Batman: Arkham City
This is a big improvement over Arkham Asylum, which was already excellent. More of the same punchy combat, improved by more gadgets and a variety of enemy types. Combat often feels more like a puzzle now; you have to think about how and when to take out the enemies that require special moves. The story is even better than the first game. Being able to explore the whole city is much more open, like you'd expect a Batman game to feel rather than the small corridors of the Asylum. I really enjoyed the story on the whole, although there were a couple of annoying boss fights. The ending is particularly good. If you enjoyed the first one, absolutely play this.
Pros
- Features Catwoman (which is not only cool, but also adds a new skill tree and some variation in gameplay)
- Graphical upgrades since Arkham
- While Arkham Asylum was very linear, being in the city really opens it up with lots of verticality
- You can now use the Batclaw to pull yourself to ledges while gliding, which is really useful for the new open environment
- New additions: Double take down, smoke bomb, slide tackle, double parry, titans are less annoying, knife dodge, different format of riddler puzzles, line launcher can change direction in flight, electrical charges, freeze projectiles, shield enemies, armoured enemies, lots more enemies with guns, a gun disabler device
- Really enjoyed the boss fight with Mr. Freeze, as you have to think about the environment and use all your abilities
- There's a section where Batman is knocked out and needs help, and you're playing as Catwoman. You're given a choice whether to escape with your loot and leave Batman to die, or go save him. You can genuinely just leave the city and leave Batman to die, and the credits roll
- Nice short main story with lots of extra side content if you want to keep playing
- The annoying Scarecrow sections from the first game are gone (with only one annoying mad hatter section to replace them)
Cons
- I found the number of new gadgets and abilities rather overwhelming. It's built for consoles, so everything's on a D-pad switcher and various controller button combinations which I constantly forgot or mixed up
- The game crashed during a boss fight