Arkham City Day#3: On the Catwalk

Day#3 is a return to form for Batman, and I like it. In the constraints of a limited environment (i.e. not wandering around the city), the brawling and predation really come to the fore, and it shows off all of the strengths of the franchise. I also get my first taste of Catwoman play, and that too is good. Even the local narrative is better, despite the fact that the story overall is quite stupid. As a return to form, this is exactly what I was looking for. Spoilers within.

I start off back in the chimney. It’s more crawling through tunnels. There’s more steam blocking Batman from walking. Steam is kind of weird as a set piece blocker. There is fire in this game; isn’t that a more threatening danger? To turn the steam off, I have to use my batarang to turn off some switches. Not the most interesting gameplay, that. As I continue, I overhear Harley talking to huge room full of guards about how the doctor failed and as I approach a window on the room, she (standing on a ledge high above the room) throws the doctor into the mob in a CREEPY moment. A lone tied up woman in front of a room full of male thugs — the imagination goes horrible places. But then Harley changes her mind and tells them to try to get more info out of the doctor first. It’s a set piece and I can’t get into the room to interrupt it. Another steam blocker forces me to backtrack to turn off a series of switches with my batarang. I finally end up in the room for a big fist fight I handle passably well. When the fight is finished, there’s a CS of Harley up on her ledge whining that I should be dead,  but then says she’s locking me in this room to burn before exiting through a closed door. It’s a nicely acted scene.

I wander around to find a new way to get to Harley. I end up in another room where I predate (my short hand for the stealthy predator scenes) out three guys. This is feeling more like the Batman I love. As if answering my prayers, the game follows this with  another longer predation scene that is quite good. You can hear the doctor screaming for help throughout and it’s very nicely creepy. Thugs defeated, I rescue the doctor, and she says that the Titan in Joker’s blood is killing him. It turns out that Harley is listening to them remotely and has some thugs seal them in the room. Batman CS says he has to get back to Joker. He then pulls something random off of some machinery to make a new tool. It makes no sense, but whatever. I basically get a new tool to remotely control electronics. The controls for it are a little confusing, in that the button you push to shoot the remote also controls what the remote does, so you have to guess which of the two buttons you need to hit to do what you want the electronics to do. For now, it involves opening and closing doors.

I return back to where Harley was, and after some experimentation, I use my new tool to throw a hook on a chain up to the door on the ledge where Harley disappeared. Once the hook is up there, I pull it down to rip the door open. I grapple up there, but then Batman is CS kicked off the ledge by a big sub-boss with a hammer. He comes out with a bunch of thugs. I kill the thugs quickly, but the big guy does seem to react to my beatings. The tips tell me that I need to use shock to kill the hammer guy, but when I shock him, he just seems to spin and I can’t figure out how to knock him down. I die once trying. The second time, I waste a lot of time causing the hammer guy to spin only to realize that I just have to beat him up enough to take him down. Wow some feedback on that would have been nice. Anyway, I grapple up to the ledge and enter a new room. I see a CS of Harley crying over the Joker’s dead body. I’m suspicious and some is Batman. He CS scans and it is a dead body, but then the Joker jumps him from behind with some kind of gas mask. Batman throws him off but succumbs to the gas as Harley knocks him out.

We cut to Catwoman talking on a ledge, deciding if she’s going to help Batman or rob Strange. She decides to rob Strange and says she needs Poison Ivy’s help to do it. I now get to play as Catwoman. It has got some nice new mechanics as she more jumps around more than she grapples. To climb a building, she jumps up in steps and use a whip to swing to other ledges. It’s a nice change of pace. I’m first going back to her apartment to get some stuff and on the way, I fight as her — she’s quicker but weaker, and otherwise combat is the same. I run around city to get back to apartment, fighting two groups of guards. Climbing in the apartment, I get caltrops and bolos. I go back to Ivy’s place (hello villain#8) and Ivy’s goons are all around it. I get in another fight on the way and I’m finally remembering how to fight in Batman, jumping from opponent to opponent with some grace. I find way into Ivy’s base, but as I approach it, I don’t realize that I walk into predation scene and get shot to death something quick. Predation is much harder out here without Batman’s grappling hook to make quick getaways. I take these thugs down and level up, buying Batman a bunch of new armor.  I go inside to a CS of Catwoman entering Ivy’s lair and Ivy saying she’s upset about some flowers that Cat killed. Boy, Poison Ivy is a stupid villain. Anyway, Ivy wants me dead, so I have to fight a series of guards on a set of different levels going up, having to jump up to the next level each time I defeat one group to avoid a poison gas. I beat these guys handily and get up to see Ivy. We cut to a CS when I do where Ivy captures Cat. We cut back to the Batman story, but the game crashes so I call it a night.