WORLD EXCLUSIVE HANDS ON! KNIGHT MOVES
Original Article by Corey Cohen appeared in Xbox Magazine July 2011. Pictures are not part of this article but are added as illustration.
The new flight controls for gliding allow for much more control than they did in ARKHAM ASYLUM, being able not only to glide to the street below, but maneuver the glide to increase your reach for hundreds of feet over the city streets. A visit to Crime Alley will land you close to where Bruce’s parents were murdered and you can either leave flowers (accompanied by stirring score) or pick up an audio diary Hugo Strange left your Batman in an effort to mess with his mind.
A new improvement to the Batman’s arsenal will be the range of the GRAPPLE GUN that now allows you to latch to objects more than 150 ft away. The grapple will not only allow you to latch to buildings but if you get tired of gliding around the city you can always grapple onto the skids of a Tyger police chopper and use it like a public bus to take you around.
Also of use for the job could be the CRYPTOGRAPHIC SEQUENCER that allows you to scan for radio frequencies you can intercept (like the police notification that Two-Face has kidnapped Catwoman) and the much talked about REMOTE BATARANG with new boost, brake, and U-turn features.
Oh, and don’t forget that though most of your arsenal inherited from Arkham Asylum with upgrades, there will be multiple upgrades available for you through this game as well. “An example is the BATCLAW (see pic below) that from the start can do a slam move where you can pull an enemy toward you , then sweep their legs and smash their head into the ground for double damage, but you can get an upgrade where you can use the device to snatch a weapon from your enemies’ hands. Another cool upgrade, this one to your abilities, allows you jam someone’s gun without them realizing it so when they go to shoot you, they’re screwed.”
I told you to come here, scum! (Photo courtesy of IGN.)
One of the enhancements to this game from its predecessor is the abundance of Riddle trophies. Literally hundreds are available to challenge your mind and your skills in search of trophies. Some of these trophies will also unlock challenges (that are not short but mini stories) like the “Hostage Rescue” where you will try to save the life of a fireman from a flaming trap (see pic below).
But facing Riddler is only part of the story. You’ll also encounter the Penguin who has set home at the Gotham Natural History Museum. Be careful with this birds as “…where Joker is driven by pushing Batman’s buttons, Penguin is more ruthless about what he wants to get,” game director Shefton Hill says. “He’s like the worst nastiest mob gangster you can imagine.” As you fight thirty of Penguin’s worst henchmen you’ll soon realize that you can double and even triple-block now. Just watch for that familiar sign above the enemy’s head.
(Batman and related characters belong to DC Comics. Arkham City is developed by Rocksteady. All pictures available on the net and are property of the issuers.)
