rating: ★★★★1/2

Batman prowls over the city prison of Arkham City, ready to mete out justice with his fists.

Batman: Arkham City is one of the year’s most hotly anticipated titles and a follow-up to 2009’s smash-hit Batman: Arkham Asylum. For months, developer Rocksteady has been dropping hints about how much bigger and better the gaming experience will be in this installment. Now that it is here, it is difficult to talk about the game in terms of bigger and better. Mostly, it is different.

The premise is simple: you play as Batman (obviously). Arkham Asylum has been shut down and the inmates from there and Blackgate prison have been transported to a closed-off section of Gotham City, where they are left to fend for themselves. Various supervillains have staked out territory in this urban prison and inmates have split up into three factions following Joker, Penguin and Two-Face.

Joker is a bit the worse for wear following the events in Arkham Asylum, but he has a big plan in the works, while the other villains pursue their own agendas. Batman is caught in the middle of this when he is captured and dropped into Arkham City by the chief psychiatrist/warden, Hugo Strange.

The game maintains the sense of isolation that the first one had but it also creates a more vibrant environment to explore. Batman is not caught in the middle of a prison break, but rather he gets dropped into a living community that happens to be populated entirely by dangerous criminals. It is hard to tell the size of Arkham City as you’re playing through it because it is a dense urban environment, unlike the spread-out handful of buildings on Arkham Island, but Batman’s unique assortment of gadgetry allows you to make very good time grappling and gliding across the rooftops.

Arkham City is not simply an expansion of everything in Arkham Asylum, but it displays a marked shift in intention and execution. Whereas the first had an open environment but forced the story progression into a very linear avenue, this game fully embraces the open world aspect. With all the crime and villainy in Gotham City condensed into this one place, it makes sense there is no shortage of things for Batman to do. So in tandem with the main story, there are about a dozen different side-plots to follow — related to various villains from Batman’s extensive rogue’s gallery – which test your combat, speed and detective skills.

The game trades a lot in artificial urgency so common to video games, where each sidequest you stumble upon ostensibly demands your immediate attention, although nothing in the game is actually forcing you to do anything particular at any particular time. It results in an atmosphere of immense pressure hovering over you, which heightens the sense of being Batman, constantly leaping from one crisis to another.

The story takes a wider and more scattered approach. Arkham Asylum had the Joker running the show and made temporary digressions into side-villains, but Arkham City has Batman turning from villain to villain, never quite sure who is the biggest threat.

The hours of gameplay work like a television series, moving between episodes, each one self-contained but revolving around a central problem, which is why it seems that people who rush through the story find it more convoluted than those who take their time. However, the game gets busy with its copious villains, and many of them do not get adequate time to shine.

Gameplay has seen a definite improvement. The free-flow brawler style combat is back. Combat focuses mainly on rhythm, timing your attacks and counter-attacks precisely to string together combos that allow you to beat down hordes of bad guys without taking a hit. It is easy enough to brawl your way through the game, but it takes practice to start making art with your hit combinations.

This time around Batman has a few new moves, which include being able to use his array of gadgets against enemies in the middle of combat (use explosive gel to blast them to the ground, an electric charger to stun them or the bat-claw to disarm them, all with quick button combinations). The stealth portions, wherein you have to take down patrolling groups of heavily armed thugs one at a time without being caught, have improved. There is a greater variety of terrain to work around and enemies have new gadgets at their disposal that add to the challenge.

One of the most talked-about additions is the Catwoman campaign, which was advertised heavily, then snatched out at the last minute and converted to downloadable content (to the disdain of many gamers, myself included). But it comes free with a new copy, so it isn’t hard to get set up. At certain points in the story, you can take a break from Batman and join up with Catwoman on her catburgling missions. Her nimble agility is a refreshing contrast from the bulkiness of Batman. She can cling to ceilings, scale walls and use her whip to secure onto objects. Her combat system is fluid and — dare I say? — cat-like. Moreover, she allows the aforementioned atmosphere of pressure to be lifted, so you can just have some fun.

To cap off the gameplay is the ever-lovable Riddler quest. The number of trophies has been increased to 440, which is enough to keep anyone busy. They can be gained by finding a trophy in an obscure area, solving a simple puzzle, using your detective skills to answer a riddle or completing combat tricks. The game has brought enough variety to the challenge that it does not devolve into a tedious fetch-quest (or at least not for a long time).

The animation is beautiful, save for a few popping textures. Some gamers may miss the Gothic architecture of Arkham Asylum, but the grit and grime of the urban landscape should make up for it. Characters follow a stylized format similar to comics and the animated series (Batman is implausibly buff and Catwoman is possessed of rather shapely assets), but the design is top-notch.

And it sounds as good as it looks. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill bring back their impeccable voice talents as Batman and Joker. Meanwhile Grey DeLisle is devilish as Catwoman and Nolan North hits it out of the park with a very cockney Penguin.

It is definitely a good sequel, although perhaps not the one some people were expecting. It got bigger and crazier and perhaps the plot got away from itself a couple times, but above all it is a true Batman game.

You can glide seamlessly above the city streets, grapple up the tallest buildings, lurk in the shadows, drop down among unsuspecting thugs and deliver your own street justice. Plus, it is much more satisfying racing across rooftops than trekking across the open grass on Arkham Island.

The first game had Batman in a compromising position, but here he is fully in his element, in the midst of a city exploding into chaos. Despite its few problems, Arkham City delivers the total Batman experience and that is a truly impressive achievement.

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Photo: Supplied