First off, apologies for the delay. I had been so absorbed in playing this game for the past 2-3 days, that I almost forgot to post it's first impressions. Anyway, I'll try to focus on some points which I have enjoyed, appreciated and also point certain flaws of this title. Feel free to comment or point out any inaccuracies in it. 
Now we all know how Rocksteady had revived, what once a nearly-dead Batman video-game franchise, by treating us with Batman: Arkham Asylum back in 2009. It was a dream come true for fans of the caped crusader and was applauded by everyone. We yearned for a sequel and now we have it. With Arkham City, they have upped the ante and promised to deliver a dark and adventurous journey. I'll try to cover as much as I can, but unfortunately I have to cut down on revealing too much about it's storyline, since almost everything would end up being a spoiler. Trust me, the characters and content they have revealed till now, is nothing compared to what is about to greet you in this game. It's filled with surprises. So keeping that in mind, let's proceed, shall we?
Arkham City takes place a year after the events of the first game. We see Quincy Sharp (former warden of Arkham Asylum) is now the new Mayor of Gotham City. He takes the entire credit for stopping Joker and crippling his devious plan at the Asylum. With the Asylum being shut-down, Sharp takes over a large portion of Gotham's slum-dwelling areas and converts it into one massively guarded prison called, Arkham City. This city has been dumped with inmates from both; Blackgate Penitentiary & Arkham Asylum. In this city, prisoners are allowed to roam freely, with just one rule; no one would escape this place. Any attempt to escape would be met with death. To control these lunatics, Sharp entrusts Dr. Hugo Strange to "govern" this area and keep the notoriety level low. There is also a private military firm called Tyger Security brought in to watch over this city. This is just the surface story. In the other corner of this devil-forsaken city, we have an internal war brewing between Two-Face, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze & the Joker. To reveal each of their stories would be a huge give-away, so it's better if you guys experience it while playing the game. The whole plot is made up brilliantly and could easily be conceived as a comic-book, or comprised of animated short episodes.
I'll now touch on the gameplay aspect. Just like it's predecessor, we have all the good stuff making their come-back and then some more. By good stuff returning, I'm referring to the combat system, gadget usage, boss battles, riddle solving and espionage. Now here's the biggest change, it's turned into an open world environment. While Arkham Asylum was linear and had restrictive area to explore, Arkham City is HUGE and you're free to explore it and grab main/side missions at your will. To make it even more interesting, we have RPG elements sprinkled, albeit in minor doses. The game now allows you to collect experience points, level up and spend it on enhancing your gadgets, learning new combat moves and upgrading your body armour. You can gain XP in combat, completing main and side missions, collecting Riddler's trophies etc. At certain points, you'll be allowed to play as Catwoman. She has her own set of missions and trophies. As I have mentioned before, the game doesn't have a mini-map anymore. It has a direction bar on the top of the screen. The main map allows you to set custom waypoints, which in turn will have a Bat signal on that spot for easy navigation. You have main missions showing up in green icons and side missions in blue. Since they have introduced open world environment, we need an efficient traveling system, don't we? YES we do and NO, we don't get to ride the Batmobile or the Batpod or well, any vehicles in general. You have to rely on your trusty ol' grappling hook and your cape to carry you through this city. You can grapple, float and dive-bomb your way through the entire city. You also have a set of Augmented Reality Training (ART), as a part of the side mission, to hone your navigational skills. Detective mode is also back, effective use of which, allows you to plan your attacks strategically and scan the entire environment for interactive objects. Vast set of gadgets are available at your disposal to even put James Bond to shame. You have everything from a Remote Electrical Charge to Freeze Blast, regular Batrang to a remote controller batrang, Explosive gel to Smoke Pellets. Get the picture? You're not just the Dark Knight, Rocksteady has prepped you up adequately to take on every single one of the conniving thugs in Arkham City.
Let's move on the graphics department now. No matter how much we speak of Unreal Engine 3's limitations, it's tech seems to impress us on various occasions. Arkham City craves for exploration and it begs for detailing. Although, the textures and objects continue to be dull looking, the detail provided to each area of the city is mind-numbing. As a night only set-up, the game's out-door visuals are just as stunning as it's in-doors. Lighting is another praise worthy spectacle in this game. Character models are ingeniously constructed and you can literally view Batman's suit tearing up in various places after each battles progression. Visit city's thug ridden streets, it's museum, the abandoned railway terminals, the steel mill, destroyed church or the city hall, every area has great deal of authenticity and creativity displayed. Virtually no bugs or performance issues have been encountered in my 10 hour playthrough. It delivers stable 30fps on the 360. Physics effects seem to be on low and no signs of screen tearing either. I'm sure PC users will be in for a treat, while amping up the visuals in full HD and with PhysX.
I'll move onto the sound and voice-acting part now. Sound effects are amazing. Every last detail, right from your punches to the enemies to the bats flying out after the fight, from thunder sounds to shotgun blasts are delivered accurately. I have to applaud whoever did the soundtrack on this game; it's marvelous. Remember the feeling you had while watching Batman Begins and experiencing Zimmer & Newton's compositions. You'll have the same epic feeling out here too. A good dramatic mood is setup while both; combat and navigation. Diverting your attention to the voice-acting, this is where I have a few complaints. The interaction between Batman and unknown NPC's are just downright pathetic and lousy. I'm not talking about the game's lead characters or arch villains, but just regular people whom he saves. The lines delivered seem bland and expressions are wooden. Also, I'm sure you'll all agree with this (once you play the game), Alfred has grown to be a sarcastic prick in this game. I don't know how or why, but all his lines seem to be in a commanding tone and filled with silly-ass sarcasms. Makes me wonder if he is still Bruce Wayne's butler or has he been promoted to some secret post, which allows him to speak in such a tone. Anyway, you'll also hear voices while tapping into the inmates radio frequencies. While patrolling, they act like the news/gossip column. You'll hear them chatting about a recent event, b**ching about their bosses, talking crap about Batman and the likes. It's really interesting. My best voice acting award will definitely go out to Mark Hamill for his astounding performance as the Joker. His lines are filled with humour and delivered with an impact. And I can't believe they made Nolan North pull off Penguin's voice with a British accent, not bad at all.
So with all of these great ingredients mixed in, we have a great sequel from Rocksteady. However, I still feel Arkham Asylum really had something special, which I'm still not able to get from this game. It could be those darned scare-crow surprise factors or the domain of the sultry Poison Ivy. Not to say that it's a downer, but that's something to reflect on, if they ought to make another sequel. So far, I'm more than satisfied for the content offered by this game. If you're a 100% completion person, then this game will not disappoint you. Solving Riddler's challenges and gathering his trophies alone, should consume a great amount of time. Besides that, that are lots of side missions, unlockable stuff and DLC's to come. People ordering the X360 or PS3 version, be informed that you guys will have to redeem your Catwoman DLC online, via a pass that you'll get with only a new purchase of the disc. It's sort of a measure to reduce used-game sales. But that's irrelevant as the game is kick-ass and you'll have a great time with it. Pre-order your copies and put your bat-mask on. :batman:
Now we all know how Rocksteady had revived, what once a nearly-dead Batman video-game franchise, by treating us with Batman: Arkham Asylum back in 2009. It was a dream come true for fans of the caped crusader and was applauded by everyone. We yearned for a sequel and now we have it. With Arkham City, they have upped the ante and promised to deliver a dark and adventurous journey. I'll try to cover as much as I can, but unfortunately I have to cut down on revealing too much about it's storyline, since almost everything would end up being a spoiler. Trust me, the characters and content they have revealed till now, is nothing compared to what is about to greet you in this game. It's filled with surprises. So keeping that in mind, let's proceed, shall we?
Arkham City takes place a year after the events of the first game. We see Quincy Sharp (former warden of Arkham Asylum) is now the new Mayor of Gotham City. He takes the entire credit for stopping Joker and crippling his devious plan at the Asylum. With the Asylum being shut-down, Sharp takes over a large portion of Gotham's slum-dwelling areas and converts it into one massively guarded prison called, Arkham City. This city has been dumped with inmates from both; Blackgate Penitentiary & Arkham Asylum. In this city, prisoners are allowed to roam freely, with just one rule; no one would escape this place. Any attempt to escape would be met with death. To control these lunatics, Sharp entrusts Dr. Hugo Strange to "govern" this area and keep the notoriety level low. There is also a private military firm called Tyger Security brought in to watch over this city. This is just the surface story. In the other corner of this devil-forsaken city, we have an internal war brewing between Two-Face, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze & the Joker. To reveal each of their stories would be a huge give-away, so it's better if you guys experience it while playing the game. The whole plot is made up brilliantly and could easily be conceived as a comic-book, or comprised of animated short episodes.
I'll now touch on the gameplay aspect. Just like it's predecessor, we have all the good stuff making their come-back and then some more. By good stuff returning, I'm referring to the combat system, gadget usage, boss battles, riddle solving and espionage. Now here's the biggest change, it's turned into an open world environment. While Arkham Asylum was linear and had restrictive area to explore, Arkham City is HUGE and you're free to explore it and grab main/side missions at your will. To make it even more interesting, we have RPG elements sprinkled, albeit in minor doses. The game now allows you to collect experience points, level up and spend it on enhancing your gadgets, learning new combat moves and upgrading your body armour. You can gain XP in combat, completing main and side missions, collecting Riddler's trophies etc. At certain points, you'll be allowed to play as Catwoman. She has her own set of missions and trophies. As I have mentioned before, the game doesn't have a mini-map anymore. It has a direction bar on the top of the screen. The main map allows you to set custom waypoints, which in turn will have a Bat signal on that spot for easy navigation. You have main missions showing up in green icons and side missions in blue. Since they have introduced open world environment, we need an efficient traveling system, don't we? YES we do and NO, we don't get to ride the Batmobile or the Batpod or well, any vehicles in general. You have to rely on your trusty ol' grappling hook and your cape to carry you through this city. You can grapple, float and dive-bomb your way through the entire city. You also have a set of Augmented Reality Training (ART), as a part of the side mission, to hone your navigational skills. Detective mode is also back, effective use of which, allows you to plan your attacks strategically and scan the entire environment for interactive objects. Vast set of gadgets are available at your disposal to even put James Bond to shame. You have everything from a Remote Electrical Charge to Freeze Blast, regular Batrang to a remote controller batrang, Explosive gel to Smoke Pellets. Get the picture? You're not just the Dark Knight, Rocksteady has prepped you up adequately to take on every single one of the conniving thugs in Arkham City.
Let's move on the graphics department now. No matter how much we speak of Unreal Engine 3's limitations, it's tech seems to impress us on various occasions. Arkham City craves for exploration and it begs for detailing. Although, the textures and objects continue to be dull looking, the detail provided to each area of the city is mind-numbing. As a night only set-up, the game's out-door visuals are just as stunning as it's in-doors. Lighting is another praise worthy spectacle in this game. Character models are ingeniously constructed and you can literally view Batman's suit tearing up in various places after each battles progression. Visit city's thug ridden streets, it's museum, the abandoned railway terminals, the steel mill, destroyed church or the city hall, every area has great deal of authenticity and creativity displayed. Virtually no bugs or performance issues have been encountered in my 10 hour playthrough. It delivers stable 30fps on the 360. Physics effects seem to be on low and no signs of screen tearing either. I'm sure PC users will be in for a treat, while amping up the visuals in full HD and with PhysX.
I'll move onto the sound and voice-acting part now. Sound effects are amazing. Every last detail, right from your punches to the enemies to the bats flying out after the fight, from thunder sounds to shotgun blasts are delivered accurately. I have to applaud whoever did the soundtrack on this game; it's marvelous. Remember the feeling you had while watching Batman Begins and experiencing Zimmer & Newton's compositions. You'll have the same epic feeling out here too. A good dramatic mood is setup while both; combat and navigation. Diverting your attention to the voice-acting, this is where I have a few complaints. The interaction between Batman and unknown NPC's are just downright pathetic and lousy. I'm not talking about the game's lead characters or arch villains, but just regular people whom he saves. The lines delivered seem bland and expressions are wooden. Also, I'm sure you'll all agree with this (once you play the game), Alfred has grown to be a sarcastic prick in this game. I don't know how or why, but all his lines seem to be in a commanding tone and filled with silly-ass sarcasms. Makes me wonder if he is still Bruce Wayne's butler or has he been promoted to some secret post, which allows him to speak in such a tone. Anyway, you'll also hear voices while tapping into the inmates radio frequencies. While patrolling, they act like the news/gossip column. You'll hear them chatting about a recent event, b**ching about their bosses, talking crap about Batman and the likes. It's really interesting. My best voice acting award will definitely go out to Mark Hamill for his astounding performance as the Joker. His lines are filled with humour and delivered with an impact. And I can't believe they made Nolan North pull off Penguin's voice with a British accent, not bad at all.
So with all of these great ingredients mixed in, we have a great sequel from Rocksteady. However, I still feel Arkham Asylum really had something special, which I'm still not able to get from this game. It could be those darned scare-crow surprise factors or the domain of the sultry Poison Ivy. Not to say that it's a downer, but that's something to reflect on, if they ought to make another sequel. So far, I'm more than satisfied for the content offered by this game. If you're a 100% completion person, then this game will not disappoint you. Solving Riddler's challenges and gathering his trophies alone, should consume a great amount of time. Besides that, that are lots of side missions, unlockable stuff and DLC's to come. People ordering the X360 or PS3 version, be informed that you guys will have to redeem your Catwoman DLC online, via a pass that you'll get with only a new purchase of the disc. It's sort of a measure to reduce used-game sales. But that's irrelevant as the game is kick-ass and you'll have a great time with it. Pre-order your copies and put your bat-mask on. :batman:
Thanks Allwyn for the effort.
