Lucky you! I've found time in my busy schedule to actually review a game or two, and thats what this blog is all about! This venture is mainly to keep me from clogging up my other blog with game reviews and gossip, if anyone is interested you can have a look at my other blog, Daily (Maybe), by simply following this link: http://purplesweatband.blogspot.com/. Go on, the rest of us can wait.
Back? Good, now i can begin the actual review!
Arkham City's posters give a good impression of how dark the game is.
This week I am reviewing Batman: Arkham City but first off I should mention that i am very informal when it comes to reviews and i won't be talking like I'm an expert and more like if I'm recommending a game to a friend. On that note, GET THIS GAME! Arkham City is everything its predecessor, Arkham Asylum was but bigger and better. However, it does fall short in some respects but i'll get to that later.
So, "How is it better?" I hear you cry. Well, imagine your favourite thing in the world then imagine more of it was put in front of you. Imagine you're a kid and your favourite playground was made bigger with more toys and your parents said "Go play, it's all yours", thats pretty much the feeling you get from Arkham City. One of the main problems that kept me from going back to Arkham Asylum as much as i would have liked to is the feeling of it being very small and not having much to do, despite the large amount of Riddler Challenges you were presented with. AC does away with this feeling, giving you a much more open area to play in and, more importantly, glide about in. Add to that an even more extensive catalouge of collectibles and side missions and you've basically got a perfect game thats been made even better.
A great game out-done by its sequal.
Whats that? "How does the story compare to Arkham Asylum?". I'm glad you asked! (Promise thats the last time i do that) AA's story was extremely well thought out and would usually have me playing it for a far longer time than i was supposed to but thats the sign of an amazing story in my eyes. The only downpoint for me was the ending and the final boss fight against Joker which i'm glad to say has been improved for Batmans latest outing. Despite the fact I expected a lot more from the final fight in AC, I was left feeling very happy with the way it ended in general, don't worry i won't spoil it here. The story is, however, rather short which may bother some people but you have to remember that this game has a massive amount of extras things to do even after completing the main story. Not only are there various side missions to complete but there is also the return of the Riddler Trophies scattered around the city, some of which you won't be able to collect until well after you finish the game and have collected the majority of Batmans suit and gadget upgrades. There's over 400 Riddler Challenges in AC, including trophies, riddles and challenges, just about double that of AA so you get the rough idea of how much more there is to do in the sequal.
A quick mention about the graphics. They are as to be expected in a game of this popularity and the only flaw i can pick out of the look of the game is that Batman takes much more of a beating in AC than he did while running about the asylum yet his suit doesn't get anywhere near as wrecked as it did in AA. Yeah, thats the only thing that bugged me. Apart from that, the characters look great, especially Joker, Gotham looks gritty and dark as would be expected and best of all the Bat-Signal lights up over your objectives. You can't ask for more than that.
Now the bad parts unfortunately. While I did enjoy the story, I felt that some characters were just brought in to please the hardcore Batman fans and not because they were appropriate to the story. Two-Face for example makes a brief cameo at the start and in Cat-Womans storyline but no more is seen of him. For such a massive Batman character to make such a small appearance seems wrong in my view. This happens to other characters as well, like Bane who is just there to hand out a side mission and who made a much bigger impression in the first outing and Robin, over whom there was a big fuss about being in the game during press releases, who makes a brief cameo about half-way through and then mentioned again once or twice. However, I didn't mind small cameos from the smaller characters, such as the Mad-Hatter, who makes a brief but effective appearance.
Despite these few minor drawbacks, this game is perfect. It has a subtle blend of stealth and action that can't be found in any other game and a rich story that would fit nicely in a series of Batman comics. It brings in a large number of the comics characters, even if it is only for a few moments, which will make fans of the comics extremely happy. It has the collection and side missions to keep everyone occupied well after the main story has been finished as well as those all important leaderboards to keep you coming back for more. All-in-all, this game is a must-buy for anyone, and I won't be saying that a lot.
Batman: Arkham City gets:
4 and a half Batarangs! (out of 5)
