
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Action Publisher Warner Bros. Developer Rocksteady ESRB T (Teen) Released October 18, 2011

- Fighting moves and combos have been enhanced - Smoke pellets! - A pantheon of Batman villains - New enemies require more due care and attention to fight properly - Catwoman sections are kinda nice and it might be an indication of things to come for the inevitable sequel

- Very easy to get distracted with all the side quests and challenges - Less focused than Arkham Asylum - Can't recapture that first feeling of playing Batman in Arkham Asylum

Review: Batman: Arkham City (PS3) Review: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (XB) Review: inFamous 2 (PS3) Action Figure Review: 15" Ultimate Batman
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Batman: Arkham City

Score: 8.5 / 10

It feels really odd to write that Batman: Arkham City just isn't as awesome as the previous game, Arkham Asylum.

Unlike Asylum, Arkham City opens up the environment so there's plenty of Riddler Trophies to hunt down, side quests, and challenges to distract from the main story

Advertisement

- Xbox 360 Game Reviews
- Action Game Reviews

line that has Batman working on Joker's behest to secure a cure for a particularly nasty ailment. The combat is better than ever and there's a constant stream of interesting and changing moves for Batman to gain the upper hand no matter the situation. It's absolutely ridiculous to say out loud, but the movement is "poetry in motion." Beautiful to

Advertisement

watch and never lacking in excitement, even if some of the boss battles feel as if they will never end. The game succeeds in bettering the mechanics of the first game and even though it's "bigger, better, faster" and features a few really good turns, it doesn't quite match the experience of the first time through Batman: Arkham Asylum.

It's as if by honing the points that made the original so awesome it somehow dulled this new experience. And to clarify, I wrote "dulled" not "blunted." Arkham City is no half-hearted re-hash -- it's just that Rocksteady will never be able to recapture that first feeling of "being" Batman.

Being able to play as Catwoman isn't as empowering as being the Dark Knight, but I think that may have to do with personal preference. Batman is much meaner, and Catwoman cracks wise far too often.

Batman: Arkham City is still one of those games that will have a strong presence on list for Game of the Year and it deserves that kind of attention but it didn't quite grab me the same way Arkham Asylum did.

- Aaron Simmer

(November 24, 2011)