Batman PUSHED to His LIMITS | Batman: Arkham City | Retrospective Review

Even before release of their first game Batman: Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady Studios couldn't help but tease their plans for their ambitious sequel, Batman Arkham City. This game would take place within a quarantined zone of Gotham City, holding all of Batman's worst enemies. This game would also act as more of an open world sandbox, allowing to Batman to glide freely around the city for the first time in the series. Rocksteady aimed to give fans the Batman game they've always wanted, and really pushed their limits to deliver on that goal. As a result, Batman Arkham City is held up as the best game in the series by many fans, and in this video, we'll examine why, as well as whether its deserving of the title.

Always Nerdy is a Youtube channel dedicated to all things nerdy, with a focus on comic book game retrospectives for both DC and Marvel. I'm always open to suggestions for games you'd like to see covered, and I hope to eventually cover them all.

Editing by Estienne Bruwer

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00:00 - Intro
05:03 - Story Discussion
01:25:58 - Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC
01:35:39 - Gameplay
02:12:59 - Sound Design
02:22:59 - Conclusion

[tobiasrieper]

Fun fact: If you check jokers heartbeat during the finale he gets nervous when batman is getting beaten by clayface, but becomes calm when batman has the upperhand

[frankensteinmonster]

If you didn’t notice, when Bruce is fighting in the beginning of the game without the batsuit, his fighting style isn’t as advanced or as brutal as Batman’s even after he breaks out of the cuffs. It’s a nice detail.
Another detail in the game: if you fail to perform a beat down on the shark and get eaten, the fail screen tells you to use your shark repellent

[StrifeSoul]

For whatever reason the Ryder interaction always kills me
"Are you a fan?"
No. Just the way Batman says no there kills me

[christianmanka]

I love Robin and Nightwing’s designs in this game. They’re simple but iconic.

[russellschwartz]

I love the little detail that when Bruce is talking to Alfred he says that “he knows Bruce Wayne is batman.” NOT “he knows I’M Batman.” He specially speaks of Bruce as if it’s a separate person.

[maxhowlett]

With the pregnancy retcon, I always theorised (somewhat darkly) that Harley lost the baby following the jokers death, and the multiple negative tests shows her desperation now that there is no way she'll ever be able to see any part of the joker live again. This piled on top of her grief over losing the Joker is what makes her so grief stricken and angry during the DLC. There's not particularly any evidence for this, but I think it works and adds to the darker side of the Arkham verse we see after the Jokers death.

[xMachooChoo]

These retrospectives are so interesting and detailed and everytime I see one, it makes me want to go back and play that game.

[unluckyzen]

1:41:38 Fun Fact: If you destroy all 6 TITAN containers and go back to Bane during Protocol 10, Instead of Joker Thugs attacking, you’ll be faced against Tyger Guards

[thatsgib]

What's crazy about the Mr Freeze fight, which from what I understand was an unintended affect, is that Oracle is supposed to send you information about how to perform different types of stealth takedowns. Due to one reason or another, Oracle will prolong sending this information to the player, sometimes not sending it at all, which is either due to a glitch, or some other mechanic, perhaps the game seeing how many different take downs the player already knew. I personally enjoy the feature being like this, as it adds greater difficulty to what I think is the best boss fight in the series

[Legato_gelato]

This game brought me back into video games. And it’s essentially Batman in an “Escape from New York” setting.

[natesnarrations]

A way to tell who is who was pointed out on reddit
Joker always calls batman “Bats”
Where as clayface always calls him “Batman”

[akwilson]

"On the one date he goes on he can't shut up about Batman" I have never related to a villain so much in my entire life

[TheRealAdaWong]

Loved Catwoman’s playable perspective in this and how they assist each other through the night.
It lended more credibility to see events unfold that was outside Batman’s perspective.

It’s a short run but it captured the spirit of Catwoman in her element. I still walk out with the money everytime.

[CRNVL]

This franchise deserves every praise. It alone solidified my love for these characters. Excellent job covering it!

[darthkahn]

As unpleasent as it was to see I really liked the way Batman treats Robin in this. We already know that he put Tim through more hellish training than the others. It feels like Bruce has incredibly high hopes and expectations for Tim. Not just to eventually become his equal but to surpass him in every way eventually. The harsh treatment and constant scolding is because Batman believes in him more than he ever has anyone else, he sees incredible potential and wants Tim to realise it.
In a wierd way Batman treating him so horribly is a mark of great respect.

[baki]

Finally. I can never say no to more arkham content. And I love the breakdowns on this channel even though I know most of the information.

[eccentricdez]

Nerdy, may I call you Nerdy? I just wanna say your video dropped right on time. I've been having a horrible day and I needed something to take my mind off of it. What better than my favorite video game retrospective channel to do a retrospective on one of the best games of my childhood? Thank you, brother.

[TidalVex]

The first of the Arkham games I played! I have the Armored Edition for the Wii U, and being able to use the gamepad for the map, quick selecting gadgets, and the addition of the Kinetic Gloves (which would later be implemented as the Shock Gloves in Origins) was a lot of fun. Plus you got all the DLC from the GOTY edition included on-disc. Love it when re-releases of old games include the DLC from the first release on-disc.

[Nyxael]

16:16

That man went to the stratosphere with that kick.

[Mlackakao]

When I hear Kevin Conroy doing different voice styles for Bruce Wayne, Batman, and even Hush, it just makes me wonder how well an animated Dark Knights Metal would be if he did a few voices for the other Batmen. Of course, it would be a nice touch to have other Batman actors do some voices, but it would be chilling to hear Kevin’s voice as manic and laughing as the Batman Who Laughs, distorted and monstrous as the Devastator, bloodthirsty and prideful as the Merciless, or even dark and menacing as Barbatos himself.