Batman: Arkham City is a 2011 action-adventure video game developed by Rocksteady Studios and released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and Microsoft Windows. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the sequel to the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum. It was released worldwide for consoles, beginning in North America on October 18, 2011, with a Microsoft Windows version following on November 22, 2011.
Arkham City was written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini with Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill, and is based on the franchise’s long-running comic book mythos. In the game’s main storyline, Batman is incarcerated in Arkham City, a massive new super-prison enclosing the decaying urban slums of fictional Gotham City. He must uncover the secret behind Arkham’s sinister “Protocol 10” while protecting inmates from the notorious criminals housed there. 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 abilities, stealth and detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in both combat and exploration. Arkham City expands Batman’s arsenal of gadgets and combat attacks and offers a more open world structure, allowing the player to complete side missions away from the primary storyline.
The game received critical acclaim and was tied for the highest-rated video game of 2011 according to review aggregator Metacritic. It was the recipient of several awards including Game of the Year, Action game, Action Adventure game, Adventure game and best original music score. A Game of the Year edition was released on May 29, 2012 in North America, and was released on September 7, 2012 for the rest of the world. The game is being adapted for the Wii U and is scheduled for release on November 18, 2012, and an OS X version is scheduled for late 2012. A spin-off iOS game, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, was released on December 7, 2011.