We first played a low-difficulty melee combat challenge room, which tasks the player with linking together as many attacks as possible in order to build the largest possible combo and gain points. As gorgeously fluid as the combat was, I couldn't help but feel it was a bit simplistic. The vast majority of the time I simply hammered the X button over and over to pound on a single baddie until a lightning bolt symbol appeared over the head of a second enemy, at which point I pressed Y and was treated to a remarkably violent animation of Batman turning to this second enemy and dispatching him with a few hits (most notably, Bats grabbed a goon's leg, and hoisted it above his head before delivering a full-force punch to his groin). I could occasionally stun enemies with the use of the B button or evade attacks with A, but it reminded me somewhat of Path of Neo's combat system – fluidly animated and gorgeous to look at, but relatively shallow in terms of actual challenge or strategy. That said, I actually kind of liked that game, and I felt the same rush of arcade-y excitement in building combos and luxuriating in the visual reward of fluid combat animations in this first challenge room. Nick, Rey, and I exchanged more than a few interjecting shouts of "nice!" and "Jesus Christ!" with every successfully executed combo.

Next, we moved onto a "predatory" room – named as such, if you can remember from Samit's preview, because the developers thought "stealth" implied weakness. After pressing the left bumper to turn on Batman's investigation skill (subsequently turning on a sort of thermal vision), Batman looked around and was informed via a HUD alert that there were five people in the room, all of them armed. With a batarang, explosive gel, and a grappling hook called the “batclaw” in his inventory, there were a few ways to go about ridding the area of enemies. The representative took the first baddie out by simply sneaking up behind him and hitting a face button for what I initially assumed was a silent takedown, until it was explained that all Arkham inmates are equipped with neck collars that immediately alert everyone in the immediate vicinity when any of their number are taken out. This contrivance presumably served to force Batman to constantly retreat to the shadows, as only a quick grapple up to one of the many lofty gargoyle statues that jutted out around the perimeter of the room got Batman out of sight.