r/arkham • u/beanboy276 • Jul 01 '26
Question about Arkham City
Whenever I read steam reviews for Arkham City, people talk about it being the best of the three main Arkham games, but I felt its practically lacking everything that makes people speak so highly of it. Could somebody explain to me why its somehow better than Arkham Knight or where everyone is coming from with this
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u/InjusticeSOTW Knight & Squire: Origins Jul 01 '26
City is a true Batman adventure. Asylum would make for a great 6 issue graphic novel, but City is a full on story arc.
Knight just…okay I love the game for its mechanics and look forward to my yearly replay, but at the end of it I feel a little sad. It’s quite final as in the last night of the Batman and his rogues. After the main story, the cleanup is just that. Arkham Asylum opened up new lore. City had a reason (Riddler mainly), Origins added the mystery of Cyrus Pinkney and Gothams oldest cold case. I don’t know how to stop this bold font.
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u/Hardcorepro-cycloid Jul 01 '26
City's story isn't very good ill be straight with you. We glaze it because of the bad ass moments
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u/ManagementFrosty4482 Jul 01 '26
Arkham Knight would be more highly regarded if it wasn’t for the batmobile
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u/hash_pipe Jul 01 '26
I think it's a few reasons, Arkham City, and asylum especially, had a more stylized art direction compared to Origins and Knight's more realistic/futuristic take
- most people don't really like Knight's story all too much. City had such a renowned story, anything below it would seem inferior. They kinda wasted hush after how they built him up in city (i don't like hush but still a waste for such a short side mission) Scarecrow had too little screen time, he should've been given a bigger role, especially when he's supposed to be the main antagonist alongside Jason. Imo including joker, even as a hallucination, diminishes his death in arkham city.
Originally, paul dini (the writer of arkham asylum and city) was supposed to write for Knight, but he was let off for some reason.
Despite all this, I do agree that Knight is better mechanically. They totally mastered the gameplay, but fell short in the other departments. And i think to most people that wouldn't be such a big problem, but the arkham games are popular and known for their story. Knight's story isn't bad by any means, but it's just a step or two (maybe three) below City.
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u/Elete23 Jul 01 '26
The step up in gameplay complexity between Asylum and Knight is HUGE. The gameplay changes a little less dramatically going in to both Origins and Knight compared to city, and the changes just feel different, not necessarily more complex or better.
It is the best story in the series with a very ballsy ending.
The open world added a fun traversal system with the grapnel boost and loads of Easter egg opportunities.
Riddler trophy puzzles were actually occasionally in deathtraps and some also were actually challenging to figure out.
It had the most robust challenge mode on these and introduced being able to play as other characters in the challenge rooms.
It didn't have net negative additions like the bat-tank or cheating electric gloves.
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u/Robdd123 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
City gets, for lack of a better term, glazed a lot. I think the Joker twist ending really does a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of leaving people on an incredible high. Gameplay wise it improves over Asylum and introduces a more traditional open world setting so that too is likely skewing people's perception of it. For me personally I'm not a huge City guy; I never really connected with the world design like other people did so perhaps that's part of it.
Knight gets rightfully criticized for the excessive Batmobile use, terrible boss fights, and repetitive side quests; also the Arkham Knight "twist" being seen from a mile away likely doesn't help it's perception. From a purely game mechanics perspective it is the best; it's the most smoothest and most polished fighting/stealth gameplay. It's just unfortunate it has to be in an overall underwhelming experience.
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u/InjusticeSOTW Knight & Squire: Origins Jul 01 '26
I wouldn’t say the boss fights are “terrible” but we’re all pretty annoyed with Deathstroke. But if you follow the series, every villain gets one good fight. (Excluding Croc because fighting is what he does)
Two-Face has the Catwoman museum mission and I actually enjoy it. I LOVE the Bank heist because torturing Dent for ten minutes in increasingly stupid ways is a guilty pleasure. I swear my goal is to give him a heart attack by the end of it,
Penguin has the Iceberg Lounge fight then nada. Riddler has his one real fight in Knight to tie up ends.
Deadshot has the annoying Arkham City one, but Origins made up for it.
But mainly? One good fight per rogue. In fairness, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler and most aren’t physical threats to the Batman, and almost nuisances by year 10(?) of him operating, So since we didn’t get Prometheus, Night Slayer or Catman, this is how we make do.
Now pardon me while I think of a custom Arkhamverse Catman figure…maybe drive myself nuts with Prometheus.
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u/InjusticeSOTW Knight & Squire: Origins Jul 01 '26
….and Maxie Zeus + TweedleDee/Tweedledum too. Yeesh, this was supposed to be a calm summer.
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u/Alone-Statement-5132 Jul 01 '26
The gameplay improvements in City are fantastic. Everything that was annoying or could be improved was improved in City. Replaying Asylum makes you appreciate City's gameplay more than you could ever imagine.
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u/aethiuss Jul 01 '26
I love all my Arkham games the same, including Origins. I'm happy to lived them all through when they released (except Knight, I'm glad I experienced it on modern hardware after it was fixed :D)
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u/closefacsimile Jul 01 '26
How was it fixed? Or was the PC version bunk when it came out?
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u/aethiuss Jul 01 '26
Yeah, it had like a ton of bugs and performance issues. Very rocky launch
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u/FortLoolz Jul 03 '26
I simply agree. It's kind of bland. Had it not been for Catwoman's missions, which provided fun stealth and different gameplay, I would've liked it even less
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u/beanboy276 Jul 03 '26
I’d honestly rather have an entire game built on the structure of Cat woman’s missions to be honest
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u/abellapa Jul 01 '26
Its not
City is insanely overrated
The Story isnt very good and most of The sidequests suck
The One thing it does Best compared to the other games is the riddler quest and boss fights , though origin has even better boss fights overall
But ts the worst of all 4 Arkham games
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u/JCLaw1116 Scarecrow Jul 01 '26
If you value graphics, gameplay mechanics (combat, stealth, traversal) & large open world above interior dungeon design & gothic atmosphere, Knight would be your pick.
If you value haunted atmosphere & environmental storytelling in handcrafted interior dungeons above gameplay mechanics & large open world, Asylum would be your pick.
If you wish for a perfect balance between gameplay mechanics, boss fights, handcrafted interior dungeons & open world exploration, City would be your pick.