She's Got Legs... And She Knows How To Use Them
| Share: |
So, for quite some time, superhero license games were simply expected to be poorly made, typically cheap cash-ins on a license that could sell games regardless of any actual quality.
Batman: Arkham Asylum raised the bar quite a bit when it arrived on the scene, with strong gameplay, excellent usage of the license and unique features. Then, when Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions came out, it had a lot of the same features as Arkham Asylum, and certain things, such as the zip-line just felt like they belonged more in a Spider-Man game... plus you got the wall and ceiling crawling aspects, which I loved.
Well, Batman: Arkham City is getting set to take a shot at raising the bar again, by taking what made Arkham Asylum so great and doing more of that, making the game much bigger.
However, if you're afraid you'll miss the wall-crawling gameplay, never fear... Batman: Arkham City has its own playable wall-crawler... and one that's a lot easier on the eyes, to boot... with none other than Catwoman.
At certain points in the game, Batman discovers a strange gathering of cats on a rooftop and, when you approach them, Catwoman appears and Batman slips off, leaving the player controlling her instead.
She looks good, as one would expect, but she's got a different way of getting around Arkham City; she uses her whip to catch onto things and let her move short distances (in a very web-zip sort of way). She also has a more intimate fighting and moving style than Batman, as well as some pretty cool bolos that can take out baddies from a distance.
Catwoman actually has her own storyline, which is woven in between Batman's storyline progression. In the exclusive footage that we saw in our appointment (which wasn't showing on the E3 show floor), we find Catwoman in a tentative alliance with Poison Ivy; Poison Ivy is allowing Catwoman into a certain area in exchange for Catwoman recovering a special Orchid for her. Will Catwoman live up to her part of the bargain? I guess it depends on whether there's something in it for her. We also see a stealthy section where Catwoman jumps to the ceiling and crawls around on the ceiling, then performs some, um, intimate stealthy takedowns by hanging down and strangling a Tiger guard with her feet around their neck. She also has a "Double Takedown" where she drops down from the ceiling onto two closely positioned baddies, grabs one of their heads with her hands and the others' head between her feet and then knocks their heads together to knock them both out. Catwoman has "Thief Vision," which is her own electronic visual enhancement. Thief Vision has an X-ray or thermal imaging look, but highlights pricey things to steal.
If you're looking for a good superhero videogame and you prefer your wall-crawling with feminine curves and looks (and, perhaps, fingertips) that can kill, then you only have to wait for the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum in October of this year.
Related Links:
