In which everyone gets punked
Batman: Arkham City is not a game without its flaws. Many of them, though, depend on the sort of gamer you are, and therein lies the catch. Despite on its surface being little more than brawler with one of the biggest and best comic book licenses to back it up, Arkham City is that rare game that could probably scratch all itches for all gamers. Want to track down ringing telephone booths? Use a multitude of gadgets in one close quarters free-for-fall? Knock out every enemy without ever being seen? Solve environmental puzzles decorated with neon green question marks (and some a more reddish hue)? Play Pilotwings for a spell? It's all there for you in Arkham City, lying just behind the veil.
For myself? I hated the advanced AR challenges, though I completed two of them. I could do without the Riddler challenges, though I admit to feeling satisfied at destroying even the most trivial of items (if you want to extend your runtime, developers, consider adding items all throughout the world that need to be destroyed just to unlock random things) and collecting ? icons. The gadget interface was clunky, and even with an exceptionally simple combo interface I could never nail down exactly what button presses led to what. I suppose this is why the last fighting games I seriously played were SFII and MKII, or why I pretty much stuck to silent takedowns and hand-to-hand combat in every Arkham City encounter.
That's not to say the game isn't hard. There's a considerable ramp in difficulty once guns come into the picture, one that gradually progresses towards armored, shielded and stun-enabled enemies, all requiring different methods of pursuit. I will say that the final third of the game involves a trifold expansion of those difficulties, though, and perhaps belies a game that in some ways out clevered itself. As the game approaches its end, you'll very likely find yourself encountering multiple battle suites again and again, somewhat frustrated you lost it when you thought you had it.
That, I suppose, is where the genius of the game comes into play. I never played Arkham Asylum nor Arkham City other than Demo and Full Game Trial snippets. I never really planned to until Playstation Plus offered the sequel for $15. Boy was it worth waiting for in that case. There's something about conquering a room or an avenue or a street corner full of baddies that just never gets old throughout the game's runtime. And even with some perplexing twists and turns...as one slightly unspoilerific example: if Batman and Freeze are in such similar spots throughout the game, why the fisticuffs? Bane was handled better, IMO, even if the Freeze fight was a great boss battle...the story will keep you interested until the (obsessively slow) credits start to roll.
And it's at that moment you'll think: I still a Catwoman chapter to play, there's that DLC I've heard about, there's the side missions I still haven't done, and FUCK IT ALL, I'm late to the Calendar Man party. At the end of the game, none of the negatives are at play in your mind, and to me, that's what can make for a fantastic game. In the era of bigger budgets, ever-increasing scope and ever-shrinking single player campaigns, it's actually a real surprise when a game leaves me wanting more. I feel - I KNOW - that I didn't get everything out of Arkham City my first go around, skipping this and that just to move the story forward. I doubt I'll ever care TOO much about Ridder trophies, but there's over half a game left in this thing if it's completion counter is truthful at all. Arkham City may not have touched the addict in me, but it certainly could many others. That's enough for me when the core's this good.