thankfully Rocksteady took the same approach to designing encounters in the sequel. Adding in more weapons, combos, abilities, and even counters helped make the even largest crowds of combatants seem manageable in a way that would make anyone feel like the caped crusader, succeeding against improbable, if not impossible odds.

Another key aspect to achieving ultimate Batman immersion is the ability to move strategically, using both the darkness and the environment to pick of adversaries one-by-one. It is genuinely hard to imagine a more satisfying experience than clearing an entire room of lurking guards, without ever throwing a single punch. Tools from the Dark Knight’s infinitely deep utility belt allow him to glide from perch to perch in a way that puts the Spider-Man franchise to shame. When it comes to structure, planning, and encounter construction, Arkham City is in a class all its own.

If there were one minor flaw with the overall mechanics of the game, it would have to be how it breaks in new players to the series. It is almost as if the developers assumed that everyone had played Arkham Asylum recently and already had the controls under their fingers. For those who are newcomers, expect the initial learning curve to be pretty steep, at least until trial and error helps to familiarize how to use certain tools and what items work best in specific scenarios. This isn’t necessarily a flaw per say, but it could lead to quite a bit of frustration and confusion early on. However, once players have acclimated to the gameplay, it is full steam ahead.

As mentioned earlier, Arkham City has a rather expansive storyline that will rope in audiences for upwards of twelve hours. Even more impressive is that in all reality, the campaign only makes up for a fraction of the overall experience. Side quests are plentiful in a way that could absorb one’s free time for weeks on end. In many cases it could be argued that these ancillary missions are even more compelling than the actual core storyline, so good luck avoiding the total loss of all will to complete the game. Some of the most prevalent, yet welcome, distractions include searching for Riddler Trophies, completing challenge rooms, and straight up exploring the massive world, just begging to be uncovered.

The place where an otherwise compelling experience began to sputter was in how it doled out the story throughout the campaign. Though well paced early on, the later the player progresses in the plot, the more information that is forced down their throats per cut scene. By the time that the pinnacle is reached, a dizzying amount of details are thrown out into the ether, in a desperate attempt to connect widely different and otherwise completely unrelated story points. Some might attribute this as a testament to the immense variety of different gameplay elements featured throughout Arkham City, but it began to become hard to follow unless you were invested in seeing the storyline through to completion.

This issue may have been far more damning if it had not been for the stellar voice acting urging players forward. Mark Hamill’s performance as Joker cements his interpretation of the character in the same way that Heath Ledger did at the cinema. It is simply THAT GOOD. He somehow managed to embody the pure evil necessary to make the nemesis work, while at the same time being self aware enough to realize that killing Batman would actually bring about the end of himself in both a literal and figurative sense. This is the kind of performance that defines a career, and that is saying something when you already have three Star Wars films on a resume. Hamill has hinted that this would be his last time stepping into the purple suit and the game’s conclusion would seem to support that as well, but would be hard to imagine the universe continuing without this essential ringleader of insanity.

It goes without saying that Batman: Arkham City is an exceptional superhero experience, but that simply doesn’t do it enough justice. Somehow the game has managed to transcend the “comic book” stigma attached to the franchise, to easily be considered as one of the best games of this newly budding decade. Amazing action, extremely well designed missions, and an overwhelming wealth of content help to flesh out the urban wasteland of Arkham City into one of the most vibrant, yet dark worlds ever devised. A rollercoaster ride of this magnitude should be raking in the awards come December, so you owe it to yourself to see what all of the hype is about.