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My Year of Gaming: ‘Batman: Arkham City’

My Year of Gaming: Batman: Arkham City

I purchased a Playstation 4 at the beginning of 2017 and it is the first time I have had a console since Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword came out on the Wii. Naturally, I have a lot of catching up to do and my backlog is incredibly massive. During the course of a year, I played my way through 23 games, and I figured I would take the time to share a little bit about each game. Perhaps you’ve played them and want to hear another opinion, or maybe you’ve been holding off on investing in a particular game. Either way, it’s never a bad time to spread your love of gaming.

The second game in the Arkham trilogy, Arkham City (2011) finds a portion of Gotham turned into a super-prison. Naturally, the villains stage an uprising and are taking over. It’s up to Batman to stop them and unravel the mystery of “Protocol 10.” As the Dark Knight, you face off against some of his most notorious villains including Joker, Two-Face, Hugo Strange, Penguin, and Harley Quinn. There are also a number of side quests involving some other members of the rouge’s gallery like Bane, Riddler, Victor Zsasz, Deadshot, and Mad Hatter.

My Year of Gaming: 'Batman: Arkham City'
Image: Rocksteady

The super-prison of Arkham City is incredible. The map is massive and a bit daunting. It’s incredibly easy to get lost in the beginning, but each district has a distinct characteristic that has key identifiers that help you figure out where you are. City is different from its predecessor, Arkham Asylum, in that there’s more open space for traveling. Asylum has a big map, but was more compact and relied more on your movement through buildings. City gives you free reign, and it’s a whole lot of fun to swing from building to building, run along the rooftops, and glide over the city. It definitely makes you feel like Batman.

Everything about this game clicks, and it is a lot of people’s favorite installment in the trilogy. The story is great and has a lot of twists and turns that keep you engaged the entire time. The voice acting is excellent, with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill returning as Batman and Joker, respectively. The DLC for this game allows you to take command of Robin, Nightwing, and Catwoman as you go through challenges. Two new stories are also introduced, one following Catwoman during the events of the main campaign and another that takes place after where you can play as both Batman and Robin.

My Year of Gaming: 'Batman: Arkham City'
Image: Rocksteady

There is so much to do in Arkham City that it is easy to dump hours upon hours into the post-game. The attention to detail is astounding and I loved every minute playing the game. Well, except for one side mission that really freaked me out and gave me anxiety every time I heard a pay phone ringing.

Arkham City is available on PS4 in the release of Return to Arkham which bundles the game with Arkham Asylum. Both are incredible games and definitely worth the play. The cool thing about Return to Arkahm is that it includes the complete version of both games, so there’s no need to make any additional purchases for DLC. They’re already built into the game.