Batman: Arkham City: Ironing out the creases from last time

I was a massive fan of the first Arkham Batman game and thought it may well be one not only of the best licensed games of all time, but one of the greatest games ever.

The sequel, Arkham City has been set a high benchmark to reach, which it doesn’t just match; it surpasses.

It was always going to be a tough challenge for developers Rocksteady Studios to best Asylum, but it is as if they have taken every element of the first title, fine tuned them and then added more.

To bring those you up to speed, after Arkham Asylum was closed following the first game the prison is moved into Gotham itself, creating Arkham City. Bruce Wayne, Batman’s day-to-day ego is campaigning to have the establishment shut down. But when he ends taken prisoner inside there, it is up to him to find out what is going on.

The original game was quite linear, with only the Riddler trophies and challenge maps as an escape from the main storyline. City has these too, as well as a massive amount of side missions, including a separate campaign playing as Catwoman.

Even without these additions, the storyline would be even longer than the first one. The only way to describe this game is as being huge. The story also sees many twists and turns, of which I did not expect any.

There are very few bosses whom you faced in the first game which you again face in this one, although all of the Asylum bosses do make an appearance in some shape or form. The variety is great as it gives you the opportunity to encounter more of the enemies in the Batman universe.

Graphically, there is no noticeable improvement from the first game as they both run on the Unreal 3 engine, which despite being five years old has aged very well as I couldn’t find any real shortcomings in the game.

The gameplay is much the same too, with you swinging, gliding, interrogating and fighting your way through the game world to complete objectives. However, there is little fighting of numerous numbers of convicts like in the first game as you can avoid many of them by swinging round the city.

I loved the first Arkham game, but this just builds on and improves everything that the first title got nearly perfect. The only way to describe it, is bigger and better than its predecessor.