Batman: Arkham City review - Edge Magazine

The reviews for Batman: Arkham City are trickling in, and the critical consensus is positively glowing. This is from Eurogamer:

It’s a role-playing game, when you get down to it. Not just because you gain XP, engage in a little light levelling and are free to sharpen your combat skills one upgrade at a time. It’s a role-playing game in the most literal sense of the phrase, a game in which you’re encouraged to give in to the fantasy, and to see what life is like when it’s composed of rooftop brawls and zip-line getaways. Animations, traversal mechanics, takedowns: they’re all building towards the same thing. In Arkham City, you become Batman.

When all is said and done, I find the characterisation of this particular Batman to be laughable - a steroid-addled psychotic, wrapped up in leather and expensive toys. But I can excuse the window dressing if the game design lives up to the buzz. 

Also, I’m most intrigued by the recreation of Gotham City (albeit only a small part of it). In the comics and films the city is practically a character in its own right. Here, we’re given a unique opportunity to explore it for ourselves. This is from Edge magazine:

But after its introduction, Arkham City places you on the highest floor of a skyscraper, with a city at your feet. The effect is very nearly disorienting, if only for the sumptuous level of detail on offer. The wintry Arkham City is a carved-up and cut-off hunk of Gotham, a glorious mix of neon and sodium, rusted metal, soot and black stone. And the structure you’re standing on, by the way, is the Ace Chemicals building: the place where a no-name hoodlum fell into a vat of chemicals and the Joker emerged. Your first objective, meanwhile, is the district courthouse where Harvey Dent was cruelly disfigured and became Two-Face. And a little distance away, as the bat flies, is the alleyway where a young Bruce Wayne watched as his mother and father were murdered.

Just as Asylum’s madhouse setting allowed Rocksteady to bring a host of Batman’s villains together in a relatively confined space (a trick repeated here), Arkham City has allowed the studio to pick and choose landmarks from Gotham’s history in the creation of its environment. This is a city in which every street corner feels lovingly authored, visually unique and dripping with DC lore, trumping Asylum for detail and character despite the increased scale.

As the seasons turn and the days grow shorter, this should be just the ticket for those chilly winter nights. Cannot wait.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review | Eurogamer.net

I’ve been playing Deux Ex: Human Revolution without a break for the past 36 hours. Well, I’m taking the odd nap and toilet break, and scoffing my face with protein bars to top up the energy levels, but other than that my entire waking hours have been consumed - CONSUMED - by this incredibly engrossing videogame.

By the barest whisper of a whisker, I narrowly missed the opportunity to review it for a national newspaper, and quite frankly I’m gutted about this. There’re so many good things to say about the game, so many enthusiasms I want to share with other people who’d get a kick out of it. So what the heck, I’m going to quote a review from another source, and then tack on some opinions of my own.

Here’s an extract of what Eurogamer has to say:

You’re playing as Adam Jensen, chief of security at Sarif Industries, a leading augmentation company and the target of all sorts of corporate jealousy and militant activism. Following a break-in at the start of the game in which you fall through some glass and get both your arms amputated (hang on, what?), you wake up to be told that your ex-girlfriend, a leading scientist, has been burned to a crisp and that it’s your job to go around the world with your new robot arms finding out why.

The systems that underpin everything are all great. Dialogue and interrogation are like boxing, full of ducks and weaves and - if you buy the right augment - vital signs and physiological tells upon which you win or lose exchanges. Stealth is based on line of sight and the cover system is perfect, allowing you to hide and move with confidence in every situation. Direct combat is brutal and difficult, but once you think beyond the assault rifle and start mixing it up with various kinds of explosives and projectiles, you can really master your environment.

Hacking is my favourite, though. There are computers, door panels and security systems all over the world to break into using a mini-game where you have to take over nodes one by one without being noticed. If you are, then it’s a race against time, or you can pull out and try again using viruses and augmentations to try to remain undetected. Most hacks yield bonus cash and tools if you probe the right regions, too. It’s always about risk versus reward rather than just puzzle-solving.

And here’s what I have to say:

First observation: There’s a plethora of references to cinematic science fiction, most obviously to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Alien, but also more subtle nods to the work of Stanley Kubrick, William Gibson and Katsuhiro Otomo. They’re scattered through the visual design and narrative, like chunky chocolate chips wrapped up in a moist cookie dough, and every bite is a delight.

Second Observation: It’s not just about paying tribute to sci-fi’s greatest hits, its got something of its own to say about the concept of transhumanism. As in, the subject is more than pretty window-dressing for the game mechanic, it’s properly explored and discussed, and gives the narrative a weight it needs to be truly memorable. Case in point, a visit to the protagonist’s apartment reveals that the bathroom mirror has been shattered, presumably by the occupant in a darker mood when he reflects upon what he has become.

Third observation: The design of the game is immaculate and defies pigeon-holing in a particular genre. It’s not a role-playing game, it’s not a first-person shooter, it’s not a stealth game. It’s all of the above and more, accommodating multiple styles of play within a massive storyline and game-space. Some players like to flit through the shadows, an unseen ghost of corporate espionage. Me, I like to make my presence felt and trip every alarm I can find. Both approaches are equally valid and satisfying.

Conclusion: I’ve just fallen in love with videogames all over again. Also, I need to go to bed.

Videogame Lifer Interview | Ian Livingstone | Eurogamer.net

The “Godfather of the UK Videogame Industry” is asked which game has had the most influence on his career:

Probably Pong. That’s being a bit flippant, but it taught me many things. It taught me about compelling gameplay. When people ask me, ‘What are the three most important things in a game?’ I always say, ‘Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay.’

Graphics and technology are of course essential, but at the end of the day gameplay is the most important thing. You will always play a game with great gameplay and average graphics rather than a game with great graphics and average gameplay.

It taught me about simplicity. The rules are simple. Six words: avoid missing ball for high score. Developers often lose that message and they make games too hard and too complicated with complicated controls and rock-hard puzzles right in the middle of where they’re going. Why?

I wish he’d applied those same principles to the Fighting Fantasy books he co-created…