
Batman arkham city review gamespot free#
Of course, you're free to just ignore B.A.T. Being able to do more damage at set times means you can worry about precision a little less, and this eliminates the exciting balance that combat previously maintained. Part of what made the combat in Arkham City so involving was that every strike mattered and that Batman was fragile enough that missing a counter could be a costly mistake.
Batman arkham city review gamespot full#
As you fight enemies, your suit stores up kinetic energy, and once you have a full charge, you can trigger B.A.T., which makes your blows do twice as much damage and activates a visual filter that highlights enemy positions. Batman's suit now comes equipped with what's called Battle Armored Tech mode, or B.A.T. One addition to the Wii U version of Arkham City does take some of the bite out of combat, though. The excellent sound design adds tension to these stealthy standoffs, with bad guys becoming increasingly frightened as you pick off their buddies one by one. By hanging from a gargoyle, you can ensnare an unsuspecting enemy below with an inverted takedown. Crawl up to an enemy from behind, and you can take him down silently. Batman has an assortment of sneaky techniques at his disposal, all of which are great fun to use. Batman is tough, but far from invulnerable, and when faced with such firepower, it's time for him to rely on stealth.


Of course, thugs with shields, blades, and body armor are one thing enemies with guns are something else entirely. Your attacks are accompanied by terrific animations that look simultaneously graceful and brutal, and the increasingly varied configurations of enemies you encounter as the game progresses require you to frequently alter your tactics. The game's combat is outstanding there's a rhythm to chaining together your strikes and counters, and successfully keeping a chain going for a while is immensely satisfying. Naturally, Batman's errand brings him into constant conflict with the many thugs and lowlifes lurking in the shadows of Arkham City. Locations like this ornate, disused subway station give Arkham City a wonderful sense of history. The excellent Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their roles as Batman and the Joker, heading up an ensemble of voice actors who never miss a beat. Each character is represented terrifically, with plenty of nods to their histories as established in the comics, and part of the fun of progressing through the story lies in seeing what character might make an appearance next. Freeze, and numerous other members of Batman's rogues' gallery. That quest brings Batman into contact with the Penguin, Mr. Within the prison's walls, Joker is dying, and the villain's schemes force the Dark Knight to help him find a cure. These structures, with their faded portraits, old billboards, and plentiful other features, convey a sense of history, and the art direction that makes this vision of Gotham so fantastic is in full effect on the Wii U.īatman has no choice but to explore the alleyways and underground tunnels of North Gotham. Arkham City is home to an old courthouse, a former police headquarters, a musty museum, a disused subway terminal, and other fascinating places. The area of several city blocks that makes up the superprison isn't especially vast as open worlds go, but what it lacks in scale, it more than makes up for in atmospheric detail. It's an inhumane and immoral operation food and warmth are scarce, and some inmates are people whose only crime was voicing a negative opinion of Arkham City and those who run it.īut their misfortune is your gain. Certain unscrupulous characters took advantage of the crisis by acquiring the run-down neighborhood of North Gotham, walling it off from the rest of the city, and tossing criminals in there to fend for themselves. Now Playing: Video Review - Batman: Arkham City – Armored Editionįaced with a criminal housing crisis in the wake of the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the city of Gotham has fallen on dark times. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's
