Written by: Alex

 

 

 

Batman has returned to consoles in the follow up to his (and Rockstead Studio’s) 2009 smash hit Arkham Asylum. His new outing, "Batman: Arkham City" has promised a new open world with more of the originals fantastic stealth and combat mechanics, all wrapped up in the classic detective’s mystic.

 

 

Batman: Arkham City’s is a strange mix. Like Dark Knights more epic comic tales it takes a handful of smaller stories and blends them together within the overarching narrative. What is strange about Arkham City is that its smaller stories seem to consistently out shine the larger umbrella plot because the underlying conceit of it is so bizarre.

 

Taking place a year after the events of Asylum, the world of Batman: Arkham City is a very different place. The city of Gotham has descended into a police state after Quincy Sharp’s election as mayor (riding on the back of popularity gained from the false claim that he prevent The Jokers takeover of Arkham Asylum). Declaring the asylum and Darkwater Penitentiary are no longer sufficient to house the criminal population Gotham he has bought a vast chunk of the city and has converted it in to massive jail. He places this new ‘Arkham City’ under the control of the dubiously intentioned Hugo Strange, who quickly allows it to become over run with armed thugs. Gang warfare erupts.

 

Bruce Wayne of course finds it hard to remain quiet about these events and begins campaigning against Mayor Sharp. Sharp is unappreciated of the playboy millionaire’s new interest in politics, so he decides to have ‘detained’ and thrown into the criminal ghetto by his personal military, the Tyger Security team. From here it becomes clear that Strange (who is still in control of the prison despite the criminals running wild within) not only knows Bruce Wayne’s alter ego, but also intends to use this knowledge to blackmail the billionaire vigilantly in to allowing events in the city to unfold without interference by the Batman.

 

 

It is a little too odd within the fiction that the citizens would allow to be cut off such a huge chunk of their city. The district that has been occupied is filled with filled essential facilities such as courthouses, banks and museums. Plus with the exception of a single huge wall there seems to be very little done to the area to make it a secure place to hold criminals. An elegant way of giving players a larger area to play in without recreating the whole city perhaps, but the narrative it is placed in is more that a little weak.

 

Fortunately it is the smaller little side stories/missions with Batman’s smaller adversaries are far more cohesive. And with so many dotted throughout the world it is easy to put flaws in the larger narrative out of mind as each smaller tale leads step by step through the main quest.

 

 

Much of what makes Batman work is in the performance of its voice talent and the recreation of the comic’s iconic characters within the game world. Each of the caped crusader’s adversaries has been recreated in beautifully and imaginative ways, each voiced superbly in a manner that really brings them to life. With a clear and consistent vision of the game universe’s take on the Batman fiction, Batman: Arkham City’s reimagining of the original characters with all of their details and idiosyncrasies gives the entire world a wonderfully dark atmosphere.

 

This attention to detail permeates through out the world. Posters that litter the walls, and thugs are marked with their respective boss’s colours add an odd believability to the environment, and a sense of gang rivalry. Even the background chatter between incidental characters builds the scene, trying to foster the illusion of a bigger, open world.

 

 

‘Open world’ is something of a misnomer in the case of Batman: Arkham City. When you think of most games that apply the moniker it implies certain randomness to the environment. The term has become a short hand for a genre of unscripted, emergent play. This randomness has become part of what defines the term, and Arkham City isn’t that.

 

 

In no way does this detract from the world Rocksteady Studios have created. Moving around the city, groups of enemies are always at the same locations, patrolling the same routes, and areas that can be climbed are clearly indicated to allow grappling to be more easily executed. It is (loosely maybe) scripted, a fact that may stop it being ‘open world’, yet has allowed Rocksteady to control the experience and eliminate the technical imperfections usually associated with the term.

 

This tightly designed Batman playground is a joy to navigate. Using The Bat’s grappling hook and glider (combined with a multitude of other gadgets) quickly begins to feel like second nature. Like Asylum before it, Arkham City provides a sense of exhilaration to movement that has been fundamentally improved simply by the expansion of the play space.