The Art of Arkham

The Art of Arkham

Let me introduce myself...

My names Daniel and I’m a Bataholic. I can’t help it. I adore everything Batman, from the comics to the movies, to the games. If it’s Batman, I will own it. This little fact is probably no surprise to all my faithful readers (yes Mum, I’m talking to you), but it’s a fact of life. I have an addiction, an addiction to Batman. 

However, an addiction doesn’t mean you love everything about the thing you’re obsessed with. My Batman addiction is the same. With every Batman Begins you have a Batman and Robin. The worst however, is the video games. Year after year I had to experience one crappy Bat game after another, all of them truly sucking a decent amount of ass. 

So you can imagine my utter joysplosion when I got my hands on Arkham Asylum. This was it, the video game that I had been waiting for. A game I could truly appreciate and a game that truly lets me become Batman. I loved Arkham asylum, but I like an addict looking for his next fix, I immediately wanted more. 

I wanted, bigger and better. Yes, it was fun being Batman in the confinements of a building, fighting familiar foes that I know and love. But, I wanted true Batman immersion. I wanted to experience Batman at his best, around Gotham City. After playing Arkham City, I can tell you that I am one happy addict. 

Arkham City is everything I could wish for and more. Arkham Asylum has expanded to a park of Gotham no one ever went to, called Arkham City. Basically, you are trapped in a part of Gotham only the baddest of the bad occupy. And oh, it's great. 

No longer are you confined to one building, in Arkham City you can truly be Batman. You can grapple up to the highest building in the city and just as easily glide back down. Being batman in the city is just so much fun that you sometimes forget that you’re supposed to be preventing your own death, proving to the old adage ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ and also backing up my brothers famous saying:  ‘Dan, you’d be a shit superhero’. 

But apart from my Bat antics the game is also brilliant, pitting you against more or less every Bat-villain you could think of. Just in the first few minutes of the game you are greeted by The Joker, The Riddler, Penguin, Two Face and Catwoman. Not to mention passersby mentioning Mr Freeze and Solomon Grundy, who if you’re not familiar with the nursery rhyme, is born on a Monday. 

Arkham City feels like great graphic novels The Long Halloween and Hush to an extent. With every twist and turn, a new bad guy approaches and the plot thickens. Which, captures something very different from the Bat Movies and definitely a unique look at the Bat that the casual, non graphic novel reading audience aren’t familiar with. 

My only worry is I don’t see how they’re going to follow Arkham City up. There They will definitely try as there is too much money in the franchise. But, I just don’t want them to try and ultimately fail. Giving me yet again, another below par Bat game.

But, for now, I’m not going to complain. I’m going to get my heroin fix while the getting’s good. Did I say heroin? I clearly meant Batman.

Thanks for reading.

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Until next time, enjoy the show

Daniel Morris.