If you were going to design a game, would you rather work with established characters or pave entirely new ground? It’s not a trick question or anything; game producers make these decisions all the time... Batman: Arkham City developers had to take one of the most iconic characters ever and build a game around him. On one hand, it helps when you have almost a century of visual precedent behind you. But this same precedent can limit your ability to look at things with a completely fresh perspective. Not to mention debate within the ranks of Batman fans over which version of each character is most important. The middle ground carved out by developer Rocksteady Studios isn’t a compromise position as much as an amazing synthesis of all the diverse agendas contained within the fan community and comics’ readership. Look for this synthesis idea to return later; it’s pivotal to understanding why Batman: Arkham City works so well.

The atmosphere of the game reminded us instantly of exploring the less open but still very deep world of Deus Ex so long ago. Rocksteady understands how to tell a story in a setting where players are in control. There are snippets of overheard conversation, player-directed interactions with minor characters, and scripted cut-scenes to move the story along. You can browse a library of information about each major character, including backstory and vital stats. Concept art and “Arkham City Stories” are unlocked along the way, with 3D character models, and playable versions of Batman, Robin, Catwoman, and Nightwing. These elements of the game cater to serious fans of the comics' series and encourage more casual readers to bone up on their Batman lore, beyond the game. Batman: Arkham City is like a DC advertising campaign masquerading as a video game... The depth of the graphics and sound is only rivaled by its polish. A smart camera during exploration and combat, lush scenery, and crisp audio make this a cinematic experience on the small sceen. Thinking of this as a game based on a movie is wrong; it’s a game that fulfills the screen dreams comics' fans have largely been missing.

First off, you don’t need to have played the first game or even read the comics to appreciate Batman: Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition. It’s a game that’s immediately playable by any fan of open-world action and stealth titles we’ve enjoyed in the past. All that background info mentioned earlier helps to educate casual fans on some of the more esoteric Batman continuum and character plot lines. The main story is simple enough: All hell has broken loose in the city-prison of Arkham. Batman attempts to unravel efforts by Hugo Strange to foist a coup on Gotham, uncovering the very worst of a bad, bad place. Along the way, you’ll encounter plenty of celebrity figures (and some deserving more exposure, such as Strange) from the DC pantheon of villains, plus the relatively thin ranks of Good Guys lined up to assist Batman in what starts to feel like his darkest hour. The missions and playable aspects of the game are again a synthesis of various action, stealth, RPG, and open-world games we’ve played and loved in years past. The minor miracle is doing all this without feeling like a retread of stale gaming conventions.

Like all good open-world games, Batman: Arkham City lets players take the lead. If you get bored with the main story, it’s possible to veer off and explore any number of side missions. Some of these are serial in nature, exposing large arcs that are compelling stories in their own right. Side missions allow players to encounter villains or events that don’t quite fit into the main plot, keeping the primary story taught and fast-paced. One can make significant story progress in a few hours, while still only unlocking 3-5% of the overall game. It’s this extra dimension that makes Batman: Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition so enduring. It’s the game you’ll "finish" and return to again and again, in search of that one last secret or unfulfilled challenge. Most of the challenges come courtesy of Riddler, who has scattered trophies around Arkham you can collect to unlock new levels, concept art, and story snippets. The challenge inherent in winning these trophies is separate from actual Challenge Levels you can play through in competition against friends on the global leaderboard. These are compact levels that test your abilities, and let you play as either Batman or one of his compadres. The Game of the Year Edition also comes prepackaged with a second DVD containing more costumes, playable characters, the ability to replay Catwoman segments, and the self-contained “Harley Quinn’s Revenge” episode. It’s impossible to overstate the scale of Batman: Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition when all this is added up; it may not be on par with truly epic games like Skyrim, but it comes extremely close.

We’re bucking the trend in some games, survival horror mainly, toward making players feel weak and helpless. Let us go on record as saying that this isn’t why we got into gaming. If we wanted to feel hopeless, we’d take on a home repair project or try organizing our closets... The escapist joy of feeling immensely powerful is packed tightly into Batman: Arkham City. It’s what allows players working from even a mid-tier difficulty setting to mop up bad guys and make it look easy. Button-mashing is rewarded, but so is careful use of combos and techniques. Dialing up the difficulty makes the button-mashing worthless, and even a handful of enemies can take out Batman if you don’t master some of the game’s basic controls. Moving in three dimensions and juggling all the gear Batman has in stock tends to make for the greatest learning curve in Batman: Arkham City. It’s what transcends the difficulty setting and what stands between you and solving all of Riddler’s challenges. There are several ways the game helps you, including contextual hints you view on-screen when a move or an item can be used during battle. These hints can be disabled if you find them distracting, once you master the moves and combos. There are also hints provided during the loading screens after you die, which you will do often if you dial the difficulty up.

Where Batman: Arkham City shines is in giving you opportunities to defeat minor enemies easily, if you can only take advantage of Batman’s special abilities. It’s possible to wade into combat with fists flying, but that’s always the shortest route to a quick, painful demise. Every inch of the game can be exploited by Batman to leverage his unique brand of stealth combat, which has the added benefit of inducing bowel-clenching fear in minor enemies. You’ll unlock new moves, gadgets, and upgrades along the way that give you multiple ways of taking out enemies. Creativity and experimentation is rewarded, not only in entertainment value but in experience points you will receive after battle. The open setting of the game gives you unlimited opportunity to perfect your stealth and battle skills.

There have been plenty of times when we’ve accused games of being derivative, meaning they recycled elements from previous games in an unoriginal or uncreative way. Going back to that word synthesis, Batman: Arkham City borrows and outright steals from various games, but in a way that perfectly complements the unique character and story here. Put another way, the elements taken from other games are given a unique stamp that makes them work for a Batman game, and that also prevents them from seeming obvious or predictable. The easiest comparison would be the hidden packages of Grand Theft Auto fame. Yes, both these and the Riddler challenges involve hidden objects, but there’s an immediate departure in Batman: Arkham City. Gathering the Riddler trophies and solving his challenges often requires use of Batman’s gadgets and special abilities, meaning you’ll need to enhance your skills and develop your character. This makes the challenges feel more like core gameplay than side missions. The mission progress borrows elements from an open-world game, but challenges are always bundled in a way that fits Batman’s abilities. Saving a hostage doesn’t just require planning and tactics, it requires special skill that only you possess. Throughout the game, these mechanics conspire to draw you deeper into the character. Even when you’re treading close to what would be a typical open-world mission, there’s something unique and interesting that keeps you going.

The actual controls, especially in battle, are fluid but not noteworthy. Button combos take some getting used to, and didn’t trigger as predictably as we would have liked. The developers seemed to be going for economy, with one button doing many things depending on your context. We’d guess this was designed to let you easily control as much of Batman’s arsenal as possible, and it mostly works. The array of special skills and gadgets becomes second nature by about halfway through the main story, which leaves you plenty of time to practice on various enemies until the finale. Part of winning is remembering that Batman isn’t Superman... If you try to wade into a big group of enemies slinging punches, you’re going to get clobbered. You can always win with a combination of force and stealth, and most of the gadgets have both a measured control scheme and a quick-fire ability you can use during combat. Batman: Arkham City is a great game for viewers, who will appreciate the hearty butt-kicking doled out by Batman once you master some basic combat controls. There’s not much else than this to even nitpick about. Batman: Arkham City: Game of the Year Edition is a perfect collection of a game that lives up to or exceeds all its hype. In a world where superhero movies only seem to be getting better and more popular, we can only hope that this game's huge success precedes a spate of great, new hero games.