We don't often look at the gamer side of geekdom here on the Enterprise, though in truth we aren't averse to that sort of thing - we just feel it's probably best left to those who are better versed in that kind of thing than we are (hello Rayfield!). However, with the release of Batman: Arkham City, and the fact we have no idea what the fuck is going on with Rayfield's gamer website, I thought I'd take the opportunity to have a quick review of this much hyped game.
Let me kick off by saying that I am not a hardcore Batman fan, but I really did enjoy Batman: Arkham Asylum which was a game that brought to life the character of Batman and managed to balance quite nicely the world of the comics and the movies and, more importantly, the Bruce Timm cartoon series that was very popular in the 1990's. Using the cartoon series voices - in particular Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker - gave me great joy as I feel that those two are almost the definitive Batman and Joker for me.
Batman: Arkham City is mostly a sequel to the previous game, bringing back the majority of voice artistes (and most importantly Conroy and Hamill), whilst expanding the world of the original game. Arkham now occupies a large part of Gotham City, and the prisoners are all holed up inside, fighting for supremacy under the control of Doctor Hugo Strange. To be honest, it's a bit of a nuts premise to begin with - I can't really see anyone in their right mind thinking that cordoning off a section of the city and dumping every prisoner of the city in there being a great idea. Variously we are led to believe that Hugo Strange is working with the council who are all corrupt, but it's quite a leap.
And from that point, the story really doesn't hold up anywhere nearly as well as the previous game. There are layers upon layers to unravel, but it reaches a point where it's all just a bit ridiculous. Who's behind Hugo Strange? Who's behind him? Who's the mysterious opponent? Who's the real mysterious opponent? But who's behind the real mysterious opponent? By that point you can't help but wonder if the writers of the game weren't trying just a little too hard.
The gameplay is very similar to the previous game which is both good and bad. Good in that if you've played Asylum you'll be au fait with the controls; bad in that there aren't a lot of refreshers on the way to remind you of what you should be doing. In order to make the gameplay a little more challenging, you do need to switch off detective mode fairly frequently, something which was almost unnecessary in the previous game.
On the downside, there's little difference from the first game in approach and tactics, and disappointingly, the fight against the Penguin about a third into the game is almost mirrored exactly when you battle your final mysterious opponent. So while the game isn't a disaster, I think it lacks the spark and ingenuity of its predecessor. Additionally the background dialogue about women does reach a point where it's almost a little too sexist. Catwoman's character - who I only briefly encountered as I was unable to download her - seems to be nothing more than a walking sexball. (That said I did love the appearance of Robin).
Finally, and this should be noted, I had reached 49% of the game, and was in the process of completing side missions and finding Riddler trophies (there are 400 of them in this game, which borders on ridiculous, to be honest) when the game suddenly couldn't find my saved game. I could see the saved game on the hard drive, but the game just refused to acknowledge it was there. I did some research and discovered that this is actually a common fault, but can occur anywhere between 30% and 96% completion. For this single reason, until the game is actually fixed, I would strongly recommend not getting it. When it is all patched up, go for it, but whilst it has this very big fault, I'd sit back and wait for the next movie.
Let me kick off by saying that I am not a hardcore Batman fan, but I really did enjoy Batman: Arkham Asylum which was a game that brought to life the character of Batman and managed to balance quite nicely the world of the comics and the movies and, more importantly, the Bruce Timm cartoon series that was very popular in the 1990's. Using the cartoon series voices - in particular Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker - gave me great joy as I feel that those two are almost the definitive Batman and Joker for me.
Batman: Arkham City is mostly a sequel to the previous game, bringing back the majority of voice artistes (and most importantly Conroy and Hamill), whilst expanding the world of the original game. Arkham now occupies a large part of Gotham City, and the prisoners are all holed up inside, fighting for supremacy under the control of Doctor Hugo Strange. To be honest, it's a bit of a nuts premise to begin with - I can't really see anyone in their right mind thinking that cordoning off a section of the city and dumping every prisoner of the city in there being a great idea. Variously we are led to believe that Hugo Strange is working with the council who are all corrupt, but it's quite a leap.
And from that point, the story really doesn't hold up anywhere nearly as well as the previous game. There are layers upon layers to unravel, but it reaches a point where it's all just a bit ridiculous. Who's behind Hugo Strange? Who's behind him? Who's the mysterious opponent? Who's the real mysterious opponent? But who's behind the real mysterious opponent? By that point you can't help but wonder if the writers of the game weren't trying just a little too hard.
The gameplay is very similar to the previous game which is both good and bad. Good in that if you've played Asylum you'll be au fait with the controls; bad in that there aren't a lot of refreshers on the way to remind you of what you should be doing. In order to make the gameplay a little more challenging, you do need to switch off detective mode fairly frequently, something which was almost unnecessary in the previous game.
On the downside, there's little difference from the first game in approach and tactics, and disappointingly, the fight against the Penguin about a third into the game is almost mirrored exactly when you battle your final mysterious opponent. So while the game isn't a disaster, I think it lacks the spark and ingenuity of its predecessor. Additionally the background dialogue about women does reach a point where it's almost a little too sexist. Catwoman's character - who I only briefly encountered as I was unable to download her - seems to be nothing more than a walking sexball. (That said I did love the appearance of Robin).
Finally, and this should be noted, I had reached 49% of the game, and was in the process of completing side missions and finding Riddler trophies (there are 400 of them in this game, which borders on ridiculous, to be honest) when the game suddenly couldn't find my saved game. I could see the saved game on the hard drive, but the game just refused to acknowledge it was there. I did some research and discovered that this is actually a common fault, but can occur anywhere between 30% and 96% completion. For this single reason, until the game is actually fixed, I would strongly recommend not getting it. When it is all patched up, go for it, but whilst it has this very big fault, I'd sit back and wait for the next movie.
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