UK Release Date: 18-11-2011
Platforms: PC £34.99 XBox360, PS3 £49.99
Publisher: WB Interactive Entertainment/Rocksteady

“I’m Batman!”

Come on, admit it; your nerdy comic gene has made you dream of saying that, dream of being the gadget- and bicep-laden caped crusader, chasing Catwoman’s elusive tail, hanging from some vertiginously placed gargoyle as you survey the streets and alleyways of the sprawling metropolis that is Gotham City, a city riddled with vice and corruption… and hordes of brutal criminals to bludgeon senseless with your dazzling combo moves.

Despite the host of infamous characters you’ll battle with, in many ways it’s Gotham, (or rather the walled-off slums of Arkham City within it, created to house the worst of the worst, Escape from New York-style), which is perhaps the greatest character of them all. I make no secret of the fact that I’m a die-hard PC gamer and if ever there was a game crying out to be played on a half-decent PC rig, this is it. I’ll make no secret of the fact that I’m a die-hard PC gamer and if ever there was a game crying out to be played on a half-decent PC rig, this is it. The level of detail in the rendering of the snow-spattered and puddle-stained city of is astonishing. Even with ageing processors just skirting the rim of a performance bottleneck, the medium range Nvdia GForce GTX570 I’m running screams through it all, revealing every nook and cranny. The level of detail in the rendering of the snow-spattered and puddle-stained city is astonishing. You really do just often perch up there on those rooftops admiring the view of the citadel and the depth of field amid the garish neon signage and the world of shadows that has been created by developers Rocksteady.

One year after the events in Batman: Arkham Asylum, Quincy Sharp is now the mayor of Gotham, herding all the nastiest crooks together in Arkham hoping they’ll just kill each other. Instead, they form formidable criminal factions, all vying for supremacy and a way to get back into Gotham. There’s also the little matter of having the annoying Bruce Wayne arrested for interfering in city politics: your first task is to escape from the beating of an angry Penguin’s loons in Arkham City. Once up in the safe heights of those skyscrapers, a call to Alfred with a hidden com-set and batsuit and gadgetry are forthcoming. Then it’s time to clean up those mean streets – although an encounter with the Joker, who injects Batman with a deadly blood disease, leaves you with only hours to live. There’s motivation for you!

As well as Batman’s main mission to find the cure and to uncover who or what is behind Mayor Sharp and deranged prison warden Strange’s nefarious plans, there are side missions galore; so what you get is an action adventure game with a bit of RPG thrown in for good measure. That goes for the gadgetry, trophies to collect and the levelling up, too. These are not mere afterthoughts, but integral elements of the overall game experience and they blend smoothly with one another. On PC, the game begins with Catwoman, about to be stripped of her nine lives by an angry Two-Face. Ever the chivalrous avenger, Batman leaps to the rescue, for all the gratitude the feline felon offers him. There is a genuine thrill in invoking the spirit of Bruce Lee (never mind Wayne) when surrounded by a dozen thugs and proceeding to dispatch them all with a flurry of combination moves and gadget hurling (the remote-controlled batarang and smoke bomb pellets are favourites). Once again, this is a game that cries out to be played with a PC keyboard and hotkeys, festooned as it is with a dizzying array of Batman’s box of tricks to utilise in your fight against the wave of crime spreading through Arkham City back towards Gotham. That’s not to say that developers Rocksteady haven’t covered all their bases; it’s also been voted Xbox Game of the Year.

The cutaways are superb, with a genuine attention to the detail of the Batman world mythos of villainy. When a game gives you all this and Mark Hamill returning to the dark side with his brilliantly voiced Joker, Batman: Arkham City must be reckoned a gaming blinder, every bit as fine as its award-winning predecessor.

Quibbles? Only a couple, the boss battles aren’t that taxing (which also means that they aren’t as tedious as so many others) and for all that exhilarating hurling yourself around the rooftops and skyscrapers of the city, it is virtually impossible to fall to your death unless your health meter is dangerously low. Memories of playing the original Tomb Raider and suffering the effects of virtual vertigo, just adding to the exhilarat-ion, are absent here. But these are minor complaints in what is simply a great game. You’ll return to it again and again, gliding from rooftop to rooftop with your batcape, swinging Spidey-like from one skyscraper gargoyle to another with your nifty batclaw and dive-bombing unsuspecting psychos on the seedy streets below.

Rocksteady had already raised the action adventure bar with Arkham Asylum and you’ll find yourself still swinging merrily on high from it in Batman: Arkham City.