When Batman: Arkham Asylum arrived during the end of summer in 2009, it shook up the gaming world. Many folks were expecting another let-down in the comic book lexicon (following other failures in the DC Universe). However, with incredible gameplay concocted by Rocksteady Games and wonderful graphics that brought the Dark Knight’s gritty world to life, it became nothing short of a classic. Even today, many consider it to by one of the greatest comic book games ever made. But prepare yourself, because Rocksteady is about to outdo itself. Batman: Arkham City is being introduced later this year for Xbox 360, and the studio is putting a heaping amount of work into the game. No longer are you confined to an indoor setting with gargoyles hanging overhead. You’re now fighting your way through a whole city, closed off from the rest of the world and converted into a prison. Hugo Strange, a guy who has a sinister plan of his own, is running it. Your job is to find out what it is.
Along the way, you’ll need to complete side missions. Most of these involve Batman’s enemies from past episodes. Rocksteady recently walked us through a demo of the game to give us an idea what to expect. The first half of the game deals with the rescue of Catwoman. She’s being held at a converted courthouse by the menacing Two-Face, who’s looking to execute her in an attempt to gain power with the locals. Batman basically has to swoop his way through the city, avoiding detection by certain gunners while taking down henchmen and rescuing occasional individual citizens who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The scope of the city is absolutely dazzling, and you can really whisk your way across rooftops with ease, using your grappling hook and a cool flying effect with your cape. How it works, you open up your cape as you would in the middle of a glide, and then swoop down to gain speed, only to flap your wings open again to rise back up and continue your flight.
It looks like it works fundamentally well, and we can’t wait to take flight and see how we end up gliding through the city. Anyway, back to the story. We eventually get to the ground and take on some thugs in combat. The combat engine has been smoothed over a bit. It’s still multi-directional, and you still need to time your counters just right, but it operates with very little error, and you can put together some pretty sick moves for the Dark Knight. After making our way into the courthouse, subduing some thugs, avoiding a bullet by Two-Face and saving Catwoman, Batman narrowly saves her from an assassination attempt at the hands of Joker. He then opens up his detective skill set (like he used in the original game) to track the path of the bullet and capture Joker. He then takes off into the night, using his grappling hook to latch onto a nearby helicopter, which you can ride around the city. He eventually reaches the tower, only to find Harley Quinn, in a sexy new outfit, waiting, along with a few thugs.
This feature preview concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to see our thoughts on Batman: Arkham City.
