June Assassination #1 (SG Win / PoP Pick)

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Arkham City is …. complicated. For a while I almost dropped the game, but eventually stuck to it. And I think most of problems stems for its ambition, lack of focus, and comparison with the original.

Now, I loved Arkham Asylum and 100%-ed it. What I loved the most about it was its sense of progression, with very clear milestones guiding your journey. But if you look at it, the level design was also fantastic, with each level separated by semi-open areas that were dense with things to do and to see. By the time you beat the game, you probably could navigate the entire island without a map and never miss a beat. And finally, the pacing was great. The story slowly involved you, characters were introduced timely and you always wanted to play a little bit more, just to figure out where the plot was going. Collectables were plentiful and they enhanced the level design and the progression. Everything just gelled together. I had some issues with the combat, but generally there was very little to fault with the original game.

Then 6 months later, I decide to play Arkham City. First issue is one of familiarity - here Batman starts with almost the full kit you had at the end of Arkham Asylum, but remembering how to use it effectively took me a fair bit of time. It's not an issue if you're coming straight from the previous game, but can be tricky if you took a break between them like I did. Then I started to get confused, shortly after getting the goal to head to the Courthouse and meet Two Faces. The confusion arose from the fact I could go …. anywhere else. At that moment. And there were already side-quests available and a world of collectables to get and … it felt both a bit too much and too soon, before I even got invested in the game. I still don't understand really well what Arkham City really is as an universe.

Arkham Asylum was cohesive, dense, and full of lore. Arkham City is a collection of boxes for you to zip around with a few levels scattered throughout. I barely ever walked in the open-world sections of the map, which is a shame because I assume there's a lot to see and do in the map, but zooming around was always faster, while at the same time disconnecting you from the world you're inhabiting. Kind of the same can be said about the story - the game funnels you into one level at a time until you've seen them all, and then the game is over. It feels heavy-handed. Sure, Asylum was also convenient in having you move between buildings, but here it feels more game-y and less natural. And there are so many collectibles and side-quests supposedly available from the get-go, but some requires power-ups that you're not sure when will be available, which makes it really confusing on when you should be taking detours to engage with that part of that game. For all its ambition, Arkham City lacks the focus, polish and rhythm that made the original game so good, and it's worse for that.

That all said, it's far from a bad game. It still deserves a thumbs-up. Even though you start the game with almost the full kit from Arkham Asylum, there's still much to be found here in the form of new toys and gadgets, which are generally fun to use. Combat is also a bit better here, with better input detection (particularly on counters), more enemy types (requiring more mix-up in encounters), and more unlockable combos. The fact you can play with other characters such as Catwoman which control similarly but play very differently is a great addition, and the cinematic aspect with great voice acting is also still there.

But it's hard to deny Arkham City feels like a game that tries to be way more than the prequel, but loses its focus in the process of embracing gaming industry trends, and becomes a worse product for it. I'm not sure I'm that keen to play Knight or Origins after playing City, fearing that the sharpness and polish of Asylum was a blip rather than a trend