3.5/5 ★ – FoofDeckman's review of Batman: Arkham City.

Arkham City was great, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed, I don't know if I was just expecting more given how much I enjoyed Asylum and how much people hype City up, but this just wasn't what I had hoped for. Not to say it's a bad game, because in most regards it fixes a lot of the issues I had with Asylum, It just didn't hold up to how people talk about this game. Arkham City takes what Arkham Asylum did and gives you more, which sounds fine on paper, but in reality makes it feel less focused as a result. The story is all over the place, the premise of Joker poisoning Batman and the entire game is trying to find a cure is a pretty good foundation, but it goes off in so many different directions that it lacks a strong narrative as a result. One minute you're hunting down Mr Freeze to find a cure, the next you're fighting the Penguin on some unrelated escapade. Throughout the entire game I couldn't give two shits about Hugo Strange and to have such an anticlimactic arc with him by the end of it made it feel so much worse. The whole Ra's al Ghul twist felt unnecessary too and really didn't lead to anything, I just kind of wished the game focused more on the dynamic between Joker and Batman because whenever Mark Hamill is on screen is when the game is at it's best. Not to say it can't go in different directions, I just wish it was more focused instead of feeling like Batman has to go on twenty different side quests to reach the same conclusion. The gameplay itself is pretty fun all things considered, while lacking a lot of depth it does feel good to play as a tanky Batman that can mow down tens of enemies at a time. Compared to Asylum, the controls feel significantly better here and the enemy variety has increased significantly making it feel a lot more than just mashing two buttons. Stealth has also improved significantly with improved controls and more reliable modes of escaping enemy lines with cool gadgets, even if I found most of the gadgets to be completely useless. My biggest complaint with City has to be with Arkham City itself and how empty it feels, besides maybe the Riddler trophies and some side content, there's barely anything going on in this world that justifies the bigger map size compared to Asylum. Sure it nails the atmosphere and this place definitely feels lived in, but zipping and gliding around Gotham does manage to get old after a while, especially toward the end. While I didn't love Arkham City like I hoped I would, It's still a very fun game that I'd recommend people check out, even if there's better offerings out there.