Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City
Info
Platform:	PlayStation 3 - XBOX 360 - PC - XBOX ONE - PlayStation 4 - Nintendo Wii U
Release Date:	2011 (original) 2012 (Game of the Year and Armored Editions) 2016 (Remaster)
Developer:	Rocksteady Studios - Warner Bros Montreal - Virtuous

Batman: Arkham City is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the sequel to the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum and the second installment in the Batman: Arkham series. Written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini with Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill, Arkham City was inspired by the long-running comic book mythos. In the game's main storyline, Batman is incarcerated in Arkham City, a super-prison enclosing the decaying urban slums of fictional Gotham City. He must uncover the secret behind a sinister scheme orchestrated by the facility's warden, Hugo Strange. The game's leading characters are predominantly voiced by actors from the DC Animated Universe, with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles as Batman and the Joker, respectively.

The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in both combat and exploration. Batman can freely move around the Arkham City prison, interacting with characters and undertaking missions, and unlocking new areas by progressing through the main story or obtaining new equipment. The player is able to complete side missions away from the main story to unlock additional content and collectible items. Batman's ally Catwoman is another playable character, featuring her own story campaign that runs parallel to the game's main plot.

Rocksteady conceived ideas for a sequel while developing Arkham Asylum, commencing serious development of Arkham City's story in February 2009. The layout of Arkham City has a virtual footprint five times that of Arkham Asylum, and the city design was modified to accommodate Batman's ability to swoop and glide. Over a year and $10 million were spent on the game's marketing campaign, and its release was accompanied by two music albums; one containing the game's score, and the other featuring 11 original songs inspired by the game from various mainstream artists.

Arkham City was released worldwide for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles in October 2011, followed by a Microsoft Windows version a month later. The game received critical Acclaim, particularly for its narrative, character and world designs, soundtrack, and Batman's combat and navigation abilities. It was tied for the highest-rated video game of 2011 according to review aggregator Metacritic, and was the recipient of several awards from media outlets, including Game of the Year, Best Action Game, Best Action Adventure Game, Best Adventure Game, and Best Original Score. Like its predecessor, it is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. A spin-off mobile game, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown was released in December. Arkham City has received several re-releases, comprising: a Game of the Year edition in May 2012; Wii U and OS X versions in November and December 2012, respectively; and a remastered version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2016. A prequel to the series, Batman: Arkham Origins, was released in October 2013, and a narrative sequel, Batman: Arkham Knight, was released in June 2015.

As of September 2021, the only known pre-release build was created Janurary 6th 2012 for the XBOX 360. This build does not seem to offer any cut content or functions. Curiously it is dated just before the GOTY release but does not contain any DLC.

The Wii U stage demo files are present inside the retail build of the Wii U version of the game. It requires a modification of the Gusto-BmGame.ini to access:

[BmGame.RGameInfo]
bWBDemoBuild=true

Data mining the PlayStation 4 versions reveals that the game actually uses both, Unreal Engine 3 and Unreal Engine 4. The reason for this is unknown. In addition, the remaster has "Playable_Joker" files, however Joker isn't a playable character in either the remastered or last generations of the game. As of September 2021, attempts to make this file playable have been in vain as the game will crash or glitch when attempting to use a modded PAK file with the files replaced.