Batman: Arkham City Is Amazing, With Some Flaws

Dear Reader,

“Batman: Arkham City” is a huge success, but it’s not without some flaws. I’m going to talk about the positives first, just so we’re clear on how great this game is, but there’s no honest way to discuss it without also admitting its weaknesses. Some of those flaws are holdovers from “Asylum,” others are new beasts born of Rocksteady’s ambitious expansions to the BAA formula.

Okay, good things. First and foremost, Rocksteady again excels at making you feel like Batman. FreeFlow Combat continues to be one of the great success stories of modern gaming. In BAA it was great, but here it’s bigger, faster, and totally reinvigorated. Simultaneously providing godlike wish fulfillment and nausea-inducing challenge, FreeFlow continues to be the backbone of the “Arkham” series. The basics are the same, but everything’s been tweaked, the size of the battles has been doubled, and a whole slew of new moves and strategic dimensions added. There really are too many to list, I won’t even try. Simply put, it’s the best melee combat system I’m aware of today. End of story.

Also, the Dark Knight’s movement has been overhauled, thanks largely to “Dive Bombing,” which is exactly what it sounds like. You’re floating along, you tuck your cape and dive, then spread again for some extra momentum. Between that and the optional but essential power-grapnel, you can soar across the entire map without your feet touching the ground (although it takes skill and consideration to pull it off). Again, the real success here is how beautifully Rocksteady has distilled the essence of Batman into firm, challenging gameplay.

Speaking of getting around, the massive “Arkham City” is stuffed to the gills with side-quests, which range from “why the hell not” tedium to obsessive-compulsive difficulty. Some people will tell you BAC is a sandbox game; it isn’t. Arkham City is massive, but it’s still a hub world more than living, breathing city, and exploring it is more akin to wandering Hyrule in “Ocarina of Time” than checking out Liberty City. If you ask me, that was the right choice. If they had tried for that whole sandbox thing on top of BAC’s other ambitions, I think the game would have lost focus and collapsed. The “Arkham” series is a linear, story-driven experience at heart. Yes, you can do some side quests, and yes that’s awesome, but at the end of the day Rocksteady keeps a firm eye on the ball. Good for them.

And last on my list of effusive praise, Catwoman. Oh, Catwoman. The truth is, I prefer her to the Dark Knight. Bats has power and a wider range of moves, but Selina Kyle is fast; I mean, she is lightning. I love controlling Sir Wayne, but my personal play style, which favors counters and evasion, is better suited to Catwoman. And her whip-based travel system is completely unique from Batman’s, but equally rewarding and just as fun to play out. I have to tip my hat to Rocksteady for, against all odds, designing a complimentary protagonist to the Dark Knight who is every bit his equal. Honestly, I wanted more time with Selina than I got.

Okay. Phew. Now let’s discuss some negatives.

First off, the story doesn’t reach the original’s heights. “Arkham Asylum” opened with one of the best cinematic set pieces I’ve ever seen in a game, equal to “Half Life’s” incredible monorail ride. BAC’s opening has a great concept, but it’s rushed and a little clunky, and it lacks those subtle touches of genius and wit and that made the Joker’s failed incarceration so menacing. From there, the campaign does a great job weaving in as many characters as possible, but it can’t match the simple genius of “the nuts take over the nuthouse.” And even though we get plenty of hallucinogenic sequences, they never match the flat-out brilliance of the Scarecrow chapters in BAA, which often reminded me of “Eternal Darkness.”

Also, BAC is occasionally guilty of jumping the shark. There’s a cheesy “Bioshock” knock-off under the city, and ancient robots somehow capable of recording things to video tape (what???). Even worse, Batman is required at one point to punch a great white shark in the face, calling up unpleasant memories of the 60s TV show and inducing unintentional laughter.

Perhaps the biggest issue of all, navigation and layout fumble a little. It was always a bit of a pain finding your way to the proper door in BAA, and BAC retains that issue. A more original problem is the dense labyrinth of Arkham City, which is disorienting and often drab. Although it’s fun to run around in such a massive playground, Rocksteady show themselves to be a bit amateur in the field of world design, and they struggle to match their ambitions with strong craft. Sameness of buildings makes it hard to get your bearings, different sections of Arkham City don’t leave distinct impressions, and the horseshoe layout is just plain annoying. Navigating this giant prison island proves to be one of the more modest pleasures of the game. It’s nice enough, but lesser games have actually done it better.

I think you can see pretty plainly that the pros crush the cons. “Batman: Arkham City” is a spectacular success and a worthy sequel to the trend-setting original. True, it doesn’t quite match the story of the first, and Arkham City itself is a bit of a wash, but the raw materials of the game experience have been preserved and improved upon. BAC is everything a sequel should be, and proof of Rocksteady’s bright future as a preeminent game developer.

_AA

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