The demo came out last night for Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I was pretty excited. The game has been getting a lot of hype, and seemed to be a much more in-depth and realistic Batman game. Ive been looking forward to it, and was glad to see that the demo launched last night. I downloaded then, and woke up and played it this morning. I was not disappointed.
The game pretty much starts off as Batman delivers a captured Joker to Arkham Asylum. For those of you not familiar with Batman, Arkham is a mental institution for the criminally insane, and is where many of Batman’s foes are put away until they eventually escape. So Batman delivers Joker, but it turns out that Harley Quinn and the rest of Joker’s goons have already taken over the asylum, and it was actually all a trap to lure Batman there. Now Joker is holding Gordon and other cops hostage, and Batman must make his way through Arkham to reach Joker and put a stop to his plan.
The problem is that Batman is only one man, and Joker’s goons are armed with machine guns. This means that there is not as much direct combat. There are a few times in the demo when Batman gets surrounded by a bunch of unarmed men, and he has to do melee combat with them. The square button is the basic attack, and can be used to create combos of punches and kicks. The triangle button acts as the counter button, which is nifty when you are attacking one guy and another tries to sneak up behind you.
But as you progress through the level, the need to remain stealthy increases. Whether you are in a room with a bunch of guys with machine guns, or one guy holding a cop hostage, remaining unseen and attacking from behind are the keys. Batman can use a grappling hook to climb up to ledges, and from there he can wait for just the right moment to attack. He can silently drop down from a ledge, sneak up behind an enemy, and perform a silent takedown, where he basically chokes out the enemy. He can glide down and perform a kick from behind an enemy as well. Of course there is also the batarang, which can be used to take out opponents from a distance. One other move I came across was when I happened to be directly above a baddie. It was called an inverted takedown, and basically Batman uses his grappling hook to grab an opponent, haul him up, punch him, and then let him hang there silently. It was pretty sweet.
To navigate the rooms, you can hit L2 to activate “Detective Mode”. Similar to the senses mode in Wolverine, Detective Mode kind of reveals a room in a new light. Enemies are shown in red, and by looking in their direction you can tell what kind of weapon, if any, they are carrying. It will also highlight the areas you can grapple to. Most importantly, it will show you areas of importance. For example, if you are trapped in a room, using Detective Mode will help you find something of interest, like an air vent, which can be used to escape.
The demo is pretty short. Just the opening movie, a few short rooms showing off melee and “sneaky” combat, and then the demo ends as Croc comes charging at you. It was short, but did a great job at painting a picture of what the game was about. It is a very good Batman game, and I think I can say already it will be the best one ever made to date. The combat system really falls into line with how Batman is. Hes not a super hero, in the sense that he doesnt have super powers. Thus, he is mortal, and he has to play it safe when outgunned. The way you have to sneak around and attack silently from behind is very Batman-ish. Im really excited for checking the full game out at some point in time. If the demo looks this good, I cant wait to get my hands on the finished product.
