Batman: Arkham City Review
Author: Zach Roland, Batman: Arkham City Review
You awaken to find yourself tied to a chair in front of mirrored glass. You look up and you see at television screen with a familiar face, Dr. Strange. You listen to what he has to say, Strange knows you’re Batman. He tells you you’re locked in Arkham City, a prison designed after the Arkham Asylum prison break, and that you’ll never escape. You soon break out of their custody and become the Batman once again.
Arkham Asylum started with you, Bruce Wayne, escorting the Joker in the Batmobile to Arkham Asylum. The Joker escapes the custody of the guards with the help of Harley Quinn, and soon after the Batman pursues after the Joker and his kidnap victim Commissioner Gordon. You continue this adventure hunting down the Joker and Harley Quinn, while facing many encounters with the infamous Scarecrow. In the ending the Joker is taken back to his cell with the other prisoners, and Batman flies away in the Batwing after he finds that Twoface is raiding Gotham.
The screen goes distorted as your beating the paint off one of the Joker goons, you prepare to throw your controller but then realize that it was only distorted for a second. That is the start of very small problems in Arkham City’s graphics. There are graphical pops that will happen intermediately, but the graphics after that are extraordinary in appearance. Though these problems may affect how you play, but the game will work perfectly around them. The graphics may have glitches but the engine used to make them was designed very well and add some flare to the game.
As the echo of your explosive gel after you just blew open a wall, the sound is so real you think your right next to that explosion. That is the beginning of a definition of how amazing the audio is in this game. There is dramatic music right in the perfect moments and calming music begins right before the action to help build suspense. There are some flaws in the audio such as quality issues, but other than that it is extremely talented in how it performs in its audio. Through the quality problems the audio is still amazing and is one of the best in games we’ve reviewed.
Cart wheeling around enemies, grappling and gliding from building to building, and the ability to kick someone in the stomach and they fly back ten feet is all a part of this game. You have a wide selection of equipment at your disposal in Arkham City, from your old friend the explosive gel to your new toy the decrypter. In Arkham City you have a new sense of not so free freedom with the ability to roam outdoors instead of in the Asylum. In this comes a whole new type of gameplay, a type that is commonly liked around the video gaming community. This gameplay type is commonly associated as a “Free Roam RPG” or role playing game.
As you are dwindling down towards the end of the game you notice these problems less and less. The graphics, as was said earlier, are amazing and just a bit glitchy. The audio is absolutely one of the best in our time with its entirety of positives and a few negatives. Gameplay in this game is strategically great and also provides the freedom most wish to accomplish in any game or in their lives. Overall this game is quite amazing, and deserves much recognition.
