Batman: Arkham Asylum Demo Reviews

[LawnGnome]

What are your thoughts/impressions of the game having played the demo?

I thought the atmosphere, music, and voice acting were spot-on. I also really enjoyed all of the character bios and found the concept of "Detective Mode" interesting. Still, I highly doubt I will buy the game when it comes out. Gameplay was completely lacking, requiring little to no skill at all. Combat especially was dull due to the game using the tired Assassin's Creed - style formula of "make your character do awesome looking stuff by pressing the SAME button over and over". Too bad, as I have been jonesing for a good Batman game for a while now.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

This game has what appears to be depth in the story, with an interesting concept of Joker taking over the asylum. Bringing back the voice crew from the Batman series I grew up on is also a plus. Audio/visual-wise you have some really great textures and despite being a very linear demo, they explain why you are being shunted towards the different areas. I liked that you're not just brawling and the idea of using stealth (what? Batman use stealth...NEVER!!!) is a great concept. The simplistic fighting should be changed, or at least make the counters take a small amount of damage, or lessen the window for success. But it's a demo, you don't want to make it too hard and disuade the less "professional" gamers.

With tons of background material and Kevin Conroy voicing The Batman...I'll probably rent this, possibly buy.

 

[Yokiro]

The most pure joy of the demo that I had was swinging from gargoyle to gargoyle avoiding the inmates as I swooped down, kicked one in the face, proceeding to shoot back up only to stringing up the guy that came to investigate the near-murder, and then finally crashing through a glass ceiling to choke hold a fellow before hiding in and escaping through the grates. As Batman.
As for the story, I could probably take it or leave it. With all the quality films and comics to draw from, if the game was any less than what it seems it could be, the it would be somewhat of an ignorant shame on the part of the developers. Not a particular fan of throwing in every villain (or even superhero) in one fantastic group for the sole purpose of making fans happy and mildly exploiting the characters/weakening the kind of stories that did have and can have as individuals. (That complaint is for this game as well as the tons of comic books- all the Leagues, the Squadrons, the Forces - that do it, and end up feeling fairly lazy. Sort of like a new episode of the Simpsons that may have classic main or side characters in it, but the writers simply don't understand them or the reason why they were liked.) The fact that lines like, "Anywhere this madman goes, death is sure to follow." by now are fairly cliche and pointless, only further fed my concern with the writing, but what do they really need to write? "Get from point A through to point B (which stands for Boss Fight) with a ton of runts to fight past in between until you finally get to point C (Completion) and somehow probably fail to kill the Joker anyway." (Seriously a point of contention, Joker has escaped so often that even if ol' Bruce would have to feel bad all his for maybe going too far, he would have probably saved the lives of the, oh, about a dozen guards that are seen in even the short demo and the countless other innocent people of Gotham city in the long run. Just go Michael Keaton or destroyed train on his ass and just let the bastard die.)
Back to the demo review though, I'd give it a B+ or A- for sure. You didn't stick around long enough to get tired of the potentially repetitive combat, the voice acting is fairly top-notch, and, need it be reminded, you're bloody Batman!

 

[JCvgluvr]

My experience was fairly positive. Oddly enough, I'm getting Deja-vu from Assault on Dark Athena. Crawling thru grates? Stealth kills. Staying in the dark, playing cat and mouse? Yeah...I'm pretty sure I've done this before...The regular combat was disappointing as well, seeing as it's been done to death in other games. On the other hand, it all still works, and that's what's important. I liked trying to string up a crook, then trying to cut him down with a bataraang once the other goons tried to investigate.

Of course, the top-notch voice acting already boosts this game's potential. To me, Kevin Conray IS Batman. Likewise, Mark Hamill IS the Joker. It all just fits so well.

I'll probably rent this somewhere down the line...

 

[UghRochester]

My little review is in my blog.

 

[malakian]

Well aside from my second playthrough red-ringing my box, I have the collectors edition on preorder. I LOVED the demo and am totally psyched about the game.

BATARANG ACTION!

 

[Green_Lantern]

Well aside from my second playthrough red-ringing my box, I have the collectors edition on preorder. I LOVED the demo and am totally psyched about the game.

BATARANG ACTION!

This is kinda how I feel about it, but I didn't preorder it and it didn't kill my Xbox.

 

[UghRochester]

I have the collectors edition on preorder. I LOVED the demo and am totally psyched about the game.

BATARANG ACTION!

Gotta love collectors edition, I reserved mine in may or april sometime. I saw GameStop's site and now they weren't advertising the collectors edition, Links or Letusprey why is that?

You going to the midnight launch Mala?

 

[KoalaRainbowPoop]

if i had one gripe with this game, it'd be all the gargoyles placed INSIDE the asylum and how they all look the same. lazy coding anyone? he's BATMAN for gods sake. i think his grapple should be able to snatch on to more than a oddly perfectly placed gargoyle.

 

[Chris_Crime]

+ Superb voice acting
+ spot on Gotham City atmosphere (for an asylum)
+ lots of extras it seems

- a fighting system that'll turn even your kid sister into The Batman (all that was missing was a flailing wii-mote)
- very little depth in gameplay; cheap hot spots abound.. actually, it was all hot spots [it's the demo so I should let this one pass, but I have a feeling the full version will be the same]


+ / - isn't the Unreal Engine played out by now? well maybe after now, please?
+ / - going in and out of Detective Mode in rapid succession will literally blind you - cool! [seriously cool]

? Batman crawling through an air vent.

grade B - (for the demo)
I could see the 'Hard' setting being insanely hard in this type of game because of how cheap the AI would become. Overall, playing as the Batman felt too clunky to ever get into a good rhythm, and when it didn't feel clunky and heavy it just felt cheap.
And Batman's lack of mobility was instantly distressing. Felt like I was controlling Haggar from the Final Fight series and not the Caped Crusader.. no offense to Mike Haggar because at least he could jump.

This game did make me want to warm up my NES Batman though.
NES Batman grade B +

 

[KILLERB00TSMAN]

I was obsessing over the demo a lot, and my sister caught on and bought me it for my birthday.
If I get my stuff together I might even write a review for it. But for now, all I got is an "Unboxing video" =P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8mmgWnQxWo