The demo sets up the premise of the sequel and offers little else in the way of narrative—it provides a capable teaser, and then moves directly along to the matter of vicious tentacle murder.

As expected, the quick, punchy shooting is several steps above the strange, floaty aiming of Starbreeze’s original, and the addition of a couple of more modern FPS features (such as sprinting and aiming down the sights) makes the proceedings a little more comfortable and combat more flexible.

The real question, though, was always with regards to the Darkness powers and their implementation—and I can say that what’s found here works.

Though quad-wielding, in theory, originates with The Darkness, “quad” didn’t really factor into it. There were four arms, but they weren’t particularly controllable; two were merely an expression for one of four selectable powers at a time, and though Jackie could carry two guns at once, it was always two of a kind.

The Darkness II takes a more evolved approach; though the powers available in the demo are limited, Jackie possesses his mainstay abilities—a demon arm for grabbing, a demon arm for slashing, and the option to mix and match dual wielded firearms for a total of four core killing options that are available at the touch of a button. The control scheme is surprisingly intuitive and the four powers are easy to coordinate, such that within moments I was already slashing enemies into the air and impaling them with hurled metal piping before they hit the ground.

Needless to say, between using car doors as shields and snatching enemies directly out of the air to toss at other enemies, the demo alone already provides more involved, engaging murder methods than the original title—and that’s before even touching the elaborate skill tree.

Meanwhile, the shift in visual style has resulted in a bright, colourful world that manages the comic book aesthetic with greater success than some of its contemporaries, though I immediately missed the blackened environments that would illuminate with the pulsing gold of the Darkness’ night vision, and the permeating noir that characterized the original game.

The light and dark mechanic loses some of its appeal as punching out lights no longer truly darkens the environment, subtracting notably from the atmosphere. It was always grimly satisfying to move through a hall, smashing lights, making the world ominously darker along the way, and I wonder about the loss of such fine touches in the final product.

I need no longer fear that The Darkness II will fail on the merits of its gameplay; indeed, it may be on track to succeed the original in that regard. With respect to what truly made The Darkness special, though, I cannot say. I don’t know if that sense of humanity, of dark intimacy and hopelessness is something that Digital Extremes has captured—though I am now fully primed to rip, tear, and slash my way toward finally answering that question.

*The Darkness 2 demo is currently available for Xbox LIVE Gold members. Xbox LIVE Silver members, PlayStation Network users and Steam enthusiasts will have access to the demo on January 24th.

Ostensibly, Asura’s Wrath is a beat ‘em up—except, I think I maybe beat up three guys in the course of the demo, for a total of perhaps ninety seconds of gameplay.

The demo chiefly consists of cut-scenes and quick-time events; it plays like an interactive episode of Dragonball Z, where following the prompts progresses the story, chiefly by causing Asura to get angry and hit things harder.

Interspersed were a few brief gameplay interludes, where I actually had some limited freedom to move Asura and do what I would typically describe as “playing the game.”

These sequences involved A) running and blasting things, or B) running and punching things. In the latter section, I fought what would, in any other game, be called a boss battle—but strangely, even this brawl felt suspiciously as if it were on rails. Not that it was, not truly, but there was a pattern, there were prompts—and eventually, I understood that the game was trying to make me play out a cinematic with my own two hands. If the boss knocked me back, I could tap quickly and recover—if I advanced perfectly through his assault, I could attack. If I was exactly skilled enough, I would use all the right moves and the battle would simply look like a cut-scene.

It would look like a good one, too. The aesthetic of Asura’s Wrath is, in a word, brilliant. I’ve never seen a videogame look like this—like a painting come to life. What’s accomplished here is what so many games struggle endlessly with and never achieve; a true visual dynamism where the nature of the image can change, like a brush stroke, becoming smooth and calming or stressed and furious. The visuals alone demand attention, insisting the game be played.

If there is a game, that is. At the end of the demo, a title screen thanked me for playing, and I sat there, wondering: had I played? I had mashed some buttons, sure—but whether there’s a game here? Whether this is a videogame? I really don’t know.

I do want to find out.

The game involves claiming bounties on “them outlaws”, a task that can be accomplished A) by sucking their unconscious bodies into some kind of… thing… or, B) by murdering them horribly and sucking their corpses into the same kind of…thing…

To this end, Stranger employs an eclectic mix of tricks that, in a lesser game, might not fit together. Primarily, the bounty hunter is able to switch between the first and third person perspectives, granting him some different abilities tied to those modes.

In third person, Stranger will break out into a four-legged run that can smash obstacles and enemies, and he’s able to employ some quick melee attacks for crowd control. Though it may immediately seem like a mode used chiefly for navigation and platforming, the sprint and melee attacks can be critical for defeating enemies and escaping dangerous situations if the player learns to smoothly coordinate the two modes.

In first person, Stranger wields a double-barrelled crossbow loaded with an assortment of critters in the place of traditional ammunition; animals and insects that create different effects when fired. These can be employed to create traps, incapacitate, delay, or simply annihilate enemies—and, in an unexpectedly obvious twist, ammo must be hunted rather than collected.

Requiring that small colonies of critters be zapped with an infinite supply of electric flies, it’s not a complex or time consuming element of the game, hardly more complicated than a standard pickup—but it creates an interesting layer of challenge in many of the game’s scenarios. Ammo capacity is fairly low, making it entirely possible that the player will run out of an important ammo type during a skirmish, requiring that he then scour the battlefield and quickly zap and scoop up critters right in the middle of the firefight.

Especially refreshing is how much Stranger’s Wrath teaches the player about its own mechanics without resorting to hand-holding. Though there’s a fairly comprehensive opening tutorial, once the game is rolling the player is largely left to his own devices—and it works, with a comfortable learning curve even as the missions pile on increasingly difficult enemies that require particular tactics to defeat.

Experimentation and combining the right kinds of firepower in the double-barrelled crossbow can yield some interesting results and significantly speed up the pace of combat. It’s not merely a matter of the ammo best suited to the job, but also the ammo you can spare; though an enemy-ensnaring spider is easily the cleanest way to subdue lesser enemies, it’s not the most efficient—as spiders can be hard to find, and might best be employed for higher level bad guys. Combining more plentiful (if messier) ammo can be used to down foes just as quickly, allowing rarer ammo types to be conserved.

As a byproduct, the pacing of any battle can vary wildly. A methodical, stealth oriented approach can disintegrate quickly into a spray-and-pray shootout and back again, simply by virtue of the ammunition equipped.

As the battles become more and more demanding, Stranger’s Wrath requires quicker thinking and a better understanding of enemy weaknesses. It’s not long before enemy types with opposing weakpoints begin to travel together, requiring that the player employ limber tactics to dispatch them.

Later levels stack more interesting environmental scenarios with an exponentially increasing number of dangerous enemies, and it can be punishing—but finding the right groove, switching to all the right ammo and shooting at all the right times is invigorating.

Missions are capped by boss encounters, and this is where things get a little messy. Bosses, understandably, cannot be felled with the same simplicity of their rank and file goons; one can’t expect to launch a single skunk-bomb at a boss and bounty him while he’s puking.

One of the few communication failures of the game is that it’s never quite made clear that bosses can be subdued, without lethal force, by draining their stamina bars rather than their life bars. Players are likely to capture the early bosses alive without much difficulty, but find that later bosses seem to respond only to lethal damage—when in fact what’s required is careful observation regarding which weapons drain which bars.

Perhaps the boss strategy is obscure by design. The first instinct of any gamer is going to be to fixate on the life bar of a boss, and the difficulty to discerning a non-lethal strategy for bosses does add an element of challenge that demands a break from such traditional FPS thinking—making it difficult to write this one up as a flaw.

Stranger’s true flaws are few and mostly technical. The HD upgrade has been handled nicely, though there remains some of the visual harshness and darkness characteristic of titles from the previous generation of consoles. Additionally, some audio flops see some dialogue clipped awkwardly—especially when Stranger dashes through an occupied town, while the soundtrack often can’t decide exactly which track it would like to play.

Meanwhile, the art and production values have stood the test of time. The slow-speaking Stranger makes every line fun to listen to, operating alongside a cast of fun characters and illustrated with fluid, satisfying animation.

The title drips with humor and personality, with even the cartoonish weaponized critters offering quips before being flung into the fray.

What’s more, while many modern games seem to think they have much more of a story than they actually do and spend an inordinate amount of time fixating on a narrative that just isn’t there, Stranger’s Wrath knows exactly how much time its story warrants and doesn’t waste a second more. It’s a tight, straightforward tale, and there’s a lesson to be learned there about knowing what kind of property you have on your hands.

Stranger’s Wrath, like a lot of HD updates, isn’t going to offer much for existing fans of the title and probably won’t warrant a revisit, but it’s a perfect opportunity for those who missed the game on its first pass. The game has withstood the ravages of time well, which is no small feat in an medium that moves so quickly, and holds up better than some other, higher profile titles to see the HD upgrade.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD

Developer
Just Add Water

Publisher
Oddworld Inhabitants

System
PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network), PC (PlayStation Network Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer

Release Date
December 27, 2011

Price
$14.99

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

Meanwhile, the game sold seven decazillion copies in the first ninety seconds after its release. True fact.

So, you understand: never mind that Metacritic score. The verdict is in, and everybody loves Call of Duty. As a registered and licensed Digi-Herald and Internet Chronicler, it pains me to inform you, dear reader, that your internet voice, and my internet voice, and the score of 3.2 on Metacritic do not matter. The score could be zero, and it would not matter. The gaming community voted with their wallets November 8—and if you don’t like Call of Duty, well, you lost.

Call of Duty is the President of Vidyagaems. Sorry.

I think the truth, though, is that everybody likes Call of Duty—even those who profess to hate it. Few actually pick up that controller and say “Nah, this isn’t any fun.” Call of Duty is fun. In fact, fun is pretty much all Call of Duty is, and maybe that’s where some of the ire comes from. If you play MW3, you’re going to have fun—you’re just going to have the same kind of fun you’ve had in the last four games.

If you’re someone who cares about videogames, and not just someone who plays them, it’s easy to watch a game sell more copies every year without doing anything new—and feel a little dirty.

You probably feel even worse when you buy the damn thing and like it.

You are going to like it, of course. You’re going to like it for the same damn reasons you did last year, because that’s what Call of Duty does with such laser-guided precision.

If you followed our coverage of Call of Duty XP, you already know the multiplayer has seen some significant tuning. There’s been some reorganization and balancing—especially in regards to killstreaks and encouraging support roles—that works out very well. Additionally, what new content there is—such as weapon specializations, adds another layer of depth to the increasingly customizable experience. They’ve refined that brutal heroine of a progression system into an even purer form. It’s designed to addict; everything is about rewarding players with a flood of tidbits, always demanding that they play just one more match.

Meanwhile, the revamped Spec Ops mode provides some extended playtime for those who wish to play co-operatively rather than competitively (get the unstoppable XBLA fourteen year-olds on your side, for once). Also, guess what? It has its own rewards system, too!

My understanding is that next year Activision will roll out a Call of Duty Lifer subscription package, which will include an intravenous feed of concentrated XP ooze, dispensed for each kill earned.

On the campaign side, the explosions are even explodier, the heights are even higher—and in one ludicrous sequence, the gravity is actually lower.

Of course, the plot suffers from more holes than a pair of crocs, and I think the desire to emulate the successes of the past has hurt it a little. There’s so much concern given to crafting set-pieces, that the setup is completely forgotten, subtracting weight and meaning from these moments.

Nothing is quite as harrowing or memorable as Call of Duty 4, but fortunately, not everything misses the mark. There are some cool novelties in the campaign, and the final moments pack the sort of punch that I’d been waiting to see for the entire ordeal.

Interestingly, I think perhaps Treyarch has the more advantageous position when it comes to crafting Call of Duty campaigns. Though their games are not etched with the same inhuman precision, and I feel do not quite enjoy the same support or reputation, they have the advantage of a little more freedom—something they exploited fully with Black Ops. Black Ops was a little off-center for the franchise; a little strange, mysterious—in the end, just a little weird. Secret conspiracies, brainwashing, hallucinations—it was new territory for the franchise; a risk that paid off.

It worked so well that, when all is said and done, Black Ops will stand alongside Call of Duty 4 as the most memorable in the franchise thus far.

Ultimately, the people behind the series have produced another genuinely good game—and I’m sure they will continue to do so. However, much like Halo in recent years, the franchise has ceased to be an innovator; it is no longer a trendsetter, now merely content to follow its own trends. It may be time for Call of Duty to stop the progress-wary navel-gazing, to look out and set the next trend. The genre just isn’t growing the way it was five years ago, so somebody has to do it.

Yesterday’s nine is an eight today, and every sequel wants to be bigger and better—but there’s only so far a series can go when the strategy for attaining that goal is doing the same thing you did last year, but doing it harder. “This year we’re going to Call the Duties even more” is a philosophy that can only work for so long—er, at least I think it is. We’ll see how the gaming public votes next year, right?

Lording over your Assassin minions is much as it was in Brotherhood, with a few quirks. Assassin’s are recruited in small sidequests and can be deployed at the touch of a button to emerge from the shadows and nail enemy targets.

These disciples see upgrades through combat and can still be sent away on missions to gain experience, but the missions now have more tangible rewards—in that completely freeing a city of templar control yields continuing income and bonuses, much the way renovating shops does.

Additionally, Ezio’s Assassin forces wage a war for control inside Constantinople, whereby Ezio’s captured dens can be contested by Templar forces—resulting in Revelation’s most curious offering: a tower defense mini-game.

This is an interesting step for the series, if not as refined as it needs to be. Winning a battle largely involves stacking a crapload of units on the right rooftop and the liberal application of cannon fire, but I admit some visceral satisfaction in being able to look over Ezio’s shoulder as he commands the army I’ve assembled for him.

These mini-games are technically optional; they can be avoided entirely by keeping a close watch on the Templar awareness meter and keeping it low. This feels like an experiment, and though I wouldn’t describe it as a full success, my interest is piqued, and I’ll look for future entries to refine the formula.

Assassin training culminates in a two part quest whereby the Assassin student will become a master, and his assigned den will become impervious to further attack. An optional but nicely satisfying avenue, the training system lends some resolution and legitimacy to the concept of controlling a league of Assassins, and blends rather organically with the events of the core game.

By contrast, Altair’s side-missions don’t fair quite as well. The earlier Assassin’s interludes should have been played as an opportunity to provide unique missions, but instead are the least engaging of the campaign. Logically, Altair cannot possess the abilities and technology of Ezio, and thus playing as Altair is a more limited experience with a more limited Assassin, and the uninteresting scenario design doesn’t help. Besides the potential to drop a few plot elements, these missions offer little to look forward to.

The title distinguishes itself from its predecessors with a series of curious puzzled-based missions, revolving around the game’s third protagonist, Desmond Miles. These puzzling interludes are a comfortable change of pace, sitting the player down and telling a story during the solving of some simple, organic puzzles—and finally shedding some light on the character of Desmond. These, too, are clearly experimental, and can be avoided if the player chooses—but I wouldn’t recommend it.

It’s the odd little touches like these missions that make it clear Ubisoft is still seeking to make progress in a game that can sometimes feel very “samey.” It’s also worth noting how impressive it is that the game switches between the viewpoints of these three core characters organically, without breaking down the narrative.

Back on Ezio’s side of things, the increasingly aged guild master employs a couple of new tricks. Climbing is sped up by the addition of a hook to extend Ezio’s reach—also providing some combat applications—while a fairly robust bomb-crafting feature provides a wealth of new options for distracting, luring, and engaging guards.

Bombs can be customized for effect, area, and detonation—from timed grenades to trips wires, and smoke bombs to amusing loot grenades that eject fake coins to lure crowds.

Like anything in Assassin’s Creed, bombs are only as satisfying as you make them. Four games into the series, there’s a truly ridiculous number of ways to engage and escape enemies, and you’re unlikely to see all the options at any given time. It’s easy to find a niche, and maybe a little too easy to get comfortable in it; those players who experiment will find themselves the most rewarded. My advice? Try assassinating an enemy while parachuting off a tall building. Not because it’s an especially practical kill, but because this is a videogame, and because you can.

All things considered, the annual schedule appears to be wearing on the franchise somewhat. Brotherhood, despite also being an annual release, was a game-changer that introduced multiplayer and expanded and refined the core gameplay experience in such a way that it was leaps and bounds beyond its predecessors—and against that standard, Revelations doesn’t quite measure up.

That’s not to say Revelations is a poorer game; it isn’t. It’s just not an obviously superior game; it hasn’t taken the steps that say “Yes, I deserve to be here, as a sequel.”

Revelations is comparable in its scope to Brotherhood—expansive on its own, but notably smaller than Assassin’s Creed II. Additionally, though there is a great deal of content to be had, it is mitigated by the fact that much of it is the same basic content as the last two entries. Many concepts and scenarios recur (such as Ezio’s dungeon-crawling interludes), unfortunately creating the sensation that one is playing the same game rather than a sixty-dollar sequel.

Some areas remain ripe for improvement; Revelations still doesn’t always communicate well with the player (critical in a game with so many play options), while the graphics engine is showing its advanced age, and a few bugs and quirks may crop up. At this point in the series, one expects details such as these to be ironed out.

Where revelations picks up the slack is in its multiplayer component. Two years ago I never would have guessed it, but multiplayer has become the purest, most satisfying expression of the core gameplay goals of Assassin’s Creed. It’s where you’ll find the unpredictable, unscripted, and above all, adaptive gameplay that the franchise originally promised, only infinitely better realized by the addition of a human element.

At first glance, multiplayer is fundamentally the same as it was in Brotherhood, with the same careful, intelligent design—but some subtle and deliberate improvements have been made.

New modes are at the forefront of this effort. In addition to a handful of novelty objective game-types, Revelations includes a handful of unique spins on the core “kill or be killed” game mode. Specifically, these modes tune out certain elements of hunt, allowing players to choose a mode tailored to their particular goals. If you feel the target compass or special abilities obfuscate that raw hunt-and-kill imperative, there are game modes to omit those features.

My favorite variation is the assassination mode, where targets are chosen by the player rather than assigned by the computer. With a vague awareness of the positions of other humans, the player can spot, target, and kill anyone on the field—and the real thrill is that the player you’re stalking may also be stalking you. It’s important to be aware of other humans, even if they aren’t tracking you—because if you kill your own target while they lurk nearby, they’re likely to spot and pursue you next.

Regardless of the variant you choose, Revelations will remain a game that rewards patience, cunning, and quality over quantity. There’s nothing so satisfying as rocketing to first place after spending several minutes lurking in a haystack for a perfect, devastating kill. The game is designed to punish impatience and run-and-gun players and reward the careful and deliberate, in a wonderful inversion of multiplayer norms.

For those players who fell in love with multiplayer in Brotherhood, Revelations is an excellent (if subtle) refinement of the formula that may warrant your attention. Meanwhile, those who skipped Brotherhood have even greater reason to give Revelation’s exemplary multiplayer component a try.

On the campaign side, long time series adherents may find that three games set in the same time period (in a series that could instantly redefine its experience by moving to, say, the industrial revolution) has worn on some of the appeal, but Revelations remains a solid entry for those looking for another go ‘round. As for those new to Assassin’s Creed, this entry is easily the most well-rounded in the series and an obvious choice from a gameplay perspective.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Developer
Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher
Ubisoft

System
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (Xbox 360 Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer, Online Multiplayer

Release Date
November 15, 2011 (PS3, X360); November 29, 2011 (PC)

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

The core concept of the title is simple, and in the end, the core concept is really all there is to it. Mow zombies, keep moving. There’s little nuance and little window dressing, and the title makes no effort to disguise this fact.

The hokey, tongue-in-cheek story features the grown-up equivalent of a 13-year old Call of Duty player, Ned Flanders with a shotgun, the obligatory angry rapper and doubly obligatory hot girl, all making bad jokes as they stroll through the blackened streets of an anonymous city and paste zombies.

Each character has a pair of unique tools; a throwable (such as a Molotov or a zombie-baiting boombox), and a special “Pwnage” ability that can be activated when the appropriate meter is full. If there’s anything akin to strategy in this game, that’s where you’ll find it: there’s a degree of interplay between the abilities that can be taken advantage of by intelligent players, but by and large the core tactic here is simply to deploy abilities at the right time.

The characters also have unique melee weapons, though to be honest I could discern no gameplay difference between them, nor any particular usefulness for them.

More interestingly, characters have a number of stats that level up as they’re used—though new levels must be bought after being unlocked. Strangely, character progression (and also story progression) does not carry over between modes; if you level up a character in single-player, you’ll have to do it all over again in multi-player.

Equally, if you are not the host of the multi-player game, don’t expect to be afforded your upgraded characters or story progress. This is made slightly more frustrating by the fact that the only way to guarantee that you’re the host of a game is to invite your friends. If you choose matchmaking, the option to host a game will only appear if no other suitable games are found. The inevitable result is that you’re pretty unlikely to play a game on a map of your choice, lest you select single-player.

On the plus side, single-player play (as well as the two-player local co-op and any online game with less than four players) affords you the opportunity to switch between characters on the fly. This is essential, as the AI will simply refuse to use special abilities (or even shoot with reasonable frequency). Playing wither fewer than four players noticeably increases difficulty, and demands more active management of squad powers.

Still, online co-op remains the optimal way to play the game, and despite my assorted criticisms, Never Die Alone is fairly un-terrible. The title carries itself on frantic, four player action, and though four player co-op will lock players into their character choice, it dramatically increases gameplay speed and excitement.

There are—at maximum—three hours of playtime in the campaign, short even for a download title, but levels remain entertaining on subsequent playthroughs by virtue of the simplicity of the core gameplay. That said, with the character progression being largely unnoticeable, there won’t be much incentive to replay, except for those who wish to grind out the games various optional objectives.

I found myself comparing NDA to Dead Nation, Housemarque’s own entry into the crowded zombie market. Another top-down shooter, its gameplay goals were decidedly different (providing a slower and more nuanced game), but ultimately it proved to be a more well-rounded and exciting experience. Though both titles are characterized by some similar weaknesses, Dead Nation remains the superior choice—and though Zombie Apocalypse is a fair title in its own right, it’s difficult to recommend while Dead Nation is available (to PS3 owners, anyway).

That said, players searching specifically for a four player download title could do worse.

Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone

Developer
Backbone Entertainment

Publisher
Konami

System
Xbox 360 (XBLA), PlayStation 3 (PSN) (XBLA Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer, Local and Online Co-op

Release Date
October 25, 2011

Price
$9.99, 800 Microsoft Points

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

Few need to explain what they thought of The Dark Knight Returns, or ask about The Long Halloween. It is simply understood that one should know of these stories and their significance, as such tales are the seminal books of Batman.

It’s not often that outside media enters in to this exclusive lexicon, where respect and adoration are implied merely through reference. If one talks about Burton’s 1989 film, it is not simply assumed that he speaks of it with approval.

Those outside properties that have entered this elite class, such as The Dark Knight and Batman: The Animated Series (so revered that its original ideas bled into the comics for years) succeeded in the same way that Arkham City does: by being more than a mere cipher for the source material.

I can’t describe to you the number of times I’ve seen the ethics of Batman’s refusal to use lethal force explored; indeed, many of the notable tales in the mythology touch on or hinge upon this subject. It’s at the core of the character, and ripe for examination—but make no mistake, it can be tiring discussing the subject in the same way time and time again.

Likewise, I’ve seen piles of interpretations of Ra’s Al Ghul or the Penguin, and need not see what has come before merely codified into moving pictures.

Arkham City strikes a fine balance, where everything is recognizable, but still fresh. The mythology unfurls in a way that can still surprise and spin itself in a unique way—and, most important of all, it takes advantage of the fact that it is its own universe.

Writer Paul Dini goes places that the continuity of the comics fears to tread, and enhances the narrative through such. At the same time, the characters are so close to their iconic versions that their actions and events still carry weight; it’s easy to imagine that Mark Hamill’s Joker is the same fans have been watching since 1992.

Arkham is a roadmap to comic book adaptation, and not only in terms of its plot. When developers try to decode comic book panels into videogames, the result is often incomplete. Somehow these properties get boiled down to one idea in the process (usually, that idea is “Beat ‘em up”), and become tired, diminished affairs.

Rocksteady transcends this difficulty by embracing the whole product, not merely to craft a satisfying narrative, but to enable superior game design. This is most obviously apparent in the blending of stealth and combat gameplay, but perhaps the best example is the challenge of the game’s puzzles.

Consider: nobody would have ever thought to make a Batman puzzle game. He’s called the World’s Greatest Detective, but few would buy a game where Batman merely solves mysteries (note: I would, but that’s beside the point). It has simply been easier to stuff the character into a parade of mediocre brawlers.

Arkham City, improving on the model of Asylum before it, adapts an ideal formula, whereby puzzles and mystery are fully half the game, but comfortably explored at the player’s own pace. No longer merely trophies to be found or riddles to be scanned, these new challenges involve honest and creative puzzle-solving, where the solution is rarely obvious and alternative options can be gleaned by lateral thinking—and superior puzzling is one of several significant design refinements that Arkham City brings to the table.

Notably, the new environment of Arkham City isn’t just big and it isn’t just open; it’s a gameplay revelation that’s cracked wide open and poured right out. Where Arkham Asylum offered discrete chambers that were designed for stealth or designed for combat, Arkham City is a sprawling battleground where any enemy type might be lurking, and any tactic might be employed.

Melee enemies mix with the gun totting, and one need not adapt a singular approach for either. New gadgetry and the massively increased options for approach and escape mean that even armed enemies can be engaged in a variety of ways. If you’re not interested in going the stealth route, a group of armed inmates might just as easily be taken out with a smoke pellet and disarming grapnel, followed by straightforward brawling.

Smoke pellets themselves are easy to dismiss as a defensive weapon—that is, until you think to drop one on a group of unsuspecting enemies and swoop down into the resulting panic.

Meanwhile, Batman can now employ freeze grenades and explosive gel in his combos, alongside a selection of special attacks that crowd control. The combat system will be easy to pick up for those who played the original, but is expanded in such new ways that achieving the perfect combo will take a lot of practice.

At first, the wide-open world of Arkham City may seem to sacrifice some of the intimacy that Arkham Asylum thrived on—but as Batman explores the unique locations of the super prison, that sense of isolation creeps slowly back in. Moreover, the world is sized in such a way that it quickly becomes familiar and easy to navigate; truthfully, it is infinitely more dense than it is large.

There’s no wasted space; buildings are crammed into every corner, with multiple levels of verticality for enemies and secrets to hide. From sunken streets submerged in water, to run down industrial buildings and a familiar alley hidden away behind a theater, Gotham is realized with expert craft and care, sacrificing none of Arkham Asylum’s detail for this new and more open world.

The premise of the mega-Asylum is beautiful in that it seamlessly facilitates anything the developers and the fans might want to see in a Batman game. It’s employed to litter the world with side-quests that never feel like side-quests. No NPC on a street corner will tell you that it’s time to save five pedestrians in sixty seconds. Instead, quests unfold organically for the main story and the core premise; Batman is trapped in a city of criminals, where the plans and eccentricities of the inmates are numerous and inter-twining.

If you buy the game new, you’ll also get access to the Catwoman DLC. The pack contains four Catwoman missions that fit into the main campaign, occurring at logical story breaks within the plot. These missions aren’t particularly engaging or even interesting, but the Catwoman herself is a unique and interesting alternative to Batman. Like Batman, she’s easy to play but difficult to master, and because she can be utilized in the game’s numerous challenge maps, the mediocrity of her campaign missions seems incidental. Equally, players can simply use Catwoman to cruise Arkham City, beat up bad guys and claim her 40 unique Riddler trophies.

In addition to the lengthy campaign and Catwoman add on, Arkham City also offers New Game +, which intelligently raises difficulty by changing gameplay circumstances (rather than merely increasing enemy lifebars).

Then there’s the challenge mode (now called Riddler’s Revenge) which returns well expanded with new challenge types and a whole mess of maps right out of the box. As mentioned, the replayability of the challenges can be expanded with the Catwoman DLC, as well as the imminent release of the Nightwing and Robin character packs.

Arkham City is one of the few sequels on the market that deserves to be called such, as it is not merely a continuation, but a game superior to its predecessor in every conceivable avenue. Even more so than Arkham Asylum, it crafts a nigh-perfect Batman experience. Empowered by its premise of showing the player one night in the Dark Knight’s hell, it’s an odyssey through which not even Batman can emerge without consequence—and it demands to be played by the bat-faithful and newcomers alike.

Batman: Arkham City

Developer
Rocksteady

Publisher
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

System
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Modes
Singleplayer

Release Date
October 18, 2011; November 15, 2011 (PC)

*A copy of this title was purchased by Gamesugar for review

This gameplay demo clocks in with considerably less high-energy than the spectacular announcement trailer; I think that there’s a problem inherent in showing a video of a character wirelessly hacking his environment. It’s just not very engaging to see a guy look at a door until it opens, or look at a turret until it has been turned friendly—but the footage still manages to intrigue. In particular, I wonder about the applications of brain hacking in combat.

Other things I wonder about: life, the universe, and everything. Video after the break.

There’s not much to say here, except that any art featuring Dinobot seems like an automatic win. Gameinformer says the sequel looks to set a “darker tone,” though one wonders how things could get much darker after the ending of War for Cybertron.

High Moon Studios will return to develop the sequel. Their efforts on War for Cybertron produced perhaps the best Transformers title available, while the developer was met with less success on the movie tie-in Dark of the Moon. One hopes that Fall of Cybertron will represent a return to form.

I have to know all about the Assassins and the Creeds, you see.

You too can learn about this exciting field of study after the break.