Also, a quick note. I feel these are two of the greatest games released in the last few years and easily the best super hero games ever freaking made. If I were to give them an arbitrary numerical rating scale, they would both be given a perfect score. So, if you feel I am being overly critical and trolling the fuck out of little details, that is because I am. That is really the only way to look at either of these games in any sort of negative light.
Also, there is a good possibility that there might be a few spoilers to both games in the following review. So, if you don't want any of that, skip the shit out of this article.
All said and done, lets get going.
I. The Story
The story of Batman: Arkham Asylum (BAA from here on out because I am lazy) was fucking fantastic. Launching Bats head long into the batshit insane asylum with all of the inmates running rampant and tearing shit up. It was pretty straightforward: Joker takes over Arkham, threatens to blow up bombs all over Gotham city if anyone tries to enter Arkham, Joker is trying to get his hands on a super steroid thing called Titan to make an unstoppable super army, the Joker ends up injecting himself with the the stuff (this was retarded), Bats beats the bejesus out of him anyway, everything is ok.
Arkham City (BAC from here on out) takes this and blows it up in a big way. An entire section of Gotham is cordoned off as a make shift prison city while Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison (destroyed in the first one so that the Joker can have his men sent to the asylum) are being rebuilt. As to avoid as many spoilers as I can, I will just say this: Dr. Hugo Strange was put in charge thanks to the affluence of an even more powerful entity, Bruce Wayne gets shoved in here for terribly explained reasons, a bunch of the major crime heads are fighting for their own chunk of territory, the Joker is dying from poisoning himself with the Titan crap from the last game.
Not even once.
The story rockets you all over the place as you face down a good handful of classic villains to try and stop the Joker's ultimate plan of poisoning and taking over Gotham City as well as a nefarious plot by good old Hugo Strange as well.
Both of these stories are perfect. One showed us how to properly tell an original superhero tale in a video game (BAA) and the other gave us the best Batman movie never made (BAC). If I was just to look at game play and story alone, both of these games would be perfect. However, I truly feel that BAA is the perfect game and BAC is the slightly flawed but still beautiful little brother.
II. Places To Go, Things To See
Obviously, BAC has a lot more places to explore and it is absolutely breathtaking to see. You get to play through a chunk of Gotham City whereas all you got to explore in BAA was the island that Arkham is on. But, I ultimately felt this was not a good move. Sure its beautiful and sure there are still dozens of great fanboy bating Bat love in the dozens of buildings that are straight out of the comic books. However, I just couldn't stop thinking of how it was all done better in the first one.
In BAA there are just a few of Bats' infamous rogues gallery that you physically face down. But there are dozens of them in the game. You can find items (Catwoman's whip, the Penguin's umbrella, Black Mask's mask, etc,.) and scan them to get cool background info on the respective character. This was awesome and always sent a little tingle down my spine the first time I played it. Were these nasty villains out there? Creeping in the shadows, just waiting for the Bat?
I just didn't get that same feeling in BAC, it was really cool seeing things like the Ace Chemicals building, playing through the Iceberg Lounge, Sionis Industries, and a bunch of others. However, a building cameo just ultimately didn't have the same punch as a character cameo.
Also, in the end of it all. I honestly felt I got to see a lot more in BAA than in BAC. Getting to explore all the nooks and crannies of the creepy ass Asylum, the labyrinthe of sewers and catacombs underneath, the other buildings on the island, and even a full Batcave. Whereas BAC has a massive city to play in, you can only enter a handful of the buildings, an eerily similar underground area, and some boring ass subway tunnels.
All in all, BAA nailed its environment so completely that BAC just can't compete with it.
III. Atmosphere
Holy crap was BAA creepy as shit. That game played like a super hero game but made me feel like I was playing Silent Hill at times. There was some truly gut wrenching, tense moments. I always felt something was lurking in the shadows, every noise made me jump, and it could be truly maddening when there was absolutely no one else around but you and the claustrophobic hallways. Along side this were audio tapes you could find that filled in some background on the asylum's sordid past (and give glimpses inside the minds' of its psychotic inmates) that made it even more frightening and threatening. It really, really made you feel like you were exploring a decrepit madhouse.
More importantly, it made me feel vulnerable. I felt like something could tear me apart at any moment. On top of that, I had to worry about another Scarecrow nightmare (more on that later) which produced some ridiculously original set pieces and could be straight up horrifying at times.
There was even a beautiful, near heartbreaking, and still terrifying (in the vulnerability of it all) scene that forced you to relive the most integral part to the Batman: the death of his parents.
All in all, BAA was all about immersion. That, to me, is what makes it the best fucking super hero game ever. It wasn't enough that you got to beat Batman levels of ass, solve Batman puzzles with Batman gadgets, and explore an integral part of the Batman mythos. It was the fact that you were The Goddamn Batman! And you had to take on everything that meant. The terror of, when it comes down to it, being just one man diving head first into a truly insane world. The fear of losing your mind with that great jump. I felt all of that. I was right there with my character. I was The Batman.
This is all pretty much dumped in BAC, and that was the most heartbreaking part of the game. Up until I got my paws on the game and smashed through it (beat the fucker in one and a half days), I thought this was going to take all of the lessons in immersion and crank the bastard up way past eleven. I thought, 'Well shit, if they can make me want to crap myself and sleep with a light on while playing as one of the biggest bad asses ever (a very impressive and uncomfortable feat) whilst limited to just a single island, what the fuck is going to happen when I have to plunge into an entire city?'
What happens is this: the developers rip you out of the immersion and are content with simply seating you in the pants of the biggest fucking beast of an ass kicker anyone has ever seen.
Err, face kicker
I didn't feel worried or nervous once during the entire length of BAC (maybe frustrated because so many fuckers have guns) because no matter how bad shit got, I could grapnel and glide the fuck away from anything. Seriously, Batman may not have super powers, but he might as well be able to fly. You can, with a bit of practice, travel the entire city without ever touching the ground or roof. On top of that, you start the damn game with nearly all of the gear you will ever need (aside from a few puzzle specific items you get later on, you seriously won't need anything else).
On the ground, BAC is a whole different beast. It actually is pretty damn unsettling. You can almost feel all the dirt and grime on the streets and walls. You always hear someone taunting you. Occasionally an innocent scream shreds the night, wrenched from the lungs of one of the political prisoners you have to save. The thing is, who the hell is going to run around the streets when you can zip around the entire fucking city?
It would have been bloody brilliant if they had made up some excuse to strip you of all your gear and make you work for it. Get that sense of having to rely on nothing but your wits and knuckles to get through the bloody streets? Seriously, starting out with that much kit was a terrible idea.
IV. How About That Gameplay?
Not much to say here, as it plays identically to the first one (which is good, because the controls are pretty much perfect). So, I am going to focus more on the experience between the first one and the second.
And honestly, that experience was a bit stale. The combat is still ridiculously satisfying as you can easily beat down twenty thugs in one flawless sixty-two hit combo, so no complaints there. My two biggest feelings of, 'Oh this again...cool, I guess.' Comes from the stealth and the new playable character, Catwoman.
The stealth was one of my favorite aspects of the first game. In too many stealth-em-ups, I end up feeling like a little bitch. It is really hard for me to feel like a bad motherfucker when I am huddled in the shadows waiting for a chance to sneak up on some nameless goon. BAA fixed this by implementing a few subtle tweaks. Firstly, there were options: sneaking through the rafters, blowing up walls, sneaking through vents and floor grates, and other nifty traps were always available to use. Secondly, the developers make you feel like an absolute terrifying beast of the night. Your opponents slowly breakdown into a nervous wreck as you pick them off one by one. It was a blast.
Go find your own hippy to choke. This one is mine.
This is still all there in the second one, but things have changed a bit. There are still a lot of options available, but with the revamped A.I. I pretty much always found myself simply going through the motions. I no longer felt rewarded for creativity and actually felt punished in some instances. It was always easiest to stick to the rafters and pick off my opponents from there. Also, I didn't feel like the scary creature of the night (though your enemies still freak out and such) because the way the Predator (the name of both games' stealth sections) scenarios are set up in BAC almost require you to be the little bitch I so bemoan (i.e. having to jump down and run behind someone hoping not to be caught or having to smash an enemy from the rafters because he was out of range for a stealthy take-down, thus alerting fucking everyone).
The developers knew you were going to be fucking up the stealth a lot. How do I know that they knew this? Because one of your new items is a Smoke Pellet. A handy 'get out of jail free card' if you fuck up and start getting shot to shit (Batman is really allergic to bullets). Throw it down, confuse everyone, and disafuckingpear. It is also really damn handy in some of the tougher fights. They also give you the Sonic Disruptor, a tool that lets you remotely disable up to two enemies' weapons in any given scenario. This is a god send for any Predator situation that has fucking snipers. Seriously, the snipers will kill the ever living fuck out of you because they can and will see everything.
Seriously, fuck these guys.
____________Alright enough about the less than stellar stealth of BAC and onto the biggest disappointment, fucking Catwoman. I was really stoked to see that Catwoman was going to be in the game, the trailers were looking great and...shit, fucking Catwoman!
Well then the developers decided to really combat against lost profit from used and rented copies of their game. She is download only. If you buy the game new, the download code comes prepackaged. If you buy it used or rent it, Catwoman costs you ten bucks. Not too bad considering every review I have read so far is saying that she is truly integral to the story and is entirely necessary to get the full picture.
Spoiler alert!
She isn't, not at fucking all. She has four missions (one is at the end of the credits, has the single worst Predator situation in the whole damn game, and has to be completed to go back to the free roaming element) all of them are either ridiculously short or ridiculously frustrating or both. The only thing she is 'necessary' for is her one or two skills that set her apart from Batman to get a few character specific Riddler trophies and listening in face-palming sadness as every enemy taunts her with rapey inclinations or simply calls her a 'bitch' (it is really terrible and pretty much the opposite of creative). That is it. You don't really glean anything special about the story from her perspective or see any different places, you just need her if you are a completion addict and refuse to shelve a game until it is 100%ed.
Nothing like this ever fucking happens.
Also, she is unbelievably lazily made. She fights exactly like Bats but with different toys and fewer upgrades (meaning she can't take much of a beating), her 'Thief Mode' is just a shitty, ugly, red version of Bats' 'Detective Mode' and her whip/jumping combo is a much worse mode of transportation. She can be totally left behind with zero regret.
V. Where The Fuck Is Everyone And What Do I Do Now?
Another one of the few moments where I felt truly disappointed by BAC was after I beat the game. I noticed that there weren't a whole lot of side quests available when I was playing through the main story, but that was fine by me. There is nothing to rip you right out of the immersion of a story than suddenly getting distracted and fucking off to do some odd fetch quest. This dude is going to poison all of the city? Fuck that, I got balloons to collect! Its one of the biggest problems with the sandbox genre. BAC solved this by giving you very little to do until you finish the main story, great!
But then you realize that they gave you very little to do, in general. Don't get me wrong, there is a really good pile of side quests to tackle (including a few nice surprise enemies) once the story is done and of course, the Riddler's puzzles and on going quest. However, it just doesn't feel like enough.
Hear me out here, you have a huge chunk of city available to dick around...a huge chunk of the city that has been fucking turned into a giant god damn prison! Every villain from Batman's rogues gallery is arguably locked up here. So, once the story is done and the main power holding villains are put down, why can't there be a shit load of mini-missions involving the other rogues trying to grab up all of the empty territory? That would be so cool!
"Hope you like seeing me for all of ten seconds and then staring at all my buildings!"
On a similar note, the developers added in one of the biggest cock teases ever. Tim Drake as Robin pops in in one cinematic to save Batman and fucking deliver a new gadget. That's it? Why even put him in at all? Oh, probably to promote sale of the downloadable content. Fuck that. He will probably be just as pointless as Catwoman.
"Give me your money, or else you won't get to see me be all brooding and shit."
Why not give us some absolutely kick ass two player options? How rad would it be to have two unstoppable storms of ass kick crushing their way through dozens and dozens of thugs? It would totally reinvigorate the somewhat stale stealth, too. Robin setting up traps and distractions while Batman is taking people down? That would simply fucking rule!
V. The Overall Experience Of It All
My biggest complaint with BAC is simply this, it just didn't surprise me as much as the first one did. It simply suffers from 'My predecessor was simply too fucking awesome' in such a frustrating way.
Those awesome and terrifying Scarecrow set pieces from the first one? Gone. The only thing close to that level of a mind fuck is one single level involving The Mad Hatter, but even this ends up just requiring you to punch a lot of things in the face. That creepy sneak-a-thon that was Killer Croc's sewer (something a lot of people hated, but I fucking loved to death)? Gone. The only thing that comes close to that level of tension is a bit of sneaking on thin ice at the Iceberg Lounge, except its easy as shit and really not too intense at all (and inadvertently becomes hilarious when a massive shark bites on to your boat and the game prompts 'Beat Down!' and requires you to press the attack button repeatedly as Batman throws twenty lightning fast punches into the shark's nose).
Seriously.
You know how BAA had only a couple boss fights that were classic 'learn the pattern, hit it till it dies'? Well, apparently the developers thought that the whole non-traditional boss fights they had set up sucked. So, they made all of the boss fights in BAC 'learn the pattern, hit it till it dies.'
This isn't always bad, as a couple of the boss fights are truly over the top and really fucking cool (the Mr. Freeze fight really put me on edge until I figured out that he is functionally combat retarded). It just isn't surprising. None of the boss fights really try and go for that extra mile of 'what the fuck is happening?' I mean, Scarecrow simulated a full system crash in the first one! Holy shit, who saw that coming the first time? I freaked the fuck out!
"Fancy a back rub?"
I guess in conclusion, all I am trying to say is that nothing the developers can do will ever be able to beat Batman: Arkham Asylum. They simply made that game too fucking good. I am not saying that the second game is a bad game. Do not mistake my ranting here as calling it out on its ass. I loved Arkham City, could barely put it down (remember, I beat it in a day and a half), and is still absolutely a great fucking game. I was just really, really excited to see if the developers' had any more tricks up their sleeve to really turn the super hero game on its own head again; and, ultimately it seems that all they can do is simply make a jaw dropping, well made, absolutely brilliant video game. And you know what? That is enough.
Thanks Rocksteady Studios for making two of the best games I have ever played and the single best super hero games to ever grace our game systems
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