The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2 - Story

In case you hadn't heard, I recently finished my Let's Play series of Rockstar Games' epic western action-adventure masterpiece Red Dead Redemption 2 on my YouTube channel. This effort, which I started way back in May of 2019, has produced 32 episodes of highly bingeable content for these safer-at-home times, and it's not over yet. So far I've only covered the main storyline (Chapters 1 thru 6) - I haven't tackled the two chapters worth of epilogues. In that time period, I was so focused on plaything through the game again and editing the episodes down into episode-sized chunks that I hadn't paid much attention to the two official music albums that were released in support of the game: one titled "Original Soundtrack" and the other "Original Score."

Many of the track titles on these albums share names with missions in the game, but as is the case with many soundtrack albums, the track listing doesn't come close to matching up with when they appear in the game. So I've gone through all the tracks on both albums and arranged them in chronological order, at least according to when I played each mission in my Let's Play (the game gives you a lot of freedom as far as the sequencing of certain missions). I've also noted the episode of my Let's Play and the mission title in which each musical theme appears (in the rare cases where the track title/mission title do not match up). Fair warning: there are MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, so if you want to enjoy the story of the game with a blank slate, I would highly recommend watching my Let's Play BEFORE reading this musical recap.


1. "By 1899, The Age of Outlaws and Gunslingers Was At An End"
Album: Original Score, Track 1
Artist: Jeff Silverman, Woody Jackson, Luke O'Malley
Let's Play: Episode 1 (Chapter 1, Mission 1 - Cold Open)

When you begin a new story in Red Dead Redemption 2, the first thing you see is a series of four text titles on a black screen setting up the world of the game. Predictably enough, this music cue is what plays when these titles run across your screen. The title of this track is the first screen, followed by these three:

America was becoming a land of laws...

Even the west had mostly been tamed.

A few gangs still roamed but they were being hunted down and destroyed.

2. "Outlaws From the West"
Album: Original Score, Track 2
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 1 (Chapter 1, Mission 1)

The first mission of the game is called "Outlaws From the West," and part of the track with the same name during this mission. Actually, it plays during the cutscene signaling the END of the mission, as Dutch, Arthur, and Micah rescue Sadie Adler from what's left of her burning homestead. And the snippet of the track you hear during the actual game is quite different than the version included on the album, which has a much fuller arrangement and a pronounced drum track.

A more complete version of this track plays in Episode 3 of my Let's Play, during the mission titled "Who The Hell is Leviticus Cornwall?" (Chapter 1, Mission 5) as we're on the way to rob our first train of the game. The consequences of this particular heist will haunt Arthur and his merry band of outlaws throughout the rest of the game, as the above-mentioned Leviticus Cornwall expends his significant resources in an attempt to track us down and bring us to justice.


3. "Mountain Hymn"
Album: Original Soundtrack, Track 8
Artist: Rhiannon Giddens
Let's Play: Episode 3 (Chapter 1, Mission 6 - Eastward Bound)

With the train job complete, we get treated to a nice montage of the gang traveling eastward, down from the mountains, towards their new camp in Horseshoe Overlook near Valentine (which also marks the end of Chapter 1). The music that plays during said montage includes some of the non-lyrical elements of "Mountain Hymn" from the Original Soundtrack album. The full version of this track also plays during the end credits, but we'll save that for another time.


4. "An American Pastoral Scene"
Album: Original Score, Track 17
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 9 (Chapter 2, Mission 19)

Chapter 2 has some of my favorite musical moments of the game, including the haunting soulful fiddle when Arthur and Hosea ride into the mountains to hunt a bear (Exit, Pursued by a Bruised Ego), the hopeful triumphant battle theme when Arthur, Javier, and Charles rescue Sean from a group of bounty hunters (The First Shall Be Last), and the absolutely inspired comedic saloon piece when Arthur and Lenny go out drinking (A Quiet Time). But the only representation of Chapter 2 in the official albums is from Micah's second mission "An American Pastoral Scene." This mission, which we first have to unlock by breaking Micah out of jail (in Blessed Are the Meek?, which itself has a nice playful battle theme), features Arthur and Micah robbing a banking stagecoach, only to get ambushed by some O'Driscolls. However, the track on the album doesn't play during any of this exciting action; it's what you hear while Arthur and Micah leisurely ride their horses to the robbery location.


5. "Blessed Are the Peacemakers"
Album: Original Score, Track 3
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 16 (Chapter 3, Mission 12)

Towards the end of Chapter 3 (in which the gang moves to a new camp at Clemens Point in the state of Lemoyne), Micah brokers a meeting between Dutch and his arch-nemesis Colm O'Driscoll to settle their long-running feud. It turns out (rather predictably) that the whole thing was a setup: Colm's plan was to capture Arthur, and use him as bait to lure Dutch and the gang into a trap, where the law would be waiting for them. Arthur manages to escape, despite being wounded and exhausted, and this track plays during a cutscene where his loyal horse carries his unconscious form back to camp.

6. "Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern"
Album: Original Score, Track 18
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 16 (Chapter 3, Mission 14)

Soon after the debacle with the O'Driscolls (well, actually a few weeks after, in the timeline of the game), young Jack Marston, son of John Marston and Abigail Roberts, gets kidnapped by one of our new enemies Catherine Braithwaite, as payback for us meddling in the affairs of her family. The gang rides out to Braithwaite Manor, accompanied by this track, and then proceeds to kill everyone in the vicinity and torch the plantation house to the ground.

7. "There She Is... A Real City, The Future"
Album: Original Score, Track 9
Artist: Mario Batkovic
Let's Play: Episode 17 (Chapter 3, Mission 15 - The Battle of Shady Bell)

Before the gang destroyed Braithwaite Manor, we learned from Catherine Braithwaite that her sons had delivered young Jack to Angelo Bronte, the crime lord who runs the city of Saint Denis. This short track plays when Dutch and Arthur first ride to the outskirts of this marvel of civilization to try to get information about Bronte's whereabouts (which is also the cutscene that signals the start of Chapter 4).


8. "Country Pursuits"
Album: Original Score, Track 16
Artist: Arca, Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 22 (Chapter 4, Mission 16)

We ended up getting Jack back from Angelo Bronte rather quickly, but Bronte continues to do us wrong, including convincing us to rob a trolley station, which turns out to be a complete disaster. (That mission, Urban Pleasures, has a memorable, if somewhat repetitive musical motif of its own.) Dutch gets it into his head that Bronte set us up, so he enlists the help of a fisherman named Thomas to help sneak us into Bronte's house so we can take revenge. This track plays when Dutch first introduces Thomas to Arthur, and the two outlaws help the fisherman and his partner Jules deal with some gator troubles.

9. "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten"
Album: Original Score, Track 5
Artist: Mario Batkovic, Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 22 (Chapter 4, Mission 17)

With Thomas's help, the gang sneaks into Angelo Bronte's house under the cover of night, systematically eliminates his guards, drags him from his opulent bedroom, rows him out into the swamps, drowns him off the side of the boat, and feeds him to a hungry alligator. Actually, it's Dutch and Dutch alone who performs those last two acts, displaying some early signs of his mental decline, which will continue to plague the gang for the rest of the game.

10. "Banking, The Old American Art"
Album: Original Score, Track 8
Artist: Michael Leonhart, Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 23 (Chapter 4, Mission 18)

With Bronte dealt with, the gang has just one more big score planned, the one that's supposed to get us enough money to leave the country and start a new life on a tropical island somewhere: robbing the bank of Saint Denis. Hosea and Abigail are all set to draw the police away with a distraction, while the rest of us loot the vault, but based on the somber tone (and dissonant tones) of this track, which plays while Dutch outlines the plan as we travel from camp into the city, things aren't likely to go according to plan...


11. "Everybody Wake Up"
Album: Original Score, Track 10
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 23 (Chapter 4, Mission 18 - Banking, the Old American Art)

As you might have expected, the bank job was a disaster. Hosea and Lenny were killed, John was arrested, and the rest of us had to escape by stowing away on a ship bound for Cuba and bribing the captain. However, things take yet another turn for the worse when the ship gets caught in a storm and ends up sinking. The title of the track refers to Dutch trying to wake us all up in the moment of crisis. We just can't catch a break...


12. "Welcome to the New World"
Album: Original Score, Track 11
Artist: Senyawa, Colin Stetson
Let's Play: Episode 23 (Chapter 5, Mission 1)

The start of Chapter 5 is marked by Arthur waking up after being shipwrecked on the island of Guarma. The first part of this track plays while Arthur wanders aimlessly along an admittedly very pretty beach while searching for the rest of his party. They are eventually reunited, but soon fall into even more trouble, getting captured by the local militia, whose mission it is to protect the evil Alberto Fussar's sugar plantation.

The second part of this track (the plucked guitar and subtle vocals starting at around 1:05) actually plays during the intro to a mission from Episode 24 called "Hell Hath No Fury," where Arthur and the gang help Haitian freedom fighter Hercule Fontaine in his battle against Fussar, who has enlisted the help of the Cuban navy. The music during the actual firefight is much more epic, but it doesn't appear on the official soundtracks.


13. "Paradise Mercifully Departed"
Album: Original Score, Track 12
Artist: Senyawa, Woody Jackson, Colin Stetson
Let's Play: Episode 24 (Chapter 5, Mission 5)

This next track, however, is plenty exciting, with cool island rhythms to boot. It plays during the very next mission, where the gang has to eliminate Fussar and rescue the captain of the boat that Hercule has arranged to take us back to the mainland. This mission is fun because it shows a rare instance of Arthur and Micah working together effectively without things going horribly wrong.


14. "Unshaken"
Album: Original Soundtrack, Track 1
Artist: D'Angelo
Let's Play: Episode 25 (Chapter 5, Mission 6 - Dear Uncle Tacitus)

The gang splits up and heads to shore separately, with Arthur being dropped off at the Van Horn trading post. It's a long journey from here to the Gang's last known hideout at Shady Bell, which is the perfect opportunity for a stirring travel montage accompanied by D'Angelo's dulcet tones! NOTE: the version of this song that appears in my Let's Play is in a different key than the official album version; I tried to pitch-shift it down to keep YouTube's algorithm from recognizing it, but it got flagged for copyright anyway.


15. "Fleeting Joy"
Album: Original Score, Track 14
Artist: Colin Stetson, Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 25 (Chapter 5, Mission 7)

Almost immediately after locating the gang's new hideout, the Pinkertons show up and start shooting up the place. Talk about bad luck... or is it? This track perfectly captures the sense of desperation in this mission as Arthur mows down as many Pinkertons as possible with a gatling gun in the middle of the swamp.


16. "Doctor's Opinion"
Album: Original Score, Track 13
Artist: Colin Stetson
Let's Play: Episode 25 (Chapter 5, Mission 8 - A Fork in the Road)

After we drive off the Pinkertons, Sadie takes it on herself to come up with a plan to free John from federal prison, where he has been languishing since the failed bank robbery. But as Arthur rides to meet her in Saint Denis, he collapses from a coughing fit, and is helped to the doctor by a kindly stranger. I won't spoil the specific diagnosis he gets, but suffice it to say, it's not good news.

17. "Icarus and Friends"
Album: Original Score, Track 15
Artist: Colin Stetson, David Ralicke, Jeff Silverman
Let's Play: Episode 25 (Chapter 5, Mission 9)

Even the diagnosis of a terminal illness doesn't mean we get to take a break from our outlaw lifestyle. Immediately after being discharged from the doctor, Sadie explains the particulars of her plan: fly over the penitentiary in a hot air balloon to make sure John is there, then break him out some other day in a completely separate mission, the music of which does not appear on the soundtrack albums.


18. "Mrs. Sadie Adler, Widow"
Album: Original Score, Track 4
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 30 (Chapter 6, Mission 16)

To understand the full emotional weight of this track, we have to go back to the very first mission of the game, where Sadie Adler hid and watched helplessly as the O'Driscoll gang murdered her husband and took over their home. Even after we ensured that the leader of the gang, Colm O'Driscoll, was hanged by the neck until dead, Sadie won't be satisfied until the entire lot of them are eradicated, and now she knows where the rest of them are holed up. This track embodies the rage she feels as she and Arthur complete her quest for revenge.


19. "It All Makes Sense Now"
Album: Original Score, Track 6
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 32 (Chapter 6, Mission 20 - Red Dead Redemption)

That's right, the final mission of the main storyline is called "Red Dead Redemption," same as the previous game in the series. You'd think they could have picked something that would have avoided the need for a whole disambiguation Wikipedia article. This is also the mission where the SPOILERS start to get crazy, so please, please, PLEASE watch the Let's Play if you haven't already before reading any further.

The cutscene at the start of this mission actually starts with a version of the first few bars of the track "Outlaws from the West," from way back in the very first mission, but this is the music that plays when you first get control of Arthur during the mission. For some background, John was supposedly killed during the previous mission (at least according to Dutch and Micah), so when John's wife Abigail gets captured by the Pinkertons, the rest of the group decides to let her go. Only Arthur and Sadie are willing to ride to her rescue, and they do so to the heroic strains of this track. A couple of other bombshell reveals in this mission: Agent Milton, the leader of the Pinkertons, reveals that Micah has been a rat all along, and Abigail knows the location of the chest where Dutch has been hiding the gang's savings!


20. "That's the Way It Is"
Album: Original Soundtrack, Track 3
Artist: Daniel Lanois
Let's Play: Episode 32 (Chapter 6, Mission 20 - Red Dead Redemption)

After saving Abigail (or, more accurately, being saved BY Abigail), Arthur is determined to travel back to camp and tell Dutch the truth about Micah. As he rides, we get a very emotional traveling montage, underscored by Daniel Lanois's lyric track "That's the Way It Is." As an interesting note, remember that the choices that you make during the game affect your character's honor level, and the album version of the track is what plays if you have net positive honor at this point in the game. If you are heartless enough to have accrued negative honor, there's a slightly different instrumental backing track, plus different snippets of dialogue that you hear while riding.


21. "Red Dead Redemption"
Album: Original Score, Track 19
Artist: Woody Jackson
Let's Play: Episode 32 (Chapter 6, Mission 20)

As if things weren't confusing enough, there is now a game, a mission, AND a music track, all titled "Red Dead Redemption." This track plays during said mission, but only if you make a particular decision. Towards the end, the game lets you choose whether to help John get to safety, or return to camp to recover the money. If you make the honorable choice to go with John, you hear this track as the two of you scurry up to the top of a mountain, and during the ensuing fist fight with Micah.

On the other hand, if you choose the dishonorable path of returning to camp, you hear a different music track: "Mountain Finale" by Daniel Lanois from the Original Soundtrack. It's much less emotional than the high-honor version, but a lot more epic, as you have to fight your way through a bunch of Pinkertons to get down the mountain. Also, the fist fight with Micah becomes a knife fight, so the stakes are a little higher in that regard as well.

22. "Crash of Worlds"
Album: Original Soundtrack, Track 5
Artist: Rocco DeLuca
Let's Play: Episode 32 (Chapter 6, Mission 20 - Red Dead Redemption)

Regardless of which path you choose at the end of the mission, Arthur Morgan ends up convincing Dutch to part ways with Micah, before succumbing to his Tuberculosis, while gazing at a beautiful sunrise. Actually, if you end the game with low honor, Arthur ends up getting killed by Micah, but I took the positive route in my Let's Play. Also, as with "That's the Way It Is," the album version of Rocco DeLuca's "Crash of Worlds" is from the high honor cutscene in the game - the low honor version is more somber, with distorted vocals, and it doesn't last quite as long.


So that's a chronological ordering of the tracks on the albums of Red Dead Redemption 2, at least according to how I played through them in my Let's Play. Actually, even though the game does give you the freedom to play some missions in different orders, looking back at the playlist I made, I think the order of the missions listed above remains the same, regardless of individual player choices. If you're familiar with the soundtrack albums, you might also notice that there are many tracks that are not included in the above list, but that's because those tracks only appear in the game during the Epilogues, which I will likely start posting after a short break. In the meantime, happy listening!

Batman: Arkham Knight Let's Play #15 - Bruce Wayne

Batman: Arkham Knight, Let's Play Archive!

As I was going through the long and arduous process of re-uploading my Batman: Arkham Knight Let's Play videos in glorious HD and then updating the corresponding blog recaps, I realized that I had never written one for the finale! Perhaps I simply forgot; or perhaps I just didn't want the adventure to end... and in a sense, it hasn't yet! So here's an in-depth look at the thrilling conclusion of my own personalized version of Batman: Arkham Knight:

Episode 14 ended with the revelation that Robin (i.e. Tim Drake) had been abducted from the movie studios by Scarecrow, forcing us to deal with the game's main villain on his terms. In an interesting behind-the-scenes tidbit, even though I featured the completion of the Riddler side mission in the previous episode, that actually would not be possible when playing the game itself - the image of Robin's defaced and empty quarantine cell is one of the Riddler challenges you have to scan in order to gain access to his final boss fight. But I rearranged the order so as not to interrupt the flow of the story heading into the final installment. Incidentally, this episode was also where I first got the inspiration to record my voice-over commentary from the perspective of the game's playable character, although I wouldn't explore this concept fully until my Let's Play of Batman: Return to Arkham Asylum (which will hopefully be getting its own HD re-upload in the near future).

After surrendering to Scarecrow and getting into the back of a truck, we are launched into a fear-toxin hallucination where the truck crashes right into Crime Alley - the murder scene of young Bruce Wayne's parents - and we're forced to fight an endless stream of Jokers. I scored this sequence with a track from the Official Arkham Asylum soundtrack called "Playful Joker." This cue originally goes with the downloadable content where you play AS Joker, but I found it just as compelling to use it here in combat AGAINST Joker.

Speaking of music from Arkham Asylum, I use the music from the first game's opening sequence as we return to the actual Arkham Asylum, where Scarecrow has somewhat predictably set up shop for his endgame. I've noted several times throughout this playthrough that I've been pleasantly amazed at how perfectly the music from either one of the previous Arkham games or Batman: The Animated Series fits perfectly with many segments in Arkham Knight, and the part where Scarecrow unmasks Batman is a prime example. The music here is actually from the sequence in Asylum where Joker murders his Arkham guard escort and escapes from his comically flimsy restraints, but check out how it builds perfectly to Scarecrow's cameras revealing Batman's identity for all the world to see. I had to quickly fade in another track from Asylum for when Batman is administered with a quadruple dose of concentrated fear toxin (it's the part where Harley Quinn sends the secure elevator crashing down), but some editing work is to expected to make every moment land.

Speaking of editing work, this next segment is definitely one of the top three music edits I'm most proud of in the whole series. Batman's next hallucination features a group of villains crowded around our unconscious captive hero... who is revealed to be the Joker! (The implication here being that Batman's infected Joker blood has taken hold, and his transformation into his arch nemesis is complete.) For this bit of villains vs. villain banter, I used Stuart Balcomb's theme from the Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im." The comparison is appropriate, because here too, the contingent of rogue's gallery members ALMOST gets their man... before the Batmobile crashes through the wall, crushing Killer Croc, and drawing the attention of the army of henchmen. This one took some effort - the music track didn't line up perfectly like it did in the above example - but I think we can all agree I made it work pretty well.

At this point in the game, we take control of Joker as he slaughters dozens of henchmen with the "Jokermobile" and massacres the remaining supervillains, accompanied by the first licensed external music in the game since the opening sequence: "Only You" by The Platters. Later on in the hallucination, after the part where Batman shuts off the lights in an effort to regain control of his own psyche, I did some significant internal cutting to streamline the action here. In order to get past this part in the game, you have to do a lot of quiet, aimless, first-person wandering through the crypt-like halls of Batman's mind palace, which makes for some tense and creepy gameplay. But since my goal of these videos was to have as little empty space as possible to fill with commentary, I basically picked the best parts of Joker's inner monologue, and then trimmed the game action to fit the audio. Also, just to pat myself on the back once again, I have to say that the choice of the game show music from the Animated Series episode "Christmas With the Joker" to go under the Good Evening Gotham segment was particularly inspired.

But the number one top best music moment of this entire Let's Play follows soon after this, during the moment where Batman reveals that he knows Joker's greatest fear, and thus how to defeat him once and for all: "You're afraid of being ashes. You're afraid of being forgotten. And you will be forgotten, Joker... because of me." At this point, we regain control of Batman - immediately after he utters one of his most famous catchphrases ("I am vengeance. I am the night. I AM BATMAN!") - so that we can give the Joker one final beating and lock him away inside the dungeons of our mind. The above mentioned catchphrase comes from the Animated Series episode "Nothing to Fear," so it only makes sense that I would use music from that episode to punctuate this moment in the game... but the funny thing is that the music that (once again) just HAPPENS to fit perfectly here* is from a different part of that same episode!

* Since we're not talking about a cutscene, the perfect fit is partly dependent on how I happened to play at this point, and even then it required a bit of a trim in the editing process.

After Batman regains control of his senses, he is freed from his shackles by none other than Jason Todd, who has abandoned the Arkham Knight moniker to become the Red Hood, and injects Scarecrow with a taste of his own medicine. The resulting scene of Dr. Jonathan Crane being scared shirtless when confronted with Batman's toxin-enhanced visage, is a direct lift from the oft-referenced "Nothing to Fear" episode, and the music from that sequence once again works well here, even continuing into the denouement with Commissioner Gordon. (In the show, this part of the music goes under Bruce Wayne visiting his parents' grave, after he talked himself out of the toxin-induced belief that they would see him as a failure.)

The game then concludes with a series of cutscenes, interrupted briefly when we have to activate the Knightfall Protocol by making our way up to the Bat Signal on top of GCPD. This plan involves the shocking demolition of Wayne Manor, with Batman and Alfred seemingly inside at the time! I don't think anyone seriously believed that Bruce Wayne would commit suicide, or even less so that he would take his loyal butler down with him, and the idea that Batman isn't really gone is confirmed in a special 100% completion post-credits scene, where a seemingly fear-toxin wielding Batman terrorizes some criminals in an alley. I speculate on three possible interpretations of this scene in the last moments of my commentary on the video: 1) Bruce Wayne returned because he couldn't stay away, 2) Jason Todd gave up his Red Hood and took on the Bat-mantle, or (most controversially) 3) Scarecrow himself became Batman, succumbing to his greatest fear. There are several other possibilities - Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, even Azrael, whose side missions I left out of the Let's Play (maybe I'll include them in a bonus episode sometime down the line?) - but the use of fear toxin imagery leads me to believe it's one of the top three.

What did you all think of the ending of Batman: Arkham Knight? I'd love to hear your takes in the comments of this post, or the video itself. And of course stay tuned to this blog and the ryskmonger42 channel for more Baseball, Batman, and Video Game related content!

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City: Episode 10

I've said many times that Episode 9 was the equivalent of this Let's Play's midseason finale, so that means Episode 10 is the second half premiere - and it should be treated with all the excitement and fanfare that accompanies a premiere. Even though it wasn't published until nearly three years after the release of the Return to Arkham series. And even though this blog recap was delayed for more than a month because of the excitement surrounding the start of the baseball season. But just watch the episode yourself and tell me it wasn't worth the wait...



As is fitting with any premiere, this episode starts with a lengthy cutscene, which establishes our new primary objective: retrieve a blood sample from Ra's al Ghul, so that Mr. Freeze can use it to complete his cure. Also in this cutscene, we see one of Ra's's ninjas (or rather one of his daughter Talia's ninjas) escape from one of Penguin's glass display cases and scamper out of the museum, conveniently leaving a trail of blood for me to follow. After we regain control, the in-game music drops out so that we can concentrate while scanning the evidence and updating Oracle on our progress. However, since you, the viewers, don't need to concentrate on anything except being entertained, I cut in the Arkham City Main Theme here, since the second half premiere is as good an excuse as any to bring back the game's most recognizable piece of music. Then as the conversation turns to the family al-Ghul, I use the opening theme from their first dedicated Batman: The Animated Series episode, the two-parter "The Demon's Quest."

Speaking of the Animated Series, after finding said ninja and stealthily equipping her with a tracking device, we get a new gadget delivered by none other than our fourth-favorite sidekick, Robin (the Tim Drake version). This particular music choice is one of my favorite in this whole Let's Play because of how perfectly the track syncs up with the in-game action. There's no music during the cutscene where Robin hands over the Line Launcher and agrees to take a sample of your infected blood to help Gotham area hospitals prepare for the impending epidemic, so I put in a track from Robin's (i.e. Dick Grayson's) two-part origin story "Robin's Reckoning" (partial audio link). I basically picked the first track from that episode with a length that fit in the space between when the ninja chasing theme faded out and the gadget upgrade theme faded in, and it just happened to follow the dramatic action of the scene, right down to the climactic swell when Batman reassuringly tells Robin that he'll find a way to solve this mess. For more examples of how BTAS music fits well with Arkham cutscenes, check out my Let's Play of Arkham Knight, although you might want to wait a few weeks until I start re-uploading the episodes in glorious full HD.

Before following the tracker, I take a break to pick up a Riddler trophy and fight some random henchmen, which also gives me the opportunity to experiment with more multi-layer music tracks, this time from the Arkham City soundtrack. You might recall that the ambient explore theme "I Know What You Guys Are Thinking" is among my favorite tracks in the game, but this piece of music also has an additional unreleased layer with percussion accompaniment for combat sequences. I'd say to watch that sequence and listen closely to see if you can spot where the new layer comes in, but it's not really a mystery since I explain it in the commentary. Shortly after this, the ninja's tracker leads us into the sewer system, where I use a track from the Arkham Asylum soundtrack that plays while you explore the cave system connected to the auxiliary Batcave.

While underground, we get a surprise cameo by Batman's most famous sewer-dwelling enemy Killer Croc. (Shout out to anyone who thought I was going to say the Sewer King.) For this brief scene, where Croc's uncanny sense of smell picks up the subtle aroma of Batman's infected blood, I use the music that plays when Croc chases you out of his lair underneath Arkham Asylum in the first game in the series. Then after progressing further into the sewers, we get another reference to the reptile-man formerly known as Waylon Jones, as I stumble upon a room he used as his hideout. While scanning the shock collar with which he was fitted back in Asylum (thereby completing another Riddler challenge), I play the opening theme from Croc's first Animated Series episode "Vendetta" to give the situation some appropriate atmosphere.

In between these two Croc sightings, there's a combat sequence with some Joker thugs that normally plays without music. For this fight, and the henchmen banter leading-in to it, I use another dual-layer track from Arkham Asylum. On the official soundtrack, this piece is rather generically titled "Crackin' Heads," but in order for the music to properly follow the action, I had to mix in its component parts: from the ch3 Admin series in the game rip audio files. Thus ends one of the most musically intensive episodes of the whole Let's Play!

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City: Episode 9

If this Let's Play series were a season of a television show split into two parts (in the style of The Walking Dead), this episode would serve as the midseason finale (or "midnale," to use a term I coined). I won't say any more for now, except that it ends with a rousing bit of action that also serves as a natural stopping point in the game's narrative. Go ahead, see what I mean by watching the embedded video.


But before we get to the exciting conclusion, we have to wrap up the business from the last episode: rescuing the undercover cops from Penguin in the museum. The predator challenge where we save a big group of them from some armed enemies happens with accompaniment of a driving, horns-based musical theme, known on the official soundtrack as "How Does It Feel, Pig?" However, if you listen closely to the music in this part of the game, it's clear that this track is actually the second layer of a musical theme we've heard earlier, called "Trophy Room." So that's why, after I took out all the henchmen and talked to the cops, I filled this usually music-less space with this same track. Additionally, during the trip from the Armory over to the Iceberg Lounge, I use a track that we've heard before from the extended soundtrack called "Entering Penguin's Turf."

We quickly discover that it's pointless to confront Penguin without first finding a way to disable the ice gun that he stole from Mr. Freeze, so we have to search the museum for everyone's favorite cryogenic scientist - and that's when the music gets interesting. For this section I inserted my favorite piece of music from Arkham Asylum: a dual-layer masterpiece that is not on the official soundtrack, but which can be found in the in-game audio files under such innocuous names as Batman and Combat. If you listen to those two tracks separately, you'll see that one contains just the strings, while the other features just the horns, but when you put them together, they form an extremely complex and evocative theme that perfectly embodies the feel of both the Arkham games and the Batman universe in general. What's more, for its use in this Let's Play, I mix the various layers in and out depending on the action in the game. For example, listen closely to the music during the search for Mr. Freeze (and again as we make our way back to the Freeze Suit in the Armory) and see if you can distinguish the different versions of the track.

But between those two segments, we actually have to find Mr. Freeze and get some information out of him. Since he is locked in a room with more of Penguin's character-specific display cases, I took that as a good opportunity to showcase some more music from Batman: The Animated Series. First and foremost, there's the opening theme from "Heart of Ice," when we first see Mr. Freeze (the zero-suit version, pictured above). But before that, we see the remains of Joker's famous hyenas, which make their first animated appearance in the episode "Joker's Favor." Then there's a case for Harley Quinn, under which I put the opening theme from the episode "Harley and Ivy." And for the Clown Prince of Crime himself, we get a theme that we've heard before, from "The Last Laugh," but it's such a perfect musical representation of the Joker, that I don't feel too bad about reusing it multiple times.

The last piece of personal music in this episode is probably the most outrageous one in the whole Let's Play, but it goes along with what's probably the most outrageous moment of the whole game. While traveling back across the thawing lake, Tiny the shark makes another appearance, this time jumping up to chomp down on our raft! Reacting quickly to this surprise attack, Batman executes a Beat Down maneuver (i.e. spamming the strike button) until it goes away. This is clearly a reference to the extra campy "Shark Repellant Bat Spray" sequence from the 1966 movie Batman, starring Adam West, which is why I punctuate this moment with a jazzy rendition of main theme from the soundtrack of the 1960s TV show.

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City: Episode 8

I probably shouldn't admit this, but looking back on it, the entirety of Episode 7 could have been lifted out of the timeline without too many adverse effects. Sure, we got the first entrance into Penguin's museum, and the Zsasz backstory will be relevant later on, but the presence of those sensor jammers (even though they're technically part of the main story missions) doesn't have much of an impact on the plot. That said, Episode 8, on the other hand, is jam-packed with plot development, compelling twists and turns, and top notch gameplay action!



Despite all the above sensor jammer-bashing, we do have to deal with the aftermath of that "side" mission at the top of this episode, when Penguin broadcasts to his henchmen who failed to protect his devices, as we make our way back topside. For this little audio interlude, I used the opening theme of Penguin's third dedicated episode in Batman: the Animated Series, titled "Birds of a Feather". In this episode, Penguin convinces himself that he's reformed his villainous ways after a lengthy prison sentence, and attempts to join high society... with disastrous results. I thought the upbeat, operatic string section provided a nice juxtaposition to the brutality he was threatening to inflict on his workforce.

Once we finally get into the museum for real, we're presented with a sticky situation: three of Penguin's goons are torturing an undercover cop, who is part of a strike team sent in by Commissioner Gordon. While this happens, the in-game music starts off as a track from the extended soundtrack, appropriately titled "Trophy Room," since the scene takes place in the Trophy Room. However, once we're done beating down the enemies and we start talking to the cop - the strongly named Elvis Jones - all the music goes away. So I inserted a variant track that's very similar to "Trophy Room," except without the subtle driving percussion. This cue extends though a tour of the trophy room itself, including two separate display cabinets set up for Bruce Wayne and Batman... imagine Penguin's disappointment if he ever managed to catch our hero!

After a confrontation with the Penguin himself, he predictably resorts to throwing a bunch of henchmen at us, in a fight scored by the in-game track "It's Initiation Time." This fight also includes a TITAN-enhanced henchman, which was the inspiration for the next bit of personal music: the TITAN henchmen boss battle theme from Arkham Asylum. This plays while we're explaining the situation to the newest entry to tonight's support team, Oracle (a.k.a. Barbara Gordon), and continues while I explore the way forward. While I start with the full version of the music, as this sequence continues I also utilize the track's component parts: the strings and percussion and the horn section.


And that's it for personal music, excluding the track I used for the "last time on" recap (which was also from the last episode) and the brief moment where I returned to the Arkham Asylum main menu theme for selecting an upgrade. Tune in next time for what would be the mid-season finale, if this series was split in half, a-la the later seasons of The Walking Dead.

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City: Episode 7

It might be hard to believe, but a full two-thirds of Episode 7 of my Batman: Return to Arkham City Let's Play is part of the main story missions. Watch the video below and see if you can which parts are mandatory, and which are side missions:



If you guessed that the first "act" was the one comprised of side missions, you'd be absolutely right. But it's understandable if you thought the rest of the episode wasn't particularly story-centric, since by the end of the episode, we're still not able to progress very far into Penguin's museum, which is the goal of our primary objective. But sometimes you have to go a long distance out of your way in order to come back a short distance correctly.

You see, Penguin had set up his base of operations inside the Cyrus Pinkney Natural History museum, which, as a municipal structure, I should have been able to hack my way inside using the Cryptographic Sequencer. But since Oswald Cobblepot has access to military grade equipment for some reason, he was able to block the signal back to the Batcave using communications jammers, which are inconveniently spread all across the map. So while destroying them is necessary for progressing through the main story, it's also a task that could be pretty easily isolated and lifted out if necessary.

But before getting to that in the episode, I tackle a pair of actual side missions: gliding through advanced augmented reality obstacle courses and chasing after a couple more of Victor Zsasz's ringing phones. This Zsasz element provides the only real opportunity to name this episode after a character, even though we were introduced to the self-scarred serial killer in the previous episode, and we won't complete his side mission until many episodes later. But since Calendar Man's only appearance was in the previous episode and we don't get our first real meeting with the Penguin until next time, I was left with precious few choices.

Meanwhile, the AR side missions provide the only real chance to insert any personal music - namely the Arkham Asylum Main Theme while I'm in the pause menu searching for the next mission. I know I said I wasn't going to highlight any future uses of this track, but it's basically the only one in this episode, so I'm making an exception. Oh, there is one other track I added: after destroying the third jammer, Batman does some VO commentary about how he's now able to get into the museum. This happens after the predator challenge music stings out, so I spiced this moment up with a track from the extended soundtrack (which we also heard earlier in this episode, upon entering the museum for the first time) called "Entering Penguin's Turf."

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City - Episode 6

We're getting to the point in this playthrough where side missions will fill the majority of the next two episodes. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of fun and exciting developments, and we do keep the story going with at least one important plot point per episode. But this is what happens when the "network" extends your episode order from 14 to 21 from last season...



I know I said I wasn't going to detail every time I used the Arkham Asylum main theme to cover time spent in the pause menu, but this episode is significant because it marks the switch from the version of the song ripped from the game's audio files that I found on the internet, to the version on the official soundtrack album, titled "Enter the Asylum." If you'll recall, I don't just restart the track at the beginning each time I use it during a menu sequence; instead, I pick it up from where I left off last time. It just so happened that I reached the end of the track during the last episode, so I thought this would be a good time to showcase the two different versions.

After we rescue medic Adam Hamasaki from the first Riddler room, we're provided with a radio frequency that we have to plug into our Cryptographic Sequencer. After doing so, Edward Nigma tells us that we need to complete more Riddler challenges (i.e. collect trophies, solve riddles, achieve physical tasks, etc.) in order to proceed with the side mission - but he does so all while there is no music playing in the background, so I cut in some Riddler-related ambient music that's not on the game's official soundtrack. Actually, full disclosure, we got a similar radio frequency from Eddie Burlow, the first Riddler hostage in the courthouse, but I ended up cutting that part out of the previous episode. It just didn't seem necessary to have both the frequency AND the introduction of the riddle-solving box that we receive, but in hindsight, perhaps I should have maintained the integrity of the full gameplay experience.

Speaking of the courthouse, that's where we meet Calendar Man, this episode's "title character." He doesn't have anything to do with the main story, and his appearance qualifies as more of an easter egg than a side mission. (If you launch the game and visit him on every date that's circled on that calendar on the wall, he has a different thing to say each time.) But I had to save Victor Zsasz (another more impactful character who we meet in this episode) for Episode 7, since we're short on story-related characters in this section of the playthrough, which is focused on side missions and Riddler challenges.

Later in the episode, I get a little too preoccupied with solving some of these challenges, and take far too much time trying to pick up a trophy that involves piloting a Remote Controlled Batarang through a small tunnel to hit a switch at the end. Rather than trimming out all my unsuccessful attempts and making myself seem more competent than I actually am, I sped up the footage and set it to the ultimate comedic montage music, "Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph and Spider Rich, as popularized in the Benny Hill Show.

And that's about it for the personal music... minus one more trip back to the Arkham Asylum main theme, but... NO NO PLEASE DON'T CLOSE THE WINDO--

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City - Episode 5

Episode 5 starts out as though we're getting back on track with the game's primary objective, but very quickly devolves into more side mission nonsense. However, one of the missions introduced in this episode has some pretty significant stakes, since it involves... well, I won't spoil the surprise, why don't you go ahead and watch the full episode below:



Pretty wild stuff, eh? My favorite part was when I jumped over the... oh, wait. You didn't watch the full episode yet? That's OK, I'll wait...

...

The first piece of music that I cut into the episode technically happens during the "Last Time On" recap, but I'm not counting that as personal music because it's an extension of the first track that plays in the actual episode. On the official soundtrack, this one is called "I Know What You Guys Are Thinking," and it's my favorite "ambient/explore" theme in the entire Arkham universe - so much so that I set the climactic phrase as my ringtone back when this game first came out in 2011.

The first truly personal musical addition in this episode comes after we defeat Penguin's henchmen in the GCPD lab, while we learn how to use the cryptographic sequencer to hack security consoles. Since it's Penguin's fault that we're locked in here in the first place, I use a track from Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot's first appearance in the Animated Series called "I've Got Batman In My Basement." Since the music is basically the only redeeming quality of that episode, I won't say much more about it, but I do think this track fits amazingly well with this bit of gameplay (with a bit of music editing on my part).

Soon after exiting the GCPD, I get sidetracked by the first of two side missions that will occupy most of this episode. After pausing the game to check on my primary objective, my eye is drawn to a distress beacon on the roof of a nearby building. While I listen in to Hugo Strange discussing the situation with one of his TYGER guards, I pump in the intro of the nefarious psychiatrist's only Animated Series appearance, "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne." This episode presents a much more dramatic and believable method of Strange discovering Batman's secret identity than the explanation given in the game - which you can hear in the Riddler interview tapes, one of the pieces of bonus content you get as a reward for solving the Riddler challenges throughout the game.

It turns out that distress beacon was placed by none other than Bane, the muscle-head from whom the TITAN formula was derived back in Arkham Asylum. The moment where we first enter the Krank Co. Toys factory and see the roided up villain happens without music, so I piped in the intro from Bane's only Animated Series episode, which shares his name. Although actually, since music from that episode doesn't appear on any of the official soundtrack albums, what you hear in the Let's Play is captured directly from the DVD. I probably shouldn't admit doing that on the internet, but... fair use, maybe?

After talking to Bane and unlocking his side mission "Fragile Alliance," I use some music from Arkham Asylum to fill in the space before heading back outside. This is one of the two layers that comprises Bane's boss music from the first game, which is also not on the official soundtrack, but which can be found by the super descriptive name "Boss Bane 02." The fully mixed version of this cue actually plays later in Arkham City, and appears on the extended soundtrack, but we'll save that for when it shows up.

The last piece of personal music happens after we unlock the second side mission in the episode: "Enigma Conundrum," named after Edward Nigma, aka the Riddler. You see, he has taken the doctors and guards from the church hostage, and is forcing Batman to solve his challenges in order to set them free. As part of this, we get to use the Enigma Machine - not the World War II code breaker, but rather a word-matching device to answer riddles. Only problem is, there's no music when we pause the game to use the device, so I cut in the second part of the theme from Riddler's first Animated Series episode, "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" You might remember this cue from when we first met Riddler in Episode 1, but if a piece of music is worth using, it's worth using twice!

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City - Episode 4

I've fallen behind on these blog commentaries to accompany my Let's Play of Batman: Return to Arkham City, because... well, there are no excuses, I just didn't do them. But I'll make up for it with rapid fire posts about episodes 4 and 5, starting right now.



Jumping right into a breakdown of my personally added music, I once again cut in the main menu music from Arkham Asylum while I'm picking my next upgrade, which I believe is the fourth overall. Since there will be a lot more of these upgrades throughout the course of the game, with most (although not all) being accompanied by this music, I'm not going to note each one individually from here on out. The most interesting thing about this particular upgrade is that it is selected not by Batman, but by Catwoman, since they share experience points and can purchase upgrades for each other. Since you only play as Catwoman a handful of times during the game, it makes a lot more sense to always get the Batman ones, which is what I do here.

But even though we play as Catwoman for the majority of this episode, the character I would pick to represent Episode 4 is Poison Ivy. Even though she does significantly factor into the story later on down the line, this is the episode where she gets the most screen time, and it's the only one where we fight against her brainwashed henchmen. Notably, her role in Arkham City pales in comparison to both the preceding and subsequent games in the Arkham trilogy, so check out my Let's Plays of Return to Arkham Asylum and Arkham Knight for your Pamela Isley fix.

After we're done with the Catwoman segment, we get an in-game music-less cutscene when Batman talks to Joker using the smartphone our hero finds taped to his chest. For this key conversation, I use the same cue from the Animated Series episode "The Last Laugh" that we heard back in Episode 2, after scanning Joker's sniper rifle. I don't feel too bad about reusing it so soon, since it is bar none the best example of Joker's musical leitmotif in the series.

This chat is the last time that Batman uses the phone itself, since he knows the importance of using a good hands-free system while fighting crime. For the brief moment when Batman inserts the SIM card into his gauntlet-based Bat-bluetooth, I use the sting from the extended soundtrack cue "Meet Mr. Hammer," which we saw in the last episode.

Immediately after that, we call up Alfred to give him the latest update: Mr. Freeze has been working on a cure for Joker's (and my) infected blood. Since the topic of conversation is everyone's favorite cryogenic scientist, I use the introduction to Mr. Freeze's first Animated Series appearance, an episode titled "Heart of Ice."

The only other personal music in the episode is another brief instance of the track "Watcher in the Wings" from the extended soundtrack, to go over the second part of the side mission with the same name, and then one more use of the Arkham Asylum main theme for another upgrade... but I said I wouldn't talk about those individually anymore. Stay tuned for another blog recap coming real soon, and new episodes every Tuesday!

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City - Episode 3

It's to talk about Episode 3 of Batman: Return to Arkham City, where we finally learn the primary conflict that will drive the rest of the game's action. Spoilers will follow, so be sure to watch the episode (either in its embedded form, or on YouTube proper) before reading on.



First let's get the discussion about the personal music I've added to this episode out of the way, since it'll be quite brief. The vast majority of the action is accompanied by the in-game soundtrack, so the only part I had to score was when I was picking an upgrade after a fight with some Joker henchmen caused me to level up. The most prominently featured piece of music from this episode is a track from the official Arkham City album called "Wham. Gotcha!" That title is a reference to a line of dialogue spoken by a henchman early in the Steel Mill exploration, but the bulk of the track plays during the predator challenge in the smelting chamber, where we have to rescue Dr. Stacy Baker. There is another piece of music that plays multiple times in this episode, most prominently when we fight the giant one-armed mini-boss towards the end, for whom the track is named on the unreleased extended soundtrack.

Since I wasn't able to personalize this episode much through the music, I'd like to talk about a couple of other personal touches I made. The first is the fairly silly way I started the episode, where I tried to liven up the various gadget tutorials by doing my best Alfred impression. I always wondered why there wasn't more open communication between Batman and his loyal butler during some of these exploration sequences, but luckily with my own commentary, I can make that happen!

The only other part really worth mentioning is at the very end of the episode, which concludes with two spoiler-ridden cutscenes back to back. When you play Return to Arkham City, these cutscenes are separated by a Catwoman segment, but I thought it would be more narratively interesting to end this (admittedly short) episode with the plot information imparted in that second cutscene than saving it for the beginning of the following episode after we've cut away to the B-Story. Don't worry, you'll be able to see the continuing adventures of Selina Kyle in next week's video.

That's it for this week! Fair warning, things go a little off the rails next time, as I get distracted by side missions more than I probably should. But what better way to show off the immersive nature of this game than to wander aimlessly around the wonderful world of Arkham City!

Let's Play Batman: Return to Arkham City, Episode 2

It's a new year, which means we're going to be inundated with firsts - first baby born in 2019, first official workday of 2019, first presidential tweetstorm of 2019... and also my first video of 2019! Here's episode 2 of my Let's Play of Batman: Return to Arkham City, the PS4 remaster of the 2011 masterpiece:



I've already explained the idea behind this project in my previous post (also my last post of 2018), so I'll stick to a quick recap get into an explanation of my personal music cues fairly quickly. First of all, it should become clear in this episode that I'm taking a pretty slow-paced, meandering approach to this playthrough - I'll frequently stop to listen to various bits of henchmen banter, tackle side missions as they come, and generally take my time to enjoy the sights and sounds of Arkham City. So, pretty much the opposite of a speedrun. But with a game as deep and detailed as Arkham City, there's plenty of interesting stuff to pay attention to no matter what speed you play.

Now let's move on to the personal music cues I've added to this episode. Again, there aren't many, since most of this early part of the game is scored. And again, the first one in this episode happens during a trip to the pause menu. As we discover right after the "last time on" tease (a feature that I'm pretty proud of, by the way - they'll get more complex as the series goes on), we find out that the events of Episode 1 earned me enough experience points to level up. While selecting my first upgrade (the Critical Strikes, naturally), I use the same music that I previously used for the pause menu: "Enter the Asylum" from the Arkham Asylum official soundtrack. However, attentive listeners will notice that I start the track where I left off in the last episode! Because why should you be forced to listen to the same thing twice?

After leaving Two-Face strung up in the courthouse, there's a mysterious figure watching from the rooftop where I picked up the first Riddler trophy. Approaching this guy causes him to vanish in a puff of smoke, leaving a strange symbol behind. Scanning this symbol with Detective Mode's Environmental Analysis feature triggers the "Watcher in the Wings" side mission and automatically brings you to the map screen, which is where my personal music comes in. What you hear is actually the official theme song of this mission (which appears on the Arkham City extended soundtrack), although it doesn't play in the game until you meet this guy several times.

This episode marks the first appearances of Harley Quinn and the Joker, although the latter only shows up on a tiny TV monitor with his face obscured. This happens after scanning the sniper rifle situated at the top of the church, which Joker was remotely controlling, and it triggers a speech from the clown prince of crime. This cutscene usually occurs without music, so I piped in Joker's musical motif from the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Last Laugh." I was somewhat conflicted about putting this track here, since Mark Hamill's voice acting is more than enough to carry a scene without any musical accompaniment, but I couldn't resist the chance to put in some unique TAS flair.

Stay tuned next week for the next exciting episode!

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!