Batman: Arkham City Review

By Christian Donlan Published 14 October, 2011

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

Version tested: Xbox 360

It's a role-playing game, when you get down to it. Not just because you gain XP, engage in a little light levelling and are free to sharpen your combat skills one upgrade at a time. It's a role-playing game in the most literal sense of the phrase, a game in which you're encouraged to give in to the fantasy, and to see what life is like when it's composed of rooftop brawls and zip-line getaways. Animations, traversal mechanics, takedowns: they're all building towards the same thing. In Arkham City, you become Batman.

And it's an easy role to play, partly because Arkham Asylum already laid out such an excellent framework, delivering not just the power of the Dark Knight but also his cunning and his tightly controlled rage. And partly because, if you're like me, you've secretly been Batman since primary school anyway.

Pretending a series of bedrooms and attics were subterranean strongholds. Daydreaming of dangling cyclists over the ledges of skyscrapers when they rode their freakin' bikes on the sidewalk. Promising to avenge your parents' deaths, even though they were still alive and well and sat in the next room, arguing about why the Morris Minor wouldn't start that morning.

I must be a creature of the night! You said it, Bruce. We've been Batman for years, if only somebody would notice. Arkham City just makes it all a little less awkward. It's a Batman simulator as much as a Batman game. It's wish fulfilment on a grand scale.

The kind of scale, in fact, that only video games can deliver, creating courtyards, avenues and entire neighbourhoods mired in crime and gothic mystery. The set-up is simple: the former warden of Arkham Asylum has become Gotham's mayor, and he's turned the city's slums into an expanded loony bin. Surrounded by guard towers, spotlights and barbed wire, psychopaths have taken back everything from the Bowery to Crime Alley - where you-know-what happened - and the old GCPD building. Now, under the all-seeing eyes of Dr Hugo Strange, these inmates have started to form gangs and carve up the territory.

Into this landscape of uneasy truces and shifting alliances comes Batman, and the story that unfolds is a race-tuned comic-book narrative in the style of Hush or The Long Halloween: a story built of short, punchy escapades, where any plot-twist is excusable as long as it lands you with a neat gadget or sends you pinwheeling from one supervillain cameo to the next.

Rocksteady makes greedy use of the fact that Batman hasn't only got the best backstory, he's got the best enemies too. Arkham City is positively exhaustive with its cast, roping in an astonishing range of murderous megastars for the main campaign and then flinging out even more as you start to explore the side-quests. Given the kind of inmates we're dealing with here, it's suitably gratuitous.

The very best of these inmates have been given the Rocksteady once-over, emerging with unlikely kinks in their iconic elements. Just as the first adventure played up Joker's skills as a deadly kind of game show host, Penguin's been transformed into a grubby east-end thug with a beer bottle ground into his face in place of a monocle, while Mr Freeze is otherworldly and tragic in his refrigerated spacesuit and Hugo Strange is hulking yet somehow frail: hypnotic in voice, but measured and occasionally even sympathetic in person.

The city is the real star, though. If the first game hinged on a calculated deconstruction of Bruce Wayne's psyche, the sequel is more concerned with excavating the past of Gotham itself - and plotting its possible future.

It's a funny-books spin on Chinatown, at heart. The narrative drills down under the streets, past abandoned railway terminals and fragmented tenements and into a strange, clockwork fantasyland based on a 19th-century World's Fair. Then it heads upwards again, past circling news choppers and roving blimps and towards the lofty Art Nouveau ironwork of Wonder Tower, where mysterious forces are battling for the soul of this depraved metropolis.

The crust of the city, meanwhile, is exactly as you always wanted Gotham to be: covered in dirty snow and trash, latticed by searchlights and ramshackle Victorian fixtures. It's filled with Riddler's trophies in much expanded form - the best of them now creating the basis of an endlessly inventive series of pressure-plate puzzles, electrical mazes and remote-controlled Batarang gauntlets - and also with secrets for super-fans to spot. Here's the Monarch Theatre where Thomas and Martha Wayne were gunned down. There's a fleeting glimpse of a Harvey Dent campaign poster. I believe in that guy.

In other words, if Arkham Asylum was Metroid - a claustrophobic, tightly contained and intricate blend of gear-gating and backtracking - this is The Legend of Zelda: a sustained head-rush of deftly-controlled freedom with landmark Gotham buildings as the dungeons, while the streets themselves stand in for the rolling fields of Hyrule.

These streets are also home to random brawls, dozens of collectables and a smart range of side-quests, each one terminating with a famous name, each one hinging on an appealing mechanic. Whether you're patrolling the skies and hunting for the remains of a serial killer's victims or racing from one ringing phone booth to the next to trace a scrambled call, there are webs of distraction waiting for you everywhere you look.

It's hard not to be drawn in. Those question mark trophies, for example, which once landed you with a mere Achievement or two and some unlocks, now lead to what amounts to a small campaign in its own right - and the Riddler's far from the only Asylum alumnus who's been promoted in a surprising fashion.

The true surprise, though, isn't the new scope or the new cast, but the traversal. Arkham Asylum delivered a Batman so effortlessly tailored for videogames - unbeatable in a fistfight, useless under gunfire, equally at home plotting a spot of violence and deconstructing a crime scene - that you could be forgiven for not realising you only ever got half of him. Now, Rocksteady is handing over the rest, putting Batman right where he belongs: in the night sky.

Certainly, grappling and gliding were both available in the first game, but they were severely limited. The latter, in particular, had one tantalising cliff-top outing and was then reserved primarily for a dreamy prelude to a boot in somebody's face. Here, both have been thrust centre stage with the addition of a grapple boost (which fires you up into the clouds as a kind of running start) and a large open space to then coast over, cape billowing. Suddenly, Arkham City, like Crackdown and Just Cause 2, has become one of those games that's all about the pleasure of simply getting around. And that's one of the canniest, most overlooked and most essential pleasures that a game can home in on.

To cope with the larger scale, there's a new radar at the top of the screen and the ability to set custom waypoints (they show up, of course, as the Bat Signal). Both disappear when you switch to Detective Mode - a smart piece of rebalancing that should ensure players get to see more of the art team's actual texturing this time around. You'll need all the navigation help you can get, too.

It's true that Arkham City's not an enormously vast open-world, even when you take into account all the indoor levels that punctuate the main campaign, but it's intricate and it's filled with secrets. After four days of protracted Batexploration I was still discovering new things - and the game's best moments are often its most peaceful, as you ghost over the landscape, your earpiece delivering constant radio chatter from the criminals milling around below. At times, it's hard not to feel like the world's greatest detective, on patrol, sifting through all that noise and looking for the one signal that will send you into action.

There's a dive-bomb swooping move and a ground-pound, both reeking of the Mushroom Kingdom and suggesting that Alfred may have bought Young Master Bruce a SNES back in the day. Even putting aside all that - and putting aside a grapnel gun that is essentially a hookshot, and all those structural nods to Link and Samus - there's a wonderful feeling throughout Arkham City that this is the Dark Knight we might have been given if it was Nintendo rather than DC Comics that created him.

It's not so much a matter of specific influences as a general ethos. Rocksteady has the familiar Nintendo toy-box touch that ensures you're never given a gadget that's only good for one thing and you're never saddled with an objective that isn't inherently fun and rewarding, even if you're just moving down the street. Most of all, Arkham City feels like a Nintendo game in the sense that you can't tell whether the environment, characters or individual mechanics came first - all seem to have evolved in an intriguing harmony.

If it's lacking something, it's surprise. Arkham City has nothing that beats the first game's brilliant unveilings and fourth-wall mind-tricks (although it has a go at an equivalent) and it can't trump the central, crucial realisation that somebody had finally made a Batman game that was enriched by its license rather than subtly crippled by it. Instead, though, you get refinement: better bosses, slicker animation, and more to think about on a second-to-second basis.

It's a decent trade. Combat, one of the first game's sweetest elements, is now riddled with elegantly nasty new animations alongside new enemy types, new takedowns, smoke pellets and much simpler access to gadgets while fighting. On top of that, your arsenal itself has been reworked and expanded. The line-launcher now allows you to change direction mid-run, switching it from a fancy kind of bridging tool into an essential component of any good night out in the Bowery, while newcomers include the REC (an electrical blaster) and a freeze grenade that doubles as an incapacitator and a flotation device. 'You're going to need a bigger belt,' says Alfred at one point. If this goes on, we're certainly going to need a bigger d-pad.

Elsewhere, Catwoman crops up now and then, both in the campaign and with a few side-quests and trophies of her own. You'll need the online pass to get access to her, but she's not actually that different to Batman when it really comes down to it. Her combat is simply lighter, faster and crueller, while her traversal relies on pounces, ceiling runs and natty rhythm-action button presses as you shimmy up buildings.

The challenge rooms make a welcome return, ensuring that you always have access to the game's tooth-splintering combat and playful strain of predator stealth. This time, you can work through linked challenges as mini-campaigns, all of which come with a tactical element in the form of combat modifiers. One might impose a time limit, say, or stop your gadgets from working. It's arcade leaderboard heaven.

Heaven inside hell, eh? Prisons, murderers, lunatics: Arkham City's built of gloomy stuff, but it feels uncommonly like escape each time you load it up. It's escape of the best kind: into a different world where your actions might save lives and where you're decisive, dynamic and rarely given to starting conversations with gambits like, "OK, rate the top five chocolate bars for me, leaving out Mars."

Is it over? Unlikely. Rocksteady's latest certainly knows how to drop the curtain, but it feels like a dark second act or the middle section of a trilogy. If that's the case, it's tantalisingly tricky to figure out what the studio can do next.

First they gave us a hero; now they've given us his ideal playground. And along the way, they crossed off one of the trickiest entries on my own personal to-do list: an entry that's right there in between Meet Ty Pennington and Finish that Robert Musil book .

Become Batman. Done.

9 / 10

Batman: Arkham City is released 21st October on PS3 and Xbox 360, and in November for PC.

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Christian.

About Christian Donlan

Chris Donlan writes about games for Eurogamer and some magazines. His heroes include Eugene Jarvis, Errol Morris, and Linus Van Pelt.

Read more articles from Christian by visiting the Christian Donlan archive page.

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Comments (136) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Vortex808 #1 7 months ago

    \o/

  • DUFFMAN5 #2 7 months ago

    I'm Batman

  • Ultrasoundwave #3 7 months ago

    Yes yes, a 9 is all very well and good, but does this game have shark-repellent bat spray?

    Cant wait for next Friday.

  • urban #4 7 months ago

    cool.

  • Hindle #5 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 13:34:04 08-05-2012

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #6 7 months ago

    On the buy when its cheap list thanks to, ridiculous pre order programs for content where some retailers give you upto 4 hours more, and having an online pass for a 100% offline game.

    Pity cos i was looking forward to it.

  • the_dudefather #7 7 months ago

    Ever dance with a devil in the pale moon 9/10?
    Edited by the_dudefather at 14/10/11 @ 14:17

  • Spungles #8 7 months ago

    " If this goes on, we're certainly going to need a bigger d-pad."

    Ha ha, or just one that lets you hit the diagonals on purpose. Eh, Microsoft ?

  • captain_Carl #9 7 months ago

    Too bad i'm not buying it thanks to locking out Catwoman.

  • Bradach #10 7 months ago

    i'll be playing this in 3D vision on a projector. cannot feckin wait!

  • Goodfella #11 7 months ago

    @EddieMink

    How are you playing this, 360 leak?

  • StooMonster #12 7 months ago

    Played the last one on PC, with all the nvidia goodness, it was an unexpectedly excellent title and instantly became a personal favourite.

    Now got AMD cards and thinking I might get console version instead, reason being I wish I knew if the AMD cards lose all the physics fun ... if they don't it might make the wait for PC version worth it. If not, could be a console purchase so I can play it right now.
    Edited by StooMonster at 14/10/11 @ 16:00

  • AMD500 #13 7 months ago

    Bring on next week. Can't wait.

  • homerramone #14 7 months ago

    I thought the last one was OK - but didnt see this amazing game so many raved about. I wouldve probably picked this up at some point.. said some point just moved down the calendar somewhat thanks to the offline pa$$

  • NKSR #15 7 months ago

    http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/9318/...

  • GAmbrose #16 7 months ago

    "Sidewalk" suggests you are American

    "Morris Minor" suggests not.

    Pavement, surely?

  • Dizzy #17 7 months ago

    Sorry... single player "pass" equals no buy.

    Plenty of games to keep me busy until Skyrim.

  • steviepunk #18 7 months ago

    @Captain_carl not sure what you mean. I thought by buying it you get the code to unlock Catwoman?

  • JohnnyWashnGo #19 7 months ago

    I can't wait for the GOTY edition with everything thrown in... as it stands, I am with GamesProgrammer on this. All that messing around with retailer exclusives has soured my feeling for this game. But thats cool, Dark Souls and Uncharted 3 will keep me going for a while... its not like there is a shortage of good games in the run up to the midwinter festival.

  • cianchristopher #20 7 months ago

    Sounds like the best game ever, tbh.

    I loved that you compared it to the best of Zelda and Metroid, as I really miss Nintendo's creative heyday in the 90s. Arkham Asylum was my favourite game of this generation, now it looks likely to be superseeded by the sequel.

    As ever... the very best videogames all come down to pacing, level design, fidelity of control and atmosphere. And Rocksteady appear to have mastered them all.

  • Razz #21 7 months ago

    Screw it! I don't think I can hold out until the GOTY edition! It sounds so awesome!

  • deadstoned #22 7 months ago

    Sounds fantastic =D , just wish the PC version didn't use GFWL :( , maybe after the game/GFWL recieves some patches to work out the kinks. GFWL cannot be trusted with anything.

  • ShortRound77 #23 7 months ago

    You wanna get nuts? Come on! Let's get nuts!

  • Rodriguez #24 7 months ago

    Woot, 9/10!!Happy times in Batman land!

  • Daeltaja #25 7 months ago

    What's a game gotta do to get a 10 these days?

    Anyway, score simply doesn't matter for games like these. I've a week off next week and the collectors edition preordered.

    Can't wait!

  • Scrumhalf #26 7 months ago

    So question - I want to play this on my 3DTV (I am not interested in the worthiness of this question!) which is the version to get? PS3 (normally better at 3D) or XBOX360 (normally better with graphics in general).

  • bad09 #27 7 months ago

    I'm getting B: AC free with my nice new PC (and Dirt 3)! Get in! \o/

    Edit- Aaah what's the matter neggers? Gutted you gotta pay for it chumps? :)
    Edited by bad09 at 14/10/11 @ 14:29

  • metalangel #28 7 months ago

    @GAmbrose: haven't you got better things to do?

  • harzo #29 7 months ago

    This makes the delay to the PC version even more difficult to take

  • Syrette #30 7 months ago

    Good review.

  • MrE26 #31 7 months ago

    Was there ever any doubt that this was gonna be outstanding? Instant buy.

  • KujiGhost #32 7 months ago

    9/10 but reads like 100/10. Sold and then some!

  • geeza2020 #33 7 months ago

    Some days you just cant get rid of a bomb

  • Sonic_D #34 7 months ago

    (Zelda + Metroid)*Batman = Instant Purchase

    However: Life - Dark Souls = No time to play

  • GAmbrose #35 7 months ago

    @metalangel

    Yep, and i'm pretty much avoiding them by reading this review.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #36 7 months ago

    Good work Rocksteady. Too bad you/WB screwed this up with your singleplayer/onlinepass/whatever you want to call it. Since there are more than enough other good games out that are not resorting to such measures I'll skip this one.

  • dudefella #37 7 months ago

    Reads like a 10, superb review though. Hype meter is off the bat-charts

  • JorgeLuisBorges #38 7 months ago

    I'm really not fixated on scores at all - but I am interested to know what knocks this down a peg from being a perfect 10/10. The only realy negatives were that the first game was a revelation - not really a negative for this game!

    Like I said, don't really care about the number - just interested in the rationale, and what that tells us about the game...

  • chris_ace #39 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • Sikosh #40 7 months ago

    [EDIT] Bah, was beaten to the bomb line! :(

    Can't wait for this game, sadly flying to America for work the day after it comes out :(
    Edited by Sikosh at 14/10/11 @ 14:39

  • Das_Ginge #41 7 months ago

    "... And partly because, if you're like me, you've secretly been Batman since primary school anyway."

    See here is a reviewer that understands.

    Its going to be a long week's wait....

  • Grayvern #42 7 months ago

    Ever since someone pointed out that Batman is essentially the ideal fascist Übermensch Iv'e had a hard time with Batman but rocksteady do make good games don't they.

  • P1GEONPOO #43 7 months ago

    Wow ninty fanboy or what?

  • misterdoctor #44 7 months ago

    If there was ever a game that would be a companion to Nolan's Dark Knight, this would be it.

  • darleysam #45 7 months ago

    Not coming from some "only a 9?" perspective, but from the review, it sounds like the only criticisms you have for it were for things it could never do, which were to top the unique impact the first game had for being a good licensed game, or having a new unique fourth-wall-breaking mechanic (as opposed to presumably something equally as good, otherwise it would've been pointed out as a detraction). Basically it sounds like the game is as good as it could possibly be, and yet the score indicates that it could still improve some.

  • TheBusterMan #46 7 months ago

    Ok folks,I'm not a Batman or any super hero fan.Can some one persuade me why I should get this? Hmmmm?

  • andywilkie35 #47 7 months ago

    Reads like an 11

  • Markitron #48 7 months ago

    Dont know when this overtook UC3 as my most anticipated game, just cant wait. FYI it only costs 99c in Game if your trading gears, rage or dead Island (in Ireland anyway)

  • jetsetwillie #49 7 months ago

    @Dizzy

    Just save up a few more £ so you can afford to buy it new. i mean you save like £6 buying it used, why not just splash out on a brand new copy.

    that way its not a problem in the slightest

  • Cjail #50 7 months ago

    Now comes the hard part: wait another week to play it!
    Also very curious to see DigitalFoundry face-off.
    Edited by Cjail at 14/10/11 @ 15:03

  • GrizzleBoy #51 7 months ago

    Better than Gears of War 3 then?





















    I went there.

  • The-Jack-Burton #52 7 months ago

    They should include Batman costumes with the game. That would be silly to think of the millions of kids and adults dressed up as Batman, playing Batman.

  • vibroguy #53 7 months ago

    DAY.....ONE.....PURCHASE

  • GrizzleBoy #54 7 months ago

    Better than Gears of War 3 then?


























    I went there.

  • Zapatero #55 7 months ago

    "right there in between Meet Ty Pennington and Finish that Robert Musil book"

    Always good to sign off a review with some pretentious wank.

  • jablonski #56 7 months ago

    @TheBusterMan

    "Ok folks,I'm not a Batman or any super hero fan.Can some one persuade me why I should get this? Hmmmm?"

    Why? I don't care if you buy it or not.

  • varsas #57 7 months ago

    I'm really looking forward to this after UC3 and lament the lack of a developer with this much skill on a Spider-Man game...

  • Goodfella #58 7 months ago

    Oh ok, you work for a gaming website then?
    Edited by Goodfella at 14/10/11 @ 15:26

  • kinky_mong #59 7 months ago

    If it's lacking something, it's surprise. Arkham City has nothing that beats the first game's brilliant unveilings and fourth-wall mind-tricks (although it has a go at an equivalent) and it can't trump the central, crucial realisation that somebody had finally made a Batman game that was enriched by its license rather than subtly crippled by it. Instead, though, you get refinement: better bosses, slicker animation, and more to think about on a second-to-second basis.

    Considering the above is the only negative in the whole review, and even the it ends by saying everything is better than Asylum anyway, how can this only be a 9?

  • swissorc #60 7 months ago

    I am still not convinced by the review that this is a must purchase game against the other games of October-January. Pass.

  • Cobalt_Jackal #61 7 months ago

    I never got the love for AA. To me it seemed like people were hyping it up so much because it was the only comic book game that wasn't completely crap. And whilst i agree that it was a good game, I feel that AA was nothing special (i mean IMO the combat was very repetitive/monotonous, boss fights were crap and the game was way too short too). And it seems that all those things are still the case with Batman AC, so i think i'll pass and get this when its cheap (besides i don't have any money anyway).

  • Snufkin #62 7 months ago

    Sounds ace. When I eventually put down Dark Souls (or kill myself) and complete Deus Ex, I reckon this will be my next purchase. Dinnerdinnerdinnerdinnerdinner BATMAN!

  • whatfruit #63 7 months ago

    "9/10, HOLY FLYING BALLBAGS BATMAN!"

    http://adamwest.tripod.com/b-lectur.htm
    Edited by whatfruit at 14/10/11 @ 15:20

  • cynical #64 7 months ago

    @Busterman: On another certain "game trailer" website there is a HD video review, watch it and listen to the comment at the end. Something along the lines of "even if you don't care about Batman, you owe it to yourself to play this game".

  • darkmorgado #65 7 months ago

    Not a single criticism in the entire review, it improves and changes the original in fundamental and brilliant ways, but its not a 10?

    What the hell does a game to do to get a 10 these days?

  • Vortextk #66 7 months ago

    Is it stupid to be disappointed that the fantastic scarecrow beats(not the traversal levels..) haven't seemed to be replicated and improved upon in some fashion? Like mind blowingly well done? Batman Forever, yes, Val Kilmer, was a fun batman movie when I was a kid. I was very young for the first two and finally saw on my own later. It had action and crazy gadgets and this neon city. And then Chris Nolan came to town, and you cared about the person; the man. I wanted that from this batman, but I guess that's never what they were really making? Maybe I'll be surprised yet.

    Still a day 1 purchase...WEEKS FROM NOW WHEN IT'S ON PC...but I feel that maybe what I really want is the next movie and despite this game I'm sure being amazing, it won't satisfy my hunger.
    Edited by Vortextk at 14/10/11 @ 15:26

  • jetsetwillie #67 7 months ago

    @swissorc

    what would it of had to say to of convinced you.

  • MrWonderstuff #68 7 months ago

    Never finished the first one as the final battles were pretty hard - so many combos and joypad commands my fingers got all twisted up. I also think I am too old for these beat 'em ups.

  • Farzlepot #69 7 months ago

    I recently learned that I have the last few days of next week off. I booked them at the start of the year, before I had even played B: AA or knew of the release date for AC. Since then I have played AA, loved it to bits, and am now anticipating AC more than any other game this year.

    And I have the end of next week off, and the AC collector's edition on pre-order.

    It was fate.

  • Whitster #70 7 months ago

    I wonder what Rocksteady could do with a Punisher game.

  • evild_edd #71 7 months ago

    9/10 in Edge means everything - cracking title.

    The only shame is that they've been putting out so many retailer/DLC/onlline pass stuff about this title that I'm totally confused what the hell's going on, to the point of being put off making a day 1 purchase. TBF it would likely wait for a New Year purchase for me anyway.....too.....many......games......

  • geoneo123 #72 7 months ago

    Do you get the keys to the batmobile for driving round the city?

  • GarethBale3 #73 7 months ago

    pre-ordered Achievement unlocked

  • carlitoswagon #74 7 months ago

    Arkham Asylum was excellent. The combat made my fingers hurt.

  • CaptainQuint #75 7 months ago

    Read every bit the 10 I was expecting.

    But no, this is EG - the place where they struggle with their marks.

  • altitude2k #76 7 months ago

    Think I'll wait for Dance Central 2.

  • Big-Swiss #77 7 months ago

    why does a guy get negged cause he is allready playing this?
    if he is a reviewer and thinks its a 10, even better, no?

  • Aiten #78 7 months ago

    Getting around is very much overlooked. Spiderman 2, Prototype, and Just Cause 2 all had wacky and kinda bad stories but the gameplay around movement was brilliant and made them into good games.

    Looking forward to this even more now :).

  • Darren #79 7 months ago

    @CaptainQuint - What does it matter whether the game got a 9 or a 10 from EG? The review tells you it's a great game, a must-buy if the genre interests you. The number at the end if irrelevant really.

  • SEVQA #80 7 months ago

    "...they rode their freakin' bikes on the sidewalk. "

    So when did EUROgamer turn into USgamer!

  • dancingrob #81 7 months ago

    @Darren

    it's the old 'review scale problem' again.

    Even in decent places like EG / Edge / GamesTM Pretty much every decent game gets given a score somewhere between 7-9, as sites are incredibly reluctant to award the special '10' mark, and you know that anything below 5 is shovelware.

    The sooner everyone switches to a 5* system the better.

  • darleysam #82 7 months ago

    Personally, I'm just looking for clarification on the scoring, really. The review reads like it really is as flawless as a game can be, where even its lowest points are still only equal to the previous game (and those points are minimal, as to be worth only a paragraph in a 3-page review). It reads like it should get a top score, and yet it doesn't. It just seems inconsistent, is all.

  • coomber #83 7 months ago

    Always good to sign off a review with some pretentious wank.

    The whole review read like that to me! And I don't understand how it didn't get full marks either seeing as, having waded through all that crap about his childhood as if I give a shit about the author, I discovered the game has improved on boss fights and gimped Detective Mode - the only things the original did wrong.

  • drhickman1983 #84 7 months ago

    Reading these comments just makes me hope that one day EG will do away with scores altogether.

    Anyway, I'll be getting this. This quarter is proving to be stupidly expensive.

  • darkmorgado #85 7 months ago

    The only valid reason to complain about the online pass is if you plan on buying the game secondhand. In which case, rocksteady wouldnt get a penny of your money anyway, in which case, im sure they couldnt give a fuck whether you buy it or not.

  • Smudge1983 #86 7 months ago

    Want this game now!! Amazon better deliver this on time, i have the day off and ironed my bat pants in preperation.

  • CaptainQuint #87 7 months ago

    Of course, Eddie Mink could be blagging his arse off - the game is already freely available on the torrent sites. A quick search told me that.

  • Vortextk #88 7 months ago

    God stop whining about the score. You know why it didn't get 10/10? Cause the reviewer decided that. They may not touch on the exact reasons, it may be spoilers, it may just be some ineffable and intangible idea that "yeah, it was REALLY good, but was it a 10? No.." that can't be explained. The hell do you care if it got a 9/10 if what you read sounds like a 10/10? THAT MEANS YOU'LL LIKE IT! It's like reading a 5/10 review and not really understanding the problems the reviewer had with the game, probably means YOU will think it's maybe a 8/10. It's why KNOWING your reviewer can and probably is more important than anything else.

  • Lamb #89 7 months ago

    Steam M M M M! Just biding my time. :D

  • ZizouFC #90 7 months ago

    @EddieMink

    Are you a professional pirate? With a ship and everything?

  • RevanNL #91 7 months ago

    Can't wait to play this, shame that I have to wait a year or so. I'm not going ti buy this full price, the online pass for this goes one step too far.

  • darleysam #92 7 months ago

    Vortextk, I agree that whining about the score is a waste of everybody's time, which is why I'm trying to take a different approach. I'm not whining about it, it can stay or change (the former it will be) for all I care, and the world will continue. Fully aware of this, and I wouldn't have it another way. I'm simply saying that, if you're going to attribute a score at the end (where I do wish the system would be dropped), it should be consistent. To me, at least, it doesn't feel like it is. And to be fair there are a whole lot of publishers that put a great deal of weight on the Metacritic average, with regards to paying bonuses to the developers. That's the sort of situation where a 9 or a 10 could actually make a big difference.

  • king26 #93 7 months ago

    Hey Jack, think about the future!

  • Chufty #94 7 months ago

    we're certainly going to need a bigger d-pad

    Or a keyboard

  • coomber #95 7 months ago

    Aren't there supposed to be 3D options available? What are they like? I must have read over it during that review...

  • asho #96 7 months ago

    so its not better than the first according to eg? another 9/10, didnt finish the first so give this a miss.

  • Scimarad #97 7 months ago

    "this is The Legend of Zelda: a sustained head-rush of deftly-controlled freedom with landmark Gotham buildings as the dungeons, while the streets themselves stand in for the rolling fields of Hyrule."

    Well, that guarantees a purchase!

    Great review.

  • Ryboy #98 7 months ago

    Bring it on! I gots me a free copy from Nvidia and a new PC system. It's going to look amazing.

    Suck it failsole muppets.

  • SimonM7 #99 7 months ago

    Honestly, the reason EG 9's get the response they do is because EG have historically been completely gung ho about chucking a 10 on something just to make a point. Halo 3 was a 10 just to make up for the 8/10 blunder, it felt like, and Fable 2's 10.. well I've got nothing, to be honest.

    With all the 8's there seems to be a desire to create the illusion that EG are difficult to charm, but looking over their history with 10's, those games are rarely significantly deserving at all, nor is the reasoning behind the score even remotely consistent from one reviewer to the next.

    I haven't played this, I have no opinion as to whether this particular review or score is accurate or not, but I do think EG's scoring and motivation is generally inconsistent at best. They've created the notion echoed in the comments themselves - that a 9 for a game is mostly just a not-10, whereas something as often generally busted as Fable 2 for some reason bags a 10 as if only to drive some kind of point home.

  • Droogie #100 7 months ago

    I wonder if you'll get access to the regular Batcave this time, or even Wayne Manor. Still, this looks fantastic- though I think I'll hang on for the GOTY edition with all the preorder bonuses thrown in, there's plenty of good games to tide me over until then.

  • Machiavellian #101 7 months ago

    Honestly, the reason EG 9's get the response they do is because EG have historically been completely gung ho about chucking a 10 on something just to make a point. Halo 3 was a 10 just to make up for the 8/10 blunder, it felt like, and Fable 2's 10.. well I've got nothing, to be honest.

    I wonder if people know that a review is reviewed by a person not the entity called EG. Different people review different games and they give out different scores. I guess you could say it's EG that scores the game if all of the reviewers played the game and gave out a score but thats not the case. Crying about scores just show that people cannot make up their minds without some type of numerical representation. Most of you just go to the end of the article and look at the score before you do anything else. In the end, it's the text of the review that should convince you more than a score at the end.

  • LordMorpeth #102 7 months ago

    F me. This season's release schedule is just brutal. Still playing Deus Ex but can not resist buying the games as they come out. So this time next week I'll have GoW3, Forza and Batman. I mean where are you meant to start? Nice problem to have, I guess.

    How long does it take people to finish a game on average? Takes me about 6 weeks, what with other commitments (maybe a bit longer for Elder Scrolls). So I estimate that I'm good to go wIth AAA releases until Spring 2012. Is that right or appropriate?

  • SimonM7 #103 7 months ago

    I wonder if people know that a review is reviewed by a person not the entity called EG.

    Yes, I'm fully aware. In the next paragraph I went on to say:

    "...nor is the reasoning behind the score even remotely consistent from one reviewer to the next."

    The problem isn't in different opinions. I guess there's not even an inherent problem to not keeping review philosophies consistent, but it does explain why people are quick to criticise the scoring on this site. Whereas one game gets a 10 seemingly just to highlight it in spite of oodles of faults, another products of higher quality can easily be bumped down to 8 because it's just not putting enough arts in its farts.

    Now that is ALSO completely cool, but then you see the site flipping even that rationale around randomly, and for those very same reasons you have an 8 going as a consolation price to the flawed but well intended, and the 10 to the awesome display of craft.

    Inconsistencies is the reason people split hairs; because as I said 9 is way too often read as a not-10.

  • Alf-Life #104 7 months ago

    How does Batman's mum call him for dinner?





    ...she doesn't, she's dead.

  • IvorB #105 7 months ago

    Wow. Who let the raging Nintendo fanboy write this review?

    This game sounds good but the central premise of an "Arkham City" where all the nutters run loose is too ridiculous for words. Pity they couldn't come up with a story worthy of Batman's literary heritage. Not sure I could get over that.

  • dsmx #106 7 months ago

    Doesn't sound that ridiculous to me let all the nutters run loose and kill themselves trying to take control of a shit hole part of the city while the rest of gotham city carries on. Seems like a good idea to me.

  • FenderMaster #107 7 months ago

    i'm really glad people are starting to see the Metroid style in Arkam Asylum, and now expanding to Zelda style. I honrestly think both Zelda and Resident Evil could learn a thing or two from this game.

    Rocksteady has the familiar Nintendo toy-box touch that ensures you're never given a gadget that's only good for one thing and you're never saddled with an objective that isn't inherently fun and rewarding, even if you're just moving down the street.

    Twilight Princess would like a word, it had quite a few items thats saw almost no use outside a very specific one in the dungeons they were found in
    Edited by FenderMaster at 15/10/11 @ 00:54

  • StooMonster #108 7 months ago

    @Arf-Life

    You're quite the Joker.

  • jamesi #109 7 months ago

    well for me i think this game is unique in that it surpasses the movies in terms of anticipation.nearly everything seems to be included and be improved this time.the only disappointment is all the pre order nonsense which although i dont think is reason not to buy the game has annoyed people and stopped them buying at launch which is a shame.also scores dont matter with a game like this you kinda know its gonna be awesome and it comes down to personal preference.and i know how they can improve the 3rd game...batmobile AND batwing playable sold!!!

  • JorgeLuisBorges #110 7 months ago

    @Vortextk it sounds like you're the one whining here. Everyone else is just commenting on the scoring system (it is, after all, the comments section) few have really said " OMG rubbish, should have been a ten"... There hasn't even been one of the banal "so, worse than insert game here" (well, not many) comments which piss me right off. Those kind of comments are questioning the notion of abitrary numerical ratings in general, which is a different discussion. The comments here are simply saying "hmm, please elaborate further on your decision to give it a 9". It's called discourse - its what we grown ups do, its certainly not whining.
    Edited by JorgeLuisBorges at 15/10/11 @ 03:03

  • FaLLoutMatt #111 7 months ago

    Forget about every game, this year is Batman's year...

  • Vortextk #112 7 months ago

    Yeah I'm the whiner, cause I'm not so fucking inept to understand why games get 9's. If every single time something gets a 9 a bunch of fanboy whiners have to comment WHAT COULDN'T GIVE IT THE 10!? then NO game would get a 9. This reviewer didn't think it was perfect, deal with it. Giantbomb gave it a 5/5 because there is no 9 in their rating system, I guess that means you should stop reading EG.
    Edited by Vortextk at 15/10/11 @ 07:53

  • IvorB #113 7 months ago

    dsmx,
    I think it is ridiculous. If you already have them locked up in an Asylum why release then into the city they've been lock away from for decades and give them guns etc? What about the citizens of Gotham actually living there? As fanciful as some aspects of the Batman universe are it is still a universe with laws, judges, a central national legislature etc. Gotham still functions much as a city in our own time within a country in our own time. It's not some post apocalyptic wasteland where you can do whatever. I'm not saying the lunics could not have taken control of a large section of Gotham by some devious means and law enforcement opted for containment until the army arrived or whatever. Then Batman goes in to get them out and save the citizens there from casualties of military intervention. See? There are ways you can set this premise up and still preserve a shred of narrative consistency. Not just: they gave a section of Gotham to Arkham inmates as a playground. WTF?

  • NiolK #114 7 months ago

    Arkham Asylum was one of the most mediocre games I've ever played. It was dull, repetitive, cliched, and unimaginative.
    Edited by NiolK at 15/10/11 @ 11:51

  • OmniSlash #115 7 months ago

    Hey guys. Do you know why EG.net didn't give a perfect 10 to Batman? Because they already received the Uncharted 3 review kit.

  • dfooster #116 7 months ago

    Gonna get this. Great game to play over the Xmas break and going to save skyrim for the 6 month summer games drought when I can get really stuck into it without being distracted by lots of other great games coming out at the same time.

  • slivir #117 7 months ago

    What's with all the Nintendo references?

  • repeater #118 7 months ago

    I'm the goddamn Batman.

  • JorgeLuisBorges #119 7 months ago

    @Vortextk
    Wow - you have issues with basic comprehension don't you. I don't really know why I'm going to try to bother to explain it to you - but here goes.

    EG - a site I love - have chosen to use an arbitrary numerical scoring system to summarise their reviews, for whatever reason. One of the responsibilities of adobting a system like this is being consistant. Now, I actually rate EG - they write my favorite reviews. I also really don't care about the actual score at the end, Ithink I would have bought this game anyway.
    What I am interested in is what stopped the reviewer giving it a ten; not because I disagree with the score, not because it is going to affect my decision to buy, and not because I have any allegiance to the developer, or any vendetta against EG's scoring. Its just because I'm interested in their opinion - thats why I read the site.

    I personally cant ever see a stuation where a game would deserve a 10 - but then I don't think any peice culture is perfect. What I am interested in is other people's opinions - and the fact is EG has given other games 10 but not this - must denota reason why the reviewer doesn't think the game is perfect. I would like, without recrimination, to know what that is.

    Now before you answer - stop, read this again, and the previous post where I explained exactly the same thing - then read the rest of the posts and think carefully about what you're going to say. If you make the same point again you will run the risk of looking like a complete cretin, which I'm sure you could't be,

  • adamantium #120 7 months ago

    Where does he get those wonderful toys ..

    great batman 1 headline. Love eurogamer reviews

  • DAN.E.B #121 7 months ago

    "The combat made my fingers hurt."

    "well now your backs gonna hurt cause you just pulled land scaping duty!
    anyone elses fingers hurt?"

  • alberto_dex #122 7 months ago

    stunning game !!!
    with Uncharted 3, probably the best action game of 2011 :) !!

  • escapedape #123 7 months ago

    @JorgeLuisBorges 'I personally cant ever see a stuation where a game would deserve a 10 - but then I don't think any peice culture is perfect. What I am interested in is other people's opinions - and the fact is EG has given other games 10 but not this - must denota reason why the reviewer doesn't think the game is perfect. I would like, without recrimination, to know what that is.'

    Quite a simple point I'd like to make - one which seems to escape a lot of people, and i'm not sure why - is that being marked '10' does not mean that the reviewer considers that game perfect. A '10' is the highest mark to be used on the scale of - you guessed it - 1-10.

    If you think that no game should ever get a 10 - for whatever, arbitrary reason - then your scale should be 1-9. Simple.

  • PlugMonkey #124 7 months ago

    "It's the one way out of a siamese human knot I've...just recalled it."
    Edited by PlugMonkey at 21/10/11 @ 18:26

  • MisterCraig #125 7 months ago

    I sank 5 hours into this game with a friend today, and it was grand. Loving it. Really, really loving it.

    But...

    Since when does batman enter every building through the front door?

  • sjmlondon #126 7 months ago

    Every single retailer appeared to have a different special edition. Are you expected to buy 4 different copies of the game / do you have to buy the other specials at paid dlc or can it just be unlocked in the game?

    Like others I'm tempted to wait for the game of the year version as all this silly marketing crap has put me off buying the game now even if it is good.

  • forestguy #127 7 months ago

    Regarding 3D. This is the best 3D Xbox 360 game to date. Not only because it looks very good, because this is the first XBox 360 game since the 3D update to use 1.4 HDMI 3D framepacking (similar to the PS3 3D) and not side by side. Side by side was a real pain for the xbox 360 because:-

    a) The 3D was not automatically detected because of the xbox being 1.2 HDMI.

    b) Now you can you use the xbox 360 interface while on 3D without the double vision with non-3D elements.

    Back in summer, Microsoft released a system update. It didn't appear to add new features, but there was one new feature. HDMI 1.4 3D framepackiing. This is turned on when you enable your xbox to be 3D in the setting menu. Previously xbox 360 did not support 3D framepacking which is a new HDMI 1.4 format. The PS3 uses 3D framepacking.

    I can't understand why a new game such as Gears of War 3 used side by side instead of this method.

    So, the great thing is now with future 3D games you don't have to change your TV to 3D it will be automatically detected and you can use the xbox 360 interface as well.
    Edited by forestguy at 22/10/11 @ 13:48

  • Retro_ #128 7 months ago

    Loving the New Site layout!

    Great review, clearly the reviewer is a fan :)

  • suckmypolygons.tk #129 7 months ago

    shit website. check suckmypolygons. tk for real gaming insight.

  • Ashman2901 #130 7 months ago

    Absolutely love this game. Hell i loved the previous game. This really has been my favourite thing this year; that said there is Skyrim in a couple weeks.

  • Rack #131 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:52:09 12-12-2011

  • freakybun #132 6 months ago

    Bats bats

    Bats

    Bat edit!
    Edited by freakybun at 17/11/11 @ 21:36

  • freakybun #133 6 months ago

    Bats

  • freakybun #134 6 months ago

    Bat.attack.
    Edited by freakybun at 14/11/11 @ 22:22

  • freakybun #135 6 months ago

    <quote>Ashman2901 wrote:
    Absolutely love this game. Hell i loved the previous game. This really has been my favourite thing this year; that said there is Skyrim in a couple weeks.</quote>

    Bat quote!

  • sicksicksick #136 5 months ago

    I want this game, and the previous one. NOW