Superhero games have such a feeble history that it’s not at all controversial to suggest that 2009's Batman: Arkham Asylum the finest superhero game ever made. Mixing the best of the comic, film and animated incarnations of Batman, it presented a well-plotted and designed action explorer. With its sequel Arkham City, developer Rocksteady Studios has essentially made more of the same, only in a much bigger open-world arena. While the main story is a tad unbelievable, positing that a large portion of Gotham City has been walled off and the city’s criminals dumped inside to fend for themselves, it serves as an excellent sandpit for you to play in.
There’s more than a dozen meaty multi-part side-quests and hundreds of in-world trophies and riddles to find and solve, plus melee combat that's even more polished and fluid than before. The latter can be particularly gratifying once you’ve mastered the basics — it’s largely about executing well-timed attacks and combos while directing Batman as he leaps from baddie to baddie.
The larger environment has also made Arkham City less Metroid-like in design, but also perhaps a little less focused. You start off with more gadgets and greater freedom of movement, including the ability to glide and swoop around the city, although as before progressing does mean unlocking further gizmos in a relatively linear fashion.
The voice acting and story are both first-rate, the dark and gritty visuals look great and the gameplay straddles a fine line between challenging and empowering. The only real question we have is, how are the developers going to top this one?
