Batman Arkham City: First Impressions

Arkham City is one of the games I’ve been eagerly anticipating this year. It’s predecessor, Arkham Asylum was one of my favourite games in 2009, and with the promise of a more open-world feel and a wider selection of villains from the comics, I was excited to see what the new game would bring. As this is a long game that I really want to explore to the full, I thought I’d post a quick “first impressions” review, as it will be a good month or so before I’m ready to review it properly. So, now that I’m five hours into gameplay, does Arkham City stand up to expectations?

Well, sort of. The things I really loved from the first game are still there; the fabulous voice acting from veterans of the brilliant Batman: The Animated Series, the riddles, the well-conceived stealth sections, and the game certainly feels less constrained and less linear than the first. No longer stuck in the titular Asylum, the escaped lunatics have been walled off in an area of Gotham City now known as “Arkham City”, and it’s up to Batman to run around the rooftops stopping them from killing anyone important…or each other…or Batman himself. Unfortunately, beyond that the plot feels a bit vague and unfocused so far. It seems that every villain in Gotham is in some way involved: Hugo Strange is up to something sinister and is threatening to reveal Batman’s identity, the Joker is apparently dying and needs a cure that Mr Freeze has been working on, Two-Face has predictably taken over the court, Poison Ivy is sulking because Catwoman killed her plants, the Riddler has set up his usual puzzles around town, Mr Zsasz is threatening to kill members of the public if Batman doesn’t return his phone calls, and the Penguin is generally getting in the way. The writers appear to be trying to get the feel of the “No Man’s Land” comics, with villains holing themselves up in various buildings and Batman running between them like a caped delivery service, but so far it feels more like fanservice than a coherent plot.

With the plot so fragmented, most of the fun so far has been through sidequests. Mr Zsasz’s needy phone calls start a fun sidequest in which you have to race across town, while the riddles and puzzles from the first game have got significantly more inventive, making them a lot more fun. Further sidequests involving solving crimes (Batman is the “Dark Knight Detective”, after all) although you can guarantee that just as you’re getting intrigued by a particular mystery Batman will cheerfully announce “I need to keep an eye out for clues” and the trail will run cold.

Gameplay is fairly solid. The stealth sections are a lot of fun, although so far I’m finding the brawl-style combat a little wearing just because there are so many enemies around despite the nice variations that break things up a bit. Extra variation comes from additional playable characters (Catwoman is available as a playable character with certain copies of the game) with significantly different movements and controls which really opens up new environments, new fighting styles and new puzzles.

So, overall first impressions are good. They even managed to ease me out of just running around with the “Detective Vision” filter on all the time (one of Batman’s gadgets that allows him to see through walls, monitor enemies and spot useful details in the area) by having some features, such as your compass, not visible in that mode. I only hope that with time the combat becomes a bit more enjoyable and that the story gains focus as the game goes on.