Batman: Arkham City
For: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
From: Rocksteady Studios
Four stars (out of five)
Knowing your Batman from your Spiderman, your X-Men from your Fantastic Four is sort of the ultimate symbol of geekdom. But while I embraced video games and the writings of JRR Tolkien and the Star Wars trilogy, the comic world never appealed.
For that reason, most video games based on comic book characters spend little time in my console. But then along comes Batman: Arkham City.
Having not played its prequel, 2009's Arkham Asylum, I had zero expectation of the game. But after playing it for a while, it has become clear why the series has garnered so much acclaim.
Arkham City is an open-world game crammed with a beefy storyline and dozens of side missions, set in a massive prison created from slum areas. Into this dark super-city have been released a variety of inmates and all of Batman's old enemies, including The Joker.
A final inmate is added: Batman himself, and through the chaos he must track down his greatest nemesis and work out what the city's warden, the pyschotic Huge Strange, has planned.
The gameplay is a mix of combat, stealth and puzzle-solving drawing on Batman's unique aerial abilities and gadgetry. He can jump and glide and slide and soar, and whip out everything from his grappling hook to his Batarang to explosive gel.
But Batman's main weapon is his "detective" mode, used to hunt for clues and pinpoint places and people of interest. It's a simple, accessible tool that makes navigating the sprawling setting a whole lot easier. In saying that, this notoriously hopeless map-reader has found himself hopelessly lost plenty of times.
Plenty of collectables and upgrades are available, as well of hundreds of trophies left by the Riddler.
Visually, Arkham City is dark and brooding and expansive, rich in both imagery and action.
A separate playable character is Catwoman, downloaded free with a code included in new copies of the game. Her missions are intertwined with Batman's story but can also stand alone.
Arkham City will obviously appeal to comic fans. But it has sufficient depth and range to impress any fan of action games.
