E3 2011: Batman Arkham City
Posted by James Lewis on 06.11.2011
First Look: Batman is back in a brand new adventure.
The world's greatest detective is back, and this time batman is better than ever. The sequel to 2009 critically acclaimed Batman Arkham Asylum. This year at E3 Rocksteady studios had a 15 minute demo showing the next level of awesome that they are bringing this fall.
The demo starts out with a grand view of Gotham's skyline. When the camera pulls in closer you notice batman and the scale of just how big the city really is. In Arkham Asylum the island felt massive. Now imagine a space that is five times that. Not only are things spread out wider, but the level of depth that has been added is nail biting. When batman is gliding from building to building at 50 stories you feel like you are all the way up there. Not only is it expanded in size the city is layer, upon layer of detail. Even though this demo happed all at night (as all of the game will) so much is to be seen around every corner and down every street. The level of detail put in every charter is prefect whether it is Batman's bat suit, the Penguins cracked monocle, Two Face's crispy side, or Catwoman's leather outfit equipped with claws.
Speaking of Catwoman she was part of the demo as well. She is going to be a lot of fun to play around with. Unlike Batman who has a stronger, heavier feel to him Catwoman is way more gymnastic and acrobatic. She pounces across the screen quickly jumping from one thug to the next. Her list of tools is similar to Batman's, but she plays differently. She uses a whip similar to how batman uses a grappling hook, except hers doesn't has the same distance. Also in her bag of tricks is her thief vision. It is close to the idea of batman's detective vision from the first game. Unlike detective vision, thief allows you to focus on the items she needs to steal from the people in each room. In the demo she had to take three key cards off of four guards in a room without alerting them. To help her reach her goal is her new ability which allows her to jump to the ceiling and crawl around unnoticed.
The combat system is back from the first game and has seen significant improvements. In the first game one might take on any were from one to five guys at once. During the demo we got to see batman take a whole bunch more. At the end of the demo batman gets into some trouble and had to fight a group of around 20 guys. Batman had to use a strong combination of counters and double teams to take everyone out.
I saw many games at E3 whether it was demoed or hands on. Batman Arkham City looks absolutely amazing. Not only do most super hero games come up short. Most sequels make me want to end it all. This is not one of those times. Not even close. Be ready to suit up once again when Batman Arkham City releases on October 18, 2011.
