Asylum or City? It's a question that'll be asked until the end of time - or at least until Arkham Knight drops later this year and revolutionises the series for the new generation altogether anyway. For City, Rocksteady did the only thing they could after the revolutionary Arkham Asylum proved a total underdog studio could turn in a genuinely spectacular, big-budget superhero game - they went open-world. Forgoing the implementation of the Batmobile (that would come later) instead you had to perfect the ebb and flow of Batman's grapple hook to get around, firing up to ledges and then gliding across the gorgeous-looking Gotham underneath. Rocksteady also employed a kitchen sink approach to villains - something that would become one of the defining things about whether or not you prefer this to its predecessor - in that everyone from Hush to Ra's al Ghul and Deadshot would make appearances of varying screen time throughout. In the end Arkham City was the next big evolution in some already razor-sharp gameplay, ensuring that being the Bat never looked or felt so good.
