Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City, Episode 1

As a Christmas gift to myself this year, I finally posted the first episode of a project I've been working on for (technically) more than two years: a Let's Play of the Batman: Return to Arkham collection. This remaster of the first two games in the Arkham trilogy came out in late 2016, but it took me a while to play through both games at a level with which I was satisfied, and then of course my unique postproduction approach adds a lot of time to the backend. It was not until early 2018 by the time I completed uploading videos for Return to Arkham Asylum, and while part of me wanted to wait until I had finished editing and exporting all the episodes of Return to Arkham City before posting to YouTube, that side obviously lost out in my internal debate. So without further ado, here's Episode 1:



First, a word about the video quality. I've learned a lot about exporting and encoding since my Let's Play of Arkham Knight from 2016, so this is my first Let's Play video in full HD (only 720p, but still, that's better than the alternative). You may have to view the video in YouTube to get the full benefit of that, since I'm not sure if the embedded video player allows you to change the size. Once I'm done with Return to Arkham City (RTAC for short), my plan is to re-upload all the videos from the other two games in the same format, but that's a story for the future.

Next, I want to address the commentary. I explain near the top of this first episode that the style I use is post commentary (as opposed to live commentary), but I also add another wrinkle to it by recording my commentary from the perspective of the game's main character, rather than as myself playing the game. Is this cheesy? Definitely. Does it make for a more unique and immersive experience for you, the viewers? I sure hope so. Is it more fun for me to record it this way? Without a doubt.

And finally, here's some info about the music in these videos. When I recorded footage for Arkham Knight, I turned the in-game music volume all the way down, mostly to make it easier to trim sections of the game and steal audio from elsewhere. The consequence of this was that I had to score the entire game myself, which I did mostly using music from the Arkham soundtrack albums, but I also brought in some tracks from other Batman-related media. Conversely, I left the in-game music volume turned up for my Return to Arkham Let's Plays, but there are still several points where the game has no music, and I do not shy away from adding in my own music to fill the void at these times. As a rule, I don't indicate when this is happening, except for some sporadic mentions in the commentary, but this is a heads-up to keep your ears open.

That's it from me! I'll be posting a new video each week (on Tuesdays), barring any unforeseen issues, so check back here and subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay up to date! Happy Batman-ing!

UPDATE: I've decided to use these blog posts to point out the personal music additions that I make in each episode in a director's commentary sort of way, since I didn't title them in the videos like I did with my Let's Play of Arkham Knight from 2016. There aren't a lot of moments where I had to supplement the in-game music with personal scoring, but I thought that Arkham purists and Batman music trivia buffs might enjoy checking out this information. I would also suggest not reading this part until having watched the episode, at least once, just for spoiler reasons.

The first bit of personal music comes in just about as soon as we take control of the game's main character, right after Hugo Strange leaves Bruce Wayne alone in the new inmate processing center. This short cue - it's just about 10 seconds long - goes with a joke that I'm pretty happy with: a variation of the classic *record scratch* *freeze frame* trope made popular in 80s movies. And since it also serves as the introduction of my commentary-as-Batman narrative device, I thought the first few bars of the opening sequence from Batman: The Animated Series would fit well here.

We don't hear another bit of personal music in this episode until we put on the batsuit for the first time and get access to the pause menu screen. Normally when a player pauses the game to look at the map, check the current objectives, read character bios, or choose new upgrades, the music cuts out until they unpause. However, I figured that there's no reason for you, the viewers, to have to sit through a prolonged dry spell while I navigated the various menus, so I spliced in the main menu music from Batman: Arkham Asylum, which appears on the official soundtrack album as "Enter the Asylum."

Soon after perusing the pause menus, I stumble on the first of many Riddler secrets that are scattered throughout Arkham City. Upon solving the puzzle and picking up the green glowing trophies, the game automatically brings you to a new menu screen and launches into a message from Edward Nygma himself. Since these menu sequences usually play without music, I had the opportunity to take a page from my previous Arkham Let's Plays and score this moment with music from Riddler's first appearance in Batman: The Animated series, an episode titled "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?"

So that's it, only three personal cues in this episode! The number will increase steadily later on, as we stray from the main story and get more into side missions, but for now, happy watching!