Review: Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City is an action game, set in a sandbox environment, with stealth elements for the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3. It was developed by Rocksteady Studios.

Batman flying over the rooftops of Arkham City towards a Riddler trophy.

Following the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum, newly elected mayor of Gotham City Quincy Sharp has walled off a part of Gotham and turned into a gigantic prison, dubbed Arkham City, where he has dumped all the criminals and supervillains in Gotham and left them to fend for themselves. In charge of the new prison is villainous psychiatrist Hugo Strange, who has deduced that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne and gotten him thrown in Arkham. Now Batman has to deal with all the rampaging villains running around Arkham while trying to figure out what Strange is really up to.

Arkham City acts as the game’s overworld. Batman will learn the location of the next important plot detail; travel to that point using a some sort of monitor that clues him into how close he is to the destination, fight through a dungeon, and get a lead on where in Arkham he should go next. Arkham is not that big; Batman will travel to a couple of dungeons twice.

The city itself is a dump, and various parts are just differing versions of decrepit city, from the decrepit industrial area to the decrepit shopping arcade. Once you get over seeing all the shout-outs to Batman it stops being that interesting. But travelling around is fun. Batman has a grappling hook that he can use to boost himself over buildings, and a gliding ability. So the player can make Batman shoot up the side of a building and use the momentum to glide over the city. And Batman can do that repeatedly, grappling from building to building.

In dungeons Batman goes through rooms, fights guards, gets a gadget, solves puzzles, and fights a boss. The puzzles use the new gadget Batman finds and are not difficult. Like in the overworld, the dungeon design is not notable except for the Batman shout-outs. The boss fights are fun because they force the player to use the combat mechanics and the gadgets in a creative way.

In Arkham and the dungeons, Batman will run into gangs of thugs without firearms, which he will have to fight. To fight, all the player has to do is mash the attack button to make Batman attack a thug multiple times. Batman will attack the nearest thug, but if they all back away then Batman will punch the air. The player aims the control stick at the enemy they want Batman to attack, and sometimes that works, except when it does not, and when the thugs have walked out of the camera’s eye.

Batman has a counter ability, which the player can use when an icon appears above the head of an enemy that is about to attack Batman. The player only has to press a single button, and Batman will stun an enemy. It works about half the time, instead of all the time, like it should.

Batman can also use gadgets he find in fights as well to stun enemies. They usually take a combination of button presses to activate. Some gadgets are easy to use when they only need a quick double-tap, but all of them are really clumsy to use in the middle of a fight when Batman is being attacked.

When Batman attacks multiple enemies quickly it racks up a combo bonus. When the bonus is high enough Batman can use special attacks that attack multiple enemies at once. Also, the higher the combo the more experience points the player get. The problem with the combo system is that it is dependent on the enemies always being near Batman for him to attack them quickly, which they are normally not.

Inside a dungeon, groups of thugs might have automatic weapon, which means Batman cannot attack them head on. Instead Batman has to hide around the room and pick off the guards one by one. These areas are far more interesting than the fights. Batman can take out enemies a number of ways; sneaking up behind people and strangling them, dropping down from a gargoyle and tying them up, hanging from a ledge and grabbing their leg. Except for the sneaking up behind one, every takedown makes noise and alerts other guards who converge on where Batman just was. On the one hand, that means Batman has to get out of there quickly, on the other hand it makes the guards break patrol, which is good, because otherwise you have to wait for the guards to walk towards where you are hiding, and that is incredibly tedious. The only serious problem is how well the guards can see Batman is inconsistent, sometimes they will see him swing around, and sometimes they will not. The only way to make sure the guard is completely isolated and everyone is facing away, and that is not fun to wait around for.

Besides the main story of going to different dungeons, Batman has a couple of side missions he can complete where he deals with more supervillains. Almost all the side missions are a variation of “Go to X, find Y.”, like Batman having to find X under a time limit, or not knowing where Y is. These are not that difficult, are creative enough to feel interesting, and provide some extra stories to enjoy.

One last thing the player can do is hunt down the hundreds of hidden Riddler trophies in Gotham. To collect the trophies the player has to use Batman’s gadgets or moves creatively. Besides trophies, there are riddles that hint at Batman characters, and things to destroy with batarangs like cameras and balloons. Finding them unlocks character models, challenge maps, concept art, and interviews between Strange and the other villains. Except for the interviews, none of the rewards are interesting, especially the challenge maps, which take all the tedium of the combat with no reward. There are also challenge maps for the sneaking parts, where Batman has to capture guards under a time limit, but doing them repeatedly turns the whole thing into a chore.

Combat and collecting Riddler trophies nets the player experience points; enough experience points level ups Batman. When Batman levels up, the player can make his armor stronger, get him additional gadgets, or unlock new combat moves.

The story is very problematic. Anyone who is not familiar with Batman will not be emotionally invested in the settings or characters. Early on Batman is poisoned by the Joker, and most of the game is spent going on errands in an effort to find a cure, which is not nearly as interesting as dealing with the new prison or Hugo Strange. The game spends its time building up Strange as a brilliant villain and Batman’s intellectual equal, and then wastes all that potential with a plot twist at the end. Furthermore, said plot twist makes Strange’s motivations for everything that happens during the game confusing and rather pointless.

Batman: Arkham City is a decent game with a fun exploration and stealth parts. But it is so flawed in almost all of its parts that it becomes a real disappointment to anyone who is not distracted by getting to play as Batman.