Batman: Arkham City

[Teal]

Oh. my. What a fantastic, engaging, beautiful, deep, and varied game this is. I have been looking forward to this ever since it was announced, and boy, has it ever delivered. For starters, the game's an absolute looker. Wow. Arkham City looks suitably depressing and run-down, and it's so...alive. Batman has radial hearing devices, and there's all sorts of conversations that you can listen in on. (Just an aside...this game is NOT for younger players-quite a bit of rough language, sexual innuendo, and the like.) I've run into a couple of the 'super-villians' thus far, and they are extremely well-acted. The story starts out with quite a cool surprise, too. Never saw that coming.

There are a TON of side missions, quests, Riddler trophies (I think I read there were something like 400 Riddler trophies...holy cow), training options, upgrades, and...Catwoman (did I mention the game wasn't terribly kid-friendly? lol). I don't want to say any more for fear of saying too much, but if you even remotely enjoyed Arkham Asylum, this one's going to blow your mind. It's simply incredible.

[Naples39]

I really enjoyed Arkham Asylum (I even found every riddler puzzle), and the reviews for this are pretty outstanding. I think I'll jump on this in a b2g1f deal, maybe with Rage and Forza.

[Wilk5280]

Picked it up today at Walmart, which included a free copy of Arkham Asylum: GOTY Edition.

[Slumberland]

Picked it up as part of the TRU buy-2-get-1 deal. Psyched.

[RallyMonkey]

Oh. my. What a fantastic, engaging, beautiful, deep, and varied game this is. I have been looking forward to this ever since it was announced, and boy, has it ever delivered. For starters, the game's an absolute looker. Wow. Arkham City looks suitably depressing and run-down, and it's so...alive. Batman has radial hearing devices, and there's all sorts of conversations that you can listen in on. (Just an aside...this game is NOT for younger players-quite a bit of rough language, sexual innuendo, and the like.) I've run into a couple of the 'super-villians' thus far, and they are extremely well-acted. The story starts out with quite a cool surprise, too. Never saw that coming.

There are a TON of side missions, quests, Riddler trophies (I think I read there were something like 400 Riddler trophies...holy cow), training options, upgrades, and...Catwoman (did I mention the game wasn't terribly kid-friendly? lol). I don't want to say any more for fear of saying too much, but if you even remotely enjoyed Arkham Asylum, this one's going to blow your mind. It's simply incredible.

Agree, agree, and agree further. Got in a couple of hours today and it really is fantastic. So much to do, nice variety in the twists and turns, and very open environment. Looking forward to playing more tomorrow.

[greggsand]

This game rules! Literally had force myself to stop playing.

[Teal]

Yeah, too, Greg. Not too many games will get my 41 year old ass into a midnight launch, but this one did. Got home, and decided I'd 'just look at it' before I headed to bed.




....at 2:55 am, I finally went.

[dbdynsty25]

Well after about 90 min...I'm pretty bored. Hmmm...guess I just don't get the appeal like the rest of you. Seems awfully repetitive and the scanning and investigating is just fluff as far as I am concerned. The controls are my biggest issue...clunky as hell when trying to navigate corridors and the like. Oh well...I'll keep plugging along to see if it gets any more interesting.

[AJColossal]

Just scratched the surface last night. "Wow" is all I can muster.

[Slumberland]

Anyone want to trade a Frank Miller skin for the 70's Batman one (360)?

[Danimal]

I'm so confused bny what is happening in this game it is always throwing new controls at me. I keep bouncing to Cat Woman missions. Lot of fun but so much stuff going on I feel over whelmed.

[greggsand]

I'm going to need reconstructive surgery on my fingers after this game. Not sure I've played a game this damaging to my hands track&field... A++ game BTW..

[webdanzer]

I think this is my GOTY so far.

Can be frustratingly opaque, especially in the beginning, but once you fully understand your control capabilities and get into the flow of the game, it's pretty great.

I'm also really digging the representation of the source material here, too. Not a huge Bat-o-phile or anything, but I like some of the representations and re-imaginings in this game better than what I've seen in the past...movies, comics, TV, etc.

That and the gameplay together really make this something special, IMO.

[pk500]

A long piece at Grantland about Batman: Arkham City:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/714 ... rkham-city

[Slumberland]

I agree with Web wholeheartedly. Some baffling mechanics at the outset, but now that I'm a ways in I feel like I have an enormous palette to bring the pain with. So much detail in the world, too. Old Gotham is especially tickling my fancy.

[TCrouch]

You guys have me wanting to give it more of a try. I played for about 30 minutes or so and didn't feel the grab like I did in the first one (which I played through to completion, a rarity for me these days). If you guys are saying the beginning is wonky, then that makes sense to me.

And PK, that article is pretty impressive. I'm only through about half of it, but it's a very cool perspective on it.

[TCrouch]

....and after watching that embedded video, I realized exactly how little I know about controlling Batman. Holy crap, he basically flies

I spent my time grappling to a roof, running across, and gliding for 20 feet before grappling the next roof.

[AJColossal]

This is also one of the few games that make me want to find every collectible, easter, egg, etc.

Once I'm done with a game, I usually don't have the slightest interst in doing that.

[pk500]

And PK, that article is pretty impressive. I'm only through about half of it, but it's a very cool perspective on it.

That's Grantland, in a nutshell. A few stinkers, but most of the stories are gems of insight, analysis and interpretation.

[greggsand]

Tom Bissell has wrote some great game articles for Grantland. His LA Noire review was esp great.

[fanatic]

....and after watching that embedded video, I realized exactly how little I know about controlling Batman. Holy crap, he basically flies

I spent my time grappling to a roof, running across, and gliding for 20 feet before grappling the next roof.

I'm unable to watch the video here at work - how is Bats getting around exactly? I'm pretty much using your technique at the moment.

[TCrouch]

Grappling, somehow launching off of that grapple hook (think of Just Cause 2's grappling-and-parachuting technique), and then divebombing to get speed. With more speed, pulling back like pulling out of a nosedive, but now they're gliding much faster so they're covering a lot of ground. Get near something to grapple, and wash-rinse-repeat. Grapple, glide, divebomb, glide, grapple, etc. Dude is just flying around the city, and even dive bombs through a gap in a broken roof top, only to glide out of the other side of the building.

Freaking crazy. I gotta learn that.

[greggsand]

Grappling, somehow launching off of that grapple hook (think of Just Cause 2's grappling-and-parachuting technique), and then divebombing to get speed. With more speed, pulling back like pulling out of a nosedive, but now they're gliding much faster so they're covering a lot of ground. Get near something to grapple, and wash-rinse-repeat. Grapple, glide, divebomb, glide, grapple, etc. Dude is just flying around the city, and even dive bombs through a gap in a broken roof top, only to glide out of the other side of the building.

Freaking crazy. I gotta learn that.

There is a "turbo" batclaw that you unlock via a side mission that allows you to launch through the air like that(I actually recommend doing as many of the side missions as possible before getting too far into the main). The "divebomb" launch is done by pulling the RT mid air to gain speed, then pulling back on the L-stick.

[TCrouch]

Gotta thank you guys for the comments in this thread. I probably would have sent this back to Gamefly with the 'same old same old' mentality, but after reading some of these posts and seeing that video, I dug into it deeper. It's definitely an evolution and not a revolution, but it's really sucking me in at this point. That turbo batclaw helped, too

[fanatic]

Yeah...thanks for the tip. I figured out the whole dive/flying mechanic last night...amazing!