Lately I've been playing Batman: Arkham City, and I have to say that it is possibly the greatest video game of all time. When it comes to my reading choices I'm more of a Marvel guy than DC, but man, Batman AC is absolutely phenomenal. I haven't completed the game yet by any stretch, I have to grab little hour or so snippets here and there when I can, but I could easily lose myself in this game for awhile.What really makes the game so good is the story. With a character like Batman, who has been around forever and has been featured in so many forms of media, it gets harder to tell an original story. Batman AC has come up with a phenomenal story that I absolutely lose myself in.
Not only is the story good, but so is the action. I was actually disappointed when I went to confront Two-Face and his 40 thugs and 20 or so of them just ran off. The combat is so good I relish jumping down into an entire pit of punks that need a good thumping.
I do think the concept of an "Arkham City" is a bit far-fetched, I can't see any city just walling off a pretty significant chunk of real estate and chucking all the criminals in, even in crime-infested Gotham. However, I've found myself lately pretending that this is actually No Man's Land, a pretty bold story from the comics themselves.
No Man's Land was a Batman event where Gotham City is cut off from the rest of the United States because an earthquake has ravaged the city beyond repair; it's basically cheaper to just wall off Gotham than to fix it. Right before the bridges were bombed and the city cut off, the inmates at Arkham and Blackage were set free. So not only do you have regular citizens who chose to stay battling against a lack of electricity, food, and shelter, you also have to deal with unprecedented gang activity and a pile of supervillains running the show. It was a pretty fantastic story.Arkham City looks like No Man's Land pretty much to a tee. I almost wish they had gone with an adaptation of No Man's Land for the game, but the story in Arkham City has been pretty fantastic, and is, as far as I know, an original story to boot. I believe there is a comic book adaptation that I'm tempted to get, but I actually don't know if it could measure up to the game!
