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Batman Arkham Asylum – Demo Feedback

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Batman

We posted last week that the Batman Arkham Asylum demo had hit the Axbox Arcade and PSN and that it weighed in at a whopping 2Gb (or 1.6Gb on the PSN).

Over the weekend I downloaded the demo and gave it a run for its money and first impressions are that this game is graphically stunning. The cut scenes in the beginning are breath taking and the flow from in game cut scenes to in game action is flawless.

The demo is nicely paced and you are left really wanting more as the credits start rolling with Bane bearing down on you.

During the demo you get to try out the standard fighting combat which includes kicking, punching, counter attacks, super duper cape moves and batarang attacks.

However while the fighting is enjoyable it isn’t the most exciting gameplay and I can imagine that it may become repetitive after a decent amount of game time. The other gameplay mechanic is the detective mode, where you get a special filter that pops up and highlights enemies (red skeletons), action points (orange) and dead guys or innocents (blue skeletons).

Batman2

While it sounds odd it works perfectly and using your grappling hook to swing across the stage and drop in unsuspectingly behind the enemies and taking them down is a whole lot of fun.

As I am not much of a stealth gameplayer I decided to rush in all bat’s blazing and let me tell you, that is not a good idea. Batman is susceptible to machine gun fire and I barely made it our alive after that idiotic move.

Rather use your hook to get up high and behind the guys and then swoop down and take them out, in detective mode you can also see the heartrate of the other characters and their current mood (nervous, calm etc).

The Unreal Engine yet again amazes me but I am starting to get bored of the same character models, maybe Epic should figure out how to model someone who doesn’t look like they were raised on steroids from birth?

While I am talking about the models though, Harlequin makes a short appearance in the game and man she is looking hot. In a psycho, intriguing sort of way of course.

So that’s it for the demo round up, all in all this game was one of the most entertaining that I have played this year and I was left just wanting more, lots more. However I didn’t want to replay the demo so I am thinking this is going to be a single play through title.

As for a review score, I am expecting people to be scoring this one between 8 and 8.7 when the reviews start to come out from independent sites.

Last Updated: August 11, 2009

10 Comments

  1. Ruslan

    August 11, 2009 at 09:12

    Demo was great looking, the aerial moves are awesome although I am not a fan of stealth hope its not critical for all aspects in the game. 🙂

    Pre-order it is, PS3 version thanks to the Joker.

    Reply

  2. janrik

    August 11, 2009 at 10:20

    Xbox demo is 1.7 gig or there abouts also.

    Not 2 gig, fyi.

    Reply

  3. LazySAGamer

    August 11, 2009 at 10:50

    You sure? It says 2Gb on Microsoft’s site (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/offers/0ddf0001-0000-4000-8000-000053438807) and I have to admit that I didn’t measure the download personally.

    Reply

  4. janrik

    August 11, 2009 at 11:08

    On console it is 1.68 or 1.78 and on torrent sites it is 1.65… so pretty sure it is just under 2 gig.

    Still hella big though. Not going there 🙂 Rather save the bw cash for the real deal.

    And it is near my BDAY! Yum!

    Reply

  5. Aequitas

    August 11, 2009 at 11:57

    Lazy … that wasn’t Bane at the end there, and Epic has nothing to do with the character models …. that’s purely a developer choice to make the people beefy.

    Reply

  6. LazySAGamer

    August 11, 2009 at 12:19

    I just checked in the memory settings on my console and the download was 1.6Gb… Weird that Microsoft lied on the official site?

    Reply

  7. janrik

    August 11, 2009 at 12:21

    Beeeeef Caaaaaakkkkkkeeeee!

    Reply

  8. LazySAGamer

    August 11, 2009 at 12:21

    Damn my limited knowledge of super heroe evil doers… and I do know that Epic didn’t model the guys but 99% of games based on the Unreal Engine have beefy characters.

    I personally think it’s because of how the Unreal Engine handles human movement, it just fits better with big people. The models from Unreal Tournament, Gears and Batman could easily be swapped around and people would barely notice.

    Apart from Harlequin that is :wub:

    Reply

  9. Aequitas

    August 11, 2009 at 16:58

    Nah … I can disprove that thought by just saying ‘Mass Effect’. Normal sized humans with great movement, in the Unreal Engine. 😛

    I am so looking forward to thid game tho ^_^

    Reply

  10. C Wright

    August 12, 2009 at 09:45

    Am I the only one that found it hugely disappointing? Batman feels cumbersome and the fighting is way too easy. The stealth bit is the only good part, but that’s going to get boring as all you are doing is getting up high then coming down to take out a villain. Rinse and repeat.

    Why did they go back to the pantomime take on Joker after the success of a more realistic Joker in TDK?

    Reply

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