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  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • The game gives much ground to show Batman as a self-destructive Failure Hero who is perfectly pegged by Hugo Strange in a Villain Has a Point observation. He notes that Bruce essentially made the city a playground for acting out his tragic but essentially selfish neuroses and that all the violence and destruction caused by his conflicts with supervillains are primarily his fault. More to the point, he's shown to be rude and dismissive of his allies and friends and nearly bullying to Robin which suggests that he is selfishly possessive of being Gotham's guardian in a way that makes him similar to Strange. And he even escalates tension unnecessarily with Mr. Freeze when he could have merely told him, "Yes, I'll obviously rescue your wife." Come Batman: Arkham Knight this is no longer an alternative interpretation but actually part of the Arkham Batman's character.
    • More disturbingly, Batman seems to have an epiphany regarding this at the end. He notes that letting Joker live will lead him to continue killing all just to spite him and he notes to Joker that he would have let him live, despite poisoning Gotham and killing a woman he loved, all in the knowledge that the Clown Prince of Crime would continue hurting people close to the Dark Knight even after that. The fact that he's visibly shocked and saddened at the end, carrying Joker's body suggests that the latter was the only one he ever related to in the game.
    • While Hugo Strange is a Psycho Psychologist, a lot of gamers feel he's not incompetent. His observations and analysis of criminals and supervillains, except the Joker, is fairly spot-on, pegging Penguin's Napoleon Delusions of Eloquence, Harvey Dent as a public servant who caved in to the pressures of having a good image, Catwoman's stealing being essentially a cry for attention from the man she loves (which she more-or-less admitted to once) and Mr. Freeze a self-destructive Jaded Washout who is letting his great scientific skills go to waste over his Trauma Conga Line because he himself isn't making an effort to get over it or at least take responsibility for his own actions. There's also his Breaking Speech to Batman which Batman never gives an adequate answer and response to.
      • You can say that even with Joker he makes some good points. Strange observes that Joker's blame on Batman for causing his Start of Darkness is simply an excuse to commit more and more horrific crimes (and going by Batman: Arkham Origins, it seems to be true). And his Start of Darkness was his fault, not Batman's.
  • Annoying Video Game Helper: You might want to scream at Bane when the two of you team up to fight a roomful of mooks. He's not trying to hit you, but he will if you're near his target. Bane even apologizes to Batman if he hits him. Sometimes even if you're on opposite sides of the room and Bane is surrounded by enemies, he'll deliberately walk over to where you are and start swinging. It's easy to question his sincerity. Especially after he reveals that he in fact collected Titan for himself.
  • Anti-Climax Boss:
    • Hugo Strange and the Penguin. These characters have never been known for their physical prowess; it's getting to them that's the challenge.
    • After he betrays Batman, Bane runs into a small room (elevator?), followed by Bruce throwing a Batarang to close its door. The fact that none of the walls are that thick and the door is made of metal bars makes it doubly so since he could easily escape it.
  • Awesome Bosses:
    • Mr. Freeze, who COMPLETELY averts Boss-Arena Idiocy by forcing the player to think creatively about their attack and stretch their Predator skills as he nullifies every method of attack after it's used on him once. Beating him requires that you utilize every stealth-based attack you have used.
    • Second-best probably goes to Ra's al Ghul. Thanks to getting a taste of the Blood of the Demon, Batman fights Ra's in a giant hallucinatory desert city where Ra's himself summons a giant monster of sand and assaults him with hundreds of ninjas. It has some of the best (and most outlandish) visuals in the game (which is saying something), a tense atmosphere, and allows Batman to counter attacks from over 20 opponents at the same time (He's normally capable of a mere three counters at the same time).
    • Third has to go to the battle against Joker and his gang consisting of at least twenty mooks, a Titan mook, and Mr. Hammer. The only thing holding this fight back from being awesome was that it's not really Joker you're fighting and that Harley Quinn was "tied" up at the moment.
    • Fourth goes to Solomon Grundy, who becomes an electrical zombie Hulk inside a dungeon basement of fire and lightning. You eventually finish him by ripping his electrified heart out.
    • And last but not least, there's the Final Boss Clayface, in which you wield a freaking scimitar against him while dodging his insane attacks and slicing up his Mooks while near a Lazarus Pit, culminating in an awesome Finishing Move against this boss.
  • Awesome Music: See here.
  • Base-Breaking Character: Catwoman. Some see her as one of the game's highlights, while others find her too terrible to play as outside of combat.
  • Broken Base:
    • Catwoman and the DLC episodes themselves. They are either fun and provide a nice change in gameplay, or are overhypednote  short missions, which appear at the worst times that only detract from the main story.
    • The story. While the Clayface twist is (almost) universally praised, other parts are more divisive. Did the villains get good roles, or were they underutilized as an attempt to shove as many Batman villains into the story as possible? Do the characters grab the Idiot Ball in crucial plot points Example just so the plot could happen, or are their actions understandable given the situation?
  • Camera Screw:
    • What is your greatest enemy in the Riddler's combat challenge maps, you ask? The camera! For reasons unknown, the developers thought it'd be helpful for you if the camera automatically spins around 180 degrees whenever you do a counter or get hit from behind. It's not. Prepare to rage as your combos get broken because you attacked the wrong person thanks to the camera spinning wildly around. It doesn't help when you can't adequately control what enemy you attack either.
    • Camera issues are rant-inducing when trying for Riddler trophies that involve having to rebound off of walls during flight. Having to orient yourself several times during a trophy challenge to kick off specific targets in a row can be frustrating, to say the least. Please resist the urge to throw your controller at the screen.
  • Cant Unhear It:
  • Catharsis Factor:
    • Getting to beat the shit out of Penguin following the boss fight with Solomon Grundy is immensely rewarding after constant showcases of how despicable this version of the character is, to say nothing about the hell he put Batman (and the player) and Gordon's undercover cops through before this point.
    • Finally seeing the Joker die for good, after being the trope namer for Joker Immunity, is equal parts as satisfying as it is shocking.
    • After seeing how cruel and sadistic this version of the Riddler is, smashing his smug face into his computer and forcing him to partake in one of his own traps (secretly deactivated) is absolutely satisfying.
  • Common Knowledge: Thanks to a case of type 2 of Unspecified Role Credit, for a while it was thought that Dee Bradley Baker replaced Steve Blum as Killer Croc, Crispin Freeman was Robin, Kari Wahlgren was Vicki Vale and Quinton Flynn as Nightwing—but these have since been debunked: Blum confirmed he was still Croc; in addition to voicing Two-Face, Troy Baker and Grey DeLisle confirmed they were the respective voices of Robin and Vicki Vale (the latter of whom also voiced the character in the Animated Adaptation of Batman: Year One, which was released the same day as City); and many noted that Baker's grunts for Tim were reused for Nightwing.
  • Complete Monster: See here.
  • Creepy Awesome: Calendar Man. He just sits in his cell, recounting the horrific crimes that he did on specific holidays, and yet is more memorable for it.
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • Calendar Man's story of what he did on New Year's Day starts out disturbingly stalker-y but crosses the line a second time when he acknowledges that stepping into a crowded ballroom with a flamethrower was a bit dramatic.
    • Calendar Man's stories have a habit of doing this. For the 4th of July, he starts off by telling how he rigged the entire asylum with explosives and expressing his disappointment at Batman stopping him but not before the fire swept through the intensive care ward because 'what's the Fourth of July without a barbecue'.
    • Three Joker's thugs arguing about who'll thaw and rape Nora Fries? Not funny. The same Joker's thugs attempting to settle the matter through a three-way game of Rock paper scissors where they keep introducing moves such as "gun" and "dynamite", and which goes forever because each turn results in a stalemate? Hilarious.
  • Demonic Spiders: Armored enemies in Predator challenges. They're immune to silent takedowns and most other kinds of stealth KO, forcing you to use the very loud Beatdown to take them out. In the harder Riddler's Revenge maps, where being spotted is practically instant death, this is a major issue. Said harder challenges also love to give armor to already dangerous enemy types, like snipers.
  • Designated Love Interest: Talia. Her and Batman's past is only mentioned and sounds like a mere one-night stand. Both dislike the way the other deals with criminals, the two barely interact, and yet the writing implies they are in love.
  • Disappointing Last Level: The entire game is spent building up Protocol Ten, and in the endgame, Batman finally takes on TYGER and infiltrates Strange's lair, the Wonder Tower. However, the TYGER personnel fight the same as the thugs you fight on the street, just a few of them have stun sticks now and need to be attacked from behind, otherwise you can beat them up just fine with the same tactics you've used all game. As for the Wonder Tower, infiltrating it amounts to two predator sequences and a fight with a group of guards, and the last predator sequence before Strange is just six guards, child's play for a properly upgraded Batman.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Hugo Strange gets a lot of this from fans, as can be observed under Rooting for the Empire and Alternative Character Interpretation. Sure, there are very valid points to be made, but this is still a man throwing in innocent people to be executed and he even encourages some of the gang wars by providing Joker and Penguin guns, along with threatening to dissect Catwoman's brain while alive.
  • Ending Fatigue: Not in the main game, but the Catwoman DLC adds a mission immediately after the main ending. The mission focuses on Catwoman getting revenge on Two-Face, with an additional predator boss fight. Especially annoying if the player doesn't enjoy Catwoman's gameplay or has not upgraded her enough to take on unlimited waves of predator enemies until Harv is down. To rub it in, you can't free-roam as Batman until the mission is over.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Mad Hatter is this to many players as his only scene in the game is one of the most memorable portions of the game. Like Scarecrow from the previous game, many found his side mission to be Nightmare Fuel, and he tries to take control of Batman and the mask he puts on him.
    • Taking cue from Batman: The Long Halloween, Calendar Man is a favourite amongst fans, with many claiming that he is one of the scariest characters in the whole franchise due to a combination of stellar voice acting, writing and a masterful use of Offscreen Villainy.
    • Nightwing is the only member of the Batfamily in City who doesn't even speak and doesn't even appear on the main story. However, his unique playstyle involving electricity and acrobatics and his good looks made him a stand out. That might be why in Arkham Knight he is given a proper voice actor and presence in the main story.
  • Even Better Sequel: Many of the reviews posted agree that Arkham City is much better than Arkham Asylum. And considering the reviews for that game...
  • Event-Obscuring Camera:
    • Camera issues are especially bad during beatdowns. Unavoidably, the camera will slowly pan around Batman beating the mook. It's not a problem if there are no enemies left, but as soon as one comes, if you want to keep the beatdown you have to counterattack the coming mook and reposition yourself into the former, whose direction is changing constantly.
    • Entering an air vent will always turn Batman's view to the inside, even if you enter backward intending to see if mooks are looking at you. Grappling will always turn the camera up, which seems logical at first but it's completely unnecessary once you initiate grappling. Speaking of which... want to grapple to a certain point on the scenery? Well, make sure you rotate the camera to the exact position. Just because you can see the point you want to grapple to, doesn't mean the game does. Good luck trying to do this while moving or falling.
  • Evil Is Cool:
    • After he hadn't been thought of much in comics, the Arkhamverse's version of Hugo Strange gave the character a big leap in popularity by being a cunning chessmaster who uncovers Batman's secret identity and nearly succeeds in his plans to eradicate all crime from Gotham.
    • In his last outing, The Joker proves himself as manipulative and evil as ever by manipulating Batman into finding him a cure for the TITAN disease, killing Batman's love interest Talia al Ghul, and having Clayface impersonate him to hide the fact that he's dying.
    • And then of course there's Ra's al Ghul, thanks to his awesome fight with Batman and being the true mastermind behind Arkham City.
    • To a lesser extent, The Calendar Man surprisingly qualifies as well, mostly due to the his Creepy Awesome storytelling routine on one holiday each month. Fans certainly haven't forgotten about his chilling stories on the crimes he committed over the years.
  • Fan Nickname: Robin's is Robin Hood.note 
  • Franchise Original Sin: Despite being commonly seen as the Even Better Sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and the height of the franchise, many trends that would make later installments controversial or outright disliked had their origins here.
    • City's opening up the gameplay into a full urban open world rather than Arkham's more structured, dungeon-like environment meant that players could now experiment with Asylum's traversal tools in a much bigger space on multiple levels, while also showing off some impressive technical achievement for the time that still looks amazing. But it also meant physically increasing the space where the game takes place and padding it out with semi-random combat encounters and other open-world content; City took place in a contained enough environment that it wasn't a huge issue but by Knight the open world had grown big enough that Rocksteady felt the need to incorporate the unevenly-recieved Batmobile into traversal, and to add a lot of filler challenges that fans generally agree didn't actually improve the game. And that's to say nothing of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League having a huge empty city with nothing to do but fight the same five missions over and over again.
    • City's open world also greatly expanded on Enemy Chatter; while wandering the open-air prison a player would constantly hear filler conversations among the prisoners about the harsh conditions, the supervillains, and other DC trivia, or announcements over microphones from supervillains themselves. These things helped enhance the atmosphere, making the world feel lived-in and real, as well as characterizing the supervillains and largely villainizing the criminals so the player didn't need to feel bad about beating them up when they attacked. And since Batman is mostly a silent, stoic observer and the music pretty understated and traditional, the chatter was largely the only thing a player would hear; if Batman got an important communication it would push down criminal dialogue in the mix. By Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League this had devolved into messy audio chaos, with constant banter between the four playable characters, the Mission Control, the villains and civilians, and the noisy, abrasive soundtrack all fighting for the player's ears.
    • Finally, the Joker barging into the first few missions and completely hijacking the plot about investigating Doctor Strange and the prison, while proceeding to also overshadow every other villain in the game, many of whom end up completely underutilized and fail to live up to their full potential. At the time, players somewhat forgave the Joker once again taking center stage after already having a game where he was the Big Bad because it was (falsely) marketed as Mark Hamill's swan-song for the character; even setting aside the voice actor drama the Joker does die during the game and a bit of dramatic focus during a farewell to the character felt appropriate. But after every subsequent Arkham title also had the Joker show up and hijack the plot to varying degrees (although in Suicide Squad he "just" shows up as the very first playable character DLC rather than taking over the main story), all excuses had evaporated and fans just saw it as trying to cram the character into everything for marketing reasons.
  • Game-Breaker:
    • While there aren't really any for the main game, Bat Swarm is extremely handy in Combat Challenges; it gets everyone off of you, can get you a few thousand points if your combo is high enough, and makes the Lieutenants a piece of cake (do the move close to them, pummel them to get your combo gold again, then do it again as they start to recover).
    • Not full-on game breaker, but damn close: the Batarang Takedown. When executed, any enemy that's been knocked to the ground gets pelted in the head and instantly knocked out. It makes you feel like a total badass to instantly neutralize seven or eight mooks with one move.
    • The secret to breaking combat challenges is Redirect. The AI can't handle it well. Literally, just attack once, redirect, repeat. It overrides attacks that could be countered, knife attacks that have to be dodged 3x, titans, everything. Throw in the occasional takedown for armored enemies but as long as you remember to redirect after every attack you will get 60-70ks in no time. Getting larger combos gives better multipliers.
    • Critical Strikes. It's one of the first upgrades you can unlock, and it not only allows for extra damage on properly timed combos but increases the experience multiplier by 2x instead of 1x on a properly timed hit. Master your time of it and you can hit multipliers in the 30s and higher on large groups of enemies, allowing you to effortlessly rake in experience.
    • Freeflow Focus, which slows down time when a 12-hit combo is reached. After you obtain it, you barely need to counter anymore, although the slow-mo ends if combo finishers are used. It was nerfed in Knight, and instead adds damage without slow-mo.
  • Goddamned Bats: Shielded and Stun Baton mooks. Both of them can't be countered and instantly end your combo if attacked head-on (damaging you too in the case of Stun Batons) The Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors methods to defeat them aren't difficult, but in larger brawls, it can be easy to accidentally punch one via Damn You, Muscle Memory!, which can easily break your high-score attempts at Riddler's Revenge maps.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Arkham Knight confirms Jason Todd exists in this universe and was seemingly killed by the Joker, explaining Bruce's dismissive treatment of Tim - losing Jason still hurts him years later, and he doesn't want to lose Tim too.
    • Arkham Knight also pulls a slight Cerebus Retcon on the moment where Mr. Freeze's face suddenly turns into that of the Joker's; It's a side-effect of Joker's infected blood slowly turning Bruce into a Joker-esque lunatic.
  • He's Just Hiding:
    • In the epilogue, various mooks can't accept that Joker's dead. Several fans believe the same, coming up with theories where he could still be alive. The Arkham City: Endgame comic exists to confirm that Joker really is dead, with Gordon in possession of the body for two weeks following the end of the game, and the final panels of the story being Joker's body being cremated.
    • Thanks to two Easter eggs; his mask ironically being found perched as a crow's nest and the contents of his Nightmare Fuel boat, many fans are convinced that this is exactly what Scarecrow is doing at the moment.
    • Invoked with Ra's al Ghul. He falls to his death and is impaled. The next time you see that spot, he's gone. Ditto for his daughter Talia, whose body also mysteriously disappears.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The casting of Troy Baker as Robin. Even though the Robin in the game is Tim Drake, Baker would voice Nightwing in Injustice: Gods Among Us, mirroring the path of the original Robin, Dick Grayson, even more so if you consider that he also went on to voice Batman himself beginning with the LEGO Batman series. He also mirrors the path of the DC Animated Universe Tim Drake, voicing the younger Joker in Arkham Origins.
    • A rather roundabout one in conjunction with a debatably intentional Casting Gag. The TYGER guards are voiced by Michael Gough who, in addition to sharing a name with the actor who played Alfred in the Burton/Schumacher Batman movies, also voiced Deckard Cain in Diablo, who some have noticed sounds almost exactly like Bane.
    • Coincidentally or not, this game and The Dark Knight Rises share several plot elements even if the latter was released a year afterward. Both feature a Heavy armed with the knowledge of Batman's secret identity who cordons off a large part of Gotham intending to destroy it to fulfill the Knight Templar legacy of villain Ra's Al Ghul. Catwoman appears as a Heel Face Revolving Femme Fatale who is ultimately faced with a choice between abandoning Gotham and staying behind and aiding Batman. Batman himself is shown in both stories being pushed to his physical limits by the machinations of a villain before being outwitted by a Big Bad in the climax. Ironically, Batman realizes the Joker outwitted him after Talia stabs Joker in Arkham City, while in The Dark Knight Rises he realizes he has been Out Gambitted by Talia AFTER she stabs HIM.
    • The infamous "Press X to Pay Respects" from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is in fact Older Than They Think since this game has a similar event and prompt involving Batman visiting the spot where his parents were murdered. Curiously, it went mostly uncommented on here but was widely mocked when Advanced Warfare did it. This article explores why.
    • As noted on the main page, some of Riddler's challenges look like they came straight out of the Saw franchise. Years later, Telltale's version of the Riddler would use these kinds of death traps almost exclusively.
    • After the main story is over, you can walk through Arkham City and an inmate will ask " Two Jokers? How do we know there ain't a third?". Turns out there are three Jokers, as of The Button storyline.
    • During the press conference at the beginning, Bruce Wayne, a billionaire who has developed a sudden interest in politics, pledges to “Make Gotham safe again.”
    • If you're speedrunning the game, the credit for "Lead Environment Artist Will Smith" appears while Deadshotnote  taunts you.
  • Hype Backlash: While the game is good and deserves a place on the "Best superhero games" list, the sheer praise and claims that it's the best game ever made somewhat diminishes its impact. Some parts of the story seem to be there for the sake of showcasing an iconic Batman character, yet the game glosses over them and continues on, resulting in Two-Face's very minor role, Solomon Grundy's sudden appearance, and the Vicki Vale rescue mission. Most bosses follow the same tactic of "Evade and spam gadget X", some go down with a single button press, and even the acclaimed Mr. Freeze fight requires both Batman and Freeze, both very intelligent individuals, to ignore all attempts of negotiation and grab the Jerkass Ball so their fight and the final half of the game can actually happen. However, credit where credit is due, the Joker/Clayface twist is considered excellent even by the game's detractors.
  • Inferred Holocaust:
    • All those times Batman finishes an arena-style fight, only for the 'arena' to blow up or wreckage to fall immediately after it's finished. It's doubtful the unconscious goons were moved to safety beforehand... Examples include the Joker fight just before Protocol Ten initiates and the Tyger guards in Strange's tower.
    • Speaking of that, during the race to stop Hugo Strange, he says that fatalities caused by Protocol Ten are reaching twenty-two percent. One in five of the inmates Batman took down were killed in the destruction.
    • Also, in the Riddler's lair where all of the doctors plus Aaron Cash are being forced to walk along tracks, there's a list of names with two names crossed out, and one of the guards from the church is missing. The other one could be on the Riddler hostages, but this guard, the mustachioed guard, is nowhere to be found.
    • While Batman is ultimately able to find and distribute a cure to people in Gotham hospitals poisoned by Joker's blood (as confirmed in Arkham Knight), it is likely many died before the cure could be distributed. Bruce, a man in impeccable shape, seemingly only survived the night with the help of a small Lazarus Pit dose.
  • It Was His Sled: The Joker being Killed Off for Real at the end has quickly become one of the most infamous plot twists in gaming history. It got even worse once Batman: Arkham Knight came out, since a major portion of the game's entire premise centers around said spoiler.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Quincy Sharp. Yes, throughout the games he's mostly been a pompous ass, but if you listen to him post-game at the church, when Vicki Vale is trying to interview him he just sounds so broken that it's hard not to feel sorry for the poor sod.
    • Talia Al Ghul. Despite being badass and sort of evil, she loves Bruce and is used by her father like a simple tool, even trying to stop Batman when he says he's going to kill (the first time, anyway). Made worse when she dies with a gunshot that came out of nowhere.
    • The Mad Hatter, especially in his audio tapes, just sounds so pathetic and unwell. He needs some real medical and psychiatric care, not Hugo Strange. And after you defeat him and return to his hideout, he's openly weeping. When you realize that the little, one-room hovel with a half-dozen formerly mind-controlled thugs is his base of operations, you see that he wasn't trying to take control of Batman out of spite or hatred: he just wanted a prayer at facing the other villains.
    • Victor Zsasz. With his meek-sounding voice, his ferret-like physique, and his depressing backstory, you can't help but feel at least some pity for him.
    • Harley, at least come the "Harley's Revenge" DLC. Not only has she actually lost her Mista J, but the one shining hope for her, the idea that she was gonna have his baby. Turned out to be a bum pregnancy test, judging by the "May give false positives" box and the dozens of negative strips lying around in a few spots of the DLC. She even takes Scarface - the puppet - and puts him in a crib with clown makeup on. Harley was always sympathetic, bordering on Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain status sometimes, but seeing her go further off the deep end than ever, dive headlong into psychopathic villainy, and try to take Batman and a large portion of Gotham out with her still in it so she could see Joker again, happily is just heartwrenching.
  • Like You Would Really Do It:
    • A real-world example: before the game was released, several news outlets spoiled the plot point that Batman finds The Joker lying dead while Harley cries over him, in the first two hours of the game. Most of the outlets expressed shock and near-indignation that something this shocking could have happened that early in the game, and there was an immediate backlash from fans who thought the plot was completely spoiled. Then it turned out that everyone fell for the "oldest trick in the book" - as soon as Batman finds his "dead" body and turns his back, Clayface posing as a seemingly rejuvenated Joker pops up behind him and shoves a stun gun into his neck while the real Joker continues to play dead until Batman is completely knocked out.
    • Joker's sick? He might die? Yeah, right. This was even lampshaded in the enemy chatter at one point. Only, they really do. Joker dies at the end.
    • Takes on a meta-plot thing, as the twist is that The Joker gives Batman a hint early on the game that there is actually an impostor standing in for him. The leak takes on a whole new meaning, seeing as though it led fans to think that the Jokester will make it out of this one alive.
    • Played with on a meta-level as well. Mark Hamill retiring as the Joker after this? He came back as a major Posthumous Character in the next game, will be voicing the Joker again in an animated adaptation of The Killing Joke, and has been confirmed to be reprising the role for a new Justice League cartoon.
  • Memetic Loser: Bane has this reputation among some fans, because he's dealt with in a cutscene and how he's completely unable to break free of his cell despite his enormous strength.
  • Memetic Molester: Though Mad Hatter's psychosis is only confirmed in-game as eventually driving him to kill his "Alices", the nature of Tetch's reaction to a picture Strange gives him of the corpse of one of his victims ("No, no, no..."), the ambiguous way the girl herself is described, Tetch's habit of drugging the tea he gives to others, and his general unwashed, socially stunted, creepy demeanor has led some to extrapolate he might possibly be a rapist or pedophile, or both. It doesn't help that he is portrayed that way in some of the Darker and Edgier comics, like Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.
  • Memetic Mutation: "That actually is… pretty funny."note 
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Hugo Strange and Ra's al Ghul crossed this with Protocol 10 - which is an annihilation of all criminals in Arkham City. While it's true that most of the villains are so vile that they should be killed, there are many innocent people (Political Prisoners), whose only crime is knowing too much. In either case, mass murdering a bunch of unharmed, defenseless people, equipping one group with military weapons to use on each other as an excuse to justify their killings is supremely inhuman, regardless of whether victims are criminals or innocent.
    • There's Hugo Strange: the brainwashing of Quincy Sharp, who, while not innocent, is not a villain, into executioner; that of TYGER guards into remorseless killers, who are willing to kill Political Prisoners, kidnapping doctors and giving them to Joker, etc. And don't forget about insane freaks from the first game...
    • For Ra's al Ghul is when he captures his own daughter and threatens to murder her, if Batman won't kill him and take over his position.
    • For Joker: many, but the biggest offenders are poisoning Gotham with his infected blood and killing Talia.
    • The Penguin crosses it when he guns down an unarmed and handcuffed police officer in cold blood, just to piss Batman off.
    • Don't forget Calendar Man. Listen his stories about him killing his parents and girlfriend...
    • Even though he's an Insufferable Genius, the Riddler's always been held up as one of Batman's lighter and less-sadistic villains. While he had put various security guards in elaborate death traps, at least there was always the chance of Batman being able to save them. That's why it's so genuinely shocking to see him put Cash and the other remaining guards in a death trap that it will inevitably kill them, allowing him to watch them slowly walk and walk until they're too exhausted to continue and they meet their end. All while he taunts them for being too ignorant to escape on their own. If you look around the control room, you'll find a "scoreboard" that shows a few of them had already met their end before Batman came to the rescue.
    • The Identity Thief AKA Hush crossed this by murdering six innocent people, cutting off their faces while they were still alive, and making his face a perfect copy of Bruce Wayne's all to ruin his life over a petty grudge.
  • Most Wonderful Sound:
    • "Augmented Reality Training complete." Made all the sweeter if you've been having trouble beating it.
    • The sound that accompanies a Mook being KO'd. Doing it as Catwoman adds a faint yowling or hissing to the background.
    • "It's the freakin' Bat!" Oh, yes it is.
  • Narm:
    • Batman struggling against the Mad Hatter's mind control looks completely ridiculous because he's just shaking his head around and yelling while standing still. That mask Mad Hatter gave him makes it all the more silly.
    • When Batman overrides the Freeze Gun Penguin stole, he knocks Penguin (a diminutive, balding, old man) off the balcony he's on with the most over-the-top Shoryuken ever while heavenly music plays in the background. It couldn't be more ridiculous if Batman was screaming "YEEEEEEEEEAH!" as he did it. It's even funnier on the off-chance that the punch fails to make contact.
    • Clayface's Game Over screens are truly a sight to behold. Though the quotes alone are snicker-worthy, his accompanying stage movements and Jiggle Physics are what really get the crowd going. While the idea is that Clayface was formerly a hammy old-time actor, it's overblown either way. William Shatner would be proud.
      "Next, I will BECOME YOU, BATMAN!"
      "IT... WAS THE PERFORMANCE... OF A LIFETIME!"
      • Clayface’s spinning attack in the fight, between the animation during, then after and the sound effect are also far too cartoony to fit in something as gritty as the Arkham verse.
    • Penguin's real name, Oswald Cobblepot, is rather silly-sounding. It's hard to take Batman seriously as he growls at him, "You're not giving orders here anymore, Cobblepot."
  • Narm Charm:
    • On the other hand, Batman refusing to give Penguin any kind of respect by using his title and instead calling him by his real last name is kind of satisfying considering Penguin spends most of your visits to his territory being a murderous sociopath who's always just out of reach of punishment. It also works as a Stealth Insult considering the Wayne and Cobblepot families' rivalry.
    • Bane being reduced to begging after being easily tricked and captured seems almost out of character for a character who's normally a Knight of Cerebus. However, it also helps empathize just how far he's fallen due to his addiction to Venom and TITAN, to the point he becomes genuinely pitiable.
  • Never Live It Down: Bane being unable to escape a small room with thin walls and a door made out of metal bars is seen as a very low point for his Arkham Series counterpart.
  • No Problem with Licensed Games: Like the first game, Batman: Arkham City has received universal acclaim. Many critics have even stated that to call it the greatest comic book game of all time doesn't do it any justice proclaiming it as one of the finest action/adventure games ever released.
  • Older Than They Think: Judging by the praise the scene gets, you'd think that Joker had never died in any other Batman media. For example, he died in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Burton's Batman (1989) and of course, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker written by Paul Dini. What makes Arkham City surprising is that two of the other examples were set in an alternate continuity future story (the kind where one expects character death), whereas the game was promoted as just another Batman adventure similar to how Batman: Arkham Asylum was; the kind that everyone expected to end with Joker Immunity.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • The Mad Hatter's bit only lasts for one creepy intro and one fight scene, but damn if it isn't memorable.
    • Killer Croc. It's very brief and easy to miss; being accessible only after you fight Ra's Al Ghul, but players have found his Easter Egg appearance in the game to be very cool and wish he had a bigger role like he did in the previous game.
    • Robin, who pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment at the same time. He becomes an ascended extra in the DLC.
    • Solomon Grundy as well, plus Clayface in his true form.
    • Hush appears only as The Stinger for Knight, but his sheer calculated violence plus hearing Kevin Conroy's voice on a villain makes him positively chilling.
  • Padding: The "Remote Hideaway" side mission consists entirely of Batman talking to some cops in the Iceberg Lounge. They give him a gadget upgrade that could just as easily have been a regular upgrade bought with XP.
  • Questionable Casting:
    • Dee Bradley Baker's casting on Ra's al Ghul has received this from quite a few people, who thought he sounded too young.
    • Nolan North as The Penguin. He's mostly known for playing smooth, American-accented leading men like Nathan Drake, so many had doubts about his abilities to play a quirky villainous side character like the Penguin with a Cockney accent, and these concerns weren't alleviated by his performance in the final game. There were others, however, who were pleased with his performance.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: This game has done wonders for many of Batman's less respected enemies, especially among non-comic readers.
    • The Penguin is portrayed as an outright sadistic and dangerous psychopath and arguably worse boss than Joker. In fact, he arguably angers Batman more than anyone else in the game, even more than Strange, with the way he brutally tortures and murders cops.
    • The Riddler started getting this in the first game for non-comic fans and then blasted out of it in this game, becoming exactly like a Saw villain. Again, in the comics, this portrayal is common. But outside, this was a huge step up for his character.
    • Calendar Man. Whilst his status as a Scrappy is debatable, there was no doubt he was hardly a respectable villain before this game came out. Once it was, there's little doubt Rocksteady really changed people's perspective on the character when he was made into a Nightmare Fuel storytelling Easter Egg that legitimately is terrifying. In fact, the character may now be receiving a fanbase.
    • Hugo Strange was always seen as second string even by comics fans with only one or two decent stories. The Arkham!Strange is considered to be the most intimidating and impressive version of the character and the first exposure many non-comics fans had to him. Unlike comics!Strange who stumbled on Batman's identity by accident or simply unmasking him, Arkham!Strange cottoned on by using his skills to create a psychological profile. Many were disappointed by the weak resolution of Strange's plot, feeling that the good doctor deserved better.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Michael Gough voices the occasional TYGER guard here, 2 years before he got to voice Gordon in the prequel.
  • Rooting for the Empire: After the entire game showed that Arkham is filled to the brim with violent criminals who kill you on sight, whose Enemy Chatter is half the time about how much they enjoy murder and torture, and all of who voluntarily work for even worse bosses, the player may be forgiven for wanting to ask Strange to airlift the political prisoners and maybe Mr. Freeze, Ivy and Catwoman out and then just letting him have his fun.
  • Scrappy Mechanic:
    • The "Protective Aura" modifier in challenge maps. Whenever it's active, it makes one enemy immune to everything and switches its host at random. Doesn't sound too bad? Either by glitch or design, it can be active on more than one enemy at a time, its deactivation takes slightly longer than you are allowed to be inactive in combat without losing your combo (and the final enemy of any given wave will have it), and can seriously ruin some of the predator medals that require careful planning due to its random nature. Here's an example from a combat situation. Note that they are the only enemies left.
    • Some find Challenge Campaigns to be this, as they simply recycle the challenge maps while forcing some new limitations, resulting in what many see as Fake Difficulty.
    • In the Catwoman DLC:
      • Catwoman's climbing is loathed by stealth fans, as it's slow, visible, and annoyingly specific about where it can be activated, resulting in many cheap deaths.
      • Catwoman Riddler Trophies can only be collected by Catwoman and will shock Batman if he tries to get them. While some of them require Catwoman's unique abilities to access, others are out in the open and perfectly accessible to Batman, yet require switching to Catwoman for the express purpose of picking them up.
      • The fact that players are forced to play as Catwoman a total of three times in the entire campaign: once at the very start, which isn't bad, then once again within the first 25% of the story... then once more during the final 15% at the end. The problem is, the Arkham City goons scale in difficulty throughout the story regardless of who you're playing as, meaning the third time you play as Catwoman, you're facing high-level goons with sniper rifles, thermal goggles, shields and body armour, with very little experience playing as Catwoman, and potentially very few upgrades purchased for her to make it any easier.
      • Catwoman's upgrade menu only has six total upgrades for the entire game: two types of armour upgrade with two levels each, and two special combo moves, which either stun or injure enemies. She has no gadget upgrades, no multi-takedown upgrade, no stealth-centric upgrades at all, no movement-centric upgrades either... playing as Catwoman is generally a complete chore, but there aren't even any ways to make it easier!
      • You can't switch between the player characters at will until you complete the story. This can be an issue during one of the late Catwoman sequences if you feel underleveled because Catwoman has much fewer ways to gain XP than Batmannote , requiring to farm XP by attacking thugs, which becomes tedious at high levels due to both the amount of XP needed, and the fact Catwoman is weaker than Batman in combat.
  • So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus on the story DLC, Harley Quinn's Revenge. It was either too short, too gimmicky, or didn't properly take advantage of the Batman: Arkham Asylum-like linearity of the level design to proper effect like the first game which is what people might have expected, there's no side quests, and it doesn't wrap up any of the dangling plot threads from the original story leaving little resolution for the characters beyond snuffing out a potential Sequel Hook. It's by no means bad, just generally not seen as up to par with the actual game.
  • Special Effect Failure: Even in the post-game, the textures for Batman's exposed skin around his mouth show his skin being pale and having Tainted Veins. You'd think they would have reused the same textures as the final cutscene after he takes the cure. Thankfully, this was fixed in the Updated Re-release.
  • Strawman Has a Point: Batman becomes upset when he thinks Talia "killed" the Joker. But as she points out, he never would have done it himself and it would have solved their problems. Batman even admits later on that no matter how often he catches the Joker, he'll always escape and cause more misery and death.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: The creepy droning sound that plays during the credits is nearly identical to "The Cellar" from The Blair Witch Project.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Batman's treatment of Robin has shades of this. To a wider gaming community, Robin is still seen as part of Batman's Narm Charm and seems out of place in the serious and gritty Arkham verse and Batman's annoyed and bullying treatment of Robin, almost as if he's embarrassed to be seen with him, and rolling his eyes at Tim's earnest offer of help seems like this. It's subverted since the Arkham Robin has won some fans and people generally regarded Batman's rudeness to him as a really Jerkish moment in the game.
  • That One Boss:
    • In a New Game Plus run, not only is Mr. Freeze much more aggressive and faster, but he will jam your Detective Vision if you keep it on for an extended period, making it harder to track his movement. While there are twelve different ways to damage him, the player is forced to figure out at least nine of them to win, since each method only works once.
    • Harley's Revenge contains a predator battle, and since Robin has access to the grappling hook and smoke bombs as well as having the same amount of health as Batman does, the mission is much easier when it comes to taking Harley down, and there are far fewer reinforcements. However, to compensate for it, not only do you have to take down all thugs in addition to Harley (Catwoman's Predator room ends the second you take down Two-Face), there are 2 hostages in the room as well.
  • That One Level:
    • The final predator section outside the theater. There are about a dozen snipers dotted across various buildings, each one covered by at least two or three of the others. The architecture isn't conducive to being stealthy, so every time you take out a sniper, you risk getting a large chunk of your health chipped away by the others. This by itself isn't too bad, as long as you're patient. Unfortunately, it's very, very hard to be patient when the Joker keeps screaming "Continue Your Mission, Dammit!" messages at you every few seconds. After just a few of his speeches, you'll want the entire section to be over just so he'll stop being so condescending at you.
    • The predator room at the top of Wonder Tower comes to mind as well, considering that it's one of the only predator sections in the entire game without gargoyles or grate systems that spread across the entire room, with the only cover Batman has being a few crates here and there. It's especially difficult on NG+, where the enemies are more aggressive and keen. Couple that with Hugo Strange being a total asshat and yelling things like "Are you blind?!! Batman is over there!!" whenever he sees you sneaking around, which you may not notice since you're probably trying to stalk a guard for a silent takedown.
  • That One Sidequest:
    • Augmented Reality Training. Most of them are merely hard, taking perhaps 2-3 attempts. But there are a few in there that are button-destroyingly difficult, requiring not just god-like reflexes, but insane amounts of luck to complete. One in particular near the steel mill essentially equates to having to thread a needle at high speed. Get used to hearing the Batcomputer's voice.
    • Some of Riddler's gliding/pad puzzles qualify as this. Not because they're hard to figure out, but because there's often no room for error. A few of his gadget-based puzzles also qualify, as several of them can't be solved without knowing obscure hidden uses of Batman's gadgets that serve little practical purpose outside of completing Riddler challenges. Did you know that, after spraying 3 clusters of Explosive Gel, you can detonate them individually by using a first-person view to zoom in on them? Despite this being in the Gel's menu description, this feature is useful for exactly one Riddler Trophy in the game.
    • Finding Deadshot. The quest itself isn't so difficult, as the game gives you a notification and the general location of his victims. The hard part is getting the notification to trigger in the first place.
    • Finding Hush. Unlike Deadshot, who often fires at someone nearby a location to alert you to the next part of the side mission "Shot in the Dark" and the various political prisoners who scream for help during the side mission "Acts of Violence", "Identity Theft" is completely reliant on finding the areas where Hush has struck next with absolutely no help whatsoever. The bodies are pretty well hidden in alleyways you probably wouldn't think to go looking in unless you went out of your way on ground level to find them, made worse by the fact that dead bodies are hard to distinguish from unconscious thugs in Detective Mode, meaning clearing out areas makes things harder for you. Once you find all of the victims, finding Hush's hideout is extremely easy because, y'know, it's actually marked on your map. All this put together will probably add up to you completing the main plot and literally almost every other sidequest in the game before getting the next lead on the Identity Thief murders unless you're actively searching for them, at which point it all piles up at once and Oracle calls you to let you know about all the other victims one after another rather than being spaced out like the other sidequests and probably ruining most of the mystery and intrigue behind which of Batman's rogues is actually responsible for it, and by which time you the player have probably stopped caring about anything other than 100% completion.
    • The Riddler sidequest. It's not difficult, but it takes forever to get through. The premise is simple; Interrogate a Riddler thug to add some riddles on the map, after which you go and (usually) solve a small puzzle to collect it. However, you'll need to travel around a lot for any thugs to spawn, and you might want to add all riddles to interior maps before heading in. The problem is that the thugs reveal their locations at random, and there are 440 riddles. While the side mission also appears in the other games, City's sheer amount of collectibles is maybe a tad too much.
    • The Calendar man trophy/achievement is a downplayed example. You need to visit and talk to Calendar man during certain holidays marked on a calendar next to his cell. The problem is that family/friends usually go above video games on priorities, and if you've visited relatives far away, you miss your chance that year. It can also trip up non-American players, as not all countries celebrate Father's Day in June. It's possible to cheat through it by changing the system's time, however, something the developers fully anticipated since they added a fiendishly clever Easter Egg that can only be unlocked by changing the system's time to the specific date of December 13, 2004 note .
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • Penguin's redesign is this or Adaptational Badass.
    • Robin's newly revealed characterization as a brooding, introverted man who cagefights in his spare time, mostly because this Robin is Tim Drake, aka the happy, well-adjusted Robin. If this was Jason Todd or Damian Wayne, or maybe even Dick Grayson, it would be more in-character, and smacks of pushing Darker and Edgier until the characters start to break.
    • Nightwing's lack of lines is getting a bit of this, especially as part of his charm comes from his string of witty quips that he gives out in his fights.
    • Harley Quinn's redesign is this for those hoping she'd be more like the classic Sexy Jester look. Though the jester suit is available to her in Arkham Knight.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Mad Hatter, more than anyone. You'd think someone who Hugo Strange took advantage of to get Arkham City to happen in the first place would've had a bigger role than a side-story nuisance.
    • One can't help but feel a little this way with Professor Strange. The trailers and the early game built him up as the Big Bad and he puts on a good show, manipulating Batman, several of his villains, and the entire city, seemingly always several steps ahead of anyone who might threaten him. It looked for a while that this game would pull him from obscurity and make him a top-tier Bat-Villain, but then it turns out Ra's Al Ghul was controlling him and you don't even fight Strange directly.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Arkham City has many lines of dialogue about the city having psychos, criminals, and cannibals. There is no side plot to fight off against any cannibal antagonist in the game, with Killer Croc being just an Easter Egg, meaning that the only acts of cannibalism presented in the games are told by the goons.
    • One of the Riddler's interview tapes with Strange implies that Strange has a replica of Batman's suit hidden in his office. We never get to see him wearing it and he never tries to replace Batman directly.
    • A minor instance of this trope would be the inclusion of Jack Ryder, who throughout the game is only ever seen in his civilian identity instead of his superhero alter ego, The Creeper.
    • Batman gets ambushed by a female ninja before being saved by Robin. There's no in-gameplay in which the Dynamic Duo team up to fight her.
    • The strong implication that Harley isn't pregnant has gotten this reaction from fans.
    • The fact that a challenge map campaign was downloaded with Tim Drake/Robin with Black Mask as the villain might imply Robin is on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for Stephanie Brown's death. But, Stephanie wasn't even mentioned (though that's really per the norm these days).
    • Catwoman's Wolverine Publicity status gave many the impression that she was going to be pivotal to the plot, but not only was her campaign really short, but she only crosses paths with Batman twice.
    • Early on, Joker sets up a remote-controlled sniper rifle to shoot at Catwoman and Batman. One might expect this trick to pop up when you take him on in a boss fight later as a way to give Joker a threat level while he's dying from the Titan poisoning but it turns out you never really face him at all.
    • At the start of the game, Batman can cross paths with several innocent prisoners, thrown in by Strange to cover his tracks. Just about all of them are starving and are no match for the criminals filling the streets. Yet Batman never thinks of calling Alfred, asking him to perform a food drop with the Batwing into the location of his choosing, and protecting the political prisoners from any potential attackers when they reach/are given said food.
    • A lot of the sidequests can come off as this as many of them simply require exploring the game world and/or picking up collectibles, and with a few exceptions don't really provide anything new. There are no new big combat or predator encounters and most of them have little payoff — out of 12 side missions only 3 have a boss fight at the end, and even those bosses go down with a single takedown.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The remaster looks quite amazing. While it looks slightly more colorful, it also adds much more detail and features to every character - for example, Joker has blood stains on his clothing.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Like its predecessor. Yes, it's got the USA rating of Teen, which is the equivalent of the PG-13 rating. Is this game for children? Most definitely not.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: Most of the redesigns for certain characters can be passed off based on the setting of the game. Tim Drake's Robin design however has drawn some criticism. Notably, his costume looks more low-tech than Batman's, wearing only ordinary pants on his lower body and with less protection up top, making him look a little more like someone trying to emulate Batman rather than his actual protege. However the real clincher is that his gloves have fingerless tips to them... meaning he's going to be leaving fingerprints everywhere he goes, thus bringing danger to the whole "Secret Identity" thing and seeming like an incredibly sloppy choice for a member of the Bat Family.
  • The Woobie:
    • Batman's suit gets damaged and his health declines as the night wears on, yet he is never allowed to take a break. When he reaches Ra's al Ghul's lair while suffering from the effects of Titan poisoning, he can't run at all and is constantly coughing blood. By the end of the game, he has lost both Talia to murder and the Joker to Titan poisoning, which takes a terrible, emotional toll on him..
    • Mr. Freeze. His wife is still frozen, and he's blackmailed by the Joker for the TITAN cure, leading to him getting captured by Strange and thrown to the Penguin, who proceeded to torture him, giving him woobie status until the Batman came around. Eventually, he did reunite with her, but only if you're willing to endure that side quest.
    • Ratcatcher, based on the info you can get from his riddle and conversations from thugs. When Arkham City was opened, Ratcatcher simply hid and sold small extra things to thugs like buttons, soap, and mints, things that his rats scavenged and brought back to him. When the Penguin found out, he had him captured, dragged through the streets screaming followed by rats, and thrown into a pit filled with them. When that failed after several days, Penguin fed him to his pet shark, Tiny. The Arkham Knight tie-in comic reveals that this didn't kill him but left him heavily crippled and he lost his right arm. Then the Arkham Knight burns him to death with a taser.

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