Batman Arkham City, Worth Every Minute

Nothing has brought me more excitement than completing Batman: Arkham City. Before starting the game I reminisced about the first installment Arkham Asylum with much fondness. Arkham Asylum did such as great job with establishing a world, although limited, in which Batman existed fluidly. I think that’s the right word. Any hoot, it left a mark of greatness and I enjoyed every minute of it. So the next installment had only three options in mind, to either fail and bring nothing to the table with a flat story, rise above the first in every way and take the story to the next level, or it would fall somewhere in between in which the game itself would be good but wouldn’t push the elements that made the first so great. And now as we all know it rocked our socks off!

The ending of Arkham City was one to be remembered. Spoiler Alert! So for those that have not played this game as of yet (really what are you waiting for!? Stop reading this and do yourself a favor and buy the game.) Do not read any further, reading about the ending will ruin an amazing ending.  Well, with that out of the way.
The fight with Clay face was indeed a surprise and shock. Many of Batman’s villains were in the game and I was not expecting to see really any more than Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, and so on, but none the less it was a pleasant surprise. Now the really kicker was when Joker is really twisting the double edged knife into Batman by telling him that Batman needs to save the his life regardless and we as fans understand this well, all of this for the Joker to jump the gun and knock the cure out of Batman’s hand thus leaving no hope for the Joker.  So to quickly jump ahead the Joker ends up dying and Batman is seen walking away from the commissioner. This ending had me at the edge of my seat wondering if Joker would just wake up and show a lead to perhaps another installment, but this would not be the case.

Although the Joker is now long gone, questions still remain. With this game be a financial success as well as a critical one, will there be another installment with or without the Joker? Is he really dead? Mark Hamill has mentioned this is his last time playing the role of the Joker but he has said this before and still continues to go back on those words. So what do you think? Is the Joker really dead? Will this lead to another trick planned all along by the Joker? What do you think the next game will focus on?

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