5 reasons you'll love the amazing-looking sequel to 2009's Arkham Asylum

Right now is an incredible time to be a Bat-fan. Arkham City looks more amazing every time we see it, exuding the same style and polish that made its predecessor the best superhero game in ages. What are we most psyched about after our most recent demo? Well, among other things…:

(1) Size and Scope: Did you feel hemmed-in by Arkham Asylum’s island locale and enclosed, claustrophobic spaces? Then you’ll love roaming the sequel’s fully realized Arkham City, a walled-off portion of Gotham. Not only is it full of familiar locations like Gotham Casino, Wayne Enterprises, and Crime Alley, but the whole game world is five times the size of the first game’s. Count on seeing a lot of it — we’re told that most of the time you’ll be in the streets, unlike in Asylum.

(2) Spot-on Characters: We can’t say we’re surprised, since the game’s written by ace Bat-scribe Paul Dini, but the crackling (and funny!) dialogue absolutely nails the personalities of the Dark Knight’s supporting cast. In a scene where Two-Face has Catwoman suspended upside-down above an acid vat and is deciding whether to shoot her, we see him arguing with himself (of course). As he flips his coin to decide her fate — in wonderfully cinematic slow-mo — Selena quips, “You certainly know how to leave a girl hanging, Harv.” Likewise, when TV reporter Jack Ryder sees that Batman recognizes him, he asks, “Are you a fan?” The response is a terse, volumes-speaking “No.” Love it!

(3) The Ultimate Spy: With Arkham City set 18 months after the events of Asylum, you’ll start off with all of the gadgets you accumulated throughout the first game, including your Batclaw and Cryptographic Sequencer. The latter, like most of your gear, has been upgraded: you can use it to hack into communications all over the city. In our demo, we listened in on warden Hugo Strange telling a police chopper to stand down instead of rescuing Catwoman from her courthouse imprisonment. In another spot, you might overhear a crucial phone call that unlocks, say, a hunt for Victor Zsasz. That Batman…such an eavesdropper.

(4) Better Fighting…and Flight!: Arkham Asylum’s free-flowing combat felt terrific, and Rocksteady hasn’t tinkered with it so much as expanded it. As you’ll notice pretty quickly, the developers have doubled the number of combat animations, while adding the ability to catch enemy projectiles (chairs, fire extinguishers) and throw them back. Better yet, you can pull off some sweet new moves, including Beat Down, where you whale on a guy’s stomach with both fists, then finish him with a huge, jaw-mashing uppercut.

Gliding around Gotham is what we’re really excited about, though. The ability to power-dive lets you build up speed while in mid-air, so when you pull up, you can coast for long distances, looking for Riddler trophies or crooks to Glide Kick. If you’re feeling lazy, you can always get around town by grappling onto a chopper’s skids and using it as a taxi, but we’d rather soar around like a creature of the night.

(5) Even Greater Detective: The last game gave you lots of slick forensics work, but judging by our demo, Arkham City has even cooler scenarios. When Joker tries to snipe Catwoman through a window, you can analyze the crime scene and, in an awesome vector-graphics visual, trace the bullet’s path to learn its point of origin. Once you get there — the bell tower of a nearby church — you have to dive out a window to escape explosives that Joker’s planted, but that just makes the whole sequence extra thrilling.