Written By: Michael K.
Batman: Arkham City
Have you ever had that game where you can just sit down, play for a night or two and can’t help yourself but play through again? I think we all have that one game. I play certain games at least once a year as a sort of tradition to keep me going forward. There’s more to it than just nostalgia for me, though, for it can have an impact on your outlook on life, and can help you grow.
For me, the first game that did that was a game that now is ten years old, won game of the year in 2011, and stands as one of the greatest superhero games ever made:
That game was Batman: Arkham City. The sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, this was the first one of the Arkham games I experienced, first when I watched my best friend play the beginning of the game on a cold winter night in 2012. We had just came back from seeing a movie and he wanted to show me the game, and the moment he started it up, I knew I had to play the game.
Set about a year after the events of Arkham Asylum, Batman is forced to infiltrate Arkham City, a mega-prison that disconnects an entire area of Gotham City from the world, leaving criminals to run free in the slums, while under the watching eye of the mad professor Hugo Strange.
After an awesome opening of getting thrown into the prison city for simply protesting against the facility, you control Batman in a sandbox world where you can run, grapple and glide nearly everywhere! This game does have a linear story, but Arkham City allows you to send Batman wherever you want, with more areas being unlocked with new gear. The game’s exploration and movement controls really do make me feel as though I am Batman gliding out in the darkness over the city. If you want to truly get ths feeling, you should take the time to use the AR Training quests, at least the first one, to get the grapnel boost, which allows you to accelerate into the air like you’re flying!
And gliding around the city isn’t the end of it, because Arkham City’s combat is incredible! In close-quarters combat, you can punch one guy three times and counter another one’s attack! The fights are brutal, and you can go from fighting a mob of thugs who are over their heads, to giant one-armed men with a sledgehammer!
And when enemies are too dangerous, you can use your detective mode and the environment to stealthily take down crooks from above or behind without being noticed! Batman also has a variety of gadgets, like his good old batarangs, batclaw, and even more! And you can make Batman even stronger with use of a level-up system, making you strong enough to make Superman bleed!
And my favorite part of this game is how it truly feels like you’re in a realistic version of Batman’s world. You can scan locations to learn more about Gotham City’s dark history, and engage in side quests stopping Batman’s lesser-known villains like Mad Hatter, Deadshot, Zsasz and Hush! And in the main story, you encounter all sorts of bad guys from the rogues gallery, with Batman fighting Two-Face, the Joker, Harley Quinn, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and many more! Arkham City was my real introduction to the larger DC universe. And in small sections, you get to play as Catwoman in awesome stealth missions that add more to the experience!
This is helped even more by the game’s voice cast, with Kevin Conroy’s Batman still being a charm to listen to, and Mark Hamill’s Joker being always a perfect mixture between hilarious and horrifying!
My only real complaint about Arkham City is that after the main story, the game becomes much shorter, unless you’re a completionist. And if you thought collecting Korok Seeds in The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was hard…let me introduce you to their predecessor, the Riddler trophies. There are over two hundred of them in the game, and you can only get them if you solve increasingly hard to solve challenges. This is only really fun for those who want to really push themselves, but I’m not one of those people, so I’m leaving it up to you.
In the end, Batman: Arkham City is a game I will always cherish. Whenever I need a boost of energy and action, I boot it up, and play it with even greater skills than last time. It’s a game I would recommend to anyone, whether they be long-time Batman fans, newcomers, or those just looking for a fun game to experience. It’s a game that will leave an impact on you, just like it did on me. Because the impact it had makes me a different person than I could have been.
And who am I?
…I’m Batman.
(EDIT: Fooling you guys! Who’s this guy, Bruce Wayne?! A billionaire playboy in Gotham?! Jack Ryder needs to check his sources!)
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