The world’s greatest detective is back on the PS4 and Xbox One in an HD collection; the collection consists of Arkham Asylum and, Arkham City. Does this series need an HD collection or should it have just with the last generation of consoles? let’s find out.
Arkham Asylum (2009) and Arkham City (2011) come storming in on the PS4. In Arkham Asylum you are confined to one location filled with Gotham most notorious criminals, you have one target in the game though the Joker. After an incident at the mayor’s office in Gotham city, Batman captures the Joker without any fight, upon the arrival at Arkham immediately the Joker breaks free to un-foil a plan to poison Gotham’s water supply and to get to Dr. Young and the titan; a drug that DR. Young developed which is a stronger venom than what bane uses. So your job as the caped crusader is to find an antidote to the titan and stop the Joker, along with your journey you will have encounters with other “famous” Batman villains such as Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and Bane, but your main objective defeat the Joker.
In Arkham City, you start playing as the irregular billionaire Bruce Wayne tied up in a room being beaten by DR. Hugo Stranges henchmen (Tyger). Leaving the room you realize you have become a prisoner in Arkham City, strange then talks about protocol 10 and to make matters worse in this case he knows you are Batman. You are in an open world this time in the Arkham franchise, during your time here you will have your main quests with side missions and content. In this installment of Batman Arkham franchise, you have your main story bringing down Hugo Strange and, stopping protocol 10 ,but there are stories on the side like the Joker dying with a severe illness and, Ra’s al Ghul and the league of shadows that you can complete as you progress through the main story.
When it comes to gameplay Rocksteady revolutionized a combat style that we see many games do today the free flow combat style, where you can bounce from enemy to enemy unleashing devastating attacks. While you are not using hand to hand combat you are using stealth takedowns using your gadgets like the Batarang, explosive gel. When you are not in combat you are flying around using your grappling hook and collecting riddler trophies.
Verdict: Batman return to Arkham has its appeal to people if you have not played them on the previous consoles, but after the Arkham Asylum you feel a little burned out and are in no rush to go right into Arkham City. These games are really fun and good to play but you get burned out on them after the first game
Score: 7/10 Batman Return to Arkham.
