Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham City is shaping up nicely. The behind-closed-doors E3 demo starts out showing Batman flying around the city before switching to a sexy Catwoman sequence, which Nick will give you full details about soon. But as the final day of E3 wound down, Warner Bros. felt like giving the final viewers something extra. Footage of Oswald Cobblepot, The Penguin, was shown for the first time today.
Batman walks into a large room containing hordes of locked-up criminals. One stumbles towards him; weak, desperate to escape, he hopes Batman will save him. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out, and the man falls to the ground. The Penguin is revealed on a balcony above, his umbrella-gun in hand, pointed at the dead criminal. He is flanked by beefy henchmen. A short back-and-forth ensues between Batman and Cobblepot, talking about how weak the man below was and how the Penguin only accepts the strongest into his gang. He’s got an excellent (and cliched) way to find out who’s worthy: have them try to kill Batman.
All the criminals are released, prompting a giant melee with lots of opportunities for double takedowns. Bigger brawls are a new focus in Arkham City, since only the end of Arkham Asylum had some large-scale fights. Naturally, Batman takes them all down, prompting the Penguin to leave while noting that Batman wasn’t supposed to do that.
The Penguin looked great, a disgusting middle ground between classy mob socialite and Danny DeVito Batman Returns craziness, with a big cracked monocle. I can’t wait to see more of his involvement in the game, or whether he’ll do something with the other villains. Here’s hoping all the villains are done this well.
Batman: Arkham City is due out for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on October 18, 2011.
