Batman: Arkham City
| Batman: Arkham City | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Studio | Rocksteady Studios | ||
| Publisher | Warner Bros. Interactive | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
October 18, 2011 | ||
| platform | macOS , Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Wii U , Xbox 360 , Xbox One | ||
| Game engine | Unreal Engine 3 | ||
| genre | Action adventure | ||
| Subject | Batman | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control |
SIXAXIS controller Xbox 360 controller Keyboard , mouse |
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| medium |
Blu-ray Disc DVD-DL |
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| language | Multilingual | ||
| Age rating |
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Batman: Arkham City is a 2011 published video game for PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 , Windows , macOS and Wii U . It is the direct successor of the game Batman: Arkham Asylum and, like this, belongs to the action-adventure genre. Publisher is Warner Bros. Interactive and the game was developed by Rocksteady Studios in collaboration with DC Comics .
A previous story called Batman: Arkham Origins followed on October 25, 2013, but not with the original developer Rocksteady, but with the developer Warner Bros. Games Montréal. On June 23, 2015, the sequel to Arkham City was released with the title Batman: Arkham Knight . This time from Rocksteady, it should be the finale of the Batman Arkham series.
action
The action takes place 18 months after the previous one. Quincy Sharp, in Batman: Arkham Asylum still head of the institute that gives it its name, is now Mayor of Gotham City . Because of the destruction of large parts of the Arkham Asylum and the Blackgate Prison , he had parts of the city cordoned off on Hugo Strange's initiative and criminals and the mentally ill were brought there. This sealed off part of the city is called Arkham City, based on the mental hospital. The facility has gotten out of hand, however, and the Joker , Two-Face and the Penguin fight with their supporters for supremacy in the prison city . Bruce Wayne gives a speech at the Arkham City entrance calling for the facility to be closed. However, he is interrupted and arrested by a unit of the security company Tyger, which is also responsible for securing Arkham City. He is taken to Arkham City and shown to Hugo Strange. Strange knows of Wayne's dual identity as Batman and tries to blackmail him with it. Wayne is eventually left to the imprisoned gangsters and falls into the hands of the penguin and his followers. However, he escapes and reaches his ally Barbara Gordon and his butler Alfred Pennyworth over the radio , who can send him Batman's suit and equipment with a drone .
Batman tracks down Two-Face, who has Catwoman under his control, in the former courthouse . He is able to free her and then goes in search of the Joker, who is rumored to be suffering from an incurable disease. He eventually finds the Joker in a former steel mill, but is overwhelmed and knocked unconscious by Harley Quinn . When Batman comes to, the Joker explains to him that he actually suffered a serious illness from the Titan consumed during the events in Arkham Asylum , which will soon kill him. He has now infected Batman as well, and has also shoved his blood to hospitals across Gotham City, where it is used in numerous transfusions. The Joker releases Batman to get the cure from Mr. Freeze .
Batman finds out that Mr. Freeze is using the forensic lab at the former police station; When he gets there, however, he realizes that Freeze is in the hands of the penguin and is being held captive in the former museum, where the Iceberg Lounge is also located. Batman can defeat Solomon Grundy and the penguin himself and free Mr. Freeze. Freeze wants to give Batman the cure, but realizes that he needs an enzyme that would have to be linked to human DNA over decades . Batman gets the idea that the immortal Ra's al Ghul could have this enzyme. After an attack by members of al Ghul's League of Assassins at the museum, which he fends off with the help of his student Robin , who is hurrying up to watch over Gotham, Batman suspects that al Ghul is also in Arkham City and follows a member of the League of Assassins to which he could attach a tracking device.
So Batman reaches the underworld of Arkham City via former subway shafts, where he finds Talia , al Ghul's daughter and his former lover. In order to get a blood sample from Ra's al Ghul, he agrees to submit to the demon 's tests. These tests should also prove that Batman is the successor to Ra's al Ghul and should take over the leadership of the League of Assassins with Talia. He passes the exams, but then refuses to succeed. A fight ensues between Ra's al Ghul and Batman, which Batman wins and gets a blood sample. Although he and Talia demand it, Batman does not kill Ra's al Ghul, but leaves him behind.
Meanwhile, Quincy Sharp is also arrested and taken to Arkham City. Batman saves him from some gangsters and then learns that the entire project was Strange's idea. In addition, Sharp Strange had to give permission to use Protocol 10 , which provides for the destruction of Arkham City by air strikes.
Batman returns to Mr. Freeze, who can use Ra's al Ghul's blood sample to make two units of the cure, but immediately destroys one of them. The Joker has kidnapped his terminally ill wife Nora, who has been in a cold chamber for years, and Freeze demands that Batman bring her back in exchange for the cure. A fight ensues in the course of which Harley Quinn manages to steal the remaining cure unnoticed. Batman returns to the Joker's steel mill, finds Nora and faces the Joker in battle. He wins this, but is then trapped by falling ceiling parts. Before the Joker can kill him, Talia al Ghul appears; she promises the Joker the secret of eternal life in exchange for Batman's life. She hides Batman about a tracking device she's wearing and then leaves the factory with Joker.
At this point, Protocol 10 comes into effect and Arkham City is under missile fire. Batman wants to follow Talia al Ghul and the Joker, but is convinced by radio by his butler Alfred Pennyworth and Oracle to stop Protocol 10 first and thus save hundreds of lives. He climbs the Wonder Tower , which overlooks Arkham City and serves as Strange's command center. Batman can place him on the top platform of the tower when Ra's al Ghul reappears and kills Strange. Al Ghul was the real brain behind Arkham City and Protocol 10; for him the destruction of the prison city and the killing of numerous criminals is a way to a better world. Strange is able to activate Protocol 11 , the destruction of the tower, shortly before his death , causing Batman and Ra's al Ghul to fall into the depths. Batman can slide safely to the ground with his equipment and tries to save al Ghul. However, this stabbed himself during the fall and apparently died.
Batman then sets out to face the Joker and save Talia. Meanwhile, his ally Lucius Fox was also able to find a cure, which he gave to Batman and the Gotham hospitals. Batman tracks down the Joker in a former theater; In the course of the confrontation, the Joker is killed by Talia with a sword. However, it turns out that this wasn't the real Joker, but rather a doppelganger embodied by Clayface . When Talia al Ghul gives Batman the cure, which she had previously got back from Harley Quinn, she is shot from behind by the real Joker. Clayface wakes up and fights with Batman, who is able to defeat him.
Finally, there is the final fight between Batman and the Joker, whose disease is now very advanced and who urgently needs the cure. Batman can win this fight but is reluctant to give the cure to Joker. The latter then mocks him and again enumerates all his crimes that would give Batman a legitimation not to give him the cure. In one last attempt by the Joker to get the cure, the ampoule falls to the ground and breaks. As the Joker dies, Batman tells him that despite everything, he gave him the cure.
Batman carries the body of the Joker from the theater, in front of which numerous of his followers as well as Harley Quinn have gathered. He places it on the hood of a police patrol car that has since regained control of Arkham City. Commissioner James Gordon asks Batman what happened, but he disappears without a word.
DLC Harley Quinn's Revenge
Harley Quinn's Revenge is downloadable content for the game Batman: Arkham City and contains a separate story part.
Two weeks after the actions of the main game, Gotham's cops and Harley Quinn's henchmen, who took them over from the Joker, lay siege. Harley Quinn, who mourns her lover, the Joker, and blames Batman for her death, has moved her headquarters to the shipyard near the steel mill. There she holds a group of police prisoners who dared to storm her headquarters and were discovered and overwhelmed by their henchmen.
Robin, who is looking for Batman because he has been missing for about two days, breaks into the headquarters and finds his belt, which is lying on the floor.
What follows in the game is a non-linear look back at what happened two days before: Batman supports the police officers around James Gordon and goes in search of the police officers. At the Sionis steel mill and former headquarters of the Joker, he meets a group of Harley Quinn's henchmen who are torturing a police officer. Batman can free the cop. The policeman explains that there were others in his group. But these were brought to a secret base. Batman goes in search of the police officers and, following the trail of blood from one of the police officers, can find the entrance to the secret base. After getting the codes necessary to enter from the supposedly most reliable henchmen of Harley Quinn, he finds a police officer in the secret base who is threatened and tortured by snipers. Batman can free this too. The whole thing turns out to be a trap when Harley Quinn shows up and apparently shoots Batman. The unconscious Batman is carried away, but his belt remains on the ground as he has a self-defense mechanism.
Robin finds this belt, who continues to search for Batman and finally finds him in a room with a Joker shrine. The Joker Shrine has a sphere in which Batman is trapped. The problem is that Batman is running out of oxygen and has therefore put himself into a trance-like state. However, the associated console requires a key card. So Robin goes in search of Harley Quinn, whom he finds in dry dock with the other police officers. After a fight, Robin can steal the key card from her and tie her upside down on a bridge. He has to leave the police behind to save Batman from suffocating. Back in the Joker Shrine Room, Robin frees Batman after a fight against a crowd of Harley Quinn's minions.
Harley Quinn, who has freed herself in the meantime, informs Batman and Robin about three bombs that she has distributed in the shipyard by radio announcement. After a change of perspective, Robin and Batman separate (with the player now controlling Batman): Robin sets out to free the police officers and Batman defuses the bombs. After Batman successfully defuses the bombs, Harley Quinn informs Batman that she has a switch that alone can prevent the explosion. Batman returns to the Joker Shrine Room and fights Harley Quinn there. However, it turns out that said switch is a detonator. The bomb in the Joker Shrine is triggered and Batman and Harley Quinn are thrown out of the building by the blast. Robin apparently died with the police in the explosion.
In a sequence that follows, Harley Quinn draws Batman's attention to the fact that he has now also lost a close confidante and asks him if he is also feeling pain. She grabs a shard with which she wants to stab Batman, who has turned his back on her, from behind. James Gordon, who is also present, cannot react quickly enough either. But suddenly one of Robin's Shurikens flies up and hits Harley Quinn, so that she falls unconscious to the ground. Robin then appears with the freed police officers and Batman sets out to do a few things in Arkham City.
Game principle and technology
The basic game mechanics of the predecessor have been retained and only improved in details. As before, the course of the game alternates between beat-'em-up and stealth passages and the use of various pieces of equipment. The detective mode known from the first part , which gives the player an "X-ray view", has also been expanded. The area available in the game is about five times larger than that in Arkham Asylum and also designed in an open-world architecture.
The actual main story only makes up about a third of the entire game. The rest is made up of side missions in Arkham City; the Riddler challenges known from Arkham Asylum , in which the player has to solve small puzzles or collect question mark statuettes; as well as a separate storyline with Catwoman as a playable character, two more with Robin and Nightwing followed as downloadable content. The Beat-'em-up and Stealth challenges, which can be played independently of the main game, have been taken over from Arkham Asylum in a single room or section.
With the download content "Harley Quinn's Revenge", a separate story followed, which is designed as a sequel.
Arkham City has both a stereoscopic and anaglyphic 3D effect.
Production notes
A first trailer for a sequel to Arkham Asylum was shown in December 2009, shortly after the game was released. In the course of 2010 and 2011, further trailers and press releases were published regularly, which provided information about game scenes, story elements and characters included. In August 2010, the title of the game, Batman: Arkham City , was announced. The release was finally set for October 2011.
The first day of sale in Europe was October 21, 2011, in North America the title was published three days earlier, Japan followed on November 23. In addition to the standard version of the game, a Steelbook and a Collector's Edition were released in Europe . In addition to the actual game, the Collector's Edition includes a Batman statuette, an artbook, the downloadable soundtrack, a Blu-ray disc with the animated film Batman: Gotham Knight and downloadable content. A music CD for the game was also released on the WMG sub-label WaterTower Records. The British studio Feral Interactive released the Mac version of Arkham City on December 13, 2012 .
From 2011 to the beginning of 2015, a five-part comic series was released under the title Batman: Arkham City , which revolves around the history of the game. Authors were u. a. Paul Dini , Derek Fridolfs and Karen Traviss .
synchronization
The German language localization of the game was recorded in the dubbing studio SDI Media Germany GmbH in Berlin.
Other roles: Stefan Gossler , Florian Halm , Michael Iwannek , Sebastian Christoph Jacob , Axel Lutter , Gerald Paradies , Gerald Schaale , Tilo Schmitz , Lutz Schnell , Karl Schulz , Oliver Siebeck , Bernd Vollbrecht .
reception
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Batman: Arkham City received very positive reviews. The review database Metacritic aggregates 27 reviews to a mean value of 91. The game also gained attention beyond the trade press:
"Dark, weird, terrific -" Batman: Arkham City "even surpasses its predecessor. The new superhero epic almost casually defines what a contemporary video game must be able to do: captivate with its story and at the same time provide fun. A bulky, night-black masterpiece "
" Batman: Arkham City does pretty much everything better than its predecessor and offers dozens of hours of playing time due to the huge game world and tons of side tasks - although multiple playthroughs of the story are still disregarded here!"
"Outstanding action hit in terms of design and atmosphere."
- Games world : 91%
- Gamona : 92%
- IGN : 9.5 / 10
- M! Games : 93%
"Exceptionally extensive return of the Dark Knight full of playful and staged highlights."
In the first week after sales began, over four million units of the game were sold worldwide.
Web links
- Batman: Arkham City at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ maniac.de: Batman: Arkham City - new pictures and information (accessed on September 7, 2011).
- ↑ Gamona.de: Batman: Arkham City - Robin becomes a playable character. Retrieved August 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Maniac.de: Batman: Arkham City can also do 3D. Retrieved August 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Xav de Matos: Batman Arkham Asylum 2 announced at the VGAs ( English ) Joystiq. December 12, 2009. Retrieved December 15, 2009.
- ↑ Maniac.de: Batman: Arkham City - Collector's Edition announced. Retrieved August 19, 2018 .
- ↑ Discogs.com: Various - Batman: Arkham City - The Album. Retrieved March 17, 2017 .
- ↑ Florian Kurzmaier: Batman: Arkham City for the Mac . In: Macwelt . ( macwelt.de [accessed November 8, 2018]).
- ↑ a b The best Batman simulator of all time ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ GamePro.de: Batman: Arkham City in the test - The Triumph of the Dark Knight. Retrieved August 19, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Maniac.de: Batman: Arkham City - in the test. Retrieved September 18, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com: Batman: Arkham City. Retrieved August 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Carsten Görig: The Dark Knight surpasses himself on Spiegel Online on October 28, 2010
- ↑ gamestar.de: Batman: Arkham City in the test - The Dark Knight Rises (accessed on November 25, 2011).
- ↑ Heiner Gumprecht: Batman: Arkham City Test . In: Gamona . Webguidez Entertainment GmbH . October 18, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ↑ ign.com: Batman: Arkham City Review (accessed November 13, 2011).
- ↑ maniac.de: Batman: Arkham City cracks the 4 million mark in a hurry (accessed November 2, 2011).