Batman: Arkham City Lockdown for iOS is fun, emmersive, and beautiful. Immediately it is clear the game has been inspired by Infinity Blade. Disregard they share a common graphics engine (Unreal Engine 3). The true common point is the turn-based combat. But don’t kid yourself. This is not a clone of Infinity Blade. There are serious depth issues as the game is very short and limited.
The general flow of the game is as follows: four of Batman’s greatest enemies have escaped from their holding cells. It’s up to Batman to clean up a few familiar places within Arkham City and put those badies back in their shackles and iron houses. Each main enemy has a group of thugs protecting them. Batman needs to clear 3 locations within each of 4 subsections of the map prior to facing each of his rivals. Each of these subsections has sevaral thugs and henchmen to rain hell on. Again, the combat draws immediate comparison to Infinity Blade as it is gesture-based while exchanging turns. You’re encouraged to dodge and counter attacks while leveling up Batman based on your combat success and combo utilization. While you really do feel like The Dark Knight, you’ll quickly experience repetative badies and environments. In fact, by the section location in the first subsection (stay with me here) the badies were already repeating what the previous 3 had said and gestured to me. Additionally, the game can be completed within 30 minutes. Not a joke. Replay value is low with the base purchase but if you drop an additonal $0.99 over and above the $5.99 it cost to download the game, you can play through with a new batsuit. There are four to choose from: Earth One, Dark Knight Returns, Animated, and Batman Beyond. They all look great.
I would be shocked if more content were not released in the next 3-4 weeks. It’s a safe bet it is already in progress; another similarity to Infinity Blade. Without this content, it’s honestly a tough sell at $5.99. I really have enjoyed playing it, and as funny as this sounds, I would feel better had a paid a dollar less.
Value : Purchase @ $4.99