Of all the games that I was looking forward to seeing at the show this year, Arkham Knight was on the top of my list. I loved the two Rocksteady Akrham games and I have very high hopes for this one. Still, I was grappling with the sadness of it getting bumped out of 2015 and the unshakable fear that the issues that plagued Origins would resurface here. Watching the theater presentation dashed any fears I might have had and pushed my anticipation to fever pitch.

The presentation was a game play demo running on Xbox One and had some story elements to set the scene. Batman is going into a factory that Scarecrow has filled with bombs and the workers inside are hostages. The Arkham Knight shows up in a helicopter, taking orders from some unseen authority who orders the Knight to blow up the bridge leading to the factory. He does after complaining that he can’t just kill Batman right then. There is evidently an overreaching plan in which Batman cannot be killed yet. Batman has to get into the facility and that is when game play kicks in.

Before I get too deep into the game play I have to say right off the bat that this is an absolutely gorgeous game with ridiculous graphical detail. The rain effects were awesome and textural details were sharp and beautiful. The character models looked perfect and the animation was flawless. This is a very pretty game and it looks worthy of new gen hardware.

We saw some new hacking interfaces which seem to come from a hologram projection in Batman’s glove. He had some dialogue with Oracle, which is awesome. It was also very awesome to hear Kevin Conroy doing the voice again. As far as I am concerned Conroy is the definitive Batman and it is just great hearing him back. Roger Craig Smith did a good job in Origins but I am still glad to have the man back.

The first new game play element shown was a chain grapple that allowed Batman to climb buildings incredibly quickly by setting multiple grapple points at a time. This may not seem like a huge deal but given how much of a pain in the ass that poor traversal was in Origins, I am very happy to see this process streamlined.

Once at the top of the building we saw the gliding mechanic that looks pretty similar to previous titles but now you can go straight from gliding to entering a grate and then seamlessly going from the grate into a takedown. This was amazing to see as it all looked very fluid and put the player right into the action without dealing with useless animations that slow the action down.

Of course the takedown kicked off combat and the fluidity of the experience continued there as the tried and true Arkham combat returned with insane new moves and tactics against new enemy types. The timing of the combat looked spot on and the rhythm of the fight seemed just right which made me breathe a bit easier given the annoying tweaks made to combat in Origins. This looks like the combat has returned back to normal which is pretty awesome because normal combat for Rocksteady is dynamite for anyone else. In addition to the tried and true mechanics, they have also added environmental take downs as well as three man take downs which gives the player a lot more options when they are getting swarmed by enemies.

Another thing I had been worried about with this game was the inclusion of the Batmobile into game play. The fear was how it would be integrated into the game and that it would derail the solid game play of previous games with driving levels that would be annoying filler. Seeing the Batmobile in action for the first time I can definitely say that as long as the implementation in the game as a whole is as solid as what we saw in the E3 demo then the Batmobile is going to be awesome as hell.

The Batmobile can be called remotely from anywhere and can be entered and exited with ease. The vehicle has its own weapons and gadgets that are used much in the same way that you use Batman’s gadgets and weapons so the interface is smooth and easy. Judging by what we saw in the demo the vehicle controls easily and the way it moves through the environment looks like it compliments the over all level layout. Of course this is a demo and it is easy to tailor elements for one section but given what we have seen from the Rocksteady entries in the past I have no reason to believe that the rest of the game will fail in this somehow.

After showing us the traversal options and some combat with the Batmobile, the demo pulled out one of the coolest things yet which was Batman’s ability to eject from the vehicle directly into a takedown. This was badass and incredibly smooth. This of course put Batman into more combat which was followed up by Batman trying to rescue a hostage only to find himself facing down a crowd of thugs being led by the Arkham Knight himself.

Arkham Knight looks like a cross between Batman and Deathstroke and is apparently out for vengeance against Batman while being run by someone pulling the strings. There’s some dialogue between the two before the fight begins and Batman uses the Batmobile’s remote controls to use its crowd control rounds to take out some of the enemies through a window while Batman is free to beat the crap out of the rest with his fists.

The Arkham Knight retreats and Batman throws the hostage into a trunk seat in the Batmobile and takes him back to Gordon. After he drops off the hostage Batman heads back into the factory to save the rest of the hostages and the demo ends.

Overall Arkham Knight looks incredible and looks like it is everything I am looking for from an Arkham game. Any number of things could go wrong between now and release but I doubt very strongly that any of them will. This looks super solid and while I still wish I could play it right now, I am kind of glad it moved out of the enormously crowded October this year so that it will get the attention it deserves. I am not going to want to worry about playing anything else when this comes out. This is definitely one of my favorite games of the show and I can’t wait for it.