Arkham City. First impressions?

[Zhukov]

My housemate came home with a copy of Arkham City clutched in his sweaty little hands. After he was done selfishly hogging his very own game that he payed for with his very own money, I was able to get a few hours in.

I gotta say, it's pretty darn good. Basically Arkham Asylum with a significantly better map and extra toys. The various mechanics all work and the whole thing is nicely polished. I can see where all the glowing reviews came from.

The combat is a bit too simplistic. Basically consists of mashing one button to hit dudes. Every now and again one of the dudes will wake up and give some thought to the vague notion of maybe-possibly throwing a punch, at which point the game highlights the dude, goes into slow motion and says, "Hey! Press Y dummy!" Then you press Y and Batman pre-emptively hits said dude. However, it's all very nicely animated, basically viscerally satisfying and has enough variety to keep things interesting.

Lastly, there's the dialogue. Oh, the dialogue. It's, yeah... really not up to much. Sadly, the game ends up sounding like something that was written for small children, then sprinkled with innuendo.

Overall, a very entertaining game. I would encourage anyone who has been sitting on the fence to give it a go.

So... how have the rest of you been finding it?

 

[AJax_21]

Haven't played it... yet. But looking at the sandbox design, just how big is Arkham City compared to other sandbox game? I love running around in huge sandbox environments and screwing around. I've sunk contless hours on inFamous, RDR and AC2.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Haven't played it... yet. But looking at the sandbox design, just how big is Arkham City compared to other sandbox game? I love running around in huge sandbox environments and screwing around. I've sunk contless hours on inFamous, RDR and AC2.

It's not that kind of sandbox.

OT: Looks good. I'll pick it up once it gets released on the PC.

 

[Alduin Silas]

I'll wait for the PC release, hopefully there will be more critiques about whether it's worth it by then.

 

[rohansoldier]

I will definately be renting it for the 360 but no decision about whether or not I will be buying the game yet. Depends on my opinion after the rental and how quickly the price goes down.

I have gotta say from the screenshots though, it looks awesome.

 

[McAwesome]

Played it and i have to say it was AWESOME. Good villains actually seem like they are ape-shit crazy and combat is satisfying now because u can use gadgets. I cannot tell you how it feels to use your bat-claw to pull an enemy towards you face first then putting explosive gel on the ground and back flipping away blowing him and his buddies up. Deserves game of the year.

 

[go-10]

its a great game, no matter the odds Batman can kick everyone's ass. You're not some pussy push over you really are Batman the puzzles and riddles the Riddler gives you are very intriguing and actually make you think a little. Also the amount of villains most of which are side quests is awesome
for someone that's grown up and still loves super heroes this game is a gift from the comic gods

 

[GotMalkAvian]

My opinion so far: If you played Arkham Asylum, and wanted more, this game is well worth it.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Picked it up on my lunchbreak, played it all day at home.

My first impressions are almost entirely positive. After being thoroughly blown away by Arkham Asylum, I had huge expectations of this sequel. And it has not disappointed.

The map is great. The one problem I had with Arkham Asylum was that even though the asylum was fairly big, it still felt "small" and I ended up having to backtrack through areas.

The map in Arkham City, by comparison, is huge. Running across rooftops and gliding across the sky does even more to make you feel like Batman. Besides being able to beat legions of thugs into a pulp.

So far, the only complaint that I have, is a pretty minor one and probably entirely in my head. It seems like Arkham City contains much more brawling and less stealth than the first game did.

The first game was basically a series of large self-contained areas that usually involved Batman sneaking into them, which lets you scan the entire place out and plan your assault on thugs. But in the City, since most of the game area is out in the streets, it's much more different. Ending up on the street pretty much will immediately get me spotted a lot of the time, which ends up with me having to battle it out with 8 thugs. Dammit!

Although, I'm willing to admit that's all the result of me sucking at being Batman. There's probably a sneaky way to approach situations like this, I'll need to find out when I get home later.

Spoiler: Regarding Catwoman

I'm surprised that Catwoman is actually a part of the storyline. I was out of the loop in terms of how she was going to factor in, I thought she was just going to be a playable character on some of the challenge maps or something.

But actually being able to control her in a way that makes sense during the storyline is really cool. And honestly, I was having more fun playing as her than I was with Batman.

I can't wait to get to play it more tonight.

 

[DustyDrB]

I'm not a fan of the combat. It's even more obvious while playing the game on hard (I think I played Asylum on medium). It becomes annoying to me, actually. I feel like every fight is just me more or less alternating X and Y until there are one or two bad guys left. They could really do a whole lot better than this (maybe take some notes from Bayonetta). The combat is definitely my least favorite part of the game.

Aside from that, I like pretty much everything else. Unlike Arkham Asylum, everyone doesn't look like a 'roided (or Titan'ed) up freak. The dialogue is good for what it is, I think. I'm hearing a lot of complaints on that part of the game, but I think it works. I have to give props to Tara Strong for making the change in voice actress for Harley Quinn unnoticeable.

The Riddler parts of the game are way better now. I didn't care about them in Arkham Asylum. Now I love them. His physical presence boosts my intrigue 10000%. You can also tag his trophies so you can find them easily later if that's what you wish to do.

Overall, it's a good game. It's not the best I've played all year, but it's much improved from the original.