Game rating: Batman: Arkham City

[Binnatics]

Game title
Batman: Arkham City

Category	Rating	Comments
Story line	9	Compared to the story line of Arkham Asylum I found this one a bit less interesting. It is a good story though. I like the way they introduced the 'new' creatures in the game and the open world aspect. The story is heavily entertaining and has its fun in it. Although it is not as perfect as in the prequel. I missed Joker a bit with his funny jokes and the asylum with its dark history.
Graphics	9	The graphics quality is great. Everything looks shiny and detailed. There are minor repetitions in textures but I won't bother. Water looks pretty real as well as fire and other details are all carefully worked out. The game is totally situated in the night, so no great light effects. I did regret the fact that they didn't take the time to balance out DX11 for the game. It seems not to make much difference, although it should, based on the advertisements. The animation is brilliant. The way all combat moves are worked out and applied into the fights is just perfect. Never seen such a quality when it comes to skill moves in any video game. The animation of Catwoman is top of the bill. I think she's taking over the crown of any other animated video babe in the world of gaming :)
Sound	8	I'm not totally mad about the music used in the game, although it's immersive enough. The general sound effects and the voices used in the game are very good though. They did a great job making the sound effects pretty much the same as in Arkham Asylum; never change a winning formula ;)
Game play	10	The gameplay deserves the highest ranking for sure. In its genre there is no better. The way they perfected the combo system in combat situations, the way they thought out the predator settings and, this time as well, the way they merged Batman's way of moving with the open world of Arkham City is perfect. This time you can literally feel like 'the Bat' in any given situation. Just perfect.
Replay value	10	I have not stopped playing until I sucked every last drop of action out of the game. The New Game Plus, all the challenges, the side missions (very creative) and the ability to play as the Cat, give this game a huge extra. The story, although only given an 8, is entertaining enough to do a second time. When you go through NG+ you might discover new funny conversations between e.g. the Joker and his Harley which you missed on your first playthrough. It's also nice to have all gadgets and upgrades maxed out when starting a new game. Good thinking there, WB

Final thoughts
This really is a high rating. More than 9 average isn't it? That's because this game is perfect. It doesn't need anything else. The basic components in gameplay; predator, combo-build-mass-combat and open-world-bat-exploration are worked out into perfection. Besides the storyline and the whole setting, which both are very good and entertaining, the gameplay is what makes this game such a unique experience. When you start to manage its skills you féél the Bat. You can really Be The Bat[b/].

[PZ]

Although I can't get into the super hero games, I sure do like reading all of the game ratings.  They give me a better sense of the gaming style of the writer, and it is just plain fun to see the enthusiasm (or lack thereof) in the written description.

Nice review, Binn  :-X

[Art Blade]

glad you enjoyed it so much  :-X

[ninzza]

The first Batman was highly rated but IMO it was overrated. The combat was too simple for my taste but this game looks like it's greatly inmproved in the gameplay department, plus it sets in open world so I decided to buy it new for $45 from Amazon yesterday.

[Binnatics]

Well, the variety in combat has grown from only 8 different moves to 12 different moves plus a quantity of 'fast-draw-gadget-attacks' which gives a total of, maybe, 20 different ways of attacking an enemy. Plus they made it possible to perform double and even triple counters and even special knife counter moves, which are perfectly worked out in great animations. The only thing that's a bit unnatural in all this, is that sometimes the victims are kind of 'dragged' to the right spot in order to perform a perfect animation of a triple counter. You can see that happening better when you're in predator mode, performing a double take down hanging from a ledge.
The combo-build-up is a bit better as well; now you have an extra ability reaching 5X multiplier, and a very special ability reaching 12X.
Anyway, the groups of henchmen are bigger and I've reached a multiplier of above 75X. Great points if you perform a special knife take down or a Titan finish with such a score; 75X 100 points ;D
In challenge mode, you can do the so-called challenge-campaigns which are series of 3 challenges where you only have 3 available retries. There are handicap items and helpfull items which you can use all once throughout the campaign. That gives an extra dimension to the whole challenge thing. First of all, you don't have endless retries available, and second of all you may have to deal with e.g. gun racks and / or trowables and rigged vantage points or scrambled night vision in predator maps.

And then there's the Cat, of course, with here special moves. Totally different from Batman's heavy punches and smart gadgets, she has acrobatics and a razor sharp whip in her arsenal. A good change of pace imho ^-^

I'm sure you're gonna love the game Ninzza, looking forward to your first impressions ;)

[fragger]

Echoing PZ's thoughts: I too like to read members' reviews, even the ones of games that I don't have much interest in playing myself. They make for interesting reads 8)

Good job Binn, and I'm glad you had lots of fun with B:AC :-X :)

[JRD]

Great review Binn... I agree with your thought about the game. It is one of the best games I've ever played... great action, nice graphics, variety and the NG+ which certainly is a great thing in a game!

ninzza... I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of fun in Arkham City... looking forward to your impressions too!  :-X