As with any E3 there are always a handful of games that I go in looking for specifically and this year Batman Arkham City was at the top of the list. The way things shook down, I ended up in the 15-minute theater demo and Riyad ended up in the 20 minute hands on session. I will leave the hands on part to him but as far as the things shown in the demo? Holy crap!

The first thing we saw was just Batman moving around the city. Now that we are playing in a more spacious open world setting, the methods of locomotion are much more important. With thugs roaming the streets it helps to stay on rooftops or in the air. In this case ‘the air’ is a much more viable option as the gliding mechanic has been beefed up considerably. You aren’t Superman here so you can’t straight up fly but diving off a high point and rushing toward the ground will give you the speed and eventual lift to keep you going a lot longer than in the previous game. Gliding is pretty cool but you can’t always do that so we are also given the option to swing around on a grapple line including some awesome looking turns around building corners. Since you can do this literally on the fly the whole thing looks pretty seamless.

Of course, the rooftops aren’t safe themselves and you are given some pretty robust combat options here in a refined fighting system that looks to keep the basics of the last game’s combat intact while giving the player more options to lay the hurt down. Gadgets also figure in heavily as you have all new upgrades to get this time out. You aren’t going to have your utility belt damaged or something to take away what you earned last time so these new upgrades make Batman even more of a badass than he was last game and that is pretty staggering to think about.

So that was cool to see and the new context sensitive take downs were neat and all but nothing that is too surprising…until Batman reached a rooftop with a bunch of cats hanging around. Catwoman pops up over the edge of the building and after some dialogue takes over for Batman as a playable character. This is very cool as not only does she have moves and a playstyle unique to her but she has a pretty awesome butt that is much more fun to look at than Batman’s cape.

The mission that we were shown involves Catwoman breaking into a vault owned by Hugo Strange where all of the recovered stolen loot is kept. So a thug gets brought in and his stolen goods are put in this vault. Seems a bit fishy as far as due process is concerned but if the place were following the letter of the law it wouldn’t need a muscle bound crazy person dressed like a bat to keep it in line. So Catwoman has to break into the vault and steal the contents. She gets some help from Poison Ivy who wants to recover something of her own in the vault by marking the location for her. Catwoman’s moves aren’t so divorced from Batman’s that playing becomes something entirely different but there is enough variety to make it feel like a worthwhile addition and not just something cheap and exploitative.

Catwoman can use her whip to swing or grapple up onto things much in the same way Batman uses his grapple gun but the combat applications are a bit more direct for her. Further, her combat is much quicker and more claw focused. While watching her fight off guards it was hard not to get excited and she executes some pretty awesome and brutal moves. These things are kind of more cosmetic than impactful but where you get into the real differences between characters is her version of detective mode and her ability to cling to some walls and ceilings.

Her version of detective mode looks similar to Batman’s but focuses more on stealing than anything else. In one room she has to steal key cards from guards so when she pops into that mode you see the stealable items highlighted on the guards. She has a few options on how to proceed but the requirements on the room are that she cannot be seen. So she hops up to the ceiling and crawls across it to drop down behind a guard to yoink the card. She does this twice more and the cards are hers. Once she gets the vault open she has to take the guards out and here we see some pretty awesome takedowns. Her takedown move from dropping from the ceiling was awesoe on its own but when she targets two guards from the ceiling we are treated to the new double takedown where she drops down and dispatches both at the same time.

From the looks of things the transition between characters is smooth and didn’t seem to disrupt the flow of the game. It appears that you can control when you switch over by going to those specific buildings with the cats although that is mostly just my assumption based on what we saw in the demo.  Word is that about 10% of the game will be spent playing as Catwoman and that seems about right to me. While I think it is pretty cool you can play as her, I wouldn’t want it to be some kind of Master Chief/Arbiter thing where I have to play half the game as someone I am less invested in. If you want even more Catwoman, though, you are in good shape there since she will have her own levels in challenge mode. Sadly, if you were looking for co-op, that isn’t happening. Personally, I am glad about that as I think that Arkham games should really be single player affairs.

Next up we were treated to a cut scene between Batman and the Penguin. I am not super into the Penguin as a villain but the way he is portrayed in Arkham City made him seem much more interesting. The cut scene looked very polished and the voice acting was right on the mark as I would expect given the quality of both last game. Most intriguing is what isn’t in the cut scene as Batman is there to save someone and any time the name is said it is garbled out. Is Commissioner Gordon on the wrong side of a gun again or is it someone else like, say, Robin that we haven’t heard about yet? I am very curious and I will be excited to find out when the game ships in October.

Batman Arkham Asylum is the only game I have ever given a perfect 10 score to. This raises the bar incredibly high for me in regard to the sequel and what I saw at E3 suggests that Rocksteady is prepared to leap over that bar standing up. The game looks and sounds great with all the sorts of improvements you would hope for without any sophomore mistakes you might expect. Only time will tell but this was one of the best games at the show.