I hadn’t really expected to play the new Batman game until it’s release, mostly due to the fact that demos for these types of games don’t usually hit until after a game is released (if at all). Color me surprised when I was given the opportunity to actually play the game today, the 25th of April, one month before the actual release. I usually keep a pretty decent distance from Batman games, mostly due to the fact that they’re usually terrible (except the Adventures of Batman & Robin game from 94), but Arkham Asylum has my interest piqued, regardless of how hard I try to fight it.



Licensed games have a habit of screwing me over. This summer seems to be the season for Licensed releases, with Batman, Ghostbusters, and Wolverine all hitting around the same time. Transformers 2 is hitting in June also, but after the previous one, I’m more than apprehensive. I imagine we’ll probably get a Star Trek game, too. Hell, they made a Watchmen game…that shouldn’t happen. But oddly enough, the first three licensed games I mentioned seem to be of a higher caliber than previous shovelware we’ve been handed previously. But, I’ve been wrong before, after the Spider-Man 2 game, I thought Spider-Man 3 was going to be amazing…

I imagine more demo discs of Batman will be popping up at retail locations (Best Buy, Gamestop most likely), but from what I hear, only the PS3 is getting a demo, whereas the Xbox 360 will have to wait for a demo. This is kind of strange after getting news about the Joker being exclusive to the PS3. But regardless, I played the demo on a PS3.

The demo itself is just a challenge mode, wherein you beat the piss out of wave after wave of inmates. As you continue through each wave, the stamina, speed, and strength of the following wave increases exponentially. I think I was able to make it through five waves before I died.

I’ll try to breakdown the key points right way:

The game looks fantastic. Batman’s costume shows the damage taken, with tattered fabric and holes. These details stay consistent as you continue onto the next wave. The inmates have a few different styles/types, with different aspects changed between them. Meaning you might get the same body type, clothes and move style, but they’ll have different face paint or hairstyles. There’s great attention to detail paid to each character, specifically the skin. It sounds strange, and I guess you’d have to see it to understand, but it looks great. Also, Mark Hamill voicing the Joker between waves is likely to put a smile on anyone’s face.



This is a “hands-on” article, so I suppose I should start talking about the gameplay. I wish I could say that the gameplay blew me away, but it didn’t. I was only able to play in the Challenge Mode, so all I was able to do was fight. Obviously the other mechanics in the game weren’t present, but the hand-to-hand combat feels like your average beat ’em-up. There were a few slowdowns, either for cinematic effect, or due to actual slowdown issues, I’m not entirely sure. I will say that the directional combat is pretty fantastic. As thugs surround you, you essentially link combos together by attacking whoever is closest to you, then tapping the analog stick toward whomever you want to attack next. That aspect is pretty fluid, and the animations and styles of attacks are neat, especially when Batman just throws an elbow back and stops someone dead in their tracks without even turning around, only to continue kicking the shit out of someone to his left or right. The only real downside is that sometimes it feels oddly sluggish. For someone who was trained by ninjas, you’d think he’d move a little bit faster.

Clearly, this is a pretty early demo, and it isn’t the story mode, so the overall feel will most likely be a bit different. I’m not entirely sure which system I’ll end up buying this game for, considering how enticing playing as the Joker is, but I will be buying it. I wasn’t blown away, but I also didn’t expect a Batman game to reinvent the wheel. I didn’t expect a Batman game to do anything but suck, really.

So far? Didn’t suck.