Batman: Arkham City afterthoughts

Now that Battlefield 3 is out (though sometimes barely working), I’ll be putting much less time into Arkham City. I’ll no doubt be revisiting the scum-ridden section of Gotham in the future, because as much as I’m enjoying the current version of EA DICE’s war simulator, “AC” is still my heavy favorite for Game of the Year.

I went back and read through my review of the game (which I wrote before finishing the story) and realized there were quite a few aspects of the game I forgot to mention. Be forewarned, the following may contain spoilers and if you don’t want anything about this game ruined, you may want to move onto another of the many fine articles on this blog. I’ll say it again in big letters SPOILERS AHEAD. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

-I can’t believe I didn’t talk about the Catwoman missions. They intertwine with the Batman story at points and gives a slightly different perspective on the story. For instance, at the start of the game, you as Catwoman are trying to steal something from Two-Face and Batman – looking for info about Arkham City – must save Catwoman. Later on, Batman is ambushed and Catwoman must decide between raiding Hugo Strange’s contraband vault or saving his life. Though her section of the story don’t drastically change anything, it’s neat to get a little bit of a different perspective on the events of the game. Her combat style is a bit quicker than Batman’s and her gadgets (whip, bolos and caltrops) are interesting but ultimately I’d rather be playing as Batman and using his, much wider array of gadgets. On top of that, Thief Vision (her version of Detective Mode) is fairly useless. It shows enemies but not what they are holding and makes everything a muddy shade of brown rather than doing anything useful.

-There are a ton of upgrades to earn. Gadget upgrades, new combat moves, as well as upgrades for Catwoman. While most are just nice to have (especially upgraded ballistic/combat armor), the most effective I’ve found is Batman’s ground takedown where Batman will leap into the air and toss Batarangs at downed enemies, finishing them off. Using special moves like this are fun in the normal game but are basically necessary to use on New Game Plus.

-New Game Plus is unlocked after completing the main story and allows you to play through the game again but against tougher enemies from the get-go and no counter-attack indicator. Enemies on New Game Plus are generally much more aggressive than in the standard game and will regularly have body armor, weapons and firearms making actions as simple as traversing the streets a dangerous task. New Game Plus is a really great challenge – even though I’m stuck on the Poison Ivy boss fight because I never leveled up any of Catwoman’s armor.

-You can also still continue playing the regular game after you’ve finished the story, even if you’ve started a New Game Plus – extremely fortunate for me so that I can level up Catwoman’s stats. You’ll undoubtedly still have plenty of Riddler trophies to collect as well as sidequests to complete so being able to go back and hunt down these overlooked extras outside of the challenging New Game Plus is a nice touch.

-You know, Riddler could almost be Batman’s greatest nemesis – well, in terms of this game anyway. Long after you’ve dealt with Strange, Ra’s and the Joker you’ll still be hunting down trophies and riddles strewn about by Edward Nigma – many of which will probably stump the hell out of you. Often I’ve spent 10-20 minutes trying to figure out some puzzle only to get fed up, fly off in some random direction, only to get sidetracked by another one of Riddler’s puzzles. Plus, Riddler henchmen are scattered all over Arkham City who will mark trophies and riddles on your map. Granted you need to beat down any other henchmen who may be hanging around – which can be kinda difficult as you need to focus on taking down everyone but the Riddler’s man so you can interrogate him (read: threaten him, get info and then smash his face in).

-Augmented Reality missions are a paaaain. These side missions are meant to challenge your flying/gliding abilities but are honestly more annoying than they are worth. These challenges mostly deal with flying/gliding through a series of 4-5 coronas. The first one or two are simple enough but before long you’re tasked with following intricate flight paths that can take just as long to figure out as they can be to complete (since many twist their way through narrow, sometimes indoor, areas). Honestly, I’d rather just dive bomb/glide/grapnel hook (an upgrade which uses the grappling hook to sling shot Batman into the air to extend your glide) around the city for fun – mostly because I have much more fun just flying around than anyone should.

-The voice acting is once again superb. Mark Hamill reprising his role as the Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman do an incredible job bringing the characters to life. Plus, being a huge nerd, I love putting the Animated Series skin on, playing New Game Plus, and pretending like I’m actually in the Animated Series.

-With the improvements to the combo system (hot key gadgets, attacks built up to by doing longer combos, stun attacks, multiple counters (blade and regular), I’m finding the challenge rooms more enjoyable. Last game the best course of action was pretty much just attacking and countering but “AC” really allows you to get creative with your fighting style while being flexible on letting you extend your combo. The numerous enemy types (inmates, Tyger guards, armored guys, ninjas, one armed clown guys, Titans and the different weapons they can all carry (shield, batons, guns, blades, throwables) keeps the combat interesting and keeps you on your toes. There are also new “campaign” missions available in the challenge section of the main menu but I never got around to trying them out.

-It would have been nice if there were more skins for Batman. Maybe I need to unlock more but it seems like the only one I have is the Animated Series Batman that I got for preordering at GameStop. (Which is great – I loved that cartoon). From what I can gather, the different skins were available as preorder bonuses from different outlets and most will be available for purchase later. I’ve also been trying to find out more information on the Robin DLC (and the alleged Nightwing DLC as well) but haven’t found much solid information other than “they will be available for download at some point in the future.” Though I am pretty sure that the Robin DLC will only allow you to use the character in challenge rooms and won’t let you cruise around Arkham City as Boy Wonder.

-I wish there were a few more boss fights, or at least more interesting boss fights. There really isn’t anything that rivals the Scarecrow parts from “AA” (the Mad Hatter sidequest and the Ra’s al Ghul level are about the closest) and while the final boss fight is more interesting than the final fight in “AA,” I’m still unsure how I feel about it. In the first game you fought Joker, but a beefed up, Titan infused version of Joker which was pretty unsatisfying as a final boss since it was basically just another fight. The final fight of “AC” against Clayface is a multi-part affair and actually comes out of left field (I certainly didn’t guess that Joker never took the cure to begin with and it was, for the most part, Clayface we were seeing). And while the fight with him is intense and leaves the door open for another game (Clayface did just jump into Ra’s’ immortality pit, didn’t he?), I’m not sure how I feel about the ending as a whole. Sure, having Joker’s own uncontrollability lead to his ultimate demise is very fitting but to have the entire game come down to Batman punching Strange a bunch of times and letting Ra’s and Joker basically kill themselves felt very anti-climactic. What happens to Arkham City now? Is Joker really dead? How did Strange discover Bruce Wayne’s secret in the first place and you actually want me to believe he didn’t tell ANYONE else that Wayne is Batman?