Game of the year?

Holy Kleenex Batman. It was right under our nose and we blow it.

Welcome back!!

Batman:Arkham City

Platforms: Multiple

Players: 1

Genre: Action Adventure

Rating: 10/10

As I write this I am losing down to half way through Batman: Arkham City and it is magical! I swear this game is as good if not better than I expected. The game continues from the last in terms of game play and gadgets, you still hide in the shadows and find various ways to take down enemies without being seen or just in the most “Batmany” way you can think off. The best part is it still fun! There are multiple ways to approach every situation and you can’t just go running in swinging, as the enemies are much harder than Arkham Asylum and smarter too. There are also parts of the games with snipers which will give you plenty of issues as you try to take them down or just sneak by. at the beginning its smooth sailing but as you progress and inmates get guns or riot shields, things get interesting, you have to use all you gadgets to keep combos going and try not to die because this game will punish you if you just try to take them all down with just your fists because as you would imagine guns hurt!

The game opens with Bruce Wayne (small opening spoiler ahead but nothing serious) being arrested and thrown into “Arkham City” the new super jail in Gotham made from cutting off a piece of the city. You are being held captive by Hugo Strange who knows you’re batman! And it’s up to you to escape, don your cape and mask and find out what’s really happening in Arkham city and what “Protocol 10” is. All your old batman villains appear be it as enemies or unlikely allies from bane to Mr Freeze and the main man himself joker.

I won’t spoil the story for you but it’s amazing and a fan boys wet dream, as you have such a large area to explore, Riddler trophies to collect and side missions to complete that you could find yourself thrown away from the main story very quickly and not even realise.

This game looks glorious, the graphics are the best you will see at the minute and the dark theme is represented perfectly. if I had one criticism of the game it would be detective mode, don’t get me wrong I love it and it is super useful throughout the game but that’s just it, it’s useful and you will find yourself in it constantly and will miss the beautiful look of the game, I have to force myself to turn it off to enjoy the graphics.

A new inclusion this time are Catwoman and robin, both appearing as DLC (downloadable content) with Catwoman her story is entangled with the dark knights and you switch to hear at certain times to control hear and advance the story while robin remains only playable in the challenge maps. Catwoman is similar to control but in many ways different and Rocksteady done an amazing job in creating her and it doesn’t just feel like she was thrown in to the game, she is her own character, adding her own sub-plot.

Honourable mention has to go to Mark Hamill as the voice of joker, yes he returns and is the best joker I have ever heard!

Enjoy:

This is one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2011 and is a possible game of the year, like its predecessor Batman: Arkham Asylum was up against Uncharted 2: among Thieves and Call of Duty 2: MW2 so is Arkham City up against their sequels, Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception and MW3. It will be though competition and only time will tell!

Basically if you love batman buy this game, if you want a new video game to mess around with, buy this game, if you used to be an adventurer until you took an arrow to the knee, buy this game…basic buy this game.

Peace out till next time