Batman: Arkham City - Collector's Edition, Playstation 3

I've been playing video games since the 80's. I've also been a fan of Batman for as long as I can remember. That said, for the longest time, there was a very strange relationship between Batman and Video Games all the way up until Arkham Asylum. Somehow taking Batman (totally awesome!) and throwing him in a video game (totally awesome!) turned out to be anywhere between just ok, barely passable down to just bad. Arkham Asylum really was the first game to change that. Not only was it better than 'OK' it was actually a great game, and surprisingly lengthy next to what you would have expected it to be. It also was being released curiously between 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight,' which you'd have to live in a very, very remote part of the world not to know about, and curiously this game made absolutely no attempt to relate itself to those wildly successful movies. This is really a Batman in the style of some of the comics or even one you can sort of recognize and relate to from the animated series, something a lot of us probably grew up watching. (My brief caveat here may be that this is a much more violent Batman than we have seen in any of those places, so parents, I would probably think long and hard before buying this for your little boy or girl.) STORY (No spoilers) This is the sequel to Arkham Asylum, and not something as immediate as you would think. There has obviously been some time between the end of the last game and the beginning of this one. The short explanation is that a section of Old Gotham City has been turned into a sort of prison city. This may create some suspension of disbelief problems for some people as there are a slew of reasons why this would/could never happen in reality, but on a whole, among comic story settings, it is not so outlandish to sabotage the game. It also helps that our protagonist Bruce Wayne/Batman thinks its an awful idea so your natural inclination to think 'thats messed up' or that its just wrong is playing into your being able to identify with the character a little. If you don't think this is strange, then you still get to play as the Batman, something that can only be described as ceaselessly entertaining. Probably the worst that can be said about this game is that there's a lot there. Really they jam a lot of characters in there, and there are a few twists and turns throughout the game. Nothing shattered my disbelief though. Part of that may have been that I kind of knew what to expect, and you can take it one of two ways, as far as I can see: either it is nice that they included so much of the Batman universe in one game or maybe they made the plot a little more drawn out than it needed to be so they could involve more characters. Either way, the longer the story, the longer the game, and when you're having this much fun, its hard to complain. I would probably give this the grade of a B on story/writing. GRAPHICS This game utilizes a recent version of the Unreal engine. This is so common, that it is sort of the B+ of graphics these days, but it does have some extra tie-ins to make a game that is impressive in both the macro and the mirco. There is room to nit-pick here, but this is a game where at times very tiny spaces are your entire world--crawling through air ducts and through tight spaces, and then you exit and you're in a few dozen square blocks worth of a dark and violent city. There are certainly games out there that portray larger areas that you can travel across, but that shouldn't take away from just how big and impressively detailed Arkham City is. There is a definite style to the city itself, but with enough variance that you don't feel, or at least you can't pick out where they might have used the same building twice. I might even say that they didn't do this. Of course when you get into those tight places, there are times where you might notice the textures are maybe not as detailed as they could be. Character models are generally pretty good, and there's a good amount of detail. You could say that they use their own stylized realism here, something based on a sort of classic comic archetype. The people are all pretty bulky, which you can rack up to a certain level of physical fitness/intimidation and the wearing of a lot of baggy clothes. Batman is cut like your superhero figurines from your youth and all of the women in the game are thin and shapely. Textures on the model are pretty good. They are certainly very detailed, and from the model viewer in the game, maybe even more than they would need to be. I enjoy the lighting in this game. There are nice effects with rays of moonlight, soft halos where appropriate. All in all, though, I would give Batman: Arkham City a solid A. SOUND A lot of the sound effects from this game come from Batman: Arkham Asylum. If they have been altered, it is not in a noticeable way, and this isn't really bad, because the sounds of combat and ambient sounds were good in that game. What is probably more important is the voice work. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return to voice Batman and Joker respectively. As they have been doing this for nearly 20 years, they are almost as iconic to the sound of these characters as they can be, and they do their job fabulously. They are supported by a wholly believable and generally well voiced cast of less iconic actors and a large number of extras. There are no moments that stand out where the voice acting falls flat or is memorably bad. If I were to complain about anything, it would be the pronunciation of "Ra's al-Ghul" as it is different than I remember in Batman Begins. Which one is right? I don't know, but I can tell you if that's what sticks out most in the sound department, they did a great job. A for this too. SOUNDTRACK I feel that I should probably separate out the soundtrack from the sound, and indeed the soundtrack in game from the soundtrack they allow you to download if you buy the collector's edition. The soundtrack in the game is very atmospheric. It is not music that you will remember or find yourself humming along to. It is really functioning to emphasize the mood, whether it is more panic, action, sneaking mode or even the embodiment of stillness. There are little bits and pieces of melody that vaguely remind me of the old Danny Elfman works (Tim Burton's Batman and Batman: The Animated Series) but there's also definitely hints of Hans Zimmer in there too. It all sounds 'appropriately Batman,' I would say. I would give it a B or maybe a B+, because it is really quite effective for what it is, but I couldn't give it an A without claiming there was something remarkable in it. Then there is the Batman: Arkham City Album, given away as a bonus, which is a bunch of music that appears nowhere in the game. I'm not going to pass too much judgment on this either positively or negatively. There may be some music on here that you will enjoy, and there's a very good chance that there will not be anything here that you like, but if you think it has anything to do with the score or music in the game, you will be disappointed. I mention this more as a buyer beware than anything, because few movies or video games have both a score and an album, and I would not factor this into your equation as a bonus for ordering the special edition. GAMEPLAY Batman: Arkham Asylum had the best melee combat system I have ever seen. Honestly, when I heard they were going to spend a full two years making a new game in a development environment that tries to push annual releases for popular franchises, I got a little nervous that they were going to try to mess with the equation too much. I hate to say that what I wanted was really 'more of the same' for fear that what they would change would be totally annoying. Anyone who's played a game, and maybe a few of its sequels knows well the danger in adding or changing major elements. What they ended up giving us was more of the same, plus a much bigger environment to play around in, greater ability to wander and try to solve puzzles, do the riddler's tricks, pick up side-quests, and then they even expanded the combat system. There is the inclusion of a few additional enemy types that actually add something to the game, and some minor tweeks. The end result is that they actually made the system a little better than it was. Yes, it is a little more complicated in one or two areas, but it is also easier in others, and much more enjoyable really. Probably my favorite addition is multi-person counter-attacks. Previously, the bad-guys would usually approach in classic kung-fu movie blocking, one at a time, generally, and you would deal with them one at a time, regardless of how many there were. Now sometimes they attack two or three together, and the beautiful melee system has a variety of animations to show how Batman (or others!) deal with this. Or others? It is probably worth mentioning that you can play as Catwoman in this game. This is an enjoyable change of pace and also quite enjoyable. I will mention she has a whip which is used in place of a grappling hook and cape, and watching her fight is very interesting. Similar to Batman, they gave her a very unique and showy fighting style, though his is all brutality, an hers is quick and nimble. In any case, gameplay, A+. These guys did a great job with this element the first time around, and they did a great job with it the second time around. SPECIAL EDITION STUFF This comes with some extra goodies in the special edition. I will sum it up in short what my opinion on this stuff is... - Batman: Arkham City album: nothing to write home about. - Batman: Gotham Knight movie: As the Animatrix was to the release of the Matrix reloaded, so Gotham Knight is to the release of Dark Knight. It gives you a few takes on the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman. I already owned it, but I enjoyed it. I'd probably give it 4/5 stars if I were to review it separately. - Collectible art book: This actually replaces the case, curiously enough, and that's the worst part about it, but... I do like the pictures. - Iceberg Lounge Challenge Map and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns DLC: kind of neat, and it would save you a few bucks in the future, maybe. - Custom Batman statue: This is a quality model. If you like statuettes, this guy probably would retail for $60+ bucks by itself. It is very cool if you like to display your gamer culture, and more than worth the price difference by itself if you do. CONCLUSION Now I've been very long winded, but if you read half of whats above, you know there's no reason to draw this out further. This game lives up to its hype. It lives up to the previous game and then some. If you like Batman and/or if you like video games, its hard to come up with a reason to avoid this title. Buy it. Plain and simple, you will enjoy it.

The game itself is Five Stars. Without a doubt. Arkham Asylum came out of no where with it's excellent presentation, unique free-flow combat system, and solid stealth mechanics. Arkham City manages to improve upon Asylum in every single facet... true to what a GOOD sequel should be. As for the Collector's Edition? I'd honestly give it a 2 out of 5 as CE's go. The main draw to this is easily the statue that comes with it. A very nice piece I will admit. The art book is this tiny little hard cover with fairly little art... quite forgettable. The DLC extras are meager truth be told... and their value greatly hampered by the fact that months later a "complete" edition came out with ALL unlocks, including the various ones that were not included in the CE. Overall, the game's fantastic, and at this point unless you *really* want the statue (which you can probably find on auction sites at this point)... you're best off paying 20 or 30$ for the complete editions for your console of choice... possibly less when PC Digital deals sell it for dirt cheap.

Batman Arkham City is a solid 10 on my ratings scale. Now just to let you know a 10 doesn't mean the game is perfect, no game is. A 10 simply means that this game is awesomely fun to play and completely engrossing in its story--technical glitches aside, Arkham City couldn't be much better than it is right now. I'm not going to go into much of the story as I do not want to spoil anything, however the story is simply huge and very well put together. The amount of characters that Rocksteady packed into the game is astounding. The icing on the cake is that these characters do not feel contrived or out of place as the story unfolds. Bravo Rocksteady, Bravo! The game play is just as solid as Arkham Asylum. The combat is just as responsive and that is saying a lot as they packed more moves and more gadgets into the game. There are a few glitches that I've ran into however, these are very minor annoyances, and no game is glitch free. It did take me a few tries to get some of the added moves down however, once down, destroying a group of bad guys and soaring over the city was pure enjoyment. Now for the "Collector's Edition" part of the review. I will admit right out that the number one reason that I ordered this edition was for the statue of Batman. In my humble opinion this was worth the price alone. The statue is very detailed and is of very good quality. It's not very heavy and looks amazing placed on its own or perched on the box with the city wrapped behind it. I'm glad it's part of my collection. The art book doubles as the games' case and that is the only negative concerning the entire collector's edition package. The art book itself is very well done and the pictures look stunning. The soundtrack is OK and the tune, "This ain't no place for a hero", from the Trailer isn't on the soundtrack--another negative actually. I'm not a huge fan of the other bands and music so the soundtrack doesn't get very high marks. The downloadable content is always a plus as I won't have to pay for it later--Added bonus. I've watched the Dark Knight movie before and it's OK. Getting it for free is a plus as I wouldn't have purchased it on my own. Overall, Arkham City Collector's Edition was worth the price. The Batman Statue is amazing and is very much worth the cost alone. The story is astounding and is completely engrossing. The game play is responsive and once mastered allows you to feel like "The Batman" as you kick some serious bad guy butt! I wasn't a huge fan of the soundtrack but the movie and downloadable content are always welcome. My score...A solid 10!

I must admit that I did not think it was possible to top the great game play of Batman Arkham Asylum. I figured the sequel would be equally as good, but perhaps not anything beyond what I had already experienced in Asylums game play. Well, I was wrong, and I gladly admit that. I pre-ordered the game on Amazon and it arrived on on my door step on its scheduled release date. The unboxing of the collectors edition was great. Lots of extras such as Penguin Lounge and Catwoman redeemable codes for PS3, the soundtrack download, a beautiful Batman figurine and a very nice booklet with illustrations of Batman characters. I even received an Arkham City comic book (I already had the 5 issue set so this 6th comic book was nice). If you're a Batman fan you will love it this collectors edition. As far as the game play goes, I don't want to spoil the fun but it is definitely longer gameplay than Arkham Asylum and the graphics are out of this world. Arkham City has a pretty large environment to move around in compared to Arkham Asylum. The riddles are more fun to figure out and plenty of side missions to keep the player interested in the game. I found myself switching from doing the side missions and then going back to the main story just to keep things in balance. The story line is very well written. Of course you may have seen the trailer and know The Joker is in this game, but to my surprise the game has more villains that I imagined; very awesome. You have similar gadgets as in Asylum but then get some very awesome ones in the game as well that are required to retrieve Riddler trophies (a concept from Asylum that was greatly improved) that are scattered all over the place. The good thing about this game is how you unlock character bios and artwork concepts with each trophy you find, so there is an incentive to collect them all and there is well over a hundred trophies and plenty of riddles to solve, so its no walk in the park. I am telling you, this game will keep you busy and on your toes. This game is a must for any Batman or superhero enthusiast. I know I'll be playing this game for a while. If you have not played Batman Arkham Asylum (you're depriving yourself from an awesome game) then do yourself a favor and buy the game, yes buy it because it is an awesome game, and play it through to the end. You will need to in order to understand the story line as it picks up from Asylums ending. I got the Batman Arkham City Batarang from Amazon as well. Very nice PS3 controller.

buggy, incomplete, items missing from ce, lots of game freeze, side missions that never allow you to finish them because the game does not trigger/load the next mission/segment. too much dlc not included makes this incomplete and means more profits for publisher and a double dip for consumers when game of the year edition rolls out. word to the software companys: we all dont have, cant get, access high speed internet. when i buy a game, i want the full game. not a bunch of download cards. oh and you may want to include those when you advertise them along with other promised extras. this was rushed and it shows. it also looks like it had no quality assurance budget. skip it and wait for game of the year edition. i hope they polish it by then. charging way too much money to be putting this kind of product out.

I was a little skeptical buying this case since it only had the one picture, but I just figured I could always just return it is I didn't like it. But I was 98% satisfied with this product. I thought it was the plastic case, but no. This is the metal collectors case, and it is in perfect shape, other than a small dent in the back that I would assume might have come from shipping, but I'm not sure. That's the only reason I didn't give 5 stars though.

the item does not have something (blue ray movie, dlcs for game on internet). I am very unsatisfied and give negative feedback

Recibí mi edición de Batman Arkham City Collector's Edition hace unos pocos días (por problemas inventados por Aduanas) y tengo que decir que es una de las mejores ediciones que he visto. Comenzando por el empaque (afortunadamente recibido sin problemas) permite ver de forma excepcional una figura espectacularmente detallada, tan bien hecha que no he dejado de recibir felicitaciones por tan buena adquisición, un lujo a todas luces. Luego la presentación del juego, si bien es cierto no me permite ponerlo junto a su predecesor (Barman Arkham Asylum) no es necesario, un art-book que le da otro contexto a esta maravillosa edición. Además la película de Gotham Knight que (a pesar de ya tenerla en DVD), editada en blu ray, merece la pena volver a verla. Lástima que solo tiene audio español ibérico. Luego las claves para descarga, Gatúbela, Batman estilo Alex Ross y el paquete del Pingüino harán mis delicias en cuanto termine el juego, que merece un comentario aparte. Respecto al juego la parte gráfica merece un 11/10. Un detalle finísimo, jugabilidad, agilidad y altas prestaciones (por decirlo de algún modo) dan la idea del esfuerzo aplicado por los desarrolladores en cuanto a dificultad (que la tiene) y capacidad de juego. Los rivales son dignos del Caballero Oscuro: Guasón, Bane, Dos Caras, Pingüino, Frío, etc. (de los que he visto hasta ahora) imponen la presencia que un juego de calidad y dificultad merece. Aun voy al 5% jugado (con casi 15 horas de juego) pero teng muchísimo mas por que divertirme. Si alguien me pregunta si le recomendaría esta edición le diría sin dudarlo que SI!!!, debe tenerla si es un buen hincha de los buenos videojuegos con historia, calidad gráfica y esencia de videojuego.