Arkham City re-review: Long Overdue

So.

I've been playing a lot of Overwatch Uprising and getting into Heroes Of The Storm for the Nexus Challenge

BUT

It's time for me to return to Arkham City Game Of The Year edition. Now I'd been hoping that I could at least finish new game+ but I just can't wait any longer. This time I did not rush through it all in one night. AND I am READY to start Arkham Knight.

FIRST: The Combat system. The Arkham series is unique to invent the combo-based strike, counter, takedown system(Also used in Assassins Creed). I PLAYED IT WITH A CONTROLLER. Now that's not to say that the keyboard is bad. The keyboard actually has more simplified controls. I just preferred to play with a controller which makes the combos slightly harder to execute but more comfortable. The Combat revolves around Strike, Counter, Run/Evade, and Stun. Three consecutive hits knocks a thug down. They will get up. If you keep landing hits and aiming your movement (joystick in this case) in the right direction you will start flying from thug to thug in freeflow combat. This extends to gadgets as well. If you miss a strike or get hit you lose the combo.
 COUNTER allows you to stop an enemy attack dead in its tracks and stun the thug for a brief moment. You can counter as many people as are attacking at once. This counts towards your combo. Initially once you attain a combo of 8 you can do a takedown which will automatically pacify a thug and stop any enemy attacks in progress. If you land enough freeflow hits when the thugs are getting back up you can also defeat them without using the takedown combo.
 STUN mildly disorients a group of thugs which allows you to follow up with combat combos that don't require a big combo number but also add to your combo number. The Aerial attack and Beat Down combos are performed using stun. When there is only one thug standing one hit will do the job even if you hadn't dinked him. However this depends on the thug type. When thugs are knocked down only temporarily you can perform a lengthy ground takedown which leaves you vulnerable. You have quickfire gadgets that allow you to change up some things as well but won't win fights on their own. Several takedowns are available by staying hidden such as the ledge takedowns, inverted takedown, and the silent takedown from behind.

You can learn more about the gadgets at the wiki HERE (SPOILERS)

There are different types of thugs:

Base: Hand-to-hand thugs, may have a weapon like a baseball bat which will do one more damage on hit
Armed:VERY DANGEROUS, May have rifles or shotguns, There are also Sniper thugs. They can be disarmed by being knocked down, batclaw disarmed (upgrade), or using the disarm and destroy combo (upgrade). Some may come with thermal goggles which may check your location on a vantage point to try and find you.
Armored:These require a takedown or a beat-down combo to defeat.  They will block standard attacks and can interrupt combos if you try to hit them as part of a freeflow.
Knife and Taser: The Knife ones cannot be countered in a standard way. You must do a blade dodge or (upgrade required) Blade dodge takedown to avoid the knife, You can batclaw disarm them (upgrade) like with the armed AND tasers. Tasers cannot be hit head on. You must dodge them and get behind to hit them. There is a type of Knife Ninja that avoids trhown gadgets and often dodges freeflow kicks. These are fairly standard and can be dealt with.
Shield:These require an aerial attack to disarm. Otherwise, you can't touch them.
The Abrovomici twins: These boss-like characters are difficult to take out. They don't flinch, like, ever. Your main way to take them out is keep them off balance (you only fight one at any given time) until you've dealt with the other thugs. Then keep beating them and avoiding the attacks until you incapacate.
I'm going to leave the last type as a surprise.

STORY: 

So, being the sequel to Arkham Asylum, some mechanics remain the same and the story is chock-full of references. Arkham City is the new super-prison built in Gotham City that contains all the villains of the asylum and more. The place is patrolled by the private contractor of TYGER security and their militia forces.
Joker is incredibly sick from taking that huge dose of TITAN in Asylum (We get Mark Hamill playing the Joker again), and he poisons Batman. Your goal is to
A. Find out what "Protocol 10" is
B. Find a cure for you
C. DEFEAT YOUR ONE TRUE NEMESIS THE RIDDLER
Along the way you will fight: Rā's Al Ghūl, Mr. Freeze, Solomon Grundy, and a few more.
Hugo Strange, Penguin and Joker are the main Antagonists.

Hugo Strange is the Warden of Arkham City and incarcerates Bruce Wayne at the start of the game.

Penguin is the thorn in your side throughout the game.

Joker is the other mastermind. the other side on the Arkham City coin.
He doesn't collaborate with Hugo (except for something specific)

Speaking of coins, some of the DLC that comes with GOTY edition includes the ability to play as catwoman, (which also came as a dlc code on the release box) for the Riddler Revenge campaigns and parts of the story. She also is able to   be played in the freeroam after the game in order to collect more Riddler trophies. She has a conflict with Two-Face throughout the game.

DLC that comes with the GOTY edition

All the DLC is included. This includes several riddler revenge maps and campaigns. It includes costumes for every character. (which can be accessed before completeing the game by doing on the men, LL DD LL R UU D). You can play as Batman, Catwoman, Robin, and Nightwing in these maps.

It also comes with the extra campaign Harley Quinn's Revenge (which takes place after the story and thus, has spoilers)

Personal Rating: 859/1000

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