Games of the Generation: Batman Arkham City

As we get closer to the release of the next generation of gaming consoles the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One every week I will be posting a feature looking back at some of my favourite games of this generation. This week I will be looking back on Rocksteady's amazing superhero sequel Batman Arkham City.

Expectations weren't high when Warner Bros. announced Batman Arkham Asylum the predecessor to Arkham City. They had good reason for that, licensed games rarely go well super hero games included. Games like Superman 64 and countles super hero movie tie ins left a sour taste in peoples mouth. No one expected that it would be a Game of the Year. Arkham Asylum was a great game there's no denying that but personally I believe that 2011 sequel Batman Arkham City triumphs above the previous instalment.

The game is set one year after the events of Arkham Asylum, the prison was deemed unsafe by now Mayor of Gotham Quincy Sharp. Sharp moves the prisons inmates to a section of Gotham's slums, Sharp calls the immense prison Arkham City and puts the mysterious Hugo Strange in charge of the prison. A worried Batman keeps an eye on the project concerned that the out of control situation there will prove a problem. The sequel also sees the return of the Joker, who after injecting himself with the TITAN formula is slowly dying from illness.

The sequel fixes all of the problems of it's predecessor. One of the slight mishaps the original had is that outside of the story there was nothing really to do in the asylum. Arkham City fixes this by adding an open-world that is yours to fly around as the Caped Crusader and adding side-missions. These side-missions are extremely fun and add even more memorable encounters with the Dark Knight and his enemies such as Hush, Bane, and Deadshot. The Riddler puzzles are also vastly improved from the previous instalment adding harder Riddler trophies and hostage situations that require quick thinking and full use of your gadgets. The combat is also added upon in the sequel, it is as fast and simple as it was in Asylum but now lets add you add gadgets into the fight with weapons such as the explosive gel and batclaw allowed for combat.

The games story is brilliant full of twists and turns that you never see coming. All the villains are brilliantly adapted into the game and it is a shame we didn't see more of the new villains like The Penguin, Mr. Freeze and Two-Face. However the two main villains of the game Hugo Strange and The Joker provide worthy foes to the Bats and are both brilliantly voice acted. The game also adds a second perspective with the ability to play as anti-hero and love interest to Batman, Catwoman. The times as you play as the infamous burglar are few and far between but are fun none the less. If you haven't played Arkham City yet you are missing out it is by far the best superhero game ever made and one of the best I've ever played.

Buy all versions of Batman Arkam City here (U.K Only)