Batman: Arkham City is an open-world action-adventure game that incorporates tactics from stealth games. It is presented from the third-person perspective, showing the playable character on screen and allowing the camera to be Freely rotated around it. The game is set within Arkham City, which is open to the player from the beginning of the game, allowing them to travel Freely anywhere within its boundaries.

The player can move silently throughout the game, using a combination of gadgets and stealth moves to sneak up on enemies and incapacitate them. Batman can use his cape to glide around the city, diving downwards and swooping upwards to extend his flight, and he can use the grapnel gun’s retracting rope to attach to out-of-reach ledges. As Batman, the player is able to use “Detective Vision”, a visual mode that highlights elements of interest on-screen, such as character status, collectables, and clues; the mode is also used to perform forensic activities such as tracking the source of a sniper rifle round. The player has access to an in-game criminal database which includes forensic puzzles, as well as a network for hacking communication frequencies. Usin