Is Batman: Arkham City the Greatest Sequel of it's Generation ?

There have been many great sequels in the 7^th generation of gaming and some of them are rightly among the very best games ever made. Assassins creed 2 (AC2), Mass Effect 2 (ME2), Portal 2 are among these. Being a PC gamer, I missed out on Uncharted 2 & many other great sequels. But in my opinion, none of these games have managed to improve on their predecessors the way Batman: Arkham City did.

A great sequel is defined by the degree it manages to outdo it's predecessor. Every one of the sequels above excelled at that so let me explain why I believe Arkham City managed to do a better job than these great games.

Both Mass Effect 1 & Assassins Creed 1 had many tedious & repetitive sections in their gameplay. The gunplay, combat & the recycled environments left LOTS of room for improvement on Mass Effect. While the combat, repetitive information gathering missions & limited environmental interaction did the same for Assassin's Creed. Portal 2 improved on the original in every single way but retained the only weakness of it's predecessor----lack of replay value.

But Batman: Arkham Asylum (AA) had no such obvious weakness, developer Rocksteady had managed to achieve what only a handful of games has been able to do. From the simple but exhilarating combat to the moody atmosphere, from the amazingly implemented stealth elements to the brilliant scarecrow sections, AA was a near-flawless experience through & through.

With such towering levels of quality it seemed that AA didn't leave much room for improvement. But Rocksteady did the unthinkable----took every single element of AA & made it even better. As great as AA was, after playing Arkham City I personally found it real hard to get back to it the same way it would be hard for me to go back to ME1 after playing ME2.

It's easier to improve on an experience that has obvious shortcomings than to take a flawless experience to a whole new level. That's why I think Arkham City is the best sequel of it's generation.

But it's just my perspective, feel free to share yours at the comments section.

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