There might be a series of switches on a nearby wall that need to be triggered in a particular order. There are Riddler trophies in plain view all over Arkham City, but they're enclosed in cages, and to retrieve one of these, you must figure out how the mechanism for that particular cage works.
However, in many cases, the trick is not locating them, but figuring out how to get them. Some of these collectibles have been hidden in the city's nooks and crannies, and if you locate them, you can simply pick them up. As previously mentioned, Riddler trophies have been placed throughout Arkham City. More significantly, the Riddler is in town with nothing to do but torment Batman. Occasional clever environmental puzzles, such as a situation involving a pool of water covered in thin ice, frozen cops who need to be saved, and a giant, deadly shark, require you to make smart use of your gadgets. and not use it, but you can't turn it off entirely.Īrkham City also acknowledges that Batman's brains are at least on par with his brawn.
Of course, you're free to just ignore B.A.T. Being able to do more damage at set times means you can worry about precision a little less, and this eliminates the exciting balance that combat previously maintained. Part of what made the combat in Arkham City so involving was that every strike mattered and that Batman was fragile enough that missing a counter could be a costly mistake.
As you fight enemies, your suit stores up kinetic energy, and once you have a full charge, you can trigger B.A.T., which makes your blows do twice as much damage and activates a visual filter that highlights enemy positions. Batman's suit now comes equipped with what's called Battle Armored Tech mode, or B.A.T. One addition to the Wii U version of Arkham City does take some of the bite out of combat, though. The excellent sound design adds tension to these stealthy standoffs, with bad guys becoming increasingly frightened as you pick off their buddies one by one. By hanging from a gargoyle, you can ensnare an unsuspecting enemy below with an inverted takedown. Crawl up to an enemy from behind, and you can take him down silently. Batman has an assortment of sneaky techniques at his disposal, all of which are great fun to use. Batman is tough, but far from invulnerable, and when faced with such firepower, it's time for him to rely on stealth. Of course, thugs with shields, blades, and body armor are one thing enemies with guns are something else entirely.
Your attacks are accompanied by terrific animations that look simultaneously graceful and brutal, and the increasingly varied configurations of enemies you encounter as the game progresses require you to frequently alter your tactics. The game's combat is outstanding there's a rhythm to chaining together your strikes and counters, and successfully keeping a chain going for a while is immensely satisfying. Naturally, Batman's errand brings him into constant conflict with the many thugs and lowlifes lurking in the shadows of Arkham City. These structures, with their faded portraits, old billboards, and plentiful other features, convey a sense of history, and the art direction that makes this vision of Gotham so fantastic is in full effect on the Wii U. Arkham City is home to an old courthouse, a former police headquarters, a musty museum, a disused subway terminal, and other fascinating places. The area of several city blocks that makes up the superprison isn't especially vast as open worlds go, but what it lacks in scale, it more than makes up for in atmospheric detail. It's an inhumane and immoral operation food and warmth are scarce, and some inmates are people whose only crime was voicing a negative opinion of Arkham City and those who run it.īut their misfortune is your gain. Certain unscrupulous characters took advantage of the crisis by acquiring the run-down neighborhood of North Gotham, walling it off from the rest of the city, and tossing criminals in there to fend for themselves. Noneįaced with a criminal housing crisis in the wake of the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the city of Gotham has fallen on dark times. mode gives Batman an advantage he doesn't need.