Picking up a few months after the original title former Arkham Asylum warden Hugo Strange now reigns over a territory within Gotham known as Arkham City. Unfortunately criminals and super villains have been allowed to run free and so it is up to Batman to step in and take control. Arkham Asylum took many people by surprise and fans of the first game will be immediately at home here. Rocksteady have retained the core gameplay that was so successful. Combat remains fast and fluid and with a wealth of new counters, some of which allow you to take on multiple enemies at once, as well greater variety of enemy types there is now far more diversity between different bouts.

The much hyped 'open world' acts more like a hub between different locations than a true open world like Liberty City but is for the most part a welcome addition. Side missions pop-up and can be accessed at any time and while the main campaign can be completed in well under eight hours these will keep you going for a far while longer. One minor criticism of the more open world is that the game does not always make it clear exactly how you are supposed to access certain areas which can lead to some frustrating back tracking at times.

Outside the main game the challenge maps also return offering the chance to earn medals and a place on the Xbox Live leaderboards and this all makes Arkham City a thoroughly enjoyable return to the world of Batman even if it is not the revolution that the original was.… Expand

This game is a universal. How that happen? The game is just keep better and better. The Arkham Asylumis also great but turn out because the continum story, but i still buy the game. No

Arkham City is the sequel to the 2009 hit Arkham Asylum. As we've seen in the past, most notably the Ultimate Alliance series, Superhero sequels have bright spots, but fall short of the predecessor. Arkham City laugh at that though. With a great voice cast, great expanded side missions, and of course, great characters and story, Arkham City set the bar for superhero games. It will be a while before we see a game as good as this. Or at least, until Arkham Origins comes out.… Expand

Better and just as fun as the original.

positives: lots of gadgets, awesome upgrade system, everything looks and feels great!, arkham city is fun just to glide and batgrapple around, theres lots to do even if you don't do the main mission, puzzles/riddles can be pretty challenging and inventive with the use of your gadgets, controlling the RC batarang is extremely fun and great for scouting, web swinging,,ahem sorry i mean using the batgrapple is great and using them feels fast enough, the story is pretty awesome and cool, everything about the graphics of the game is awesome(sept for one of the extra batsuits but thats an extra and i want to talk about the game itself),the game actually gets the emphasis on being sneaky correct for the most part(try treating this game as a beat em up the enemy WILL get you), battle system is great, controls are easy to remember and use(this game uses 2 button combo controls for which im glad as i never buy a game with school test level fighter controls that require memorizing 500 button combinations to use one attack)and just almost everything about this game is awesome!.there are tonnes of extras and easter eggs! its an awesome game and almost everything is awesome..well almost everything.

negatives:is it just me or is something...off with the controls? it feels like im not controlling batman at all, rather that hes controlling himself. half the time the controls feel somehow..slow? in batman you are not the batman,the batman is the batman it seems..
the riddler challenges are FAR too challenging, they are very,very hard.
the basic enemy can sometimes be far too observant and overpowered
some of the enemys such as the mad hatter are represented very badly where others are represented well.
line launcher can be hard to use as batman moves far too fast on it.

REVIEWER IDIOCY
complaining the bat vehicles are not in the game. the streets are not big enough for the batcar and a lot of the streets are blocked off anyway, theres not really enough water for the batboat and the batplane drops stuff off and would make navigation far too simple. so theres reasons why these are not in the game. robins motercycle maybe inputtable..but if theres no batcar why put the motercycle in the game?so they didn't. still i would have enjoyed a batcar unlock of the cars greatest game, batman for the mega cd.

despite the negatives, you should defiantly play this game! the positives far outweigh the negatives!… Expand

When I look at Batman Arkham City, I can't really find anything to criticize it for. Sure there are minor things to pick at like how unlikely this scenario would be in the first place, but this is also a universe about a man dressing up as a bat. Beyond that I can't really think of anything else I don't like. Beating up baddies was once again very fun, stealth missions were improved and the boss fights were really good. They were more than just side stepping a steroid abused guerrilla and required a bit of thinking. They added much more replay value by converting it into a sandbox and adding more side quests and just stuff to do in general. So, overall, this gets a 9.9. out of 10 from me.… Expand

Best... Batman game... Ever!
Sorry, I realize my pop culture reference is antiquated, but it is the best Batman game ever. It's actually one of the best games of this gen in my opinion.

10 out of 10. The Bioshock of 2011. That is all. okay I'll go deeper. Graphics=9.5/10 while there is a bit of akward walking here and there, it is amazing on how much detail that was put into everything that it's hardly noticable. sound=10/10 it is epic. presentation=10/10 story is epic, and it is so dang fun. Gameplay=9.8/10 No glitches seen so far, but i'm not even 50% finished so i need some time.… Expand

It is amazing how everything in this game vetch, the combat mode, the beautiful graphics, the campaign mode which has a perfect story and the epic finale, the charismatic characters and challenge modes of Rindle.

I just downloaded this recently when it hit Xbox live market; I am already at 100% and working on the "harder" replay of the game you unlock. I can see already that this game has very little replay value other than occasionally trolling around beating up thugs and fantasizing that I am, in reality, capable of being like Batman. As a fan of the character, I expect better.

This game isn't terrible, and I can tell a lot of work went into it. However, it seems like they couldn't decide whether they were making a game for adults or for children, and tried to split hairs. It's like like they went half "dark knight" and half cartoony Batman... The story-writing and clever humor throughout the game are pretty good, but the combat mechanics are often unresponsive or too impractical; the camera angles make precise control difficult no matter what setting you use; the enemies take unrealistic amounts of damage. The game uses high health enemies and sheer numbers to make it "hard", and it feels stupid to be fighting a large crowd of "common thugs" who can apparently take 20 or 30 Batman punches before going night-night. (I understand the game wants you to master combos, but seriously?) Sometimes the game forces a certain action or gadget use when other more obvious routes should have been available to batman (having to use a zipline or remote control batarang by being prevented from gliding, grappling, swimming, climbing, or any other action Batman is normally capable of).

Everything is hidden, even stupid simple objectives like payphones are deliberately placed in hard to reach spots so as to run down any timers associated with a mission. The supporting characters play very minor roles- why does Catwoman make more of an appearance than Robin? Why is Nightwing nowhere in the campaign? Why are there 50 thousand ridler trophies; all I know is if I find them all the Riddler had best show up as a secret fight or I will be angry.

The biggest killer is that there is little to do at endgame other than to fight and collect trophies. The challenge modes are ok, but I would rather play Special Ops in that case if anyone knows what I am saying. It is too late now to worry about any major expansions, but I hope the developers work on these things for the next Arkham game; it is too common to see developers getting comfortable with subpar output when they know the game has a dedicated fanbase that largely supports anything with the logo on it. This game is in no way a 10.… Expand

Without a doubt my favourite game of all time, and definitely the best superhero game ever. a big improvement to arkham Asylum, it has awesome graphics, a big city to roam around, lots of side missions, cool storyline, well voice acted and presented characters, a riveting combat system and super cool gadgets to use. this game includes really cool combos that you can use and the boss fights are challenging in a way that won't make you rage but you still feel you've achieved something when you have completed them. Also, it gives you the oppurtunity to solve crimes around Gotham and catch many famous Batman villains. I can't think of any flaws with this game. Overall a gaming epic. A definite 10/10!… Expand

What i said to myself in this game is. it cant get any better than this. the game is amazing filled with great gameplay, easy combat and a fantastic storyline.. it rest on you. batman to save gotham and its people from the horrid discusting arkham city.. for me this game is better then the last and seeing i cant rate it any better i also give this game a 10/10

This game has it all, it expands from arkham asylum on every level. When I heard they where expanding the world I got a little worried, being that I was afraid that they would not fill the city enough and you would be going through a very dull world as you do in many open world titles. Will luckly that is not the case and they even got the final boss fight right. Which I will say was the only let down to asylum. But this game is by far the superior in every way.… Expand

I'm gonna keep this review short and snappy. If you have money, buy this game. I hate superhero games, and dislike batman in general (except for the riddler) but this game is on another level, very very good.

1. Incredible atmosphere and graphics
2. Awesome mechanics for fighting, grappling and gliding
3. Engaged me to achieve 100% completion (not once feeling like a chore)

Batman: Arkham City is quite possibly one of the greatest sequels, if not one of the greatest games that I've played in recent years and it's most definitely the best superhero based game of all time. Beautiful to look at and a joy to play, Arkham City is a flawlessly executed game and an unbridled work of brilliance. Rocksteady just became my personal favorite studio and i cant wait to see what they hold up their sleeves.… Expand

Best game I have ever played. I liked every aspect of this game from the amazing fight sequences to the twists and turns as you go after Joker. The only negative I can think of is the length of the main story line. While it is challenging, it is rather short. A large portion of the game is side missions and finding hundreds of little green questions marks. I got bored of finding question marks and restarted the game to play the main story line again. One of the only games that I have played twice without a allowing a few years to go by.… Expand

game graphics great moves great flying great fights great and you will see that your costume start to get busted i like that joker is joker i like this game one of the best games in my opinion

As good as the first game. I could even say it is better at times, but the only reason I don't rate it higher than the first game is because it handle more or less the same and adds very little new to the gameplay. Think about it, aside from the Catwoman sections, Batman more or less can do everything he did in the first game with a few small additions. There are more villains in this game, but also they feel not as well flushed out as they were in the first game. Overall: A fantastic game that improves upon the first game but doesn't add too much new.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Not being a huge fan of Batman, but having watched all movies many times it is difficult not expect something from a game in Batman universe. "Arkham Asylum" provides us with an introduction that amazes right from the first minutes till the credits. "Asylum" was solid game and perfect in many ways, but it is "City" that may have a title of masterpiece.
The game starts with gang's riot in Gotham and Bruce Wayne, without mask, wearing business costume and not regular Batman suit, being carried by Penguin's gang members.
You won't wait long till the first fight starts and protagonist puts his mask on to explore Gotham. There is main storyline that includes conflicts with Joker, Harley, Riddler, Two-Face, Penguin, Freeze and many others. Commissar Gordon, Oracle, Catwoman and Robin will be on our side during the game. Basically, all characters whom I remember in Batman universe appear in "Arkham City", and I couldn't be any happier about the cast.
Gameplay introduces some new features that you will get used to very quickly. There is much to do and explore in Gotham and Riddler puzzles return to add some headache :)
Playing as Catwoman gives much satisfaction as it gives a feeling, that Catwoman herself would made a good character in her personal game (not a movie though).
Good music, perfect level design, hilarious acting, addictive gameplay just won't disappoint anyone.
Game marker gave me pain in "Asylum", in "City" I remember puzzlement when having explored one tower I could not figure out how to get in. It does not make the game worse, but in inevitable sequel I wish there will be some work done on it.
My favourite game moment while placing a gel on a wall to explode, the wall gets broken by Bane from the other side, I'm sure that any gamer would jump in surprise.
Talking about sequel I just can't imagine how a game in Batman's universe can be any better than "Arkham City", I hope I am wrong … Expand

Following the masterpiece that Arkham Asylum was, could Arkham City deliver on it's promises? Did it improve the core mechanics of the game?

It did. In fact, it surpassed my very high expectations. Arkham City is huge, gorgeous, and offers one of the greatest video game endings in the past few years.

Arkham City is easily the best superhero film I've ever played and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a challenge. With Riddler's challenge and side missions, u will get easily distracted. LOVE It

Simply put this is the greatest comic book video game of all time. The atmosphere was brooding and dark, the story fast paced and interesting, and the graphics and the voice acting were both superb. I was extremely excited when I first got this game on launch day and I still pick it up and play it to this day. From the cinematic opening to the shocking ending the storytelling is as good as it gets. The gameplay is excellent, Rocksteady took the combat system from Arkham Asylum and managed to improve it. The pairing of Batman and the open-world form was an excellent choice and Rocksteady excels at making Arkham City feel alive. The side missions are fun and entertaining and the Riddler trophies are always a challenge. This is probably my favorite game this generation and I am eagerly awaiting the next Rocksteady game.… Expand

Their is no question arkham city is one of the best games of all time for me it was the game of the year in 2011 and the story is one of the best stories i have played in recent memory and the joker voiced by mark hamill is an incredible villian and he kept me entertained the entire game

Graphics:10/Gameplay:9/Story:7/Music:9
---------9/awesome----------------
one of the best game for a console,particularly the graphics...arkham city roooocks.the gameplay is like assassin's creed in a darky way.love the way batman cracks codes with gadgets.music is also very good to listen to.
few negatives:the fights is boring ,lots of x smashing (hand hurts),lots of unnecessary combos,witch you cannot even understand how they works,gadgets is also unusable in fights(at least for me).unable to understand how to get around to rich misson .lake of tutorials, frustrating ogmented trainning.short story if you did not download the separated catwoman dlc ,she should have been nativly included!!… Expand

Alright, I loved the Arkham Asylum great game. Then they come out will Arkham City. The franchise is starting to build up if they can make another one just like these two they will have a successful game and franchise.

What else is there to say about Arkham city? Story is awesome, fighting is great, etc. I thought Batman Arkham Asylum was the best Batman game back in 2009. When the news broke that Arkham city was announced I was spectacle at first because I didn't think the game wasn't going to be as good as the first. When I got the game, I was pleasantly surprised how great it was. It is so much better than Arkham Asylum. All the things that were lacking in the first game, Rocksteady Studios improved significantly and all the things that made the first game great made slight changes here and there, but kept the same concept. Batman Arkham City is definitely the best Batman game of all time, and one of the best games of 2011.… Expand

Arkham City is so much better than Arkham Asylum. It's gameplay is so much better, and there is more to do. However, the riddler trophies and riddles were in too big of a quantity, and too hard to get to. This is the only flaw in an otherwise perfect game.

It's by far one of my favorite games... It blows Arkham Asylum out of the water(and that was also a great game), the characters and story are so in-depth and perfect to the 'T'. Plenty of side missions and easter eggs to complete/uncover. The challenges are fun, the dlc is equally as fun, and the gameplay is rich. As I said before, this is one of my favorite games, don't think I'm biased, it's really just that good.… Expand

It's a good game but far not better than the first one. It's "superior" in lots of aspects but not in the game experience. After 3-4 hours playing it's all the time the same mechanism all the time the same ( reminds me Assessins creed 1 in this aspect). The story it's not really interesting as well.

This game was the best batman game i have ever played and wouldnt trade it for another superhero game ever. Deff should make a sequel and i think their should be a add-on to play from jokers side of the story in city and island

When i first picked up Arkham City i knew it was worth the 60 bucks my friend spent. The story is phenomenal, spotlighting infamous villains like Mr. Freeze, Penguin, Two-face, and of course the Joker, sending batman on a knightfall-like quest to save Gotham. from the mysterious Hugo Strange. The combat is spot on, bringing back the old fighting system and making it one of the nest combat systems the industry. The developers at Rocksteady outdid themselves yet again and have obtained a game that will be known forever.… Expand

the real game there this year. Beautiful graphics, side missions and main rock. Take away the idea of ​​linear games, giving several possibilities in a rich universe of Batman. Several mecânias and choices can change the course in Arkham City, with the most varied types of mission

Great game with amazing graphics and locations. This game was great improvement on the Arkham Asylum and shows other game designers how to make a sequel!

One of the best games made of all time. Huge Batman fan so it's awesome that it pleases me in the dark knight chronicles aspect as well as just being a down-right-fun game to play. Soo many side mission make this game exciting without ever fizzing out, the graphics, hit detection, awesome those programmers know whats up. Its like I am playing Loeb and Sale graphic novel. Just beautiful, BUY IT!

Amazing game better then aslyum in every way bigger place to be batman in the story is awesome joker is more crazier then ever in this one. Combat as fun and fluent as ever. Plus with all the gadgets u can play with just fun as hell graphics are gorgeous batman has never looked so badass in a game before or handled so well. The cast of characters that was in this game is amazing and the boss fights are fun I especially loved the last boss fight. Not much bad can be said about this game 9.5/10 only thing bad was the dlc. I think that should be in the game from the start.… Expand

This game is definately worthy of a 10/10 it is how a game should be, the pc version plays extremely well with a gamepad but it is still just as enjoyable with a keyboard and mouse, even if you are not into super heroes (like myself) it is still a must buy.

Batman: Arkham City is an outstanding sequel in every department, with stunning gameplay, an immersive world to explore and fantastically well-realised characterisation. The music and voice-acting is exemplary and the visuals are gorgeous. Batman: Arkham City is an incredibly well-crafted, labour of love and no mistake. In short, it's genius.

Batman has definitely had trouble in the gaming world. Luckily Rocksteady came to solve this issue, and solved it they did. Everything that was great about Arkham Asylum was brought back into Arkham City with tons of new gadgets, side missions and villains. Arkham Asylums amazing and legendary combat system is back and even better in Arkham City, you can do multiple takedowns and throw smoke pellets to confuse your enemies and many more. The only problem that I had with Batman Arkham City is that the story had too many stories going on at once, which really confused me on my first play through, but that is all forgivable when you can look at everything else. This is definitely one of the best superhero games out there and will be quite tough to beat. If your a Batman fan this is a must own, if your into action and adventure games, this will make you feel right at home.… Expand

This game really did improve a lot on Arkham Asylum. I love you have a lot of gadgets right out the gate and you are instantly flying around Arkham City. The story was definitely a strong point for this game and really sucked you in once I got going. I thought the main storyline was superb in how it incorporated so many people and antagonists without feeling like "okay, on to the next one". I didn't really play around with the side missions that much so I cannot really speak to the overall quality of those but I did find the few I did to fit in well with the story and the scenario without them feeling like a stray to-do list. I know everyone has mentioned this already, but the controls really are a huge improvement over the AA; combat felt tight and controllable. It seemed as though the gunmen were not as powerful this time around and the fist fighters were more powerful. In my opinion this leveled and prolonged the combat. Visually the game was a huge improvement over AA, and coupled with the 3D capabilities it was awesome. The depth of the 3D is perfect (although adjustable) and it definitely adds to the immersion without it feeling gimmicky in any way. The music was fantastic as well. I was really surprised how seamless the music was from flying around to being noticed by a helicopter and the pace picking up to it then calming down. It was extremely responsive and worked really well at invoking emotions in me that correlated with the scenario. The one thing that was bothersome at times was the open-world. I really enjoyed flying around but it got frustrating when I felt like I was going from one side of the city and then back again only to give off the impression that Arkham was a big place. I also a little annoyed with the cat woman sequences. They didn't really seem to serve a purpose to the overall story, and other than the combat I thought the sequences were rather boring. Nonetheless, these aspects did not take away that much from my experience and what I like was beyond memorable. I'll probably pick the game back up in the near future and play some of the extra content and side missions but for now I am satisfied with completing the main storyline.… Expand

It's a short story, so it may not be worth the full $60 for you. But half that price and its worth your money. The story itself is only about 20% of the game while the rest makes up with a few side quests without any boss fights. Then the other 60% of the game is scavenger hunts for Riddler's question marks or racing from one phone booth to another. Now I'm not a plan of the precision platforming games where there is only one way to move from one linear area to another, unless the developers find a way to not make this the main part of the game. With an Arkham city to roam in, it feels more like a sandbox game with only the precision platforming interruptions when you have to enter the buildings for your quest. The big plus in this game compared to the first is that your Batman can finally knock weapons out of the enemies hands. Thank you! Plus you don't have just one attack button to mash anymore, but more like two buttons to mash plus a couple of combo moves tossed in. It's a shame that the extra characters of Catwoman, Robin, and Nightwing are paid dlc because that would have made this a more awesome game and more than just an eight hour storyline.… Expand

This was the biggest surprise of a game to me. When I first got it, I thought it would be another lame comic book game, but when I started playing I was astounded. It has a great story, great performances by the voice cast( particularly Mark Hamil), great graphics, a well crafted open world, a plethora of side missions for replay ability, and, most importantly, a fun, innovative, and genius combat system and an addicting stealth combat system. This is a perfect super hero game that makes you feel like you are Batman, get this game.… Expand

Batman: Arkham City, is a masterpiece. A perfect example of not NEEDING multiplayer in a game to make it great. It has great gameplay, polished graphics, a rich and detailed story that makes any comic fanatic pleased, and you can spend well over 40+ hours playing it. The only thing holding this game back from being a perfect ten is sometimes the controls can get a little awkward and the camera angles can become frustrating. You need to own this game!… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is easily one of the greatest games ever made. Why not a ten? The boss fights are too easy, especially if you are doing a second play through and even on the hardest difficulty, and new game plus this game can at times be too easy. This does not mean it is not challenging, but I think it should be harder. The combat is exquisite. The controls are really easy to learn, but hard to master (hence the easy to learn , hard to master). But what makes combat is the AI. Your enemies react to you when fighting. Some will run and pick something up to throw at you, others will run and hide, etc. The stealth gameplay in this game is incredible. They are more responsive and smarter than they were in Arkham Asylum. When you swing away on gargoyles, they don't just lose you and then continue walking around. They will shoot down the gargoyles making it harder to take everyone down. All the nay-sayers are lame, and just want to hop on the "batman games suck" bandwagon. There is no debate. This is a great game.… Expand

This is probably the best story mode in a video game! Only problem. I can't play the story over again! Oh, wait... I can with new game plus! Just about the greatest adventure game of all time. Graphics are amazing, and the amount of easter eggs can keep the most hardcore hunters entertained for hours! I found every Riddler Trophy and solved every Riddle! All the easter eggs make your jaw drop with awesomeness. One of the best games i played in MY LIFE. A MUST BUY! The map you can explore freely is huge, and the story is nice and has a perfect length with enough twists and turns to keep any Batman fan in awe for DAYS!… Expand

This is probably my favorite game of all time. After playing and completing arkum asylum i couldnt wait to play this game only to find out its nothing like arkum asylum. This is an open world game with tons of stuff to do. The main story is more interesting this time around with multiple plot points. Im not going to spoil anything but the end is awesome.Besides the main story you can do some side missions,you have to fly around arkham city to discover them then u find them on your map and go to work. They are long and can take up to a couple hours to complete. And if thats not enough you can try to find the 400 riddler trophies and riddles. This game is sweet and most defitley one of the best games of all time… Expand

There is just one word to describe this game and that word is perfect, from graphics to game play, everything in this game is so detailed that you actually feel that those 60 dollars you paid for it were nothing in change of what you get.

There is so much to love about this game -- the damn shame is those things are rendered moot by the game's enormous flaws, namely the brutal combat system (unintuitive, user-unfriendly, Guitar Hero-type button-mashing nonsense) and the absolute lack of logic within tasks, which leaves you going to Google every six seconds to see where the hell you're supposed to look for something. This is a game celebrated for the centerpiece combat engine, yet I was constantly getting my ass kicked on "easy." Once the story was over, this went into cold storage, never to be played again. Mark Hammill's voiceover work as the Joker, however, is almost worth the price of admission.… Expand

This is one of the best superhero video games I've ever played. It really makes me feel like Batman, and gives me exactly what I want from a superhero game. Batman can roam in an open world, fight crime, and do several side missions. This solves one of my main problems with Batman Arkham Asylum, as there was basically nothing to do at the end of the game. The graphics are excellent, and perfectly replicate the dark feel of Batman. The story is also excellent, I would tell you about it, but that would attract the spoiler police! Overall, my only real problem with the game is that Batman may have finally gotten his free-roaming game, but he kind of got it a little late. After all, Spider-Man got his 7 years earlier (see my review of Spider-Man 2 the game for more details). Still, that doesn't change the fact that this game is excellent!… Expand

Best game of the year 2011.
Skyrim was game of the year for everyone else but sorry.....I cannot allow a game filled with nothing but bugs become a game of the year. Batman on the other hand had NOT ONE BUG. Can you believe that? In a world where game developers drop games like they are turds with the intention of releasing unfinished games and fixing them later with patches and dlc......Batman Arkham City stands above all these bug ridden crap fest games and says ....NO. NO I shall not be filled with one bug. NO my game will not suck either. In fact this game did the opposite of sucking. At the time of being made it is possibly the greatest super hero video game ever created.… Expand

I'm a huge Batman fan. Love all the films, and considered Arkham Asylum to be my game of the year when it was released. That being said Arkham City is better and bigger then it's predecessor in nearly every way. The story is one of the Batmans best, and that's saying something. The rouge gallery is packed full of fan favorites such as; The Joker, Two Face, Catwoman, Dr.Freeze, Harley Quinn, Penguin, and much more. The main story is strong in it's own right, but if you get bored of that or just need more then your in luck. The game has many side quests that expand the experience, tons of Riddler Tropys, and many easter eggs. Combat remains the same, and thats a good thing. Beating criminals never gets old. The sound and voice acting is phenomanle with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill leading the pack. It isn't game of the year. IT ranks around my 3rd fav game of the year (2nd Skyrim, and 1st Portal 2) but thats a pretty good ranking considering the plethora of good games released this year.… Expand

The best licenced game ever made. There is almost nothing i did not like about this game. It is in my opinion one of the best 3 games of the year. It is better than the first game in every way possible, and will keep you coming back for a long time. I applaud you rocksteady

Batman: Arkham City gives you an open, Easter Egg-filled world that holds on to you and never lets you go, even after you've beaten the 20+ hour storyline, found all the Riddler Trophies and beaten all the challenges! The massive amount of Easter Eggs show how much developer Rocksteady cares about the game-series. Altough the world isn't as dark as Arkham Asylum and - in my opinion - there is a lack of the Joker. But to make up for that, Rocksteady gives you over 400 Riddler Trophies, 12 Combat Challenges, Predator Challenges and Arkham City Campaigns and lots of gadgets and upgrades!… Expand

One of the greatest games.. Bigger and a lot better then Batman Arkham Asylum... And now we have the Game of the year edition.. Greatest hero game ever made

I bought this game when it first came out and i have to give warning to anyone wanting to buy it, its not a complete game. if you buy it second hand you don't get catwoman. if you don't pay extra for DLC ( Taken out content ) you get no robin and no costumes for batman, WHICH should be in the game as unlockables anyway. its ridiculous its just pure greed. im not a person that usually complains but when i buy a game i expect the full game. which is exactly why i returned my game months ago when it first came out and always said i would buy THE COMPLETE EDITION. no not game of the year edition THE COMPLETE EDITION which is what it is. on september 07. yep all this time for a complete copy of a game because i refuse to pay extra for content which should already be on disc, and unless you done the same your basically bending over and taken it up the ass while opening your wallet. great game - worst greed practices ever. this game probably deserves a 10 but ill give it a 5 since i only had half the content on disc.… Expand

Amazing!!!!!!! Great characters, sound, story, and lasting appeal. All Batman fans will love this. Just any gamer will like it. A great sandbox game that you can play at any age.

By far one of the top 5 games i have ever played. Rocksteady did a phenominal job once again with the dark knight, and i definitely hope there is another one in the future

Brilliant. This game is an incredible monument in the superhero genre and I would not hesitate in saying that it is the best on the market. Freeflow is easily the most fun in a combat system I have ever experienced and the plot to the game is intruiging. The whole experience is always a fun Batman package.

One of the best superhero video game of all time is back, and this time it offers a more vastly bigger environment. Great action, superb controls (with a little bit of a learning curve) and superb production values are staples. What makes it the best super hero game series is its ability to make the player 'become' the Dark Knight himself. Highly recommended.

Wanna be a superhero, beat the villain's face, rescue the innocent citizens as your favorite comic character? Here's the one you shouldn't miss. If you love Batman series from the very beginning, you should grab Arkham City as well. There's almost no negative point to complain about the game, everything is almost perfect. Hate this game? You must be anti-fans of Batman, for sure.

Great story, amazing acting and graphics but the game gets extremely repetitive which was a real turn off for me. IMO it's kind of overrated. It's fun at first, I enjoyed the campaign a lot but after that, it's nothing new.

Definitely one of my favorite games of the year so far. I played the first one and enjoyed it a lot. I actually didn't realize that they released a sequel! When I found the game in a Wal-mart I pretty much screamed like a girl! I really really enjoyed this game a lot. The story, the add-ons, the fighting, the graphics, everything! I really loved the campaign and the fighting a lot. I loved how Batman always had such awesome and slick moves. I enjoyed the fact that Arkham City was A LOT, bigger than Arkham Asylum, which made the experience that much more enjoyable. Definitely a game everyone should at least try out, but play the first one first because there are some parts in the story where you may not understand what happened if you haven't completed the first game yet.… Expand

One of my favorite games of all time. You feel like you are really batman. The controls in this game are superb. Better than any batman movie ive ever seen.

Very good game this.After playing the excellent Arkham Asylum,I was expecting alot,& alot i got.While i enjoyed Arkham Asylum & think its a good game,i didnt like the relatively small & claustrophobic setting of Arkham itself.Arkham City however is in a much larger area & in proper urban enviroments,which is lets face it,Batmans bread & water.You can literally spread your wings & take flight.The game still has a fixed narrative of course,but is properly free roaming now,& has a whole host of exra things to be doing alongside the main story.You start the game with ALL the skills available in Arkham Asylum,plus more to unlock in this game,so thats impresssive,plus theres the Catwoman bits.Personally i'm not interested in the Catwoman content,but even so i thought is was extremely naughty for Rocksteady to make it accessable only if you are online & have bought the game new,via a code.It doesnt bother me,as i had the option to not download it,& forgoe playing as Catwoman & play it as a pure batman experience,but on principle,i dont agree with it,as it denies the content to people that have the right no choose to not have an internet connection,but have paid for the full game.The game on the whole though is excellent.It still has that fantastic combat system,& much more enemies to use it on.It also has challenge maps,with more to unlock in game,plus the ability to re-play the game after completition in 'Plus' or normal mode,with all your unlocks & alternative choices of Batman costumes,which is great.The game is actually a massive technical achievment in my opinion.In the next game though,can we finally have Batman- 'Gotham' city,complete with Batmobile please,thanks.… Expand

Batman Arkham City is no doubt the best superhero game of all time, and one of the best video games of 2011. Every fight is an intense battle that you will never want to end. The game features everything you would want to do if you were Batman. With a storyline full of twists and turns, action unparallelled in the world of video games, and epic boss fights. Even when you select Easy, Arkham City is still very challenging. Anyone that has either a PS3 of an Xbox 360 should get the game.… Expand

This game has a wonderful counter attacking combat system which can be truly satisfying on the hardest setting. The graphics are superb and you know the people who created the game really cared about their final product..
The game has some weak annoyances though connected with gay gadgets and just general battyman silliness. Theres also some weak level designs too. No replay value once completed on the hardest setting... This however is a rather good game..… Expand

Good game. Good ambiance and really beautiful. A lot of secondary mission to do.
I think it's less perfect than the first one. It's just maybe because the surprise is no more here, or maybe it's because this one is more open world so sometimes you don't know what you have to do.

Wonderful! Masterpiece! Excellent! Loved the story and all the side missions, uniques riddles, combat, graphics and the city! I want more Batman games!

I am very disapointed with it. It has failed to live up to the hype and imo isn't even close to as good of a game as Arkham Asylum was. It's a decent game but still a disapointment to the standards set by the previous game.

Rocksteady's second rendition of the Dark Knight is just about as brilliant as anybody has any right to expect. Everything has been expanded and improved upon from the extremely fast and frenetic combat to the tactically satisfying combat. The wow moments are also significant and the cast of characters is extensive and varied. It doesn't completely eclipse the Arkham Asylum with the absence of truly wonderous sections like that of scarecrow's in the first game. But it does everything a brilliant sequel would do and that in itself is astounding. The only downside would be if this had a sequel, it's extremely unlikely to find anything that would make Bats this good, and would disappoint. But counting Rocksteady out is a fool's game. This is exceptional.… Expand

Yes this game is way better than the first one and has plenty of bonus stuff to get you coming back for more. The story is cool, some twists here and there, good graphics, very good sound, superb game play, lots of easter eggs and you get to see the joker once again

it's one of the best game I ever play, because the image is wonderful, and is the best game of the year so far. And is not so difficult to play this game

Pathetic played this game for over 16 hours and this morning when i went to play the game my game save has been wiped this is a well known problem, total raged right now avoid this game for save reasons alone developers can go and suck one

Batman Arkham City was amazing game by far the best superhero game of all time, even better than Batman Arkham Asylum which was amazing. The story line was fantastic. Many bad guys in it. Rider challenges are fun as hell and a supprise at the end. Campain 9/10 Rider challenges 9/10 Batman Arkham City 9.8/10

Arkham Asylum was a class game and a truely wonderful experience, however Arkham City, whilst good, just never hits those heights. The first bugbare is the rather hard to swallow plot and introduction - without adding spoilers lets just say you have to suspend your belief a fair bit to swallow it. Then there's the sandbox element of the game - it works to a certain degree, but you never have to walk around the streets of AC and you can quite easily miss a lot of content by rushing through the game - which wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't make you want to progress far and fast so that you can obtain upgrades and complete the puzzles which are lying around. As an overall experience it just doesn't flow that well, and no sooner have you got into it than it;s ended. But it's still good, the combat flows well and moving around AC is a blast. However, another gripe is the DLC setup of the game - I'm looking at certain buildings and listening to various conversations they strongly hint at other villains which I should be encountering.....which I don't - again it pushes you on to get further and before you know it it's all over. Which wouldn't be so bad if the game hadn't thrown absolutely everything at you in terms of enemies and gadgets in the first 10 minutes. It really is a very oddly paced game and one that just doesn't work that well as a full package. Yes it's fun, yes it's worth playing, but no it's not a classic, no it's not as good as the original, and no it's not very memorable.… Expand

Arkham City is an utterly brilliant game that captures the essence of the Batman franchise almost flawlessley. The characters you encounter are very well scripted and have the depth they need to potray the comic book characters complimented by the magnificent voice acting of Hamil and Conroy. The main storyline has depth and character many games today lack, and the side quests are varied and alluring, even when those are done you have a tonne of content to occupy yourself including riddler trophies and the various challenge maps (extended by DLC, which is OPTIONAL). Don't listen to the low scores here, as they're simply trolls or people with no interest in this genre of videogame anyway. Batman AA is one of the best games I've played in quite a while and its clear it was a labor of love and the developers have really given it their all, which is indeed a very rare thing in todays day and age. If you have even a vague interest in action games or the superhero genre, get this.… Expand

An awesome game. Captivating. You cannot get much better than this. Period.
The people who give thisgame negative reviews are retarded. Even if its not your genre, you have to appreciate the mastery of its designers.

One of the best games of the year for me. I had such a great time playing this. I couldn't put down the controller! The voice acting was excellent, and the story was a good one. Beating up bad guys is as fun as ever. Lots of great fan service to those that have read the stories. Can't wait for the next game!

Arkham Asylum is a near perfect game, the only flaw being low re-playability value. It has something to offer to every type of video game player, so if you don't already own this gem, make sure to hurry out to pick it up!

The core game was great! There were plenty of interesting side quests to complete on top of an awesome main campaign. Many characters from the Batman universe were included and it was cool to see how each one had entrenched themself in Arkham City. Possibly my only complaints could be the ridiculous pre-order and post-launch DLC. Besides that, it is satisfying to zip around the city feeling like Batman!… Expand

Arkham Asylum was good, but in this you are the Bat! Either engaged in street level combat or soaring above the rooftops and chimneys of old Arkham City every inch of this game is perfect

I loved Arkham Asylum and now I really love Arkham City! The Batman experience is captured masterfully in this superb game. Wield all of Batman's gadgets as you glide over the streets of Arkham City taming the wild criminals that make it their home. Fight criminals like Dr. Freeze, Joker, Clay-Face, Harley, Penguin, and many more. The game offers impressive graphics as well as good character models. Rocksteady brings the Batman world to life in this legendary game.… Expand

Presentation: 10/10 How do you make a sequel to the game that did everything right, setting the bar for what a comic book game could be? Add more. More challenges, more villains, more gadgets, more options, more places to go, more things to do. This is Arkham Asylum x10! A true Batman sim and the greatest game I've played in a long time. Gameplay: 9/10 Once you get used to the controls, gliding through the city, performing silent takedowns and taking on a dozen thugs at once is second nature and tons of fun. As for the environment, it's Gotham City. A piece of it anyway. As you have seen is in the comics, movies, and animation. It's Batman's play ground and every alleyway, overpass, and roof top feels the way it's supposed to. You are Batman. Graphics: 9/10 Beautiful and dark in a dirty way. The city looks and feels like it's seen better days and that's a good thing. It rains and snows in places as spotlights scan the night sky and it all looks so saturated in the Unreal Engine sheen. Texture pop-in is rare but present but when everything looks as it should it's easy to forget. Sound: 10/10 Countering a thug with his own baseball bat makes an expected crack, that's just one example that comes to mind. Sounds are never recycled and there a hundreds of them. Voice acting is some of the best in any video game and the music is moody and appropriate for Batman with obvious nods to Tim Burtons 1989 score and Hans Zimmer's latest from the Nolan films. Value: 10/10 The side missions alone feel like there own game. If the developer was greedy they could have cut this game into 3rds. They could have sold the main story for $60 and the others as DLC and you would still be getting your moneys worth just the base game with it's collectables and challenge maps. The new game plus, upgrades, and achievements make sure that the game isn't over just because you finished the main story line. You could sink a good 15 hours in your first play through without collecting a single Riddler trophy or trying your skills in a challenge map.… Expand

The best comic book game of all time hands down, it continues on the story and expands the universe introducing a number of new characters whilst maintaining the personal stories of the old ones

Arkham city is an amazing game that reinnovates and reillustrates the traditional batman games that were out years ago, it is great, even for the people who would rather not watch man dressed in a tight, most probably latex bat suit. The action is great and non super hero fans will love this game

My review is a review of this game, but it is also for anyone who has never played Batman: Arkham Asylum first..........I'm going to try to stay away from what's been said ad naseum here, but a little may be repetetive, to sum up: Batman: Arkham City is the best game I have ever played. this review is for us casual gamers, that likes to try something new, or loves Batman, or is trying out highly scored titles, like me. I have never played an open world, or sandbox, game like it. The visuals and voice acting is unparalleled (mark hamill as joker, and he's amazing? are u kidding me?!!?), the flying around, grappling, was amazing, and once you get the hang of it is fun in and of itself. However, to me the golden goose of the game, besides the Dark Knight himself, is the combat. And by combat, I don't just mean combat style, but the weapons and tools you get to work with in these combats, not to mention the interesting combos and perks earned. I LOVE the combat style. What some have called button mashing is actually a free flow artistic dance that rewards you for timing of your hits and counters more than anything, I can say that anyone saying the combat is too simplistic would be saying that it is too difficult to master had it been a little more developed. Now, getting to my two points that i havent seen made that clearly need to be: 1. DO NOT, as a casual gamer or otherwise, play Asylum after playing City and think that it will be a similarly entertaining experience, because unfortunately it won't be, at all. If i were to give Asylum a grade, it would be lower than it's worth for the sole reason that I am comparing it to City, and that isn't right at all, it is the sequel's job to improve on the predecessor. I am saddened by the fact that because of what I played first Asylum felt like a completely watered down version of City. (It amazes me what was upgraded,polished, and refined in less than two years! I'm sorry, but anyone saying they are in the same league are almost as crazy as those saying that Asylum was better) and 2. COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE DLC PACKS: dlc's are almost single handedly ruining the gaming experience. We know this. It's bad enough we pay 60 dollars a game......but they are leaving things out of games now just to get more money from us, and that is every game, and we as gamers need to do the only thing we can do: stop buying games we are completely unsure of enjoying or wanting. DLC needs to stop, or made into gifts given as u get better or go farther in games. HAVING SAID THAT: this is not a game where complaints can be made concerning dlc!!!! Why? because the game is the best I've ever played even without a single DLC, and the game is not hampered at all by not having a DLC, and it is in this exact game that i say 'bring on the DLC for more and more fun at a price thats deserving! Any other game I would say stop making DLC and use that time and money to make better games, better consoles, and better UI.
Summary: Arkham City is the best game of the year, but do yourself a favor if you haven't played either and play Asylum first, you will probably love and appreciate both.… Expand

Words cannot describe the fun and excitement that I had playing Batman Arkham City. An already amazing predecessor and even better sequel. Let me begin with the graphics. They are exceptionally well designed from top to bottom. Not a single time I looked around and found something that I didn't like. The gameplay. A little sketchy at some points to be honest because the gadgets are sometimes a pain to get to in time of need and at certain times, overall movement isn't all that responsive. But believe me, the game makes up with everything else for these stupid little things that I'm pointing out. Through out the campaign, the game does a great job keeping you busy with secondary missions and side objectives while the game progresses. A nice way to keep you entertained without finishing the campaign in 2 - 3 days (general time I complete the base story for a game). Batman: Arkham City does a relatively good job keeping you entertained and on track with the story with the story, but I find myself walking through the same hallways over and over again during a primary objective. But like I said the game always makes up for it afterwards. Arkham City blew my mind, it's not good, it's not really good. It's amazing. It's Batman: Arkham City.… Expand

Overrated and overhyped. I expected much more from a game that so many claimed would be game of the year. The campaign quickly becomes repetitive and has done little to move forward from Arkham Asylum. It brings nothing new to the table aside from the expansion into a city. All this expansion has done, however, is made it easier to draw comparisons between Arkham City and Assassins Creed, with Assassins Creed doing the job much better and well before. The only truly enjoyable part of the game was the Riddler's side missions. If this game receives anywhere near the number of accolades it's predecessor did then it shall be a great misjustice.… Expand

By, far the best superhero game ever created. Rocksteady clearly knows the trick, and my only advice for them is to run with it. This game perfects the ideas introduced by Arkham Asylum and at the same time it introduces bigger and even more ambitious ideas. A truly fantastic game from start to finish.

Wow, I am out of words on how fantastic this game was. It not only fixes every fault of the first game, but adds more fun things. Arkham City is huge and you can explore it at your own will whenever you want. There are many collectibles to be found such as the riddler trophies. This game is definitely an example of what superhero games should be like. The story is very interesting with many twists and turns. Once you finish the game it is not over as the world is loitered with hundreds of side quests, and even once you finish them you can still travel around the city and fight thugs. The gadgets are a blast to use. The riddle challenges and maps are very fun. Catwoman missions are extremely fun and traveling around the world while playing her is also a blast. This games graphics are breathtaking. Batman Arkham City is one of the best games I have ever played.… Expand

Arkham City is the essential Batman game, incorporating perfectly the characters, themes and style of the comics and films. It expands on its predecessor in every way. The story is more exciting and fast paced, with plenty of characters but never feeling overstuffed. Voice acting and great writing bring these characters to life and give them their own unique spin. The combat is similar but improved and more varied. Its greatest achievement is making you feel like you really are Batman. The stealth is excellent and the gadgets lead to creative ways of remaining hidden. The game has an insane amount of replay value thanks to the challenge maps and Riddler trophies. Definitely one of the best games of 2011.… Expand

got this game just a few days after it was released. I never had Arkham Asylum or even the demo so didn't have a clue what to expect. I had never bought a game before purely off reviews due to the fact that if I did I could make a mistake. However with this game when I saw gameplay I thought it looked, average. I decided to buy it with some spare money and it actually turned out to be one of the best games I have ever played. The graphics are up-to-date and the story is so magnetic you can't stay away from it. Due to buying this game I ended up buying Arkham Asylum and you can clearly see the improvements from Arkham Asylum. The map feels fun to explore and Rocksteady have clearly put a lot of effort into this production. If you are pondering whether to buy this game, buy it or rent it, don't hesitate. The only bad thing I would say is that the story just isn't that long. If you really wanted to you could finish the story in a day but I do not think that is such a bad thing due to the pure quality and atmosphere that this story brings to your homes so I have to rate this game a 10… Expand

superb game in almost every aspect, the aspect this game really lacks in is the level design, i have never been forced to watch youtube so much as i did playing through this game. sometimes its impossible to find certain things throughout the game. other then that, splended visualls, voiceacting and gameplay. this game is solid and its guarenteed you will have a blast, batman fan or not.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Arkham city has so much content that will keep you coming back for months, but i did came across some glitches on accident, but those are minor nitpicks, I have been wanting to play this game for a long time. The ending is one of the best i have seen, and i expected no less from paul dini. A 10/10, go buy this game.… Expand

I'll rarely give out a 10 star rating but this games amazing. from game play to voice acting, its real good. I don't know why people gave it such a low grade other than they don't know games. anyways, awesome game, highly recommend

I don't often dish out praise like this, but this game is phenomenal. Everything that was good about Arkham Asylum is back and, somehow, even better. Like it's predecessor, AC's core gameplay balances combat, stealth, exploration, and detective skills perfectly. In addition, Arkham City offers a lot of cool new gadgets, tougher enemies, and a way bigger sandbox to play in. I've been playing this game for over a month, and I'm still enjoying it (an extreme rarity, due in part to the lack of original ideas new games offer, and in part to my own short attention span). I'm actually finding it hard to find anything to complain about. The only thing that comes to mind is that Rocksteady may have gone a bit overboard on the Riddler challenges this time (440?!), as I'm still not done finding them all. I do wish that the refresh rate on the smoke pellet was a bit quicker, and that it had it's own quick-button combination (when under fire, you can simply hit Y, but when facing any other enemies you have to manually select it and hit LT+RB to drop it). Other reviews I've read have complained about the boss battles being too easy, but I actually had a tough time with both Mr. Freeze and Two-Face (for the latter, the endlessly spawning henchmen is a bit of a cop-out, Rocksteady). Other than that, it would have been nice to free-roam as Robin or Nightwing, but this is not a big deal.

I recommend Arkham City for anyone who likes action-adventure games, stealth-based combat games, or games based on comic books. If you enjoyed Arkham Asylum, you will absolutely love Arkham City. If you never played AA, you missed out on an awesome game, but AC is great place to jump back in. The only question now is where will Rocksteady take Batman next...?… Expand

An outstanding game that features epic scale and dramatic scope. It has a bit of a learning curve in terms of control and gameplay, but the narrative is strong and the production design is outstanding. As someone who finished the game and has claimed the Riddler Rewards, I should have stopped at the end of the original campaign. It's a major time consumer to solve the Riddles and get all of the Rewards. It's a highly rewarding game experience, that could have used a touch of more emotional pull. Batman kicks ass, but the depth could have made this near perfect.… Expand

I feel it improved from the first game but it also featured a lot more problems. The world is bigger and because of it there is lag and a very noticeable drop in frame-rates when you get to certain areas. I liked how great the environments look and how every character has dropped their bodybuilder look for something more original. There are a ton more challenge maps ,which is good and annoying, that are a lot tougher to complete. A ton more riddler challenges as well (which I love doing) that are a lot harder then the first game.

There are a ton of new bosses in the game. Although i hated how the boss fights were over almost as soon as they started (literally one punch for some of them), It took away from what made the first game so good (a few bosses but all with their original boss fights).

Overall, I liked it almost as much as the first game but it didnt really capture me the way the first game did.… Expand