So, I beat
Batman: Arkham City just a while ago. Man, this is pretty much my favourite game of all time.
Warning! This text contains a lot of SPOILERS including THE ENDING!
The game started off alright, but once you really ventured into Arkham City and had the city in your hands, it was awesome. Took a while to get used to the controls of gliding and such, but still, awesome.
Combat
The combat is really great, it really feels rewarding when you get a huge combo and do a takedown. I also like the new gadgets except the fact that you don't really even need the line launcher even though you get it later on in the game.
The challenge mode
The Riddler's Revenge mode (Challenge mode) is pretty fun. I got a 46x combo earlier, trying to get over 50 for the achievement. Plus now you have
Combat challenges,
Predator challenges and
Riddler Campaigns. The campaigns seem to be levels where you have to do certain things in order to get the three medals.
The Story
Ah yes, the part of the game that really shines.
You start off as Bruce Wayne (
In case you didn't know, Bruce Wayne is Batman!) and you're doing a conference of some sort and there are a bunch of reporters there and all of the sudden, Hugo Strange's men attack you and kidnap you.
Later on you get escorted to Arkham City and Penguin's men are already waiting for you to revenge. You have to defeat Penguin's men and then you get the Batman suit and start off with the free-roaming. Well, you can do main missions if you want to, but I straight off went to find some side missions and collectibles.
If you like collecting things and doing puzzles you are in luck because there are over
400 Riddler trophies/challenges/riddles in the game and getting all of them will take a long time.
I won't go through everything that happens in the story, but basically, the plot is that Hugo Strange is the new mayor in Arkham City and his plan is to start '
Protocol 10' which basically means complete havoc in the city.
But that's not the biggest concern in the game because Joker poisons Batman with his diseased blood that came from the Venom he used and if he doesn't find a cure, he will die. Then you will have to work together with Victor Fries a.k.a
Mr. Freeze and find a cure for the disease in order to find out Hugo Strange's plans and to stop Joker from doing whatever he's planning to do.
But it won't be so easy when you've got Two-Face's gang, Penguin's gang, Joker's gang and the regular convicts after you. You also have to fight various villains such as; The Penguin, Ra's Al Ghul, Solomon Grundy and Mr. Freeze. (Later on in the game.)
Mr. Freeze is willing to help you gain the care when you rescue him from the Penguin's Ice Lounge, but in order to do so, he will need an enzyme that lasts long enough for the cure to work, and in order to do
that, Batman will have to find Ra's Al Ghul.
Batman has to go through the 'Demon Trials' to get to see Ra's Al Ghul, but after he does so, Ra's decides to be a pain in the ass and wants Batman to take over his place and lead his league of assassins, but Batman doesn't do so.
Then you have the missing ingredient to the cure, but when you return to Freeze, he has become aggressive because Joker kidnapped his wife, Nora, and they don't get along with Batman anymore and you have an epic bossfight.
After
that, Freeze is willing to help Batman again, but since they fought all the time, during that time Harley Quinn stole the cure and took it to Joker. Then Batman has to go fight Joker to get the cure, but Hugo Strange releases Protocol 10 and you have to defeat him first before the whole city turns dead.
You don't really fight Hugo Strange, but it's a pain in the ass to get to the 'Wonder Tower' he is in and it turns out that Ra's Al Ghul was controlling Strange all along and making him do what he says with the promise of giving him Lazarus a.k.a the liquid that makes Ra's young forever.
Then Strange gets killed by Ra's and the tower explodes so Batman and Ra's jump out of the building, but Ra's gets killed during the fall.
Then you have to go fight Joker, but turns out Joker has been pulling a trick on you for the whole time and he never had the cure, Talia Al Ghul, Ra's' daughter, stole it from Harley.
Now...
The Grand finale:
Talia Al Ghul gets killed by Joker when Batman realizes the Joker he saw earlier was a fake, and the real Joker then shoots Talia. The 'fake Joker' was actually non other than
Clayface who had been mimicking Joker all along and you get an epic boss fight finale with him and at the end.
The ending is really hard to explain so I'll just give you the
video for it.
The end is really well done and I really felt emotional when Joker dies and during the credits, you have a missed call from Joker, from 3 hours ago and he starts singing a lullaby to you.
I know, I'm just rambling and this really wasn't a review, sorry, but I'd still give this game a
10/10.
~
You know what's pretty funny? Even after all this, I would have still saved you.~
Your story is being told as you're living it (Cue big revelation at the end). Even stuff as simple as changing your weapon loadout gets a characterful comment.
