Game Review: Batman: Arkham City

A year ago I reviewed the game Batman: Arkham Asylum, and at the time I mentioned that the big game (this was in July of 2012 mind), the Batman game du jour was Batman: Arkham City.

Well, a year later and I've finally got around to playing the sequel, and you know what?  I really love what they've done with this game.  Expanding far beyond the island that Arkham Asylum sat on, this game takes place in a large area of Gotham City which has been walled off and left to the criminals - think Escape from New York: Batman Edition and you've got a good idea of what to expect.

Many of the same characters from the first game appear, but now almost the entire batman expanded universe is added as well, with everyone from Robin to a playable Catwoman appearing, not to mention any number of my favourite Batman baddies (including the under-appreciated Calendar Man).

As with the previous game, my sixteen-year-old daughter was playing around the same time as me, but unlike the first game, this time she finished first.  At the moment I'm about 53% of the way to completing the game, which involves a large number of side missions, Catwoman missions, and collecting almost 450 Riddler trophies hidden throughout the city.

A lot of fun, especially after you win and you get to run around this hyper-realistic world as the Batman from the animated series - think Who Framed Roger Rabbit,  but with more batarangs.

Game Review: Batman Arkham Asylum

Since Father's Day my weekend PS3 game of choice has been Batman: Arkham Asylum and I've got to say it's been a lot of fun.  Unlike previous playstation games I've played, this time my 15-year-old daughter was playing the game as well, and she finished the game one day after I did, which was nice because some times I was a little ahead of her and could help her out and sometimes she was a little ahead of me.

The game follows (pretty closely actually) the Grant Morrison graphic Novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth which has the honour of being the first Graphic novel I ever purchased and for introducing me to Morrison and artist Dave McKean.

The game works in a sandbox style (meaning you can either follow the main story or any number of side stories) and focuses on the inmates of the asylum taking over and Batman having to put things back in order.

Honestly this game was tonnes of fun - for the voices they used a number of the same actors from the '90s animated series and the whole look of the game was pretty amazing.

I know I'm pretty far behind the curve with this one (Batman: Arkham City is the current game of the day), but if you haven't tried this one yet it's a lot of fun.