Well, this has been a trip. Your Friendly Neighborhood Satanist figures that it's best to start at the beginning.
A whiles ago, and by a whiles I mean the summer of '10, I found my brother's long-lost copy of Arkham Asylum. It was my favorite game of the summer and despite being a year old and sharing playtime with my newly-acquired copy of Red Dead Redemption, one of the best **** things I played all that year. So of course, when I heard of Arkham City coming out, I instantly knew I'd get the game. I figured it'd be just something I'd unwrap from under the tree or something like that. Maybe even just one of those games like Just Cause 2 that I keep in the back of my head for when I have extra cash. I followed all the coverage, watched the gameplay videos, but the fact that the game released a week before my long-awaited Battlefield 3 kept my paycheck plans in a strict schedule.
And then I checked out Gameinformer.com last Friday. Gameinformer is known for being very stingy with their 10/10 ratings, only letting true gems like Bioshock, Ocarina of Time, and Grand Theft Auto IV bask in the perfect-score glory. Well, another game joined those ranks. An early copy of Batman: Arkham City had made its way to the GI staff and someone reviewed it in time for release and gave it a god-**** perfect score.
This is not something I take lightly. I instantly became over-hyped about the game, grabbed my sixty dollars, went to my local GameStop's midnight launch last night, won a shirt, came home, went to sleep, bit my nails to the nub as I waited for the day to be over, lifted as fast as possible, then bolted up the stairs to my Xbox to start playing.
What A Game
No. I'm serious. We're not talking Just Cause 2 good, where you're always being hit with shots of adrenaline, or Portal 2 good where you're constantly wrapped up in the incredibly written narrative, nor LA Noire good, which really isn't good except the voice acting and facial expressions, we're talking about ALL OF THE ABOVE.
First off, the game looks gorgeous. The aesthetics of Arkham City creates a dreary environment that fits the Batman shtick to a "t". The game is also pretty graphically impressive (but that doesn't matter), worth noting in this case, as you WILL be blown away by how good this game looks.
The game took a page from God of War III and decided not to strip Batman of all his gadgets from the first game right at the start. You start with explosive gel, the remote Batarang, Batclaw, and the Electronic Decryption device right at the start, a good thing for veterans of the series like Your Friendly Neighborhood Satanist.
The game is purely massive, with a huge amount of side quest content and challenge mode leaderboards to complete. There are also ~400 Riddler challenges to do. ONly, they go above and beyond "Here's a trophy; Here's a question mark; Here's a riddle, find the room; Kill those teeth" challenges, there's a huge amount of depth to the Riddler challenges and trophies, and the completionist inside all of us will drive many insane.
So all in all? I've played five hours of the game so far. Not even close to finishing it, I still think I'm "starting" it, but whatever. I've also heard that this game has the greatest ending since Red Dead Redemption, but I'll discover that for myself soon.
What The ChillzMaster is trying to get across, oh loyal Forum-Goers of Armorgames?
BUY THIS GAME, but buy it new because new copies come with the Catwoman sections that really add a lot to the game. And really, at this point no used copies are available, and if they are, they're only 55 USD compared to the normal 60 USD. Do the math.
Wow really? It's that good? Hmm do u think it would be good for a person new to the seiries or must I get the first one?
You don't HAVE to play the first game, but I do recommend it. Not only is Arkham Asylum an epic game, but one or two of the major plot points will be instantly spoiled about .4 seconds into Arkham City.
That being said, Arkham City is, overall, the better game. GET IT.
I almost wish Arkham City came out on PC the same day as consoles, but then again I don't think I can afford it *sadface*. Especially if it is better than Arkham Asylum, which I loved.
