Demo: Batman, Arkham Asylam

I just got my copy of the 1.5GB demo on my X360 and was eager to get started. Although it was only a 15-30 mins demo, Arkham Asylum already got me hooked.

First you will be presented by the dark opening, of Batman delivering the Joker to Arkham. It was night and raining, a perfect sinister setting. Trailer looked very 'batman' like, if you actually watched the movies and the animated series, so off the bat, the game step on the right direction.

After a series of events, you will be immediately thrown into unarmed combat. The combat mechanics are very fluid; you can feel each punch or kick you deliver to the opponent. Every end of an attack chain will end in bullet time, creating a cinematic effect, although I personally feel they abused it. The targeting system is very much alike to Prince of Persia series: you can attack a target halfway, and continue the chain to another target.

Soon, we go into the puzzle part of the game. The demo introduces the "Detective Mode" mechanic. It is much like Assassin's Creed's Eagle vision, but it is littered with cool effects and information, like the target's heart rate and whether he is armed with firearms. Oh it even lets you look through walls. With so much information, I was afraid I would end up playing the whole game in detective mode.

And finally you have batman's stealth attacks. There are various ways of sneak attacking a target. One is the classic melee 'sneak up from behind' takedown. There are various ways of subduing an enemy like using the bat-a-rang (boomerang thing), (homing) glide kick from above, takedown throw a glass ceiling at the top, etc.

Oh before I forget, there are people online that gripe about the graphics. However most of the opinions are based on their own personal feelings. For me, the graphics are probably on the level of Gears of War 2, though I can't say it's 100% the same.

Anyway, that's all for the demo. Hopefully what I've tried here in the demo isn't 80% of the gameplay. If it is, then the rest of the game will end up being boring and repetitive (*cough* Assassin's Creed *cough* ).