Review of Batman: Arkham City

Okay, no. I didn't think Arkham Asylum was all that amazing. You've probably all read my review of that and those that are in the habit of flipping out over the opinions of others have no doubt done so already, so for all the rest of you... I absolutely loved Arkham City. So what did it do better than Asylum, oh, basically everything, in short. While I never really thought the endless corridors of the titular asylum were anything to write home about - atmospheric, certainly, but not very memorable - the dilapidated mega prison of Arkham City is so much bigger, yet so much more of it is memorable, interesting, and gorgeous. The soundtrack certainly adds to this (also way better than Asylum in my opinion), but at the same time, it manages to not be an open world that feels too tediously big, or so small that it might as well not be there at all, and gliding high over the place makes you feel like Batman more than ever before, and if anyone else would like to tell me how much of a cliché it is to say that about these games anymore, you're very welcome to come back once you've found a better way of saying it, Shakespeare. The other problem open worlds tend to have often - needless padding full of nebulous stuff to collect...well, we'll get to that later. Nevertheless, the presentation is amazing, and the voice acting that was the high point of Arkham Asylum for me is back and better than ever. Kevin Conroy, Tara Strong (unfortunately replacing Arleen Sorkin but she's great too), Wally Wingert, Grey DeLisle, Nolan North, Corey Burton, and of course Mark Hamill, they, and every other voice actor are all amazing throughout. The plot this time around is also so much more involving, with a building mystery in the background while Batman is forced to search for the cure to a poison slowly killing him, instead of an overly typical boring prison break plot like in the first game, everything feels so much more high-stakes this time around, and that ending is just...haunting. It does suffer from a few noticeable plot holes, mostly relating to how Hugo Strange has apparently been crowned emperor of the universe if he can seriously swing this whole "Arkham City" business past Gotham's board of directors, and how exactly a majority of the villains' various plans are expected to work, but it's still so much more kinetic and enjoyable than it was in Arkham Asylum. And the gameplay that I massively enjoyed for a few hours in Asylum, but then got rather bored of, has been massively improved too, with a much wider variety of enemies as I remembered, and a bigger load of gadgets to mess around with in stealth sequences, and the bosses have had a much-needed hike in quality too. Aside from the aforementioned plot holes, there are a few niggling issues. For one, Warner Bros. cut Catwoman's parts of the game out for anyone who didn't want to buy the game new when it came out, or otherwise buy the DLC pack. They were part of the game that had either been intended as part of the full experience, or mandated to be there so that Warner Bros. could have something to dangle over players' heads to get them to spend more money, and either way it sucks. A lot of the side quests seem to end really anti-climatically, and as for the open world bloating, well...let's just say the Riddler is back with a vengeance in this game, although the result of finishing all his challenges is much more satisfying this time. But overall, this is exactly how great I remembered the Arkham games being, and, in my opinion (can't make that clear enough), leagues better than Arkham Asylum.