Arkham City Review

Our Arkham City Review continuous..

Not only has Rocksteady managed to compose a pitch-perfect playground for the player to explore, the studio has, once again, nailed that abstruse feeling of being Batman. It's unfortunate, then, that the team did no small amount of laurel-resting when it came to crafting Batman: Arkham City's narrative.

ARKHAM CITY REVIEW

Nearly every villain -- and there are so many -- is a one-dimensional punching bag, and the ones that aren't shift their allegiances with inexplicable frequency. With rare exception, Batman and friends' dialogue bashes the listener with leaden cliches -- a problem which plagued Arkham Asylum, as well. To wit, nearly every statement that slips between Batman's pursed lips boils down to, "No, I believe I'll be doing the punching," or, "Today's not a good day to mess with me." (Really, though, what day is?)

Arkham City kicks off with a dynamic, atmospheric bang, and concludes with a twist which is -- no exaggeration -- exquisitely haunting, but everything in between is something of a blur. The story seems like a series of excuses for you to encounter (and, perplexedly, do chores for) a lengthy parade of supervillains. Worse still, each leg of the journey culminates in a boss fight which, save for one clever encounter halfway through the game, tasks you with punching holes in the foe's repeating attack pattern.

Rocksteady has moved closer to perfection with its second stab at this franchise, but the movement's come in inches. The motives of Arkham City's assemblage of villainous, would-be kingpins -- not to mention the motives of the Dark Knight himself -- never quite come together to form a compelling narrative.

Still, the mechanical excellence and obsessive attention to environmental detail which surprised in Asylum have only been refined in City, and that's no easy task. Rocksteady has made the greatest Batman game ever crafted, and they've done that before. But breathing life into a staggeringly beautiful world; one which hums not only with opportunity, but ambition? That's a new trick altogether.

One of the best games ever in our opinion! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more info.