The second installment in the series continuing from last month is “Batman: Arkham City.” “Arkham City” takes place about 18 months after “Batman: Arkham Asylum,” in a large ghettoesque prison camp right in the center of Gotham. There villains are allowed to run free in a prison run by Hugo Strange.

These baddies are trying to take over, a mysterious contingency plan is being enacted in ten hours, billionaire playboy philanthropist Bruce Wayne has been taken hostage and the only one who can save Gotham is once again ... the Batman.

A huge point of controversy with the game, which debuted in 2011, was that the combat in Asylum City is somehow much worse than in the previous installment. Countering, the way you don’t take damage and keep your combos alive for stronger moves, is incredibly delayed, and sometimes I find the action not even registering at all. Occasionally Batman neglects to even try and counter in his moves set animation.

The story however, is a lot more interesting and it manages to actually keep your attention in the ballpark of 20 hours playing time. I refused to do side missions, and my final time was 19 hours, 45 minutes, completed in roughly two sittings.

“Arkham City’s” puzzles are plenty challenging, but don’t feel too difficult to be annoying, like many in “Arkham Asylum” were. However, the map is still a nightmare to traverse, as it is an even larger open space and there are very few mobility items.

Overall, the game is great, but the designers still had a lot of room to improve it, and aside from the story, it is significantly worse than its predecessor “Arkham Asylum,” so it gets only six stars out of ten.