Batman: Arkham City - On this day

Players were pleasantly surprised with Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009, so much was expected from its sequel. Traces for the next game already existed within Asylum as its development began even before Arkham Asylum became a hit. The main idea was for the game to be open-ended, but Rocksteady Studios wasn't quite sure if I could perform such a sandbox title. So instead of the whole of Gotham City, they opted for a smaller region called Arkham City.

In addition to the game’s territory being five times the size of Arkham Asylum, this Batman adventure brought a significantly expanded arsenal of gadgets and attacks that the protagonist had at his disposal. Moreover, Batman was not the only playful character but we controlled Catwoman in certain parts of the game. Of Batman's assistants in Arkham City, Robin also appeared, but he was playable only in a separate DLC outside the main story.

Arkham City was open to players from the start of the game, as soon as Bruce Wayne changed into Batman. They were moving around the city "on foot" because the Batmobile was not ready for some reason. The gameplay was therefore very similar to that of the previous game, and in addition to the main missions within separate locations, we had side activities such as collecting Riddler trophies.

In this game, we clashed with far more famous villains than in Asylum. The cast of naughty guys consisted of Mr. Freeze, The Penguin, Two-Face, Rā’s al Ghūl, and Dr. Hugo Strange, alongside the ubiquitous Joker. However, the boss showdowns were still a weaker segment of the otherwise excellent adventure.

Batman: Arkham City was launched just before Skyrim, initially only on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, while the PC version followed a month later. Critics loved this game, so its PS3 rating averaged an incredible 96 on Metacritic - with Skyrim the highest average in 2011. We were also prone to Batman and awarded Arkham City the Golden Beaver for the best game of 2011.

Sales results were praised by critics and audiences, and Arkham City sold more copies in the first two weeks than Arkham Asylum in two years. In the first year, more than 12.5 million copies were eventually sold. 

Batman: Arkham City subsequently received several expansions, including expansions with Robin, Nightwing, and Harley Quinn. A year later, the game also appeared on the Nintendo Wii U console as an Armored Edition with a few minor additions. In the fall of 2016, the Batman: Return to Arkham collection was launched, which also included Arkham City for PS4 and Xbox One. Unfortunately, that remaster was not particularly high quality, so Arkham City is best experienced on a PC today.