Batman Arkham City

          So I just beat Batman Arkham City and I must say that it was a wonderful experience. The game designers did a phenomenal job. They took all of the elements from Batman Arkham Asylum and improved upon them. They added tons of new and inventive gadgets, villains, and upgrades. Also, the designers fixed almost all of the things that were annoying in the first game. 

I loved being able to upgrade new abilities and gadgets. This not only comes in handy during combat, but also for roaming the immense map.

The explanations of how all of the villains ended up in Arkham city is detailed and well written. Villains that were not actually inside Arkham Asylum managed to get trapped or lost inside of Arkham City during the construction.

The storyline is incredible and I still don’t know what to think after beating it. They literally left the game at a point where they could either make another game or end the series completely. Due to the success of the last two games, it would be highly illogical to end the series. Although, the storyline seems to suggest otherwise. SPOILER ALERT!!! With Talia al Ghul, Ra’s al Ghul, Clayface, and the Joker DEAD, it seems hard to create another game. Yes, they could all use the Lazarus Pits earlier showed in the game, but that would seem uncreative and sloppy. It seems obvious that another Batman Arkham... game will be made due to the immense success of the first two games.

I was very interested when Batman chose to join the League of Assassins. Becoming a member of the League of Assassins requires killing people. Usually the victim is a criminal of some kind, but it Batman would never do that. Luckily, Batman didn’t deviate from his moral code and wanted to get into the League just to get a blood sample from Ra’s al Ghul. Once again, Batman outsmarted his way out of an impossible situation.

I am very pleased that the game designers chose to stick to what happens in the comics. Unlike Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City chose to blend realism with the comics. This makes the comic book readers happy as well as casual and upcoming fans.

During the main story, Batman was a bit mean to Mr. Freeze and to Robin. Usually he has to be a bit rough with his villains, but Mr. Freeze seemed to be cooperating. Robin, being Batman’s partner, was treated with disrespect as well. Constantly ordering people around and not accepting the help of others is a good way to lose your friends Batman. This is one place where the game seemed different in a bad way.

As much as I love the Batman franchise, I feel that too many villains and gadgets were added into Arkham City. I was enthusiastic with it all at first, but after a while, I felt a bit confused on where the storyline was headed. Throughout the game, Hugo Strange seemed to be the mastermind behind the chaos in Arkham City. As it turns out, Ra’s al Ghul was manipulating Strange for his own reasons. Along with all of that, Batman still had to cure himself, the Joker, and all of Gotham from a toxic poison. It would have been less distracting if there was only one mastermind instead of three.

Along with the villains, I felt that too many gadgets were added to the game. With every introduction of each gadget, I became more excited to play. My problem with this is that it is going to be very difficult to master each gadget. It took forever to be able to use every gadget in a fight in Arkham Asylum, and it is only going to get worse. Looks like I had better start practicing!

Overall, the game was unbelievable. I played it almost non-stop and beat it in only three days! Don’t worry, I played it on easy so that I can play it again on medium and hard in the future. Despite my criticisms, Batman Arkham City is my new favorite game.