Review - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Review: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Pros: Revamped levelling and advanced combat system makes the game accessible to a wider audience.

Cons: Busy storyline and numerous quests make it easy to lose focus and become overwhelmed

Final Judgement: A must for any fan of Elder Scrolls or RPG’s (Roll Playing Game) but definitely not the title for the casual gamer.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim

Available for: PS3, Xbox, PC

Vikings! Mead swilling, axe wielding, village pillaging, fuck-you-and-your-culture-I-have-a-horned-hat wearing Vikings. If you think about what it is to be hard core, if you examine the tao of it, Vikings a.k.a. the Norse more or less have it on lock down. Only the Norse could come up with a story where the hero kills a dragon, bathes in its blood and then eats its heart. You may be asking: “Redcoat, why would he do this?” Well he was bored and an old man told him to. Some old guy said ‘Hey whipper-snapper, go have a dragon blood bath.’ and his response was: ‘Roger that old dude, dragon killing time.’ The Norse are also the men who believed the goal in life was to pick fights and die a warrior’s death. That way the top god Odin would put you on the guest list of the giant party that was the afterlife. There you would get pissed on mead with your dead buddies until the end of the world. At which point you go forth and die all over again in bloody combat while the world burns and I can only assume Odin wails away in the background on a guitar. As I said, the Norse, much like the Wu-Tang Clan ain’t noth’in to fuck with.

This is what the Norse looked forward to in the afterlife. Hardcore.

There really aren’t a lot of good games on the market that explore Norse Mythos or culture.  Too Human was essentially a sci-fi retelling of Ragnarok (the Apocalypse).  However, most people couldn’t finish the game because every time you died you had to watch a thirty second cut scene just so youcould respawn. Valkyrie Profile was another great game, but it was more just using the names and places as opposed to really following the Mythos.  

So here comes Skyrim, the fifth entry in the Elder Scrolls saga. Imagine my joy at picking up the game and being immediately inundated with Norse inspired story lines all mixed in with Dungeons, Dragons-esque fantasy, magic and role playing. Indeed, Role Playing Game + Norse Mythos = Win. Can it get better? I submit to you, that it cannot.

The game is not based on Norse Mythology but rather inspired by the culture and legends. Norse architecture dots the landscape of the game.  Norse titles such as “Thane” are bantered around and the world is populated with tall muscular and pale humans called Nords who have a distinct Scandinavian accent. The Norse legends are subtly woven into the main story lines. One legend in particular is central to the story and appears a few hours into game when you character learns he or she can “Shout” or project magic by uttering a word of power. Apparently this is a big deal as you are the first person in many years to possess this ability.

This is Sven... he's a Nord. Not Norse... Nord.

In Norse Mythos, Odin has this exact same power. The myth is described in the poem Havamal.  The poem follows Odin, the original Charlie Sheen, as he tries to prove how ‘winning’ he is by hanging himself from the tree of the world. He did this as a sacrifice… to himself. That’s right; he felt he was such a rock star from mars that the only person worthy of sacrifice to Odin was Odin. I would accuse Odin of being a narcissist but I’m fairly sure he’d kick my ass. Long story short, he hung around (tee-hee) for nine days on the tree at which point his sacrifice was so bat shit insane that he unlocked the mysteries of the Runes which were magic words he could utter or shout to create miraculous effects. A focus of the games story is your characters quests to harness the power of his voice by learning the runic language of dragons. Ability to kill people by saying a word, thanks Odin, that’s a sexy hook for a game.

"Hanging from a tree to get power? Duh... Winning."

Elder Scroll games are like a Universe in themselves, trying to catalogue everything that’s going on in them will break you. The good news however, is that each game has you create your own character which you then play in a unique land with an innumerable number of story paths available to choose. Because of this unparalleled freedom Bethesda is forced to make each individual game its own self-contained story that only shares a common thread of all occurring on the same planet with the same history. The developers simply couldn’t make a story that builds on its self as no one would be able to keep track of what was supposed to be going on. Simply put, you don’t have to play the previous games to enjoy Skyrim, there is really nothing for you to know, and you can pick it up blind and understand the story.

Speaking of the story, Bethesda Software has claimed that this is the largest Elder Scrolls game to date and has three hundred hours of game play and story events. As a result the ten or so hours I’ve been able to put into the game so far really doesn’t scratch the surface of its plot and I’m not even going to comment on it beyond saying that what I’ve seen of the main plot line so far is engaging and original.  What I can talk about is the sheer amount of things that you can do in the game. You can, in fact, completely ignore the main quest of the game, and Skyrim won’t hold it against you. Everywhere you go in Skyrim you are going to find ruins to explore, people that can be friends or foes and quests to play through. The game offers several different guilds and associations that your character can join. Each of these groups has their own campaigns and story lines that you can experience and could be considered stand-alone plots. You are free to more or less to experience Skyrim and craft your experience as you see fit. The main plot is just an experience that Skyrim is recommending. I have to say it’s a refreshing change to have the freedom to do what you want in a game and not be reminded constantly about what the game feels you should be doing.   

Each of the people in this screen capture have a quest for you.

Skyrim also has made some major gameplay mechanic changes since the last entry in the series.

The first thing a veteran to the Elder Scrolls series is going to note is that the levelling system has been reworked. In previous instalments of the game, after selecting your race then gender and appearance, you selected favoured abilities and major skills. Using these abilities and skills caused your character to level up. The system was nice because you could create any combination of these skills and abilities that you wanted and then create a class name that was unique to your characters configuration alone. It also meant that you could take some rather silly skills such as athletics (your ability to run) as a major ability and level up by just running around a town. It also made it so your minor abilities were fairly difficult to develop. What it came down to is that you could create any character you wanted, but if you wanted to be able to play the game in a way that wasn’t a constant uphill battle you were forced to give up some of the skills you wanted for skills that were boring but made your life a lot easier.

The new leveling system has you star gaze to choose your characters path in life... there is something so very zen about that.

In Skyrim, Bethesda has done away with the complex levelling up and creation system. All characters now start the same. You level up by preforming any one of 16 skills.  The more you use any skill such as swinging an axe or shooting a bow the quicker that skill increases. As your skills increase your level increases. When you level up you choose to increase one of three attributes, mana (your ability to cast spells) health or stamina. You then choose one perk for the skills, such as making locks easier to pick or making your swords do more damage and that’s it. It’s simple, it doesn’t fence you in with a structured class and it gives you a lot more leeway to play your character how you want. The new system takes a bit of getting used to, but in my opinion superior to the old complicated one.

The combat system has also been reworked and improved. The first person sword play feels a lot more natural and less like you’re just repeatedly waving a stick in the direction of your foe. The game has also included pre-scripted critical hits and finishing moves.  For example, the action will now break away from first person to a cinematic third person clip of you running a monster through on your sword or beheading a crippled foe. These cinematic breaks add some much needed variation and visual pop to the combat of the game without interrupting the pacing of combat.

Get used to this... Dragons really, really don't like you.

Any fan of RPG or fantasy settings can find something that they will enjoy in Skyrim. However, Skyrim is probably not the game for someone who is either new to gaming or new to the role playing genre. Skyrim does not hold your hand, it places the experience of playing the game very much with the player. As a result, what the player puts in is what they will get out of it. Skyrim will tell you where you should go but the player has to be the one driving the story forward.   The game will also continue to barrage you with new quests and plots as you are trying to work through an adventure. This happens so often that I could easily see a player getting overwhelmed and not knowing how to proceed or which quest to tackle next.

So for fans of Elder Scrolls, Skyrim is a fantastic next chapter. For the casual or busy gamer, who likes to be able to pick up and put down games, Skyrim is definitely not the title for you. Its streamlined levelling system and revamped combat has made the game more accessible and easier to play but the game is vast and deep that it can be easy to lose yourself and your plot direction amongst the many plains and mountains in vast land of Skyrim.

Review - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Review – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Pros: Exciting game play with cinematic pacing.

Cons: Finicky controls can make Drake difficult to control.

Final Judgement:  Great stand-alone story line and incredible visuals makes Uncharted 3 a must for adventure gamers.

http://www.naughtydog.com/games/uncharted

Available for: PS3

It was two weeks before ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ was due out in theaters when I finally decided to sit down, for the first time, and watch the Trilogy in its entirety.  There I was, all innocent and excited, clutching the trilogy in my hot little hands. I watched Raiders, thoroughly impressed.  Upon the roll of the credits, I immediately stuffed Temple of Doom in to the DVD player. I hit play.  Then, as if God was punishing me for my hubris, a pre-diabetic Asian dwarf shoe horned his way onto the screen and Jones' love intrest was screaming like a bitch about the semantics of sinking and crashing. My expression faded from a smile of joy to a grimace of pain and disappointment. By the end of the second movie I was a broken man, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the third. I spent the next two weeks convincing myself that the new movie would be better; that it would redeem the cinematic holocaust that I had borne witness to. So I bought a ticket, sat in the theater and watched a movie about aliens and Harrison Ford surviving a nuclear bomb inside a fridge. Some days I still stare longingly out the window and sigh wistfully at what might have been…

Now I tell you this because I really like adventure stories.  I like tales of lost treasure and ancient conspiracies, especially ones that are at least superficially grounded in actual historical events. It’s why Uncharted holds a special place in my heart, Uncharted to me is what Indiana Jones should have been. Naughty Dog Games created the adventure game formula with the journeys of our hero Nathan Drake, his mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan and his on again off again paramour Elena Fisher. Unlike Indiana Jones, which every second movie slaps us across the face with a dick, Uncharted just gets better with each game. Naughty Dog also crafted their stories to be stand alone with only an overarching side story involving Drake and Elena. You can pick it up, play and totally understand the characters and their relationships without having to play the other games.

They're back and looking for another lost city to destroy shortly after they rediscover it.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception follows Drake and crew as they travel around the world looking for the Lost City of Ubar or as Lawrenceof Arabia called it “The Atlantis of the Sands”. The plot begins with SirFrancis Drake, who was apparently searching for Ubar while he was supposed to be sailing in the West Indies during 1570 and 1571. A search which Drake promptly gave up on because he probably stopped and asked himself why a bad ass sea captain/pirate such as himself was spending all his time fucking around in the god damn desert. A desert which any scholar will tell you is the exact opposite of an ocean. Deserts and lost cities also have nothing to do with boats or stomping Spaniards, both of which were Drake’s bread and butter.

You really can't blame Drake, I mean, this Spaniard looks like a total douche.

The game purports that Drake was a part of a secret society working along with the Occult Mathematician / beard enthusiast John Dee for Queen Elizabeth 1 to execute her wishes.  The game also implies that hundreds of years later Lawrence of Arabia was murdered by the same secret society after he stumbled upon Drake’s trail while researching Ubar. Nathan Drake, the hero of our game, gets involved because he believes he is Francis’ descendant. As he works towards discovering the secret of Ubar the same shadowy group tries to take Drake out while simultaneously looking for the city themselves, which kinda makes their motivations a bit confusing. First they’re looking for the city, then they cover it up, then they kill Lawrence of Arabia for looking for it, then they start looking for it again while trying to kill someone else who is looking for it. Do they want to find or not?

"Gimmie that ring, I need it to find or perhaps loose a city... its complicated, you wouldn't understand."

Before I talk about the game play I’m going to side track for a moment.  As you may recall, in my introduction, I mentioned that Naughty Dogs gets many of the foundations for the Uncharted series from actual historical events. I’m no historian but I was able to verify some of the more interesting points about Drake, Dee and the lost city of Ubar used by Uncharted. Points which I thought were just spice added by Naughty Dog for the game but turned out to be historical fact! Pull up a chair while I rap at you about some of these historic nuggets from the Game:

·         Drake and Queen Elizabeth were quite buddy-buddy.  In fact, after he returned from his circumnavigation of the planet, a.k.a. “Operation Spanish Smack-down 1” during which time he accrued more ill-gotten booty from the Spaniards then the crown took in by itself that entire year, the Queen knighted him, gave him a jewel depicting her portrait (a very uncommon honour to be bestowed on a commoner) and then promptly declared his entire endeavour a state secret and classified all documents pertaining to his most excellent adventure. Think about that, a round planet is a relatively new idea and the dude just sailed around the god damn planet. The Queen’s response: good job… now don’t tell anyone.

"Good job bro... now everyone forget this happened."

·         In the game they cite John Dee as the original “007” and have documents where Dee signed his name with the image now synonymous with Ian Flemmings alcoholic British nymphomaniac. Dee actually did work as an informant to the Queen and signed his letters to her with two circles, as if to say he was the Queen’s eyes and a stylized number seven which he believed was a lucky number. Ian Flemming used Dee as inspiration for James Bond even though Dee, as far as I can tell, never played Baccarat or drove an Aston Martin.  

No shit! I can't make this stuff up!

·         Ubar or “The Atlantis of the Sands” is a legend of an ancient city that existed in the Rub’ al Khali desert and was destroyed by a supposed act of god. There is a great amount of debate about where the city was and the wealth that it contained.  However some archeological records have been found that mention the city as a trading partner, meaning this place actually existed and probably just got over embezzled,like how people say Meg Ryan is a totally great actress and then you watch Proof of Life.

See? Interesting stuff; now you know the secret origin story of James Bond. Feel free to use those facts next time you’re trying to impress some strange at the local bar… you’re welcome. Now back to game play.

Uncharted 3 keeps great pacing that always has Drake minutes away from his next harrowing escape or battle. The game creates a balance between puzzle elements, stealth situations and frantic gun fights.  The puzzle elements make you stop and think, without being frustrating, while the frantic gun fights have you dashing between points of cover while blazing away at enemies. Throughout the game there are climactic and dramatic chases as well as escapes that really manage to pull the player into the game.  

For example, the box art of the Game shows Drake among the wreckage of a crashed plane in the desert. The game sequence leading up to the crash has you controlling Drake as he fights for his life in the cargo hold of the plane. As the battle goes on, you and your opponents cause collateral damage to the plane causing  it to pitch and the difficulty level of the battle to steadily increase.  This continues until a quick time event occurs that has Drake getting sucked out of a hole in the fuselage of the plane over the desert.  Drake desperately works his way to an air drop cargo pallet that is free falling. As you get Drake to the pallet you have to mash the controller repeatedly to get him to cling to the cargo and manually deploy its parachute. Yes I know it sounds ridiculous and not based anywhere near reality, but the camera angles employed as you’re spinning through the air in a free fall over the desert mixed with a great soundtrack make the scene amazing and had me on the edge of my seat.

It's shit like this that makes me hate flying.

Uncharted 3 also features some excellent cinematography and directing that employs creative camera angles and zoom outs for dramatic effect. The graphics are also vibrant and well detailed.   Lots of care was put into little details such as pictures on room walls or items on coffee tables. Naughty Dog also put a lot of effort into the character models and faces, which move and convey emotion very well. Put together the visuals of Uncharted 3 and the game could very easily be mistaken for a movie as opposed to a video game.

Drake gives us his best "Magnum" look.

However with all the good that can be found in Uncharted 3 there is also bound to be some bad which, while not game breakers, were at times distracting.

The first issue I found was in a way linked to the excellent character models I just mentioned.  Uncharted 3 included an innovation where Drake now reacts dynamically to his surrounding environment. When Drake gets near a wall he will put his hand out to balance himself against it as he moves. It also means he will stumble or stagger if you run him over uneven ground, cower behind cover and generally look like he’s doing everything he can to not die. During the chase and action sequences this really adds to the mood and tension of the game.  It provides a more human and cinematic feel to the game. However, Drake is always doing this, even when he’s just on a Sunday walk in the market. When there is no rush and no one is trying to harm him, Drake runs around stumbling, looking over his shoulder and pushing off walls. When you aren’t in a life and death situation it looks silly and creates the opposite effect, killing the mood of the game. It would have been nice if they had made his movements context sensitive or included a button you could press to make Drake walk like a normal person.

The biggest issue I had however was that the controls could be a bit finicky during game play. I found the analog sticks to be a bit too sensitive which made precision aiming during gun battles tricky. When I tried turning down the sensitivity in the control options I found the aiming to be too sluggish.  After playing with the sensitivity sliders for a while I was disappointed to find that I was unable to get a happy medium. Drake was either hopped up on horse tranquilizers or on his fifth cup of coffee for the day. Eventually I just went with the default aiming sensitivity and made the best of it.

The finicky controls also became an issue during the aforementioned action sequences where Drake is desperately trying to avoid death.  There are moments of confusion as to what you are supposed to be doing or where you are supposed to be running. I found myself dying most of the time in these sequences.  Not so much because they were too challenging but because the game just wasn’t clear as to where I was supposed to be going. What looked like a path would turn out to be a cliff that resulted in instant death.  Sometimes the game just didn’t give enough cues or warning as to which direction you should be running in to avoid whatever apocalypse was going down around our hero.

Honestly, would it kill them to give you an arrow or sign to follow?

I have to recommend Uncharted 3 for both fans of the series and new comers alike. The story is what I’ve come to love about Uncharted and holds its own against similar games such as Tomb Raider and the other entries in the Uncharted series. The visuals are excellent and well detailed and the action sequences, while occasionally a bit unclear and finicky to control, are exciting and will draw you in to game.

Review - Batman: Arkham City

Review – Batman: Arkham City

Pros: Excellent game play with a well thought out story line.

Cons: Mark Hamill's last time playing the Joker

Final Judgement: Easily one of the best games released this year, fans of both adventure games and the Batman Franchise will truly enjoy the play through.

http://community.batmanarkhamcity.com/game/

Available for: PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Back in 1992, when I was but a lad, I stumbled upon a show that would change the way I thought of cartoons. It depicted a dark world with psychological adult oriented plot lines. The characters in the show fought each other by punching, kicking, and using honest to goodness guns on each other. Guns that fired god damn bullets and not “fru-fru lets all hug” laser beams. Oh and best of all, the heroes and villains got hurt, and they bled actual blood and sometimes they even died.

The show was Batman: The Animated Series. I was hooked immediately.  I continued to watch the show long after they stopped production.  When I couldn’t find it on TV anymore I bought the entire series on DVD.   The show has now been around for almost twenty years and I still find myself throwing it on the home theater a couple times a year.

Seriously, go watch these... You'll be glad you did.

I could honestly go on for hours singing the show’s praises, but for the sake of time and people’s attention spans, allow me to rattle off a few quick facts about why this show was so damn great.

-          The series was inspired by Frank Miller and his timeless graphic novel “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”.  Note I said, The Dark Knight Returns, which I recommend every one reads and not Miller’s glue huffing dog’s lunch of a sequel “Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again” which is so terrible I refuse to even link to it out of fear some misinformed reader will accidently purchase a copy.

 

What the hell was Miller thinking when he wrote this? I think it may have been "Contractual Obligation".

-        The actors all recorded their lines together in the same recording studio as opposed to being in separate rooms and never meeting face to face. This allowed the actors to play off each other and create more natural and authentic character interaction. At the time it was the only cartoon recorded in this fashion; this method has since become a standard for all DC Cartoons.

-        Throughout the shows run it won four Emmy’s and was nominated for six others. IGN called it the best comic book cartoon of all time and the second best animated series of all time.

-        The show has been celebrated for having a very high production value including hand painted backdrops and original orchestrated pieces by eight different composers, including Danny Elfman.

-         Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman, used two distinct voices to depict Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman. This was the first time an actor playing Batman had done so. This was Conroy’s own idea.

-         Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill re-launched his acting career as a voice actor playing a homicidally whimsical Joker.

-         Harley Quinn, The Jokers sidekick, was created exclusively for the show. As well, Mr. Freeze, who before was only a bit part mad scientist, was reimagined in the show to be a tragic and vindictive figure lamenting his doomed wife. Both Quinn and the deep complex Mr. Freeze were so popular that DC Comics actually changed the canon of the Batman Universe. Quinn was made a recurring character and Freeze, who had been killed off years before was brought back with a personality and back story taken from the animated show.

Though she was a bit more "PG" looking in the cartoon

Now the reason I’m prattling on so much about the animated series, aside from the fact that it’s awesome, is because both Batman Arkham City and the previous game Arkham Asylum are very heavily influenced by the Animated Series. Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and several other voice actors from the series come back to reprise their roles and lend their talents to the game. More to the point however, both games were written by Paul Dini who was the writer for twenty three episodes in the series as well as the theatrical movie that accompanied the show, Batman: Mask of the Phantasam. I would not be surprised if Rocksteady Games made these games for the fans of the Animated Series as they really feel like an extension of the show for the now adult audience that was first captivated by it back in the ninety’s.

For those who haven’t played Arkham Asylum, allow me to sum it up, Batman captures the Joker and delivers him to the asylum which is currently over crowded as a result of a fire at the nearby Blackgate Penitentiary. Of course getting caught is all part of the Jokers master plan to stage a takeover of Arkham Asylum with the help of side kick Harley Quinn. As Batman face-punches his way through the Asylum he faces off with Poison Ivy, Bane, The Riddler, Quinn and The Scarecrow. During this time Batman learns the Joker is using the asylum to manufacture the super steroid “Titan”, the drug which makes Bane look like he’s been power lifting exclusively with his neck muscles. The Joker injects himself with Titan.  Then Batman and The Joker have a throw down on the roof of the Asylum while TV helicopters circle and I can only assume broadcast the entire spectacle. Batman wins the day and all is returned to normal… Or is it?


No, of course it isn’t, after all this is the Batman universe, nothing stays normal. What would happen if the Joker just stayed in Prison for more than a week? Are you going to read a comic about Bruce Wayne reviewing his stock portfolio or planning a trip to Ibiza?

"Tee-hee"

So in the lead up to Arkham City, here’s whats been going down;  Arkham  Asylum is fucked worse than a frat house after frosh week. It’s now been about a year since the Joker tried to steal Mark Mcgwire’s bit and Hulked out. The former warden of Arkham Quincy Sharp, has been elected mayor of Gotham.  Quincy being the proactive prison warden turned mayor that he is, has converted the slums of North Gotham into Arkham City. A giant walled off section of the city in which all the insane and hardened criminals of Gotham could totally wail on each other. A giant re-enforced cement wall which was apparently built in less than a year. You know, because that’s totally do-able, I mean they`re building a bridge near my house which has taken almost three years and its only half done, and that’s just a bridge. This is a two hundred foot high re-enforced cement wall with gun emplacements, surveillance equipment and missile launchers.  

Anyway, Batman being the only sane person in Gotham sees that the super prison probably isn’t a good idea and starts using his alter ego Bruce Wayne to get all up in Arkham City’s business politically. For his troubles he’s arrested by the security company in charge of Arkham City and is caber tossed over the wall faster than an acrobatic fat kid breaking in to a pie factory.

That’s how the game starts, Bruce Wayne locked up in Arkham City. Before long you change into the Dark Knight and start face punching your way through many more mindless thugs along your path to uncover the master plan of Arkham City and its warden Dr. Hugo Strange.  Along the way you’ll encounter the Joker,  the Riddler, Penguin, Two Face  and others including Mr. Freeze who I must say has an excellent fight sequence.

Arkham City is beautifully crafted.  The character models and environment look great and really capture the dark feel of the source material. Batman’s villains have all been given makeovers to give them a more sinister edge but any fan of the show or comics will still instantly recognize who they are supposed to be. For example the Penguin was changed from the Danny DeVito malformed hunchback into more of a sleazy businessman and arms dealer with a penchant for sadism and torture. 

Thats a broken beer bottle shoved into his left eye by the way... Ouch.

Arkham City eschews the previous games linear progression for an open sandbox style setting, allowing Batman to freely roam the prison, with all areas of the game available to the player from the start of the game. Needless to say this game is huge. It has easily twenty five to thirty hours of game play, split between the main story, side quests and Riddler challenges. There are even easter eggs tucked away in the game for people to discover, such as Crime Alley where Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered. The chalk outlines of his fallen parents recreated by Dr. Strange as part of his attempts to get into Batman’s head.  There is also a code for DLC included with the game that allows you to play as Catwoman. She plays a supporting role to Batman and has her own side story a side story that can trigger an alternate ending to the game, depending on a choice she has to make. No one will leave this game wanting more from it or feeling that they didn’t get their money’s worth.

"What do the five fingers say to the two-face?"

As for the gameplay, basically take the Stealth Action of Metal Gear Solid, and instead of being a mulleted rip off of Snake Pliskin from Escape from New York, you’re the god damn Batman. The out and out street brawls where Batman or Catwoman take on hordes of thugs all at once are exciting and fast paced. You can wade into the middle of battle and convincingly lay the smack down thanks to icons that appear over a thugs head when they are readying an attack. All you have to do is press the counter button, and the attack is countered, that’s it. No complex combos, no moving the analog stick in the direction of the attack, just tap the counter button and you’re done. If there is more than one attacker coming at you just tap the counter button twice.  It’s simple and keeps the game fun and you actually feel like a super hero. This isn’t to say that it makes combat easy, far from it, counters do minimal damage and if you want to thin the ranks of bad guys you need to go on the offensive. This is where the game can get difficult.  While you’re trying to finish off one bad guy you may not notice the other two thugs sneaking up behind you.  

Does Batman look worried? He isn't.

However, more often than not the game focuses on takedown scenes where Batman is locked in a room with several armed thugs. In order to survive you need to use stealth and Batman’s utility belt of gadgets to strike from the shadows, snatching and subduing your opponent’s, leaving only an unconscious thug’s body behind for the remaining ones to find. During these sequences the music switches between stealthy subdued themes to booming crescendos as you move between waiting in the shadows to pouncing your enemies. These scenes are incredibly fun and while they do require a bit of patience and planning, nothing is more rewarding than watching the hard boiled thugs go from calm to terrified as you pick them off from the shadows.

They have no idea that they are mere seconds from "Go Time"

Arkham City is a well thought out, well-polished game. I have real trouble finding fault with any part of this games experience. Given that Batman is a household name and everyone is more or less familiar with who he is, anyone can pick up Arkham City and enjoy it.

Everyone loves a little Batman/Catwoman sexual tension.

I’ll end by saying that Mark Hamill has confirmed that, after close to twenty years, this is the last time he will voice the Joker and that he wants to leave his role as Batman’s nemesis on a high note. Well, you did a hell of a job Mark, thanks for a memorable grand finale.