Review by: Brandon "Batarang" Cackowski-Schnell

At the risk of stating the obvious, Batman: Arkham Asylum was a game about being Batman. The combat, the gadgets, and the detective skills all were introduced to give you the experience of being the Dark Knight. In many ways it was an origin story, even if we never saw how Batman came to be. Arkham City, on the other hand, is a game about saving a city, Gotham City, and the experience is all the better for it.

Over the years, Gotham City has grown in importance from being the place where Batman lives, to being a primary character in Batman’s stories. In moving Batman out of the connected corridors of the previous game to a more expansive, more liberating chunk of Gotham proper, we finally get to see the real Batman. Every rooftop is a vantage point; every alley a battleground, every intercepted radio broadcast a cry for help. This is no longer a fight to keep the lunatics of Arkham Asylum from spilling out into Gotham; this is a fight for Gotham herself, a fight between two men with radically different ideas of how to save a city.

One man, of course, is Batman. The other is Hugo Strange, administrator of Arkham City. Strange’s ever present monotone voice announcing the countdown to Protocol 10 belies the raging psychosis brought on by years of preoccupation with the mentally ill, and with deducing the secret identity of Batman. Strange has a vision for Gotham, a vision in which he is Gotham’s savior, and in needing to prove his superiority to Batman he has Bruce Wayne arrested, knowing full well that bringing in Wayne means introducing Batman into the already volatile mix of gangs and super-villains that have carved up Arkham City.

Batman’s villains, arguably the best rogue’s gallery of any superhero, are so compelling because they reflect aspects of Batman’s personality taken to murderous extremes. Joker is madness made flesh, Two-Face the conflict between justice and vengeance, Freeze is the cold heart of science turned towards revenge, and Strange is the imposition of order through any means necessary. The villains that occupy Arkham City are used well, not only in terms of moving the story along, but also used appropriately in regards to their comic book origins. Strange may be running the show but Joker is ever-present and his parallel story line brings a deeply personal set of motivations for Batman.

Despite fighting against men, what Batman hopes to triumph against is chaos. To do so, he must plan for every situation, train for every scenario, and be equipped to handle every conflict. His array of gadgets, no longer restricted to only navigational uses, provide a dizzying amount of choices on the battlefield. Good thing too, as enemies are more numerous and more varied than before making a four or five person fight the exception to the 20 person brawl rule. The sheer number of combat options can make encounters a chaotic affair, especially early on when learning how to incorporate them into a fray; however the real weapon here is Batman. Even without his toys, he is more than capable of handling himself. Once the learning curve is mastered, every fight becomes an opportunity to experiment— to use all of those wonderful toys in surprising ways.

The upgrade system from the original game returns, allowing you to spend points to extend the use of gadgets, to better protect Batman, or facilitate longer combos of basic strikes and counters. Even within these upgrades you have a choice of what kind of Batman you wish to be. Do you want your increasing counter meter to further hone Batman’s focus, allowing him to travel farther and hit harder with every strike, or do you want to assault enemies with unstoppable attacks, removing the tougher enemies from the equation, but at the same time breaking your focus?