Preview: Batman Arkham City

upcoming sequel to action-adventure stealth video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, based on DC Comics' Batman.  It is being developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics. The game was officially announced during the beginning of the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. It is currently scheduled to be released in Q3(fall of) 2011.

Release Date: September 30, 2011
Also on: PC, PS3
RP-T+ for Rating Pending, Targeting a Rating of Teen or Above
Genre: Action 
Publisher/Co-Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive / Eidos Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady Studios

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Sefton Hill, Arkham City's director from Rocksteady Studios, stated that a key goal for the game was to deliver the "'Batman in Gotham' feeling", accomplished by several means. One means was through expanding the number of moves and actions that the player could use as Batman. Though the team developed several ideas for new moves, gadgets, and abilities to be included, they only went forward with those that they felt would be authentic to Batman. The studio also reviewed the play and combat systems used in Arkham Asylum, and built the new moves as natural extensions of the existing system as a means to "add even more depth and gameplay instead of changing them fundamentally". The number of animations have been doubled to reflect the larger arsenal of moves at the player's disposal.

Another means of giving the player the Batman experience was through the larger game world. Arkham City has a virtual footprint five times larger than Arkham Asylum, and the navigational aspects have been improved to give the player the experience of "the freedom and exhilaration of gliding down alleyways and soaring above the skyline". Though the concepts have been compared to an open-world game, Hill notes that such freeform nature would not be appropriate for a Batman game, and have designed Arkham City to challenge the player to think like Batman to survive in the game. To counterbalance the larger gameworld, the developers also sought to include more challenges and side missions, while keeping the player alert as to the primary story mission, such that the players constantly are aware of "extreme pressure of the challenges that they face". The concept of expanding the game from the asylum into the city came early on in Arkham Asylum's development; once the team had programmed the Batman to dive and glide between buildings of the asylum, the adaption of this gameplay to the city was considered natural. Arkham Asylum was completed with the sequel in mind in both story and gameplay; as found by several players, a secret room in Arkham Asylum shows plans for Arkham City, purposely included to help link the story between the two games.