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This episode begins as a podcast and gradually sounds more like a general hang out by its conclusion. I have a bad habit of digressions and it struck in full force for the last thirty-to-forty minutes of the episode. What was intended to be a focused conversation about Batman: Arkham City had evolved into a comparison between it and Marvel’s Spider-Man in my mind long before recording, and as we spoke my mind just kept getting redirected every which way. It is, I think, for this reason that I have a habit of getting into spots where I’m talking at my guest rather than speaking with him.

Nevertheless, I am always glad to have the ever pleasant Shamus Young on as a guest. I’ve said before the podcast is more an excuse for me to hang out with friends, and I’ve somehow fooled Shamus into coming on three times to hear me ramble on about things. If I were an optimist I’d say he might actually enjoy being a guest himself!

For those of his followers that disdain the background noise, I’ll have you know I went over this episode with a particularly fine toothed comb. Doing so while playing the audio back at a higher speed allowed me to better understand why the absence of music is preferred. There’s a cadence to speech at 1.25x or even the chipmunk sounding 1.5x that just paces the words better than I am capable of speaking naturally. If you were to try and play back at that speed with music in the background, it would no doubt become unbearable. This is, of course, assuming such listeners are playing back at increased speeds. I typically use the music as an easier, swifter way to cover up gaps and awkward pauses, reducing editing time by a lot while filling the air at all times. However, I can also see how one might start listening to the tune instead, or in some cases where words may be drowned out. I do my best to modify audio levels to avoid such problems, but I cannot account for some of the differences that occur between headphones, speakers, and even the car stereo.

As for the games themselves, there were some things left unspoken, strangely enough. I never did get to discuss the matter of actually roaming the city, where I definitely feel Marvel’s Spider-Man has the advantage. When Arkham City first released I remember his ability to glide and grapple about the environment felt so free. Now, compared to Spidey’s web-slinging, it feels as if Batman has an anchor about his feet. Both games, however, struggle towards their conclusions when rooftops become littered with snipers and gunmen. Nothing to interrupt one’s open-world spelunking like a bullet to the head.

I also missed an opportunity to ponder if Talia herself was even necessary to the plot. In my essay last week I suggested the story might have benefited from Catwoman lecturing Batman about responsibility, emphasizing the money she had given up in order to rescue him. I additionally feel it would have worked better if Catwoman had been the one who had gotten caught by Joker towards the end, commenting something along the lines of “see what happens when I do the right thing?” I would not, however, have had her suffer the same fate as Talia. It feels as if it would have been a slight improvement to the end, but then I’d have to wonder what purpose Talia would have had at all.

I highly recommend Shamus Young’s retrospective on Batman: Arkham City and Marvel’s Spider-Man. They get into some great detail on both gameplay and narrative.

Have any thoughts of your own on Arkham City or Spider-Man? Or have any property you’d love to see Rocksteady adapt? Please leave a comment below or send us an e-mail with your opinions.

Opening theme music by Fallen Prophecy.