Batman: Arkham City is one those games you know you are going to love as soon as you hear it is being made. Batman: Arkham Asylum was a massive hit, and with good reason, both critically and commercially. So, the announcement in December 2009 that a sequel was in the works was met with excitement and anticipation. Last week at E3 2011 gamers and press got a change to try their hand at Batman: Arkham City. Before playing though we got a demo of Batman: Arkham City showing off the new gliding and grapple methods for get around the much larger game world quickly. I did not get yo do a lot of gliding in the hands on time due to time constraints but what I did do worked really nicely. As you grapple up you can simple double tap and launch yourself off into a glide. Once you are gliding you can repeat that to go faster to dive down to gain momentum.
After gliding around the city for a while in the demo Batman landed on a roof and was given the option to take a break for a while. When he did Catwoman came in and after a quick banter the controls and camera switch over her. Throughout the game Catwoman has her own playable story line that runs parallel to Batman’s. She is working, with the help of Poison Ivy, to break into a vault and steal the valuables inside. Catwoman has her own unique fighting style that is much more acrobatic than Batman. She also has a whip that she uses not just to get around the city but in fighting as well. Because of her claws she has the ability to climb up the sides of buildings and even crawl across the ceiling when she is inside. Like Batman she can perform silent take downs which is helpful because she is much more stealth focused than Batman.
Once I got to sit down and play myself the controls and mechanics quickly came back. The main game plays similar to Arkham Asylum but combat is much more fluid. As Batman you can use the various gadgets in combat a lot easier as well as perform double and triple take downs. The changes and additions are important because Batman faces off against much larger groups of enemies in battle now. There are still times where he sneaks through building picking off enemies from the rafters silently, but when out on the streets the gangs have realized there is strength in numbers.
The detective vision mode for the cowl is back and better than before. Instead of just following a trail it can now analyze bullet trajectory and scan larger areas. This will be needed for the Worlds Greatest Detective not just for the main story but for the return of the Riddler challenges. Riddler has a much tougher set of clues and riddles this time around that are going to require a lot more brain work than ever before.
I played the first 20 minutes or so during my hands on time, and saw an additional 20 minutes during the demo. Even at less than an hour of time seeing the game I am sold. Batman: Arkham City looks and plays better than Asylum with new enhancements and tweaks to the core game play that made it great. With an October release date Rocksteady has a lot of time still to polish it even more.
