Batman:Arkham Asylum Demo first impressions

Posted by TWHR in Console, Featured, Microsoft, Previews, Sony | 1 comment

After the most dramatic of starts (My xbox red ringed) I logged into PSN and sucked Arkham Asylum and all its Unreal engine powered delights down to my 80 Gig and fired it up.

Being a massive fan of the 90’s animated series the warm needles that stood up on the back of my neck the first time Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil exchange some dialogue was a moment of pure nostalgia. Being the honourable man I am, I was very conscious going into the demo that the game would have to do a lot wrong to get any sort of a negative reaction from me so I decided to really put my inner fan boy aside and put the demo through the ringer.

Having played the demo about 12 times in the last 48 hrs the first thing that comes to mind is this, I didn’t want to stop, ever. Near the end of the Demo there is a large room with 5 armed enemies and numerous ways to take them out, it’s a joy. Hang upside, break through the glass ceiling, glide from perched gargoyles, come up from under the floor or the head on approach, no matter what way you decide to approach the task at hand the reward is in how the game seamlessly makes you feel 100% in control of the situation and more importantly makes you feel like the hero your playing as

When not using what Rocksteady call ‘’aggressive stealth gameplay’’ you will be attacking using a hand to hand combat system that at first seems too easy to create any real challenge but there isn’t enough in the Demo to make that call yet. Saying that, I personally loved the way the combat flowed and taking on the level 1 goon’s felt as easy as it should this early in the game.

The one thing you can take from the demo is that the game looks beautiful, there is something slightly Rapture esq. about Arkham island, the level of details showing off the developers love for the character and his world. False teeth chatter across the floors and Batman’s suite’s rips when it receives the required contact, Wayne enterprises branded equipment litter the rooms, Batman‘s cowl covering his eyes when in detective mode it all just , well, kind of rocks.

During my play trough’s I noticed three different area’s where Joker’s and Batman’s dialogue changes slightly when the player has to replay a section, all of this pointing towards Rocksteady’s commitment to have you come back for multiple play trough’s.

All in all I enjoyed the Demo, negatives would be the stiff Fallout 3-ness of character models during dialogue sequences and relative easiness of the first level, but to be honest that didn’t stop me wanting this game so much I went online and pre ordered my copy with free Batarang .

Arkham Asylum is released on the 28^thof this month.

Also how about a quick behind the scenes to cap of your weekend.