Batman: Arkham City
After how much I enjoyed Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum, I was particularly excited for their next installment in the series: Batman: Arkham City. Arkham City, which had begun development before Arkham Asylum was even complete, takes the level of detail and quality of gameplay that once took place within a single prison and expanded it into a city sized prison. I saw incredible footage of Batman using a combination of his grappling hook and cape to fly across this slum-turned-prison and became completely sold.
Arkham City follows the same rules as the Asylum: Design and gameplay are key. Considering the absolute scale of the city the amount of little details, the individuality of the buildings, city streets and the overall complexity of the city is incredible. All this is tied together with one of the most smooth and fluid brawlers that simply speaks to the Batman legacy as it rolls in the use of his skills and gadgetry.
Put this together with a world which is full of missions, puzzles, easter eggs to find and a solid overarcing story which commands your attention and you end up with one of the finest combinations of an established character property and an incredible video game to date.
To top it all off, Warner Brothers was able to, as they'd done in the previous game, convince some of the finest Batman voice actors to reprise their roles in Arkham City. Not only is the story penned by Paul Dini, but we get Kevin Conroy to play Batman as he did in the 90's animated series (easily my favorite Batman), but we also get one of the finest Joker's voiced by Mark Hamill as he did once before in the animated series as well. Voices of course are one thing, but the character design is fantastic. Both gruesomely dark and equally unique, (Though, I hear some of the designs are based on particular comic series'.) Arkham City does not feature your usual Harley Quinn, Joker or Penguin. The Penguin design of which I am particularly happy with. (What with his broken glass bottle-monocle.)
Batman: Arkham City's only problem with me was that it was simply too big and too full of stuff to do. I wanted to experience a story in one flat go through, but it's sandbox-style world stops you at every turn begging for a hero's help. You could spend so many hours exploring and completing each of the little side-missions that pop up that you begin to loose sight of the main story. Likewise the main story is fleshed out with some of the side-stories. With this in mind I ended up putting it down and never finished it. Though I seriously plan to before the release of Arkham Knight, because really, this was a fantastic game that I do not want to leave incompleted.
Arkham City follows the same rules as the Asylum: Design and gameplay are key. Considering the absolute scale of the city the amount of little details, the individuality of the buildings, city streets and the overall complexity of the city is incredible. All this is tied together with one of the most smooth and fluid brawlers that simply speaks to the Batman legacy as it rolls in the use of his skills and gadgetry.
Put this together with a world which is full of missions, puzzles, easter eggs to find and a solid overarcing story which commands your attention and you end up with one of the finest combinations of an established character property and an incredible video game to date.
To top it all off, Warner Brothers was able to, as they'd done in the previous game, convince some of the finest Batman voice actors to reprise their roles in Arkham City. Not only is the story penned by Paul Dini, but we get Kevin Conroy to play Batman as he did in the 90's animated series (easily my favorite Batman), but we also get one of the finest Joker's voiced by Mark Hamill as he did once before in the animated series as well. Voices of course are one thing, but the character design is fantastic. Both gruesomely dark and equally unique, (Though, I hear some of the designs are based on particular comic series'.) Arkham City does not feature your usual Harley Quinn, Joker or Penguin. The Penguin design of which I am particularly happy with. (What with his broken glass bottle-monocle.)
Batman: Arkham City's only problem with me was that it was simply too big and too full of stuff to do. I wanted to experience a story in one flat go through, but it's sandbox-style world stops you at every turn begging for a hero's help. You could spend so many hours exploring and completing each of the little side-missions that pop up that you begin to loose sight of the main story. Likewise the main story is fleshed out with some of the side-stories. With this in mind I ended up putting it down and never finished it. Though I seriously plan to before the release of Arkham Knight, because really, this was a fantastic game that I do not want to leave incompleted.
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