Late to the Party

Welcome to a "series" I'm calling "Late to the Party", where I review older games of this generation, and give my take on whether its worthy of a pick up. The first game I'll be reviewing is Batman: Arkham City. 

Now, I'll admit, I'm... slightly biased when it comes to this review. Batman is my favorite superhero (or hero, depending on how you look at it), so I was, of course, very  intrigued by the game. But I'll do my best to deliver an un-biased opinion. So, here we go. 

The game starts with you, Bruce Wayne, giving a speech why the sprawling mega-prison of Arkham City should be shut down. The Warden of the place, Hugo Strange, doesn't take to kindly to people doing this, and he captures you, taking you to Arkham City. He proceeds to interrogate you, and he reveals something massive; he knows Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person. He also tells you that by the end of the night, something called "Protocol 10" will make him famous. You, of course, proceed to escape, and don your costume. With this premise, you are let loose upon the city, where every criminal and villain in Gotham resides. 

Before I go further, I need to mention the graphics. THE GRAPHICS. These visuals are some of the best I've seen, and give a real dark feel to the world. The skyline shimmers with bright skyscrapers, and the like. The animations are also great, and every thing looks very organic in the way they move, especially Batman, with the way he slides, grapples, and punches. 

As you progress through the (steller) story, you will get XP points to unlock armor upgrades, combat moves, and improved gadgets. I really liked this system, but it didn't seem very realistic. I mean, Batman would ALWAYS be as prepared as possible, but then again, the game would be too easy that way.   Also,  throughout the game, you will get many new gadgets, and none of them really are useless or tacked on, and are used often through the puzzles and combat. 

Oh, the combat. It is very quick, and very brutal. Batman breaks arms, snaps legs, and smashes heads into walls, and its very fun to do these moves, with a great combo system. Its very fluid, and you can use gadgets in the mix. You may pull an enemy towards you with your Batclaw, proceed to give him a clothesline punch to the head, and then break his leg on the ground. It always very varied, and a lot of fun to pull off. 

But my favorite part of the game is the stealth. I grew up with Sly Cooper games, so I'm always eager to pull off some stealth. You systematically clear rooms, watching as the henchmen get more and more frightened, and its great. Enemies with eventually get so scared that they start spraying bullets and every sound, every small movement... Its great. 

However, in my opinion, nothing in a game matters if it isn't backed up by a good story, and man, does Arkham City have a great story. Everything is tied together very cohesively, and there are next to no plotholes, though the ones that exist still nag at my brain. You also won't me on any "collect 5 of these" missions, which is great. 

What happens after you beat this game you ask? So much. There are 12 side missions, which are always multi parted. Many villians ONLY appear in these, and they are great. There are also challenge maps, where you try to try to clear rooms of baddies as efficiently or fast as possible, using combat or stealth, respectively. Your scores will go up on leaderboards, where you can challenge your friends for the most points, or time.

All in all, Batman: Arkham City is a stunning, great game, and a masterpiece. It is an absolute MUST PLAY for any gamer, and will have you playing for hours and hours and... you get it. Arkham City gets awarded a 10/10 from me. Now go out, and play the game right now. What are you still doing reading this?

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