Fans of The Dark Knight will be very happy to hear that his return to video games is going to be an experience that will make Arkham Asylum feel like playing in a cardboard box. As you already know, Batman: Arkham City will take place in, well, Arkham City, a district of Gotham that has been walled off to house the inmates of both Blackgate Prison and Arkham Asylum. It's not a very friendly place.

The Batman: Arkham City demo was present at last week's Microsoft Press Event, and although it was not playable for us eager gamers, we did get to watch it closely, over and over again.

Rocksteady Studios' design approach for Arkham City was to take everything that made Arkham Asylum great and try and transpose it into a larger world. Where 20% of Arkham Asylum took place outside and 80% indoors, Arkham City flips it, putting the Batman in a larger place to operate in. Asylum was very atmospheric and closed in, City is now wide open, expansive and explorable. It's almost reminiscent of some of the previous open-world Spider-Man games.

The 20-or-so minute demo featured Chapter 1 of the game, with Batman communicating with beloved character Alfred Pennyworth and finding out that Catwoman has been captured by Two-Face (who sports a look evocative of The Dark Knight) and is being held in a courthouse for “prosecution.” The first chapter is meant as an introduction to several of the new and reworked mechanics that were found in Arkham Asylum.

Batman will start the game with all gadgets acquired in Arkham Asylum, with some of them expanding their uses to reduce his Utility Belt weight. There won't be any weird Metroid moment where you lose your tools at the beginning and have to run back to the car to pick up something -Batman will have what he needs.

Immediately seen is a redesigned Cryptographic Sequencer, the device that allowed Batman to hack into electronic locks with ease. The gadget still does that job, but now doubles as a frequency interceptor, allowing the player to listen in on anything that takes place within the city. Transmissions vary from an intercepted conversion with Hugo Strange regarding the Two-Face/Catwoman situation or local surveillance on regular thugs around the city. From the use of the sequencer, Batman can also listen for distress calls and initiate side missions, one of which was shown. DC Comics reporter Jack Ryder was being attacked by Riddler henchman (highlighted in green). We watched Batman arrive to save the day, which gave a glimpse into the combat system.

To setup for the fight on the group of henchmen, Batman used one of his new moves: a drop attack for when Batman is elevated above an enemy position. After dropping down on an enemy and knocking him out, you seamlessly flow into the combat. FreeFlow combat returns and is just as bad-ass as before, except in Arkham City, Batman has brand new attack, counter and takedown animations (double the number from Arkham Asylum). From the look of it, if you were a master at Arkham Asylum combat, you'll be right at home with Arkham City.

Continue to page 2 for more on the Batman: Arkham City live demo!

Microsoft Press Event Batman Eyes On

One of the objectives in this particular fight was to not only subdue the henchman, but to interrogate one as well. However, you can't interrogate someone you knocked out, so the player needs to be more careful and strategic. This feature injects more thought into the combat and a need for slight micromanagement, rather than just having to take out numerous bad guys until no more are standing up.

After interrogating the henchman, Batman receives the location of a Riddler trophy, which upon the collecting the entirety, a side-story emerges. Batman's main method of transportation in Arkham City will be gliding and using his grappling hook. To facilitate more realistic gliding, Rocksteady has added a dive bomb feature so Batman can build up momentum and use it to propel him higher into the sky when he glides. Arriving at the spot of the Riddler trophy we found out that it's noticeably booby-trapped, but using the modified Batclaw makes it an easy task to retrieve.

Finishing his little side venture, Batman then began making his way to the courthouse which he successfully infiltrates. The demo reminds people of how proper reconnaissance will lead to an easier fight. Prioritizing thugs with melee weapons or guns will go a long way to making an otherwise sticky situation much more manageable. One such armed henchman was above Batman, who sneaks up on him and delivers an inverted DDT to knock him out. One down, 47 to go. That's right, Arkham City will feature significantly higher numbers of henchman to fight at once. As our demonstrator showed however, Batman has no problems eliminatin henchmen in small or large numbers.

During the fray, Catwoman escaped and provided an ample distraction for Batman to capture Two-Face. Afterward, there is a small cutscene that had some information redacted to prevent spoilers, and yes, the tension between Catwoman and Batman is still preserved thanks to a story written by Paul Dini. This moment is then interrupted by a sniper shot aimed at Catwoman. Saved by Batman, she leaves and the scene concludes with Batman needing to initiate a crime scene investigation to discover where the shot came from.

Detective Mode has received a large overhaul and graphically, it looks much cleaner and hi-tech. Upon examining the entry point and stopping point from the bullet, Batman is able to calculate the trajectory of the shot and narrows it down to a church bell tower, which is some distance away from the courthouse. Batman makes an exit out the back and grappling hooks to a rooftop and opts to use another method of transportation that will be new to Arkham City, helicopters.

Because of the expanse of the area, helicopters are employed to patrol it. These same helicopters can be used by Batman to hitch a ride after grappling onto them, taking him along the patrol path of the aircraft. The trip shows the expansive vistas of the city-within-a-city, the metropolis that is Gotham looming in the background. Nearing the church, Batman dismounts the helicopter and glides to a roof to assess the situation at the church, Four henchmen were below and of that, three were easily dispatched. One of them was wearing some heavier armor, allowing him to block and shrug off Batman's attacks. As a solution, Batman can initiate a “beatdown” (yes, that's what it's called) by holding B and pressing X repeatedly, which unleashes a flurry of blows upon the armored enemy and eventually knocking him out. This feature works on any enemy, so if a player just wants to beat the last guy senseless in every fight, he can.

Inside the church, Harley Quinn set a trap for our hero, putting him up against four gun-toting bad guys, thus presenting an opportunity to use a new gadget: Smoke pellets. When equipped, smoke pellets can be either thrown or dropped and in this instance, they were dropped, creating enough of a distraction to grapple hook away to a gargoyle. The demo then shifted to Predator-style gameplay, where players can stalk enemies and stealthily take them out one by one. This portion showcased three new stealth takedowns: Bashing two heads together (usable against two enemies), a leg choke after descending from a perch, and punching through brittle walls and knocking out the enemy behind.

Enemies dispatched, Batman made his way up to the bell tower only to discover the Joker not present in the room, instead finding a remote controlled rifle and a whole lot of explosives. Caught in a trap, there's no escape except out the window, which Batman of course does, gliding his way to safety. Landing on the safety of a billboard, the demo officially ended with graffiti reading two mysterious frequencies accessible through the Cryptographic Sequencer.

If you were a fan of Arkham Asylum, Arkham City will only succeed on delivering an amazing experience. While there is no multiplayer unfortunately, Arkham City will offer a great single-player campaign. Besides, Batman works alone. With a bigger place, better combat, new gadgets and gameplay that's incredibly fun, fans of Batman and other gamers alike will definitely enjoy this title when it comes out, we certainly will.

Batman: Arkham City descends upon criminals in the night in 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.