Batman: Arkham City – Preview
Warning: The following preview contains some spoilers to Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City comic book prequel.
By:Â Michael Manzi aka “mustachio31“
Licensed characters very rarely transcend into the video game medium with much success. While there are exceptions there was never an outing with the DC’s iconic Dark Knight that truly delivered. In 2009 Rocksteady produced a Batman experience that catered to his fans and gamers alike. Winner of multiple “Game of the Year” awards and the current holder of the Guinness World Record of “Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever,” Batman: Arkham Asylum showed us what a video game based on a beloved licensed character should be by being true to the vision of the franchise.
In the face of such success a video game developer is naturally going to create a sequel. Batman: Arkham City is exactly this sequel that will be released this Tuesday.
In the previous game we witnessed Joker and his gang takeover Arkham Asylum; a mental institution that commonly houses Gotham City’s most notorious psychopaths and Batman’s deadliest foes. Using an enhanced version of the Venom drug known as Titan, Joker was planning to turn the inmates of Arkham into an army of mutated solders and destroy Bats once and for all. The Clown Prince of Crime was defeated by his nemesis and imprisoned in the asylum once more. Shortly after these events, now known as the “Arkham Riots,” a crate filled with Titan formula floated its way to Gotham City’s harbor.
The storyline of the game was followed up with a comic book mini-series that preludes the events of the Batman: Arkham City game that is also titled Batman: Arkham City. Taking place one year after the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the comic series sets the foundation for the storyline of the second game. The former warden of Arkham Asylum, a Mr. Quincy Sharp, who you learn a great deal about in the first game, has recently been elected mayor of Gotham after taking the credit for defeating Joker during the Arkham Riots. The new mayor also has a mysterious accomplice who is puppeteering his every action.
Tragedy occurs when the wrong people get their hands on the wayward crate of Titan and begin abusing the drug. Two Titan infused thugs, also working for Sharp’s unknown benefactor, make their move at a dedication ceremony for Gotham’s new city hall. Batman attempts to stop the belligerents but fails to before they take the lives of a few hundred innocents. This gives Sharp and the shadow figure behind him the perfect excuse to call for martial law in Gotham and create Arkham City: A walled off section of Gotham City that is maintained by the mayor’s private army of Tyger Guards where criminals may roam free as long as they don’t attempt escape.
