GAME-START
Be warned, this will contain spoilers on the beginning of the game.
The demo begins with Batman perched atop a building overlooking Gotham's prison city as a light sprinkling of snow falls in the night Roving gangs of inmates wreak havoc below.
His communicator crackles to life.
"Where is she, Alfred?" Batman asks.
"Miss Kyle was last seen in the vicinity of the Solomon Wayne Courthouse," Replies his faithful butler.
"That's where Two-Face has been setting up camp."
"Let's hope she is still in one piece when you find her. Mr, Dent's fascination with the number two could prove fatal to Catwoman."
Batman takes a flying leap off the ledge, dive-bombing head first toward the streets below at an alarming speed. At the last moment, he spreads his cape and swoops back up into the sky. Soaring smoothy through the night air, Batman spots the courthouse in the far distance. He fires his grappling gun to the nearest skyscraper and used the pull from the retracting rope to slingshot himself higher.
Batman proceeds in heading to the courthouse when he stumbles across a bunch of Arkham City Outcasts - criminals who aren't overly connected to any one super-villain - roughing up a political prisoner. A quick scan using the updated Detective Mode matches the faces to a database of criminals and reveals that one of the goons is a Riddler informant. The challenge then is to rough up the rest of the crowd, leaving the informant until last so that he can be properly interrogated - something that’s made easier by the fact he remains highlighted when you switch out of the vision mode. Dodging his attacks and taking out the surrounding goons leaves you one on one with The Riddler’s informant. A quick tap of Y and Batman grabs him by the scruff of the neck and forces him to talk.
“The Riddler, What’s he up to?!” Batman demands with a bit of persuasion as he dangles the foe off a rooftop ledge.
"Oh crap, okay, okay! I just help him out, we give him info and he doesn't put us in those crazy machines of his!"
"It's been a pleasure," Batman growls.
After incapacitating the helpful gentleman with a crunching headbutt, it’s revealed the political prisoner is none other than Jack Ryder. Turns out, while gathering info for his expose story on Arkham City he got a bit too close to close to the truth. Resulting in a forceful transportation to the facility.
Anyway, back to Catwoman! On arrival to the courthouse, Two Face is holding mock trial of Catwoman in front of a baying crowd of criminals. He strides around the stage, with the two conflicting sides of his personality conversing out loud, while she’s tied upside down and dangling over a vat of bubbling green acid. The Dent side of Two-Face’s personality seems intent on a fair trail, whereas the disfigured side is keen to have her dunked.
“The only way to get by this place is to get ourselves some respect," says Two-Face more sensible side, all that remains of former district attorney Harvey Dent.
"Fear, that's how we get respect. Show them all how we do things," replies his twisted and disfigured side in a noticeably more sinister voice.
"We should be fair, though. This is a place of justice after all.
“Screw Justice. Kill her and they'll all fear us. Bring out the defendant."
"You certainly know how to keep a girl hanging, Harv." Catwoman says. "Hey have you had some work done?"
Two-Face strikes her across the face.
"That's for spying on us. No one spies on us." He threatens.
"I'm sorry. I've been a bad kitty," she teases.
"Untie me and I'll make it up to you."
"Let's see if the coin thinks you are telling the truth," Two-Face snarls. "This court is now in session."
As the cutscene comes to a close, Batman scans the area with his blue-tinged detective vision and notices a single armed guard above his position. He grapples to a platform behind the enemy and, instead of automatically dangling from the ledge like before, Batman now has the option to instantly flip up into a roll that maintains his forward momentum. He pops out of the roll right behind the armed guard and initiates a chokehold. Like Gears of War's reload mechanic, players can now hit the attack button again at just the right time to bring down enemies faster.
A wire scratches above the scene, and Batman creeps along it to get a better vantage point. He scans the inmates and finds one with a knife in need of disarming. With a simple button press, Batman snatches his grapple hook to the wire, jumps off, and goes into a swing kick that knocks the guy across the room like a golf ball. Batman lands in the middle of the audience. Several goons run away in terror, but plenty stick around for the beating.
Batman vaults over the closest one, casually spraying some explosive gel on his back in the process. Two enemies swing at him in quick succession and Batman palms both fists, a crushing their hands until they're left writing on the floor. As he wails away on another foe, a new group fills in behind him. Batman summons a colony of bats to the scene to disorient and panic his attackers. Two-Face fires a pistol intermittently , forcing Batman to perform a series of gymnastic dodges. After the bats have moved on, Batman pulls out a detonator and hits the switch. The previously placed gel blasts several enemies. The last two inmates get desperate. One picks up a char and chucks it at Batman. Just when it's about to crack him in the head, Batman reaches up and catches it, instantly throwing it back. One left. Batman Simply tosses him in the air and finishes him with a swift kick to the back that sends him flying into a wall. Of course, this finisher is presented in glorious slow motion.
With all of his goons out of commission, Two-Face makes one final play. "Objection," he says before shooting Batman. "Overruled."
With this nuisance out of the picture, Two-Face turns to his prey.
"Heads or tails kitty cat?"
"Which one ends with me getting out of here alive?" she asks.
Two-Face flips the coin and the scarred side lands facing up. "Not this one. Time to die."
"I vote for a stay of execution,"
Catwoman says as she claws the ropes off her wrist and slashes him in the face. Two-Face recoils in pain, clutching his eyes and cursing at her. Catwoman frees her legs and gets right side up. A grappling hook fires from out of nowhere at Two-Face and soon enough he's dangling above the acid.
"I thought it was only cats who had nine lives," Catwoman teases as Batman walks into view. "Anyone ever tell you that you're full of surprises?"
"figured you could use my help, Selina," He replies.
"You're right. I think I chipped a nail back there."
"Funny."
"So what do you need, Mr. Detective? I'm guessing it's something to do with our friend here and how he fits into what Professor Strange has got cooking."
"What do you know, Selina?"
"Not much. No one knows anything about the mystery man. It's like he never existed before Sharp hired. But there is definitely something going on with him and Joker."
"That's not what I wanted to hear."
"It gets worse. The clown has a plan to destroy Gotham and take you out at the same time. You should get out of here. Leave Joker. He'll be dead soon."
"I can't. He's even more dangerous when backed into a corner."
As if on cue, a glowing green laser dot traces its way up Catwoman's snug yet tactical suit. Next we see her in the crosshairs and hear a familiar voice. "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat. Watch me kill your favorite cat." Joker's disembodied voice tries to burst into his trademark maniacal laughter but he's cut short by a violent coughing fit, a symptom of some mysterious illness.
"The ex-district attorney here said something about..." Catwoman says before Batman pulls her out of the way of Joker's bullet. "What the hell?"
"You're not safe here. No one is," Batman wars as he presses her against a wall.
"Nine lives, remember?" Catwoman quips as she cracks her whip up into the rafters of the courthouse, pulls herself up, and sneaks off into the night.
Batman’s upgraded Detective Vision is now used again, in this case you tasked with finding the bullet hole in the floor and then made to work out where it entered the courthouse, determining a trajectory that’ll reveal where the shot was fired from. Once you’ve spotted both holes, a line is plotted between them which leads to a bell tower a considerable distance across the city.
Exploring the Courthouse a littler further reveals a character locked in a cell within the basement. It’s one of the lesser-known villains in the Batman universe, Calendar Man. A quick conversation with the prisoner reveals that the date of your system determines his reaction. Further investigating around the area reveals a Riddler trophy within a cell. A quick toss of a batarang towards the control panel splits the electricity cables to open the cell it’s locked in.
As you make your way towards the medical facility Batman spots another puzzle. As he makes his way closer to the Riddler Trophy a mechanical structure fixates itself around it leaving the you to figure out how to get at it. As Batman moves away from the trophy the system closes and leaves it open again, you are then able to use your trusty Bat Claw to quickly latch on send it speeding back towards you thus obtaining your second trophy.
Down below on the surface of the city a ringing pay-phone attracts a group of terrified Outcasts. A rumor has traveled around claiming that anyone that answers the phone ends up dead. "You're all going down," Batman threatens.
"It's Batman! Get out of here!" a prisoner shouts as the thugs scatter off into the distance.
Answering reveals the mysterious caller is Victor Zasz, if you proceed in answering each phone throughout the city, you’ll eventually encounter him and play out a miniature plot arc.
But the Medical Center where the sniper was holed up is priority number one. On entering the building Batman comes face to face with a familiar face, "Coming through B-man!" shouts Harley Quinn as she charges towards him with a series of handsprings and flips. Much like the last time Joker's girl tried this in Arkham Asylum, Batman sidesteps her attack and tosses her aside.
"Let the lady go, batfreak, or the doctors all get a bullet in their head," warns one of the several machine gun-touting Joker members. The church has become a makeshift triage center that humanitarian aid workers have convicted Strange to allow within the prison.
"I think you should do what he says. It would be a shame to get blood all over my nice new outfit," she says.after a small pep talk she quickly makes an escape leaving Bat’s to fight out against her thug defense force.
“What are you nervous for?” one of them asks. “It’s not like Batman’s famous for escaping situations like this.”
“What do you think he’s going to do? Use a smoke bomb to cover his escape, then punch us all in the face?” he jokes
“I’ve changed my mind. Shoot him!”
After a brief argument about whether they should, and whether they’re going to shoot on three, or after three, we drop our smoke bomb and grapple into the rafters.
The thugs scatter and grab hostages, prompting the first predator style gameplay part of the game. Once you cleared the area, it’s a simple task to grapple up to the top of the bell tower.
Batman pulls himself up into the highest chamber, which contains a sniper rifle with a transmitter attached and a large stockpile of clown-themed explosives. Instead of getting the hell out of there like a rational person, Batman pulls out a new gadget called the broadcast analyzer to track the location of Joker's transmissions.
Once Batman gets a lock on Joker's signal, a static-laced message plays out. "I've waited a long time for this, Bats. Let's start the party with a bang. Hahahahaha! 5, 4, 3..."
There's no time to climb back down the tower. With a quick press of a button, Batman smashes through the nearest window and the camera cuts outside to the Arkham City skyline. His dark silhouette narrowly escapes the violent tower explosion. Plummeting to the ground below, Batman spreads his cape and soars upward towards the screen, enveloping everything into darkness.
GAME-END
Information from GameInformer, Official UK Xbox Magazine, Official Playstation Magazine and PC Zone.