In less than two weeks Batman: Arkham City hits store shelves and I couldn’t be more excited. We’ve already seen a huge showing from Batman’s rogue gallery, not to mention handy assists from Catwoman and Robin. But wait…. THERE’S MORE!!!
MTV Multiplayer reports on another villain in the game, plus some of the new gadgets we’ll be seeing.
The original “Batman Arkham Asylum” featured six gadgets, unlocked through the game’s progression. Rocksteady are doubling up this go around, with a whopping 12 Bat-tools. While the Batclaw, Batarang, Line Launcher, Cryptographic Sequencer, Grapnel Gun, and Explosive Gel will return – granted with new updates – “Arkham City” director Sefton Hill spoke about two brand-new gadgets.
First, there’s the Remote Electrical Charge. At first glance, you might think this is nothing more than a taser – which it can obviously be used for – but the device also assists in completing various tasks and puzzles. The gadget can actually create an electrical field, allowing you to move objects around the environment.
Secondly, it looks like Batman will actually “borrow” some tech from previously-announced villain Mr. Freeze. Hill spoke about the Freeze Blast, a device that actually hurls a freezing glob at enemies and water, alike. If the blast is directed towards water, it will actually create a frozen platform, allowing Batman to cross liquid expanses. If the blast is directed at thugs – well, it freezes them in place. It’s odd that Batman is taking technology from Mr. Freeze, and one has to wonder if the two are joined in some type of uneasy alliance.
While Rocksteady has already announced quite a few villains for “Arkham City” – Penguin, Joker, Hugo Strange, Riddler, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze – they’re apparently not done yet. Assassin-for-hire Deadshot will join the rogues’ gallery, but his motivations are not immediately clear. The video shows Batman entering “detective mode” to ascertain the bullet trajectory from one of Deadshot’s sniper bullets. Apparently, Batman will discover a number of the mercenary’s murder scenes, and he’ll have to deduce exactly what’s going on.
“Deadshot is after some very specific people in Arkham City,” said Hill. “When Batman gets in Deadshot’s way, there’s an inevitable showdown.”
Mastery of some of the Bat-gadgets was a great part of the first game, and I can’t wait to see what other gadgets we get to see. Hell, I’d be happy with some Anti-Shark Spray, but that’s just me. But wait… THER- oh right, I already did that.
Check out this sweet new Joker trailer that was released, further proving how badass not only Joker is, but also Mark Hamil, who continues to deliver an amazing Joker performance.
While hunting an embeddable version of the trailer down I also stumbled onto another cinematic that might point to some co-op challenge modes, which would be very cool. Either way, it’s a good watch. Hell, how about another cool trailer? This is the TV spot featuring the Pre-Order Robin feature (which I got, you know it!) and shows off some of his moves, gameplay, and just downright awesomeness.
Okay, so that covers everything we already knew, with just a little bit more thrown in. But here’s the kicker. Over at GameRant they noticed that there was an extra character screen that was blacked out during a preview of the challenge maps:
“When we asked Dax Ginn from Rocksteady during our Gamescom 2011 demo about a curious box we saw indicating that you’d be able to select another character besides Batman, Catwoman, and Robin, Dax pointed up in the corner and said “Hey! What’s that up there?!” and then vanished. So look for additional characters to be announced or kept secret up until launch.”
Now obviously I assumed it was going to be Joker, as he’s already had his share of Challenge Maps, and with the above footage of Bats and Mr. J fighting alongside each other it seemed like the best choice. I was wrong.
BOOM!!! Recently released along with the Robin TV spot, it seems that Batman will have the help of his team when it comes to the challenge maps. Being able to pick from either Batman or Robin was more than enough for me, but to throw in my all time favorite DC superhero as well? If this was a comic I would be buying more than one copy.
The news first dropped over at GameRant when some of the achievements were released featuring Nightwing. This was quickly followed up (again from GameRant) by screenshots and concept art:
And I just shat myself. The only downside is that these characters are only available for Challenge Maps. But with the huge potential for Downloadable Story missions, it seems like a good bet that both Nightwing and Robin might have more coming in the future.
What do you think? Are they trying to do too much with this game? Not enough? Excited for Nightwing? Hate Gingerbread Cookies? Let us know in the comments section below!
12 Days and Counting…
Grizzly Bomb 