Yahtzee Croshaw said:
Extra Punctuation: The Sandbox Killed Batman
The villains are lost in Arkham City.
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Not sure about this Yahtzee.
"Batman as a character isn't really about fun-time acrobatics the same way Spider-Man is, and that's why Spider-Man might suit a sandbox where Batman doesn't."
True, not in the same way, but Batman IS about fun-time acrobatics. The fact that he wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider doesn't change this fact. Almost every Batman comic will have one spread or frame of the Dark Knight high above the Gotham skyline (with or without Robin/Nightwing). One leg will be bent at the knee, the other outstretched gracefully, as if he's kicking some invisible foe. Most of the time you can't even see where his grapnel gun has attached itself, he's just flying through the air, hundreds of feet above street level. This is fairly acrobatic to me.
Also, watching Batman fight in the comics and in Arkham Asylum/City is very acrobatic. The dude jumps through hails of bullets, kicks one bro in the face whilst backfisting another perp. He's a machine.
"Getting around Arkham City with the hookshot and glidey wings feels clumsy and overcomplicated"
Flying through Arkham is awesome, it took me time to master, but there is a beauty to it. Especially when after a good 30 second glide you just decide to drop in on some nefarious dudes and mess them up. I t had me thinking imagine the Batman just dropping in on you like that, it would be very scary.
"...and when viewed from above the rooftops the whole place feels kind of lifeless."
LOL, it's Gotham City brah (and not Joel Schumacher's bright and chirpy version). The place is a sink for degenerates. No money has been invested in the infrastructure for decades and it's also been recently turned into a prison. Rocksteady got Gotham spot on.
"I enjoyed it very much because Batman's hardly in it."
This is why I don't like Burton's Batman that much, as Burton took the view that the villains were the most important aspect of the films. Nolan realised that Batman is the most important aspect, he is tragic. It really hits home when you pay your respects to his parents in Crime Alley.
Arkham City is a roller-coaster ride and I love it for its pace and ambition to give us so many bad guys. Along the way we see Batman pushed to him limits. Wearing a suit that is basically scraps of cloth and damaged Kevlar by the final chapter.
The key is not to see this as a separate game, but as a literal follow on. Less depth is needed because we already know what the backstory is. Almost every villain in Arkham City was set up in Asylum.
tl;dr