Must-watch Batman: Arkham City video has 12 minutes of gameplay to drool over

Every new scrap of information we get pertaining to Batman: Arkham City makes us even more eager for the sequel to GR’s 2009 Game of the Year. Recently we’ve heard about Robinand Riddler, plus we saw Catwoman playable at E3, but today the developers released possibly the largest amount of raw data about the game to date. Feast your eyes on 12 full minutes of gameplay straight from the anticipated title.

If you’ve been reading our coverage, some of this may look a little familiar to those that caught our preview a few months ago, as this features the previously described scene of Batman saving Catwoman from Two-Face and his gang. But despite the familiar elements, a few things stuck with us:

- Now that we know Catwoman is playable, we get to see how Two-Face catches her in the first place.

- Instead of just finding a boring map, Batman beats information on Riddler’s secrets out of his henchmen.

- Bats’ radio exchanges with Alfred are more lively than the talks with Oracle is Asylum

- Jack Ryder is in Arkham City, so perhaps we’ll see him become Creeper.


Above: Jack Ryder has seen better days

- The HUD looks improved, and just seeing the city in action has us very impressed.

- The superb combat of the first game already appears deeper, and we’re assuming this footage takes place very early in the campaign before many new moves have been unlocked.

- Why is the Joker out to kill Catwoman? Just to be a dick?

- What’s the deal with censored dialogue around 10:55 mark? Who or what is Batman looking for? What plot point are they concealing?

We’re surprised that the devs were so giving with this exciting footage, and it makes us slightly suspicious that this section might become at least part of a future downloadable demo. In the meantime, did this video increase your excitement for Arkham City, or (though it seems highly unlikely) did it let you down in some capacity?

Jul 1, 2011

Henry Gilbert

Henry Gilbert is a former GamesRadar+ Editor, having spent seven years at the site helping to navigate our readers through the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. Henry is now following another passion of his besides video games, working as the producer and podcast cohost of the popular Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon podcasts.