WB Interactive and Netherealm Studios bring the caped crusader to iOS with this touch-based brawler.
I'm assuming Gotham City Lockdown (iPhone/iPad, $5.99) was supposed to serve as a kind of prequel to its console big brother, opening with newscaster narration that the inmates of the poorly-secured asylum has yet again suffered a breakout and the mayor is calling for the enactment of the "Arkham City Protocols." However, you won't really find any hint of that in the synopsis on iTunes:
The inmates have escaped and Batman has his hands full defeating an army of henchmen and some of his most iconic villains. Scour the rooftops and the seedy underbelly of Gotham City through a series of one-on-one battles with the Joker, Two-Face and more, as well as the Batman: Arkham City Lockdown exclusive – Deathstroke. Choose from several Batman skins and power-ups as you punch, kick and combo your way to cleaning up Gotham City.
I spent a little time with the game last night on the iPad and can say that the choice to make the game a brawler might have been the best given the platform. Netherealm—the studio behind this year's excellent Mortal Kombat reboot—have basically made a tap-based fighting game where you swipe to attack and tap to dodge and counter certain enemy moves. From the maybe 45 minutes I spent with the game, the studio has done a decent job of piling new wrinkles into the fighting, adding enemies with weapons, enemies who are temporarily immune to attacks, and of course gadgets and weapons that you can use to turn the things around when they start getting tough.
Fights earn you XP which can be spent on the Waynetech screen for character upgrades such as health packs and a limited range of special attacks. Playing through the game also seems to net additional unlocks like character bios and costumes, which can be found in the Extras screen as well as the first, sixth, and seventh issues of the Arkham City tie-in comic.
Don't come looking for the exceptionally-timed fighting of Arkham City Lockdown's console counterparts, though as the fighting has been noticeably slowed down and rooted to one spot for i-devices. Curiously, the combat carries over some of the visual cues from the console verion but not all, specifically when it comes to enemy strikes, usually preceded by a yellow indicator over their head, here only used for enraged enemies who are temporarily invulnerable. But this isn't quite the free-form fighting of the console, so with the more limited range of attacks and defense, there's maybe less need for prompts.
The Unreal-powered game looks pretty good on the iPad's screen and while the detail of the characters and environments can't compare with those on the console, Batman and his enemies still get represented nicely here. It looks like some of the animation was borrowed from the console, particularly the takedowns, which remain satisfyingly brutal even on a smaller screen.
I'd like to spend a little more time with Arkham City Lockdown before rendering judgement, but so far it seems like a solid (if somewhat limited) companion to the console game and a nice way to get your Batman fix on while you're out and about.
Arkham City Lockdown is available now on iTunes for the iPhone and iPad for $5.99.
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