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!
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There’s got to be a Batwing, right?
The next game must be Batman: Gotham City with all of the vehicles and co-op
I would like the game just fine as a arkham asylum with more of everything from arkham asylum.
Challenge maps.
unlockable comic book stuff and trophies, because reading that stuff and hearing the villains talk with the psychiatrist was fun. and also, riddler’s dead baby joke for the win.
secret areas and locations (none of this outside only crap, arkham asylum used the outside as a connection between the several buildings, Arkham city should be the same way, but with some extra nooks and crannies)
new gadgets, because batman isn’t batman without expensive gadgets.
and some play as challenges, because playing as joker was a fun sidequest, and being able to check out some of the other villains or heroes in maps would be fun.
From appearances, the expanse of the area outside is just one large connecting area that will include areas to explore and come back to. Arkham Asylum had a fair share of “backtracking”, so I don’t see why Arkham City would include moments where Batman will have to return to an area to uncover new evidence or take a second look at the crime scene.
i love how dev’s dont include MP, it gives them more time to work on and refine single player, giving people a fun and worthwhile experience, just like bioshock. once you include MP you cant spend as much time on SP and end up doing a half ass job on it.
Incorrect. Only poorly designed and rushed games have this issue when dealing with the addition of MP. If you recall, Bioshock 2 includes MP, yet was also decidedly better than the original.
Huh? Did you just say Bioshock 2 was better than Bioshock 1? It was good but it wasnt in the same league as the first. Your welcome to your opinion though, no matter how crazy it is
Why do people think MP makes a game? I could care less about MP. Bioshock was much better than Bioshock 2.
Because we have friends. To play MP with. Batman would have been epic if I could have my friend join in on the story with me, being a huge fan of story it would have been epic. I like co-op more than I do basic Multiplayer..and also I don’t agree that MP ruins a single player story, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s single player was beautiful expansive and far greater than the first two. The MP is what sucked, I did not like it it was okay, but not the best..I would have preferred Co-Op.
bioshock 2 was nothing compared to #1, sure combat was more intense/fun and things where more refined but as a whole it was to similar to #1 and that’s what killed it for me. the reason games with MP suck it b/c dev’s have to spend an equal amount of time on both SP and MP thus giving them less time to make an engaging story, long SP and refined MP. some studios have it right by having 2 dev teams work on a games SP and MP, that way they can both focus on one aspect of the game, like crysis 2.
imo if you’re gonna focus on MP then do just that and release a MP only game through XLB or PSN (like black light and battlefield vietnam).
YES YES YES YES YES!
This game is looking better and better by the minute, can’t wait to play it. The first one had one of my more favorite single player campaigns to date, and this one looks like it could surpass it.
Well anyway. I loved the first one, and I hope this one outshines that. The open explore, and bringing Batman back to his dark roots was awesome. Though Asylum was way too short as it only took two days to complete, and that was with me taking my sweet time. After that all I had left were the achievement, which got boring after awhile. I just hope the last boss in the new one is a little tougher to beat.
Can’t wait for its release… it will be one of those few games I’ll buy brand new!