Take me down to the Arkham City

Where | never get sleep, and the streets are gritty

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

atman and I have this thing...
B I’m not exactly sure how to

describe it. He’s just sort of
appeared everywhere for my entire
life—and now he’s become a crippling
addiction for me. Maybe I should see
someone about it. Or, you know, I
could just stay awake for three days
straight and play Batman: Arkham City
instead, like I did with its predecessor,
Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009).

Several months. after the events
of Arkham Asylum, warden Quincy
Sharp has become the mayor of
Gotham. His biggest change has been
to move all the residents of Blackgate
Prison and Arkham to a gated, heavily
guarded mini-metropolis known as
Arkham City. Sharp has left renowned
psychologist Dr. Hugo Strange in
charge; unfortunately, “Strange” is
a really, really stupid name to have
running an entire prison complex,
Turf wars have emerged between the
inmates, all of whom are fighting for
the Penguin, Two-Face and, of course,
the Joker. Now Batman’s swooping in
to save the day—wait, he’s not? What?
Bruce Wayne has been incarcerated into
Arkham City?! Uh oh...
Cutting right to the chase, the

game’s mechanics are virtually the

 

same as they were in Asylum. However,
because basically everything in City

is 10 times bigger, you’re provided
with new gadgets, new combos, and
quick fire, which allows for your entire
arsenal to be efficiently available in
battle. For example, in a single fight,

I could deploy explosive gel on a fire
extinguisher, toss some guys around
with the bat claw, and do it all no
problem because everyone’s frozen via
freeze blast—all at the click of a button.
Insert maniacal evil laugh here. With all
that in mind, you’re not going to fight

very difficult battles—even snipers
can be easily taken out by disabling
their guns without them even knowing!

- Really, the challenge is quantity, not

quality, which is a tad unfortunate
because that goes for boss battles,
too—and believe me, there’s a lot.
However, this also means that we
get some nice exposure to what is the
majority of Batman’s rogues gallery.
Unlike in Asylum, there aren’t nearly
as many cameos as there are physical
enemies, because they’ ve brought many
of the villains (e.g. Mr. Freeze, Ra’s Al
Ghul, Mr. Zsasz) to life. But as a result,

there’s not nearly as much character
development happening unless that
specific character plays a truly pivotal
role in the entire game.

Arkham City’s actual story takes
roughly eight-to-twelve hours to beat
if you play it straight. If you’re like me
and have some severely undiagnosed
ADHD though, you’ ll be trapped inside
the walls of the City for quite some
time. For one, the Riddler returns with
400 new riddles, some of them in the
form of actual puzzles. Then there are
the dozens of victims you have to save

“Cutting right to the chase, the game’s mechanics are virtually the same as : 7 ? i

they were in Asylum. However, because basically everything in City is 10 J°Ker’s character and his relationship

times bigger, you’re provided with new gadgets, new combos, and quick fire,
which allows for your entire arsenal to be efficiently available in battle.”

from Zsasz through phone booth tag,
where you race across the city via epic
wing glide from one booth to the next.
Then there are the political prisoners
you have to rescue from the inmates.
Then there are the side missions —that’s
right, all that other stuff ain’t even the
side missions.

Even though the story doesn’t
outlive the game, that doesn’t make
it any less fantastic. From the second
the game starts, with an incredibly
cinematic opening (and even better
ending), the player is wondering just
what in the hell is going on. Villain

 

by villain, the story becomes ever
clearer, with some of the best story
twists I’ve ever seen in a video game.
When things start to get too intense
though, Catwoman’s story becomes
interspersed (but only if you’ve
downloaded her code... it’s part of
the game, but it’s separate, I don’t
know, go look on the internet), which
is a fun distraction. She’s not just a
girl’s avatar: her fighting style, her
‘thief mode,’ even her damn fine walk
varies from Batman’s. At the heart of
it all though is the Joker, whom Mark
Hamill is portraying for the last time.
To put it simply, they flesh out the

with Batman to such lengths that just
thinking about it makes me want to
play all over again... again.

Buy it. Buy it now. Hell, buy
10 copies, and then propose to them!
They’ll turn you down though, because
my god, Arkham City is too good for
any of us.