BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT’s Batmobile Is The Coolest Thing At E3

Having previously only been treated to cinematic trailers and videos from Rocksteady, they decided to give us something that’s a little more sweet: some actual footage of the gameplay that we will see in Batman: Arkham Knight.

The five minute gameplay demo, which was showcased at E3 2014 yesterday, shows us a new more aggressive and more visceral Batman, a truly open-world Gotham City and most importantly, our first detailed look at what the Batmobile can really do.

What is immediately visible to people watching the video is the fact that all of Batman’s movements, gadgets, the Batmobile, are seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. The Batmobile isn’t just for vehicle sequences or scripted sections of the game that are meant to “change the pace” but is actually just another part of the game.

Another thing is the fact that the Batmobile looks and feels very smooth to handle. Despite the name, even “Tank Mode” allows the Batmobile to almost glide as if hovering above the ground in any direction you want. There is also a feature that allows you to do a “dash” move to dodge incoming projectile attacks.

The ferocity of the movement isn’t just exclusive to the Batmobile, though, this time around Batman isn’t pulling his punches. Instead of slowly pulling open air vent covers, he just rips them off. And instead of crawling through air vents, he just jumps in and slides his way through.

All of this makes sense given the fact that Gotham City has gone to shit. Stealth and carefulness has been thrown out the window. Rather than try to sneak up on his targets and take them out one-by-one, Batman just swoops in and takes them out in a “focus”-style mechanic, where he automatically moves from target to target.

When you put all of these features together in a truly open-world Gotham City that we have never seen before, it makes for what may be the first complete Batman gaming experience.

I think this trailer looks great and is making my heart ache at the fact that the game has been delayed until 2015. The only concern I have is what this new sense of rush and ferocity and speed will have on the stealth aspects of the game, not to mention how this will impact the challenge of the combat.

For me, the stealth is one of the only reasons I play the Arkham games and despite the Batmobile’s awesomeness, I’m still a little concerned that the stealth mechanics are being left behind.

Now, I’m just waiting for Rocksteady to announce a Superman game.