Batman: Arkham City

The diehard fans of Bruce Wayne can set up a good PC and prepare themselves for the coming of one of the best action games ever conceived.

Batman: Arkham City isn't just one of the best games of the year; it's one of the best action games I've played this entire generation of consoles. Rocksteady nailed the combat, exploration, structure, atmosphere, and story in this game and it pulls everything off almost flawlessly.

It's tough to sum up everything that makes Arkham City work as well as it does. If Arkham Asylum was a fun-house chock-full of Batman's most famous foes with a decent dose of fanservice for Dark Knight die-hards, this is a sprawling theme park that plumbs the depths of his case files.

Rocksteady already proved that they're an amazing studio with Arkham Asylum, but with Arkham City they now belong to the Olympus of the Action/Adventure genre. This game is the ultimate superhero experience.

Rocksteady Studios made a masterpiece, a perfect Batman game and one of the best games of the year. [January 2012, p.53]

The voice acting, the challenges, the amazing opening, the unbelievable ending and the feeling of being the Dark Knight -- these are the things that standout looking back. I've beaten this thing twice and still want to call in sick and chase Riddler Trophies.

It's a masterpiece. This PC version makes it even better, despite some DX 11 issues, that will be hopefully patched very soon, and do not spoil the incredible depth and value of the game itself.

Batman: Arkham City saves the DC and Marvel universes from a dire gaming year 2011. I can only utter my fulsome praise to Bruce Wayne, Warner Brothers and Rocksteady for a furious game. Chapeau!

Though the ending is surprising, in a way, the story isn't the main focus of Batman: Arkham City. Exploring and adventuring come first, you have so much to do that you that the hours just slip by you. Yes, the boss fights are probably too easy, the narrative too short, the framerate goes down on occasion and not all the players will appreciate searching through every nook and cranny to find trophies. But it's all up to you and Arkham City offers a variety that not a lot of new games have nowadays.

The developers should be proud for Arkham City and its precise portrayal of Gotham's mood- at least accordingly to recent films and comic books. A gothic atmosphere is undoubtedly dominant, as the majestic architecture of neoclassical buildings shadows the industrialization and the bright lights of a contemporary metropolis.

Rocksteady applies what they learned with Arkham Asylum to an semi-open world setting and the end result is something amazing. At first it seems there's too much things happening and too many bad guys in the story, but they are all brought together beutifully. Catwoman episodes, albeit short, pace the overall story well. As expected, the PC version looks amazing. [Dec 2011]

A huge accomplishment that surpasses its predecessor in almost every way, with polished gameplay, great storytelling, fantastic atmosphere and outstanding voice acting. It's a deeply satisfying Batman experience and one of this year's finest video games.

Batman: Arkham City is the best superhero game ever produced and it's a title well earned. It manages to capture the very essence of The Dark Knight and transform not just him, but his entire world into a playable experience.

Quotation forthcoming.

It's hard to create an extraordinary game but to recognize it is quite simple. Arkham City with its cinematic appearance towers high above the rest with its production values. [Dec 2011]

DX11 and DRM issues aside, Arkham City is not just Batman at his best, it's a brilliant game in its own right. [Jan 2012, p.42]

This game is not unlike Arkham City – easy to get in, almost impossible to get out.

Arkham City, despite its squalor, is fantastic to look at.

The almost perfect sequel to an almost perfect game.

Batman: Arkham City's irresistible world, joyous movement, rewarding combat, and varied side quests make it an exceptional adventure game.

Arkham City is still a superb game in PC and it benefits from some extra features with the right PC, but the delay compared to console versions, the weird mix of Steamwork, GFWL and SecuROM, and some initial perfomance settings with DirectX 11, makes this version a missed opportunity to make something truly great for compatible users.

Batman: Arkham City suffers from a botched port job; it's unstable and the DRM offers an even greater incentive to pirate nowadays. The patch fixed most of my problems, but I cannot overlook the two weeks it took to get to that point so I could finally get around to this review. Once you get past these technical issues (or if you're lucky enough not to experience them), however, it really is an amazing action game that outdoes its predecessor in every way.

A brave game, trying new ideas while also staying fundamentally similar. There are weaknesses in the recipes that Rocksteady has created - we can't say we're personally won over by the open world approach - but a weakness isn't a failure and it can't be overlooked that Arkham City is still a very strong game.

Now that we've finally played the PC version, I'm happy to report that it will be the definitive version of Arkham City... eventually.

Bat-brawling shows wear, and Batman's a charisma void, but the freedom and depth of the open world are mesmerising. [Feb 2012, p.62]