Batman Arkham Asylum was one of my all-time favorites. It was dark and gritty like the Chris Nolan feature film adaptations, it included a lot of my favorite Batman villains like Killer Croc and the Scarecrow, and it consumed me for hours.
Although I initially thought that a Batman game centered around a small environment like an asylum would be too restrictive, it actually turned out to be quite awesome. The storyline was great and above all else, the game play was smooth. Never before had fighting off 15 bad guys felt so natural and believable. The use of all of Batman's gadgets were fairly evenly spread throughout making the game feel very balanced.
Enter Arkham City.
Arkham City isn't all that dissimilar to its predecessor. The gadgets are roughly the same save for a few neat and welcomed additions. The art style and cinematic shorts are moderately equivalent. The story is a direct sequel though I felt it to be somewhat short, which I'll touch on shortly. No spoilers.
The obvious differences include the inclusion of Catwoman as a playable character. You're sometimes thrust into her character throughout the game and while she can do some of the things Batman can, her character didn't feel complete to me. The transition from Batman to Catwoman was often times all but seamless; however, her character's actions do have a direct impact on the storyline of the game so I get why she's there.
Secondly, the environment, while beautifully rendered, is far removed from quaint little Arkham Asylum. My worries over an asylum being too small a playground for our Dark Knight withered away mere minutes into Arkham Asylum. But could Arkham City be too big for Batman? It sometimes felt that way. On the bright side, it's an open world unlike Arkham Asylum so there are plenty of nooks and crannies for Riddler secrets; plus, very few parts of the map get ignored. However, if you took Batman to the highest point in the city and spun him around 360 degrees, much of the city would look the same. That's not to say a real Arkham City wouldn't have an homogenous trodden feel to it all the way around, but it was easy to get turned around and lost in the city unless you relied heavily on the objective compass and map. Because of this, it took me a while to gain my footing in Arkham City.
While I think the game is definitely one everyone should play, especially if you enjoyed Arkham Asylum, my biggest beef stems from the short main story. Typically in games that have side quests and main quests, I do a little of each along the way. It helps keep the game fresh and savors all the big moments until the very end. I tried doing this in Arkham City and ended up beating the main story with only 38% of the game completed. When the last bit of the story was being realized, I expected there to be a twist that would unlock a few more hours of game play but I was wrong. The main story ended but Arkham City remained as did all the side quests afteward so I was able to continue tracking down other villains and unlocking riddles and clues.
The main story might have been very limited (5 or 6 hours at best), the side quests will keep you going for a long time. The Riddler secrets are far more challenging than in Arkham Asylum and there are tons of other crimes to uncover and solve if you're in the right place!
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