Skip to main content
Games Radar
  • Newsarama
  • Total Film
  • Edge
  • Retro Gamer
  • SFX
Total Film The smarter take on movies
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Subscribe
  • Podcast
  • Newsletter
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows

Recommended reading

Key art for Atomfall showing a character in the English countryside looking at a nuclear plant some distance away
Survival Games Atomfall review: "This isn't British Fallout – it's something much better than that"
The two characters in Split Fiction dressed in fantasy gear each with a dragon on their back
Co-op Games Split Fiction review: "Cements Hazelight as the master of co-op games"
The village green in Atomfall
Action Games My first 3 hours in Atomfall feel playing Fallout 3 for the first time, and if you don't check it out I'm legally obliged to bash you with a cricket bat
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle screenshot
Adventure Games Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: "The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years"
Best Xbox 360 games: a screenshot of an Xbox 360 console next to a controller and a collection of games.
Games 25 Best Xbox 360 games of all time
Batman Arkham
Stealth Games 6 years before Batman: Arkham, Saints Row developer Volition kept working on a stealth Batman game even after its original idea got scrapped for being worse than GTA 3
The Stone of Madness screenshot of Alfredo and Eduardo facing a large moveable crate, with an enemy standing guard outside the room.
Stealth Games Escaping an asylum hidden in an 18th century Spanish monastery is a curious concept for a stealth game, but I couldn't put this one down
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies
  3. Action Movies

Batman: Arkham City

Features
By Nathan Ditum published October 17, 2011

The Total Film verdict on the new Batman videogame

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

The Origin Story

The Origin Story

In many ways 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum was the videogame equivalent of Batman Begins: it featured a muscular Bats fond of breaking arms, and in contrast to its predecessors it wasn’t at all rubbish.

Skip forward to now – or Friday 21 October – and Arkham City is looking to give us the full Dark Knight treatment, taking a promising foundation and expanding it into a complex and ambitious sequel.

Page 1 of 10
Page 1 of 10
Madness Set Loose

Madness Set Loose

The set-up is stiff with world-shifting comic book logic. With ex-Arkham Warden Quincy Sharp now Mayor of Gotham, a huge chunk of the city has been fenced off to become an expanded loony bin, with Arkham’s regular line-up of supervillains thrown inside.

The expanded Arkham soon divides into warring gang factions which threaten the safety of the rest of the city, leaving Batman to swoop in and thump everyone’s heads together until they explain what the hell’s going on.

Page 2 of 10
Page 2 of 10
More Than Just A Man

More Than Just A Man

Superbly devised gameplay was the secret behind Arkham Asylum’s ability to provide an authentic, inner-nerd thrilling Batman experience. And a key part of that was the hand-to-hand combat.

The thumping Bourne-style fighting returns, and with all the fluidity of before – Bats swoops and cracks like a gymnast. But now it also integrates easy use of gadgets, making it simple to grapple-hook goons into a lung-folding clothesline or drop small explosions into your precious combo-strings.

Page 3 of 10
Page 3 of 10
Something Out There In The Darkness

Something Out There In The Darkness

Perhaps even more surprisingly, the game also does stealth exceptionally well. Being anti-gun and also deeply anti-getting shot (he’s refreshingly useless in the face of armed guards) Batman’s a natural fit for videogame sneaking.

This time there’s less incentive to switch on Batman’s detective mode (the heat-mapped radar-vision has been made less powerful) but just as much hanging from beams, creeping through gutters, and knocking people the heck out.

Page 4 of 10
Page 4 of 10
Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?

Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?

Alongside the brutal, satisfying combat, a giant chest of tech toys are crucial to nailing the Batman feel, laying a pleasingly traditional emphasis on our hero’s detective skills.

These also return in force, with the explosive gel and lock decoder now joined by a radio descrambler and an upgrade to the zip-line which enables Bats to change direction in mid-air. Which if you think about it for too long is probably impossible, so we didn’t.

Page 5 of 10
Page 5 of 10
A Watchful Eye Over Gotham

A Watchful Eye Over Gotham

The most important function of the gadgets this time, though, is giving Batman full freedom of movement. In the confines of Arkham Asylum we were teased by gliding – now in the wide open spaces of the City it comes into its own.

Combined with a grapple upgrade that enables Bats to gain aerial momentum using high-altitude objects, players can effectively fly over and around the rooftops of the city, swooping through rafters and banking through narrow alleys. The effect is amazing. The effect makes you feel like Batman.

Page 6 of 10
Page 6 of 10
Dancing With Devils In The Pale Moonlight

Dancing With Devils In The Pale Moonlight

It helps that the city – even this grim, partitioned slice of it – is hugely impressive to look at. Perch on a gargoyle hitched to one of the many looming gothic towers and the skyline is a dark tumble of tenements, arcades and high rises light with an eerie glow.

The structure of the city – freely explorable from The Bowery to Amusement Mile (Crime Alley’s there too) – also changes the way you play. Arkham City is less a straight march and more an open ramble, packed with side-missions, puzzles and collectibles.

Page 7 of 10
Page 7 of 10
Rogues Gallery

Rogues Gallery

The ‘tip ‘em in’ plotting means the game is stacked with villains, and those who don’t make a physical appearance are often present in deed (the Riddler’s puzzles return, more intricate than before) or in the shape of fan-service clues.

As for the main line-up, Mark Hamill returns as his ecstatically unhinged Joker, supported by a fairly traditional Two Face, a sad ice-astronaut version of Mr Freeze, and Uncharted 3 star Nolan North as a curiously cockernee Penguin (which, somehow, works).

Page 8 of 10
Page 8 of 10
Sweet Selina, Theres No Meaner

Sweet Selina, Theres No Meaner

It’s not just the bad guys who’ve been reinforced. As well as regular radio help from Alfred, Batman also has scratchy, love-hatey, pseudo-sexual help from Catwoman. Which, as long as it’s coming from a woman in impossibly tight trousers, is probably the best kind.

In a cheeky bit of profiteering Catwoman is only available as a paid-for download, but that’ll get you access to her unique fighting style (lots of miaows and bending) and grapple-free climbing style. And those trousers, obviously.

Page 9 of 10
Page 9 of 10
Im Batman

Im Batman

Perhaps the ultimate sign of Arkham City’s quality is that while it’s huge and expansive (it’ll take around twice as long to complete as Asylum) it’s also full of wonderful details. Like how Bats thunders a fist into the temple of successfully interrogated goons, or the fact that manual waypoints show up as bat-symbols in the night sky.

It’s not just bigger and better than the original, it also outdoes it when it comes to the most crucial measure of all: delivering the most authentic Batman experience possible. In that regard Arkham City is a triumph.

Page 10 of 10
Page 10 of 10
Nathan Ditum
See more Movies Features
Read more
Key art for Atomfall showing a character in the English countryside looking at a nuclear plant some distance away
Atomfall review: "This isn't British Fallout – it's something much better than that"
The two characters in Split Fiction dressed in fantasy gear each with a dragon on their back
Split Fiction review: "Cements Hazelight as the master of co-op games"
The village green in Atomfall
My first 3 hours in Atomfall feel playing Fallout 3 for the first time, and if you don't check it out I'm legally obliged to bash you with a cricket bat
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle screenshot
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: "The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years"
Best Xbox 360 games: a screenshot of an Xbox 360 console next to a controller and a collection of games.
25 Best Xbox 360 games of all time
Batman Arkham
6 years before Batman: Arkham, Saints Row developer Volition kept working on a stealth Batman game even after its original idea got scrapped for being worse than GTA 3
Latest in Action Movies
Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick director says he cast Brad Pitt over Tom Cruise in his new F1 movie because "Tom always pushes it to the limit" and "that terrifies me"
The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer
Fantastic Four star teases Sue Storm and Reed Richards' baby Franklin will "have superpowers" in the Marvel movie
The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer
Fantastic Four's Galactus actor went method for his Marvel role – by visiting tall buildings
Secret Wars art by Alex Ross
Sure, Avengers: Doomsday has a massive cast, but these important Secret Wars characters are still missing from the MCU
Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 3
Karate Kid: Legends star Jackie Chan looks back on the divisive Rush Hour 3, and agrees it's the weakest movie in the franchise: "Too much money is no good"
Chris Hemsworth in Thor Love and Thunder
Will Thor die in Avengers: Doomsday? Chris Hemsworth just posted a tribute message to his Marvel character, and it sure sounds like a goodbye
Latest in Features
Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot of three characters walking side by side
Marathon and Elden Ring Nightreign have a common problem: the solo experience is way worse, and I can't help but think nailing your game to teams of 3 is a mistake in 2025
When the Light Breaks
A new Icelandic drama with a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score provides one of the most emotionally honest depictions of grief I've seen in a long time
Ring Fit Adventure gameplay
6 years after its release, Ring Fit Adventure remains the unrivalled king of fitness games
A large hole in a grassy garden with GamesRadar's Indie Spotlight logo in the corner
For just $4, A Game About Digging A Hole will make you feel like god and grant domain over the vast soily kingdom we call Earth
Koichi Haimawari and Kazuho Haneyama looking shocked in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes rejuvenates the series by making it weirder, and there's never been a better time to jump in
A boxy green cubey enemy attacks Remi in Hell is Us
With "multi-map spanning secrets" and "phantasmagorical" horrors, Hell is Us wages a brutal civil war that already has me on edge
  1. Elden Ring Nightreign key art
    1
    Elden Ring Nightreign review: "An uncharacteristically frantic and fast-paced ride that boils down the core Elden Ring experience"
  2. 2
    To a T review: "Like standing in a warm spill of sunbeams and eating your favorite home-cooked meal all at once"
  3. 3
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown review: "Radically slick brawls barely feel turn-based, but I'm left wanting more depth"
  4. 4
    Monster Train 2 review: "A truly first class ride through deckbuilder roguelike heaven, and I'm already going off the rails"
  5. 5
    Blades of Fire review: "Following up Metroid Dread with a dark fantasy soulslike full of inventive ideas that I find delightfully infectious"
  1. Ben Wang, Jackie Chan, and Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid: Legends
    1
    Karate Kid: Legends review: "Better than Karate Kid (2010), nothing on Karate Kid (1984)"
  2. 2
    Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning review: "Wraps up this spy franchise in spectacular style with Tom Cruise in peak condition, even if its villain lacks terror"
  3. 3
    Final Destination Bloodlines Review: "Meticulous murderous mayhem"
  4. 4
    Thunderbolts review: "Makes good on the promise of a new start for the MCU"
  5. 5
    A Minecraft Movie Review: "Jack Black's irrepressible star turn helps elevate this video game adaptation"
  1. Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor – or is he John Smith? – in Doctor Who: 'Wish World.'
    1
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision
  2. 2
    Rick and Morty season 8 review: "Largely plays it too safe after years of crossing boundaries"
  3. 3
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 6 spoiler review: 'The Interstellar Song Contest' is "a blast and sets the stage for a thrilling season finale"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 5 spoiler review: 'The Story & The Engine' is "one of the most original and ambitious episodes this show has produced in years"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 4 spoiler review: 'Lucky Day' has a "genuinely surprising" mid-episode reveal

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers
  • Do not sell or share my personal information

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...