Arkham City Post #13: Confronting Mr. Freeze

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 12: The Demon Trials

With a sample of Ra's Al Ghul's blood in hand, my next objective was to bring said blood to Mr. Freeze at the old GCPD building.  However, I was distracted by several new challenges on my way back up to the surface.  There were groups of armed enemies using backpack-mounted sensor jammers, preventing me from scanning the room with Detective Mode.  There were enemies wielding riot shields, who required a special arial attack to disarm.  And to top it off, I received word over Strange's radio that a new prisoner had just been introduced to Arkham City: Mayor Quincy Sharp.

I was so eager to use my new Interrogation skills on that slimy, power-hungry excuse for a psychologist-turned-politician that I dropped my primary objective and headed straight for him, despite Oracle's warnings to stay on task.  When I found him, I was glad I did, as he was about to be shot full of holes by a group of understandably furious inmates.  When I took out the thugs and got my hands on Sharp, all he would divulge was that he decided to put Hugo Strange in charge of Arkham City because he had "powerful friends."  Who could be more powerful and influential than Strange?  Joker was out of commission with his sickness.  Penguin and Two-Face are more small-time crooks than story-driving masterminds.  Ra's Al Ghul was suffering from a Lazarus overdose meltdown.  But as this information provided more backstory than an actionable goal, I filed it away and headed to Freeze.

Victor was able to synthesize the cure easily enough using Ra's's Lazarus-enhanced blood - score one for the insight of the World's Greatest Detective.  But once he was done with the procedure - which produced two drinkable vials of cure - he did something utterly confusing:  he took hold of one vial and placed the other in a locked safe.  Right when it seemed he was going to hand over the McGuffin to me, he thought he could get tricky and make some demands of his own:  apparently Joker had kidnapped Freeze's frozen wife Nora as incentive to develop the cure in the first place.  Freeze now wanted me to find and retrieve Nora before he would deliver the cure to me.  And before I could even begin to negotiate, he crushed the vial he was holding right before my eyes!

The funny thing is, I would have gladly agreed to help reunite Freeze with his wife; what harm would there be in aiding a genuinely troubled (and sometimes downright helpful) supervillain in his quest for peace of mind?  And if he'd given me the cure beforehand, it would have only made it easier for me to complete that mission.  But instead, I had to teach the frozen popsicle a lesson.  His armored suit and devastating freeze gun made him too powerful to face head-on, but luckily the forensic lab provided a veritable plethora of options for me to make use of in taking him down.

His suit was equipped with a heat tracker, so he was able to follow whatever path I took through the lab. Luckily I was able to use that fact to lure him into a number of traps to inflict some damage: I could set up some explosive gel next to a weak wall, I could perform a takedown by jumping out from under a grate or smashing him through a window or dragging him off a ledge or just sneaking up behind him, and I could nail him with one of my signature gliding kicks.  In addition, my new gadgets contributed to my efforts: I could jam his gun with my Disruptor or I could use the Remote Electrical Charge to fire up either an electromagnet or a motor that electrocuted some water on the floor, stunning him long enough to deliver a Beatdown.

The armor on his suit was so effective that I had to deliver several of these takedowns to fully defeat him - plus I had to use diversity, since he was tactically smart enough to adapt to my methods (i.e. freezing the grates, vantage points, windows, electromagnets, etc. so I couldn't use those takedowns twice).  After his beating, Freeze's fit of madness subsided and we could get back to logical discussions about both of our problems.  When I agreed to go after Nora on his behalf, he agreed to give me the cure... but to our horror, when he opened the safe, the vial was missing!  In its place was a note from Harley Quinn, who must have crept in, accessed the safe from the wall side, and stolen the cure while I was tied up with Freeze.  Man, what is it about these supervillains that always make them insist on fighting me instead of just agreeing to work together for once?  It looked like I had yet another hoop to jump through before I got to taste my precious cure...

Part 14: Down the Rabbit Hole

Arkham City Post #12: The Demon Trials

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 11: Wonder City

It was good to see Talia: it's always comforting to have a member of my adventuring party who knows my secret identity, and with whom I could be totally open.  Plus she's easy on the eyes, know what I'm sayin' - check out that midriff - OY!  And she understood the severity of my plight as soon as she lifted my mask and looked on my grotesque, sickly complexion.  However, she would not let me past the guards unless I committed to taking up her father's crusade to cleanse the world of wasteful and destructive society, and to usher in a new world order.  It sounds a lot like what our political correct generation would call eco-terrorism, and between you and me, I wasn't too keen on the idea of becoming the next Ra's Al Ghul, despite the perk of immortality.  But my situation left me little choice but to agree to take part in the Demon Trials.

Talia led me down a long staircase, past a coterie of ninja henchwomen, into a bare room.  In the room was a table on top of which sat a gilded chalice.  I was instructed to drink, and followed through, despite my knowledge of the cup's contents.  One sip, and my mind was instantly transported to an expansive desert landscape, standing on a floating sand dune surrounded by puffy white clouds.  Oh great, I thought, another mystical journey through a psychotropic dreamscape.  Only, in contrast to the abject terror and nightmarish vibe of Scarecrow's fear gas, the Demon's Blood provided a feeling of vitality and empowerment, which I was sure was not limited to my mental state.

Ra's's ghostly form appeared and tasked me with gliding from dune to dune without touching any of the jagged mountains or sand below.  You ever have those dreams where you feel like you're not quite flying, but gliding gently, with total control?  Well the sensation was more dreamlike and incredible than anything I had ever experienced, and I've done my share of majestic gliding, in the real world, no less.  The task wasn't hard, so it didn't surprise me when, after the effects of the drug had subsided and I found myself back in that small underground room, Talia entered and offered to bring me to the "final challenge."  Who else could it have been but Ra's Al Ghul himself?

I would have been hard-pressed to face The Demon's Head in single combat had his magical draught not revitalized my body and temporarily halted the effects of my Titan infection.  As I tried no to think of what the mysterious substance was doing to my insides, the doors opened, revealing an old and sickly-looking Ra's.  It seems as though he wanted me to kill him rather than fight him.  Only then could I truly take his place at the head of the League of Assassins and usher in his new world order.  But since I wasn't interested in killing anyone EVER, much less leading an organization based on killing anyone that stands against them, I flatly refused.  Then, in a rare display of vulnerability (inspired no doubt by Talia's presence), I opened up and informed them of my mission to get a sample of Ra's's blood so Mr. Freeze could complete his cure.

I hated lying to Talia - I had to tell her that I was willing to "take a life in order to save the world" before she would let me into the Demon Trials.  And apparently she believed me.  Which actually makes me feel not so bad for telling that particular lie to Talia.  Cuz if she really knew who I am and really was my "beloved," she'd know that I was never going to decide to take a life - not anyone's - at any time - for any reason.  So either she was totally fooled into thinking that I'd change into something I'm not... or she knew I was lying, and let me go through anyway, knowing that this was the only chance I had to save my life.

Either way, I was this close to getting what I came for, when Ra's took the predictable next step: he tried to force me to kill him by attacking me.  But not before getting a full blast of rejuvenation from his Lazarus Pit.  All of a sudden, the dreamlike desert landscape hallucinations from the Demon's Blood started popping up again.  But this was no flight fantasy played out inside your mind while you're locked in a room tripping out; it was an actual battle with real, blade-wielding ninjas.  And on top of it all, Ra's Al Ghul was teleporting everywhere and occasionally transforming into a sand giant, spinning around and shooting blades everywhere, like a demented Genie from Aladdin.

But little did he know this wasn't my first rodeo (at least in terms of handling real life combat situations while hepped up on psychoactive substances - I must have beat up 15 thugs plus a Titan henchman while under the influence of Scarecrow Toxin back at the Asylum, in Intensive Treatment).  Plus, I had something now I didn't have then: the ability to blast my foe with electricity, which helped slow him down enough for me to pummel him into submission.  I got the blood sample I wanted, and also thought I would do good old Ra's a kindness and let him in on the deduction I made: using the Lazarus Pit in excess was eroding his constitution.  He knew as well as I that the only way to save himself would be to call off that damn fool crusade of his.  But we also both knew that he would never give up his mission as along as he lived - just like I would never break my one rule, even with my life potentially on the line.  I guess I can see why he wanted me for his successor after all.

Part 13: Confronting Mr. Freeze

Arkham City Post #11: Wonder City

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 10: Hunting the League of Assassins

As the blood trail leading to Ra's Al Ghul's hideout seemed to be leading down, not up (which made me question if the line launcher was the right gadget for this job), I thought of someone else I'd met in an underground setting: Calendar Man.  Even though the events of this adventure all take place in a single night, the calendar in the real world keeps on changing, and today was Halloween itself - the holiday Calendar Man mentioned when I first saw him!  After clearing the courthouse of some more random Two-Face thugs who had wandered in, I spoke good old Julian Day, still locked up in his cell.  He didn't seem to say anything interesting, but while he was blabbing, I noticed a calendar on the wall with a number of dates circled, mostly major holidays.  Was I supposed to return to talk to this nut on each one of these days?  And if so, what would be my reward?

This Calendar Man business seemed like too much of a meta-mission for my tastes, so I continued following the trail, which took me deep into the Subway Tunnels, and from there to the Sewers.  After a brief, purely conversational run-in with my old friend Croc (where else would he be hanging out?) and the return of the annoyingly-chattering Joker Teeth, I got to the roots of the matter and learned a little trivia about our great city.  Apparently Gotham was built over the collapsed ruins of an older city.  Don't ask me how that's logistically possible - it doesn't seem to make sense unless the original city was built underground to begin with.  This old city, called Wonder City, whose crown jewel - Wonder Tower - looms over Arkham from the center of Hugo Strange's Restricted Area.

According to what I learned from the voice blaring over the PA system, Wonder City was to be a sort of eco-utopia, where everything was run on a renewable source of energy known as Lazarus.  Wait, as in the pits?  Could it be that Ra's Al Ghul could have been behind the Wonder City project, which took place generations ago?  If that's the case, it would make sense that he would choose this location for his lair.  Or perhaps the location chose Ra's, so to speak, if there was a Lazarus Pit close by.

This was one of the droids I was looking for.

There could be no doubt that the League of Assassins was close by, as I soon found myself beset on all sides by ninjas and ninjettes wielding sharp and intimidating swords.  They had to be coming from somewhere, but the only door I could see - a giant circular affair, flanked by two large statues - was sealed by some unknown method.  I had to find out how the league was getting in and out, and it dawned on me that Wonder City's famed Mechanical Guardians might hold the key.  If these droids were powered by Lazarus, their surveillance system might have still been operational.  To find out, I had to scan the memory systems of all the Guardians scattered around the ruined city, while also dodging sword swings and dealing with my quickly deteriorating health.

Yes, that's right, Joker's Titan-corrupted blood was beginning to really take it's toll.  Dizzy spells, sudden muscle fatigue, fits of coughing culminating with spitting up blood.  I'm sure it didn't help that finding this cure required pushing my body to its utmost limits.  I didn't get the full disease meltdown until I gathered all the data from the Guardians and found out that the ninjas were using their swords to open the doors.   I had just countered one of their swings, inserted the unorthodox key into the lock, and knocked out the sword's holder in one swift motion, when the doors opened to reveal not Ra's Al Ghul's secret hideout, but a blinding white light, out of which I could hear the voices of my parents urging me forward.

Just as I was about to succumb to the warm feeling of comfort that I knew would accompany the end of my quest (and my life), I saw a figure emerge from the light who alone gave me the will to cling to life: my one true "beloved" Talia Al Ghul.

Part 12: The Demon Trials

Arkham City Post #10: Hunting the League of Assassins

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 9: Boss Fights in the Museum

Once I was done with Grundy, that little runt Penguin had the audacity of jumping down into the arena himself with his giant rocket launcher.  I honestly don't even know if my Disruptor would have jammed his weapon - I was so hepped up on Free Flow Focus, that just dodged every single one of his rockets and delivered the imminent beatdown that was coming to him.  Then I did what any sympathetic ally would have done: I delivered Penguin to Mr. Freeze.

Victor was understandably pretty pissed at Cobblepot for taking his suit and locking him up and all, but he knew I would find some way to beat the tar out of him if he hurt anybody, so he took the moderate route and locked Penguin up in one of his own display cases.  I believe it was the one reserved for Bruce Wayne.  Correct me if that's not what's known as dramatic irony?

Freeze and I then got into a lengthy scientific discussion about the cure he was working on for Joker.  I guess he had synthesized the formula, but wasn't able to keep it from deteriorating.  He needed to get his hands on some enzyme contained in the blood that has regenerating powers.  As I was racking my brain about which criminal might have control of the underground organ market in Arkham City, it dawned on me:  Ra's Al Ghul's blood very well might have some of that enzyme, from his generations of being exposed to those Lazarus Pits of his.  It seemed too perfect at the time, so it didn't even occur to me that it was just an excuse to showcase another villain (like the Poison Ivy spores conveniently being located in Croc's Lair.  I mean, come on, what plant even grows in the sewers...?)

As the thought occurred to me, I said Ra's Al Ghul's name out loud, which instantly got a reaction from the caged up ninja dressed like Kitana.  She smashed through the glass, shouted something about the League of Assassins, and sprung off.  Of course, I thought, that ninja must be a part of Talia Al Ghul's elite ninja strike force.  And I was in incredible luck: she had cut herself as she smashed through the glass, and the blood left a perfect trail across Arkham City for my Detective Mode to follow.

But seeing as these assassins are quicker and more nimble than I - curse my gigantic thighs, which can deliver a powerful attack, but sometimes hamper my movement - I knew that I'd need another of my wondrous gadgets: The Line Launcher.  Instead of having the Batwing drop it off in a little pod, like I did last year to help me get out of the Botanical Gardens after tangling with the first of Joker's Titan-enhanced henchmen, Alfred chose to send the gadget in with a personal courier: my second-favorite Robin, Tim Drake.  Seeing him made me feel a little like Mario, running into Yoshi on top of the castle, but not being able to interact with him in any meaningful way.  Tim offered to help, but I told him that he was needed in Gotham.  To make it seem like I was telling the truth, I gave him a sample of my infected blood and instructed him to cross-check it with hospitals in the area.  I mean, it is true that I work better alone, but I mostly just didn't want him to see me in my current state.

I pressed Tim for news from the outside world, and he informed me that the St. Louis Cardinals  had just won the World Series against the Texas Rangers, completing one of the most dramatic comebacks in baseball history.  It would have been nice to see the Rangers win their first championship in franchise history - as opposed to the Cardinals, who already have 11 titles to their name, second only to the Yankees.  But I also like that a team led by arguably the best living hitter (and unquestionably the most aggravating living manager... or should I say, ex-manager) can win it all despite near-insurmountable odds.  I was looking forward to catching the highlights at home on the Bat-flatscreen once all this Arkham City business was over.

After catching up on events outside the perimeter wall, I turned my attention to the Line Launcher, which acts as a sort of instant zipline creator, allowing me to travel across a large horizontal distance.  Over chasms, through a spinning blade trap, you name it.  And I had trained further so that I could launch a second line in another direction while traveling along the first, enabling extended travel at right angles.  My increased agility also enabled me to detach the launcher and balance on the line like a tightrope walker.  Just the thing for tracking ninjas through a criminal-inhabited jungle of steel and concrete as if my life depended on it...

Part 11: Wonder City

Arkham City Post #9: Boss Fights in the Museum

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 8: Shark Repellant Bat BEAT DOWN

Having taken care of that pesky shark, my next stop was to confront Penguin in the Iceberg Lounge, where he had holed himself up with Mr. Freeze's ice gun.  I mentioned Zelda before, and the comparison seemed more relevant than ever under these circumstances: me heading to the deepest point in the Museum (read: dungeon), equipped with a new gadget that's tailor-made to see me through the final showdown with the enemy at hand (read: boss fight).  I always thought that term was somewhat of a misnomer: most of the "bosses" one encounters in videogames aren't really bosses in the sense that they direct or supervise workers.  With the exception of the final boss, they're mostly just henchmen who have significantly more power than the average, run-of-the-mill grunt you run into during the rest of the adventure.  However, in this case, the term took on new meaning, considering that Penguin is one of Gotham's most fearsome crime bosses...

The Iceberg Lounge was a circular room with a raised outer balcony surrounding a lower level.  Extending from the balcony was a walkway leading to a gazebo-like structure, under which Penguin had camped out. Luckily the balcony was punctuated with decorative arches, behind which I could hide and avoid Penguin's freezing blasts.  The Disruptor has a limited range, so it was a simple matter of getting close enough to Penguin, activating the gadget to temporarily put his gun out of commission, then punching his lights out.  If it sounds a little too easy, it absolutely was.  But taking care of Penguin was not even half the battle.

No sooner had I rescued the last hostage I could, when Penguin popped out of nowhere with a second wind and a rocket launcher.  After a nasty fall, I found myself in a large creepy basement chamber where my Disruptor would do absolutely no good.  Chained up on the far side of the room was a gigantic zombified creature, which I would have mistaken for the Grey Hulk if I didn't know the difference between the Marvel and DC Universes.  This creature was in fact the mysterious Solomon Grundy (born on a Monday).  He can apparently be revived from death with the application of large quantities of electricity.  And each time he is so revived, it makes him stronger than before.  So having been alive for more than 600 years, he was understandably pretty darn massive.

As I stared at Grundy's fist, mere inches away from my face, held back by what turned out to be a rather flimsy chain apparatus, it occurred to me that I had overheard some of Penguin's henchmen make reference to some kind of "monster" that he had chained up in the basement.  These conversations always took place while I was sneaking around, before they knew I was on the premises, and the content of them never stuck in my head because I have a tendency to jump out of the shadows and start cracking skulls before they finish talking.  I really should learn a little patience, since it's no fun to miss out on plot points.  There's just something about the tone of a henchman's voice that immediately triggers my punch-without-mercy reflex.

Anyway, Grundy was easily able to break free of his chains in such a way that he could use his former shackles as gigantic flails.  (Whosever idea it was to attach weighted metal spheres to the ends of a chain, the other end of which was fastened to the wrist of an unkillable giant zombie definitely gets an A+ in the foresight department...)  It was all I could do to dodge out of the way of his vicious attacks and leapfrog over the chains as he swung them in a circle "ring around the rosie" style.  I wasn't getting hit, but any time Grundy lost any life, these electrical columns rose out of the floor and zapped new life into the beast.  I knew I would have to destroy the housing for these columns somehow, and using my new "Quick Fire" combat strategy seemed like the best bet.

The Explosive Gel is a wonderful gadget indeed.  It can blow through weak walls, it can stun enemies, I spray it in the shape of a little Bat-logo.  But because of the time it takes to apply (roughly four seconds, or about one standard action in nerdspeak) it was never very effective in combat.  So I spent the last year honing my skills with the gel, enabling me to set it up in one fluid motion during combat: while performing a nifty-looking somersault, I whip the gel out of my utility belt, spray it on the ground, and replace it before I'm even back on my feet.  This is the tactic I used on all three of the Grundy-renewing electrical pylons, sending Penguin's caged beast crashing to the ground.

...So imagine my surprise when the pylons magically repaired themselves not once, but twice - the last time sending so much electricity into Grundy that he burst into flames, along with the entire area around him.  He was stronger and faster than ever, but I eventually was able to take him down using the same strategy, after which I smashed my fist through his glowing, zombified heart.  Even though Grundy wasn't really anyone's "boss," he sure made for a prototypical and challenging boss fight.

Part 10: Hunting the League of Assassins

Arkham City Post #8: Shark Repellant Bat BEAT DOWN

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 7: Taking Out the Sensor Jammers

I was determined not to get distracted again as I headed to the Museum for the THIRD time; so imagine my chagrin when an emergency broadcast came over my radio.  But rather than pulling me off to yet another side mission, this message actually reconfirmed my previously set location.  Apparently a group of elite undercover cops, hand-picked by Commissioner Gordon, who had infiltrated Penguin's gang (against my counseling, btw) had since been discovered, and were being held hostage in the Museum.  I hacked the security panel and rescued the first officer from a group of unarmed thugs in the main exhibit hall.

Penguin fancies himself a collector, and as such he had retrofitted the museum's display cases to serve as prison cages.  Some of these contained live subjects (such as a masked female ninja - my first thought was Kitana from Mortal Kombat, but I had suspicions as to who she really worked for), some contained the mutilated corpses of enemies who had crossed Penguin in some way, and some were left empty in preparation for future captures.  I noticed spots for some of my old friends (Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face) and two spots for me: one for Bruce Wayne and one for Batman.  I'd better make sure Penguin never gets his hands on me - I'd hate to see his look of disappointment about having to revamp his entire trophy case when he realizes he can only have one or the other.

I made my way through the maze of the museum until I reached Penguin's imposing gladiator pit, wherein I fought wave after wave of henchmen, and simultaneously battled an unmistakeable sense of deja vu.  Then it came to me: Rocksteady featured this fight in their E3 2011 demo, (along with the battle with Two-Face's thugs at the Courthouse and the predator tutorial challenge in the Church) which I played a few months earlier.  I suppose they included these three sections in order to give players a taste of all three varieties of henchmen.  What Rocksteady did NOT include in the demo was what followed the henchmen: a gigantic half-baked Titan monster in Penguin colors.  A quick check of the map revealed that there was in fact a Titan container in the Museum (which I destroyed as soon as I located it), and an even quicker Ultra-Stun allowed me to deliver a quick Beat Down.

The next step in my journey took me into the Terrors of the Deep exhibit, which Penguin had flooded and frozen, using Mr. Freeze's technology, I suspected.  My suspicions were confirmed when I noticed that one of the undercover cops had broken free and was attempting to escape across the ice, when he suddenly froze in place.  There was Penguin, standing on the balcony leading into the Iceberg Lounge, wielding Mr. Freeze's ice gun.  As I carefully ventured out onto the ice to rescue the cop (plus the other three in the room), I was brutally attacked by a giant shark straight from the set of Jaws.  Luckily he didn't destroy all the ice - Bats don't like the water, unless they're safely situated in a turbo-charged, fully-armored watercraft.

I knew I had to find some way to get past Penguin's ice gun before confronting him, so I re-established my primary objective: find Mr. Freeze.  Maybe he could give me some clues about how to disable his weaponry.  I found him in a display case of his own, tastelessly decorated with palm trees and surfboards.  He was without his suit, so only a vial of some eerie glowing blue liquid plugged directly into his heart was keeping him alive.  But before I could rescue him, I was confronted by yet ANOTHER gigantic one-armed Russian henchman, this one wielding a sickle.  After I took care of him and his coterie, I learned that he and Mr. Hammer "worked" together as a former side show attraction: the Abramowitz Brothers conjoined twins.  Apparently after their separation, they both pursued parallel lives of crime for different crime bosses, but each kept their trademark patriotic weapons. (Get it? Hammer and Sickle?  Russian?  See what they did there?)

After I rescued Freeze, he informed me that he had indeed developed a countermeasure system to prevent people from using his weapons against him.  The only problem was that it was located in his suit, which was being guarded by armed thugs in the Armory across the lake.  A quick predator sweep through the room took care of them, and I was able to configure my newest gadget: a firearm Disruptor, which incapacitated the weapons of any armed thugs nearby.  Hmm, the Remote Electrical Charge in the Steel Mill and the Disruptor in the Museum... the one-gadget-per-dungeon structure of this adventure was making me feel more like Link from the Zelda series than the Prince of Persia.

I ran into one more obstacle before I could confront Penguin in the Iceberg Lounge: all the ice in the lake had melted, forcing me to glide onto a nearby raft and pull myself across the room using my Batclaw.  The only problem with this strategy: you guessed it, the shark.  No sooner had I ventured out into the middle of the lake when I was confronted by a toothy mass of fins and gills splashing about and trying to capsize my raft.  I didn't have any shark-repellant bat spray in my utility belt, since it DOESN'T EXIST (although the reference was not lost on me), so I turned to my next best option: my fists.  See below for a snapshot of what went down, including a pretty descriptive tutorial prompt at the bottom of the screen:

Part 9: Boss Fights in the Museum

Arkham City Post #7: Taking Out the Sensor Jammers

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 6: Questions Questions with the Riddler

There was one more obstacle preventing me from actually getting inside the Museum once I reached it, all the way in the Southwest corner of the city, in the "Bowery."  See, when you look at this city - Gotham - the way it's built, the way it looks, and how it feels, and then you see neighborhoods like the Bowery, how can you help but think of New York?  But when you see the gleaming and smoking Industrial District (to the Southeast), it does kind of recall the feel of Pittsburgh.  Which is probably what they'll focus on in that movie being filmed about me in Pittsburgh.

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2817

Anyway, that one obstacle was the Sensor Jammers.  I had to find and destroy three of them, because they were preventing me from using my Cryptographic Sequencer, which I needed to get through Penguin's security.  The Sensor Jammers were located all throughout the city, but the last one was buried deep inside the Subway Tunnels... which incidentally ran directly under the TYGER Restricted Area directly in the middle of the city, with the towering bank of searchlights rising up over high barbed-wired walls like a giant panopticon, and out of which anti-aircraft fire streams towards you if you try to glide into it.  The tunnels might be a useful entry point if it comes to any REAL sneaking around in Big Brother's Corporate HQ.

I also found another Titan container in the Subway.  I wasn't even keeping track of them on my map, just kind of blowing one up whenever I came across it.  And, hey, it looked like I was making some progress on my side quest to remove the Titan threat from Arkham City.  The concept of working with Bane for this mission in and of itself was not altogether alien to me... at least not in the unbridled, wildman, survival of the fittest Anarchy of Arkham City.  I'll tell you what, I don't object to lot of what these costumed super-villains are doing, on principal... It's just that so many of them get caught up in dumb criminal schemes that make me feel obligated to fight the shit out of them and get them off the streets.  Call it a superior moral compass, or call it compulsion, but it's totally defined me as a hero.  But in Arkham City, it's just such an every-man-for-himself, Will to Power environment, with the only structure (literally and figuratively) coming in the form of a wall around the perimeter.  Sometimes Strange Alliances are formed when a high-level vigilante is thrown into a land grab between factions of thugs controlled by three of the DC Universe's most powerful villains ever dreamed up...

But seemingly in exchange for making progress on the afore-named side mission involving Bane, I ran into another pressing radio broadcast on the way back to the Museum.  A murder victim in an alley, whose face had been cut off and bandaged; not by Hannibal Lecter, but by a man who (according to eyewitness statements) looked just like Bruce Wayne.  Seeing as I have encyclopedic knowledge of Gotham's police records, I recognized that murders with this M.O. had been popping up all over the city.  The papers were calling the killer "The Identity Thief."  Looks like Gotham's most publicized billionaire playboy was the latest victim, in a sense.  In another vey real sense, though, the murder victim was the victim.  And in yet another very real sense, I had just picked up a sixth, by my count, side mission to worry about.  Add to that Hugo Strange's voice coming over the TYGER Security radio, announcing that Protocol Ten would commence in a matter of single-digit hours.  This was going to be one hell of a night...

Part 8: Shark Repellant Bat BEAT DOWN

Arkham City Post #6: Questions Questions with The Riddler

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 5: The Search for Mr. Freeze

But on my way to the Museum to bust into Penguin's headquarters, I intercepted a radio frequency from Arkham Security that Officer Cash's medical team had disappeared from the Church.  I couldn't go losing allies, regardless of how dire my medical situation might soon become (what with some of Joker's Titan-infected blood coursing through my veins and all), so I resolved to go save them.  When I arrived at the scene, who's annoying mug should I see projected onto a screen hanging from the church ceiling but Edward Nygma's.  So it The Riddler was behind kidnapping the medical team, putting some urgency behind his taunt that solving his riddles was a matter of life and death.

Nygma was broadcasting from an encrypted frequency, and he wouldn't give me more clues as to where the hostages were kept until I solved a riddle located somewhere in the church: "This instrument always plays from the heart."  It didn't take me long to recognize the large pipe organ - not only was it the only instrument in the building, but the body part terminology was easy to spot.  As a reward for my correct answer, Nygma told me that the first hostage was located in the courthouse, where I had left Two-Face strung up.

As I left the church, I ran into a thug I recognized as having had some dealings with Riddler.  If I was able to interrogate him, I could use the information to find out more about the hostages.  Or, barring that, at least more information about the locations of those damn Riddler trophies, which are always welcome sources of experience-providing w00tz.  It also opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me going forward through the city, as Riddler Informants (highlighted green by my Detective Mode) would pop up in random groups of thugs.  This meant I had to keep each informant conscious as I took out the rest of the group to allow for interrogation.  A little extra challenge, but it was worth it to add those little question marks to my map.

After I freed the first hostage from the Courthouse, he gave me the frequency on which Riddler was sending his broadcasts.  Great, I thought, now I'll have to listen to his irritating taunts through the remainder of this adventure.  But when I tuned to the frequency using the Cryptographic Sequencer, I just heard The Riddler's voice on loop giving a clue for another riddle.  This was a word-game, that could only be solved with a strange device, called the Enigma Machine, which was also delivered to me by the hostage.  However I decided that the hostages would have to wait for now, because my mission of finding a cure for my condition seemed more pressing at the moment - otherwise, I wouldn't be able to save anybody OR defeat Strange.

But as I thought about letting those hostages sweat for a while, I felt a little relieved to see The Riddler taking an active role in this particular scheme.  He was little more than an ominous voice hiding from the shadows during my last adventure, and actually getting to look at his face made it a very distinct reality that I would get to punch it later on.  But my fantasies would have to wait, as I was still a long way from the Penguin's hideout in the Gotham Museum.

Part 7: Taking Out the Sensor Jammers

Arkham City Post #5: The Search for Mr. Freeze

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 4: The Joker's Steel Mill

When I came to, I found myself strapped to a chair; so for those of you keeping score at home, that's 3 prolonged periods of unconsciousness on the night so far, after 2 of which I woke up in some form of restraint.  But this one was followed by the most drastic consequences and dynamic plot twist encountered so far.  The look of Joker's more-disgusting-than-usual white, scarred skin was enough to deduce that his blood was indeed contaminated with Titan... but now, so was mine!  After I couldn't squeeze anything from Joker about Protocol 10, he directed my attention to some recently used blood transfusion equipment, with me on the other end.

After I got over the initial sense of revulsion (and the subsequent recognition of the severe irony) of having some of my arch enemy's blood intermingled with mine, I couldn't deny the brilliance of the tactics: now finding a cure was my priority as well as Joker's.  I was also blown away by the drastic increase in personal stakes between last year's adventures in Arkham Asylum and now: before I was fighting to save my city, to take another step forward in my crusade to rid the citizens Gotham of their ridiculously costumed persecutors.  But now I was fighting to save my very life.  It kind of puts things in perspective, and hopefully gets more people interested in the plot of the game...

Joker threw me one last piece of information before sending the wheelchair to which I was tied crashing through the window down to the street below: Joker had commissioned Mr. Freeze to find him a cure.  This is nothing too surprising - remember Mr. Freeze was formerly Dr. Victor Fries, a brilliant scientist - and it seemed like the good doctor was close to completing his task... until he completely vanished off the map.  My first objective was to find him.  I figured I'd head to the coldest point in Gotham, which I could easily figure out using my hi-tech, totally advanced, state of the art Bat-Thermometer.

But first, I felt compelled to add yet another side mission to my list.  This materialized when I stopped to chat with a political prisoner who had figured out how to send an SOS signal over the radio.  He told me that he worked for Strange before he was thrown in there, but before he could go into any detail, he was killed by a perfectly-placed shot from a sniper.  I scanned the scene for evidence and was able to discover the trajectory of the bullet, which led me right to a shell casing that I immediately recognized as belonging to... that's right, Deadshot.  There must be some people in Arkham City that Strange wants taken out pretty thoroughly if he's willing to hire the world's deadliest assassin.  I would have to try and get to them first.

The coldest point in Gotham turned out to be the old GCPD building, where Freeze was using one of the old forensic labs to do his research.  But all I found was Penguin's thugs, who had apparently kidnapped Freeze and set up a guard around the place.  Penguin's thugs were noticeably tougher than Joker's: they were equipped with heart monitors resembling the suicide collars used by the old Asylum.  Joker wouldn't have been industrious enough to deck his henchmen out like that if he hadn't stumbled upon the equipment at the Asylum.  Now that there are multiple sets of henchmen running around, it's fun to see the different types of people each villain chooses to fill his crew with.  Joker goes for quantity (i.e. anyone who'll sign up), Penguin goes for quality, and Two-Face actually sends his goons out to give campaign speeches.  I guess he wants to keep his henchmen "on message."  Whatever, they all make the same sound when they hit the ground, so it doesn't matter to me.

Seeing as my leads to finding Mr. Freeze had gone cold (so what if there's a pun intended wanna start something?), I had to use some of my newly cultivated powers of persuasion to interrogate one of Penguin's thugs.  He told me right away that Cobblepot had set up his secure fortress in the Gotham Museum.  But as I headed for the door, I found that my remote electrical charge couldn't open it.  I could, however, use the cryptographic sequencer for the purpose it was originally built for: to open locked doors.  All I had to do was download the municipal codes so I could hack into government computers.  It felt good to hack into The Fed's computers to get what I needed - usually my sense of justice causes me to refrain from messing with government business, but these circumstances were rather dire.  Now I knew where to go, and had the means to get there.

Part 6: Questions Questions with the Riddler

Arkham City Post #4: The Joker's Steel Mill

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Part 3: The Church

It was almost time to pinpoint the origin point of Joker's radio transmissions... but I was distracted once again by a distress flare in Gotham Harbor, near where I started my AR Training missions.  As I entered the building, I was surprised to see none other than Bane, his gigantic roided-up frame hunched over a map on the wall.  Apparently he has some weird sixth-sense for news of the Titan formula, having so much of it in his blood stream, and he had caught wind of 12 containers of the stuff that Joker had somehow managed to get off Arkham Island.  He claimed to want the Titan destroyed as much as I did - apparently he wants a monopoly on the physique-enhancing chemical market - so we agreed to each take out six containers and then meet back at the harbor.  Hey, if I can keep track of four side missions, why not five...?

Each container thankfully contained a radio homing beacon, and my Bat Computer was able to mark the location of all six on the map.  The closest one was guarded by a few hapless Joker thugs, and after dispatching them with ease, I made short work of the container with my explosive gel.  The second container appeared to be locked deep within the Sionis Industries steel mill... which was incidentally the location of Joker's radio broadcasts.  Interesting how my paths always seem to converge.  There didn't appear to be any clear way in, so Alfred stopped just short of suggesting I dive through the main chimney, referring to the strategy as "suicide."  But desperate times sometimes call for desperately taking a page out of the Santa Claus handbook.

Note to self: whenever Alfred describes something as "suicide," remind me to file it under "daring and awesome and fun to boot."  I grappled over the lip of the chimney, and immediately divebombed into a drop which I knew ended with a lake of molten hot magma, the natural by-product of the steel industry.  (I should know - I'm having a movie filmed about me in Pittsburgh, PA, the steel capital of America.)  I prepared to pull up dramatically and glide gently into the inevitable crack in the infrastructure, but luckily there was a wire spread across the pit, onto which I gently settled.  I must say, all this tightrope business in the early part of these adventures has me feeling more like the Prince of Persia than the Dark Knight.

Once inside it was a matter of sneaking through the vents until I came upon the giant empty space of the loading bay.  There was the doctor who Harley had kidnapped from the Church, and who had apparently failed to find a cure for Joker's illness.  As punishment for her failure she was about to fall victim to a giant clown with only one arm... but in that arm he held a gigantic sledge hammer, from which he got his name (the nearly 40 clowns waiting around him referred to the giant as "Mr. Hammer").  But at the last second, the clowns dragged her away to the smelting room, where she was to be guarded by a group of armed thugs, waiting for some unimaginable purpose.  Maybe Joker wanted her alive, just to lure me in there.  Whatever the motives, I obliged by clearing the room and rescuing the doc.

From her I learned that Joker was suffering from an illness caused by his blood being contaminated with Titan - Bain's influence reentering the atmosphere.  At least the disease didn't also make him bigger and stronger, like what happens with a Titan overdose.  Having a sick Joker on the loose is bad enough: it makes him desperate.  Never mind a sick Joker overpowered by an experimental chemical.  I also grabbed a piece of some industrial electrical machinery and modified it to allow me to shoot a remote electrical blast - picture Raiden's lightning bolt, except that it also allowed me to power up certain electrical devices remotely.  Thankfully, one of those devices was the door that let us out of that room.

Another one of those devices was a wrecking ball in the loading bay that I could swing back and forth to crash through the wall Joker was hiding behind.  But I couldn't use the controls before I tangled with Mr. Hammer himself.  It's a good thing my battles with the Titan henchmen at the Asylum prompted me to master a new combat move: the Ultra Stun, wherein I could triple-button mash Stun to take care of overlarge enemies like this guy.  Before I punched his lights out (pictured above), I noted his Russian accent and distinctive tattoos.  Then I went after Joker.

I burst in on Harley Quinn weeping at the feet of a shrouded figure seated in a wheelchair.  She pleaded me to leave them alone.  I tossed her aside like a ragdoll.  After failing to respond to verbal questioning, I used detective mode to scan the vitals on the figure in the wheelchair: deceased.  That's when the real Joker jumped out from behind me and hit me with a double dose of knockout gas.  And that's when I was knocked the fuck out...

Part 5: The Search for Mr. Freeze