Things I Loved or Really Liked:
- Right away, I noticed how they switched the dark-colored parts of Batman's costume from straight black as in Asylum to a more blue-black. I really loved that.
- Better Combat Controls. As I figured, they immediately fixed the combat from Asylum for the sequel; there's much more time before your Combo drops, and that makes a huge difference all the way around.
- Decent-Sized Map. Much bigger than Asylum, much more to do all around.
- Side Missions. Some feel tacked-on or inconsequential, but I love the feeling of being Batman, going around a cityscape doing Batman Stuff. I loved how, compared to Origins, the various physical challenges you needed to complete did not need to be done in any particular order; that made it a LOT easier to complete them all and that's the way Origins should have done it. The best of the side quests did a very good job of incorporating some of the lesser villains like Mad Hatter, or guys like Deadshot who didn't really fit the game's plot.
- Batman Skins. You get more variety in Origins but I like the ones presented in this game better, selfishly. I mostly use the 1970s-era Batman costume but I occasionally rock the Animated Series skin as well.
- Catwoman Stuff. Even though her storyline feels very tacked-on, playing as her is a blast and I love how after you beat the main story you can switch between her and Batman at your leisure, even though by then there's not much point to it.
- Riddler's Revenge Challenge Maps. These feel a bit more fair than the ones in Asylum, and are very addictive. I also love how Batman, Robin, Catwoman and Nightwing all play differently with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's a bit cheap how they didn't even bother adding in any voices for Robin and Nightwing for the Challenge Maps but eh. They look great and they play fantastic. I'm much more partial to the Combat maps than the Stealth ones but even the Stealth ones are more fun than the previous game's since the levels are laid out a little bit better.
- Ambitious Story. I mentioned how the game's plotlines are bit disconnected and how the way they intersect is far from seamless, but I do enjoy the story as a whole. It's just that some of the "big moments" seem to come a bit too far out of left field, but they definitely had a lot of ambition and I do like it altogether. It just could've been tighter.
- More Enemies. One of my biggest gripes with Asylum was how little there was to actually DO, and how once you cleared an area it was done. This game is a HUGE improvement, with lots of enemies everywhere, more snipers and armed enemies appearing as you get deeper into the game, and even new groups of enemies showing up in places you'd cleared earlier. Oftentimes the new enemies will be having conversations about what had taken place there earlier, and that's really neat.
- Ambient Chatter. I mentioned this in Origins as well, but it really does make the game world feel more alive when you're swinging around and you hear the bad guys talking about anything from whatever you just did in the story to whether or not they wanna gang-f*ck Harley Quinn.
Again, it's Little Stuff but it adds up, especially compared to the practically funereal silence that was cast over Asylum for most of the game.
- DLC Mission. "Harley Quinn's Revenge" was a bit short - if you completely ignore the Harley Balloons you can beat the entire thing in like an hour - but it was fun. Getting to play properly as Robin was great, and getting to see the aftermath of the main game's plot was also cool. It's not quite as good as the "Cold, Cold Heart" DLC mission for Origins, but it's still really cool.
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Just a really, really great game overall and it's even better than I'd remembered, which is tough. I have some very specific gripes but they're nothing all that major, just Things That Could Have Been Better.
I really do rate Origins and City just about the same, overall; they each have some stuff they fall slightly short in that the other game does better. It annoys me that Origins has such a middling reputation, mostly for "not being a huge improvement over City"; I'm fine with the gameplay being "more of the same" since I think it does a bit better with the overall Story, Side Missions, and inclusion of other iconic elements like the Batcave, Alfred and Gordon being more important, better Boss fights, larger map, and so on.
I'm probably going to mess with a few more Challenge Maps - they really do become addictive very quickly; I went in not planning to mess with them much at all but after doing a few I got bit by the bug and now I'm kinda hooked. But some time this week, I'll probably FINALLY move on to Arkham Knight, which I've never played before.