Batman Arkham Asylum Demo Preview

This is the part where you take down Zsasz

I'm going to start doing previews on my blog, where I play the demo and write about it here. Here's the Batman Demo Preview.

The first thing that you notice when you start up the demo is the graphics. They are some of the best graphics I've seen on the PS3, and could be almost as good as Gran Turismo, depending on your opinion. The whole comic book feel mixed with the darkness and despair of arkham asylum really bring this game to life, and gives it the "Batman" feel you'd want from a Batman game. 

The first thing your supposed to do is fight some joker henchmen. The combat is smooth and incredibly awesome, but it is simplistic. Square is punch, triangle is counterattack, and circle is stun. You also get a baterang that can stun, but its not very useful in hand-to-hand combat. Thats about all you get. I'm not sure if you get more attacks in the real game (I actually think you do), but even still the combat is really fun. Batman animates great, as do the enemies. Everything just looks cool.

After that part, you go and fight some more guys talk to a prison guard, and get into this room. Zsasz (One of batman scariest enemies in my opinion) has a guard strapped in an electric chair. If he "see's anything that looks like a bat", he'll kill the gaurd. This is where the stealth (Batman: AA strongest point) comes in. You have to swing from gargoyle to gargoyle unseen, and when you get a good moment, do land a kick strike on unsuspecting Zsasz, knocking him cold.

You then have to find a way out, and you find an air vent. Once you go through, you go into this room where the guards can't see you, and you can't see the henchmen...yet. You get to use detective mode to see through walls and also see the status of each henchman (calm, nervous, terrified, unconscious, etc.). This is vital later, but for now its just a cool feature. You go on the gargoyles unseen, come up from behind, and to silent sneak attacks on the henchmen. This is really fun to just come up from behind and take them out unseen. This is the best stealth in a game I've ever seen.

After doing this a couple times, you get to the final room, which is considerably larger than the other rooms. This is where planning and strategy, stealth, and action are at their best. This part can take 5 minutes are 20 minutes, depending on your strategy and also the amazing A.I. that is different each time you play. There are plenty of attacks at this part, unlike hand-to-hand combat, and they all depend on where you are. If you're on top of a gargoyle, then you get grab somebody upside down and knock them out. If you can get behind one of the henchman, you can do a silent takedown. If you're on top of glass, you can you a takedown as well. A good strategy that I find is to scare the other henchmen by doing a loud takedown and escaping, so they are scared and easier to target. This is my favorite part of the demo, and I've played this one part tons of times already.

I am really excited about this game. No doubt about it. I'm sure this game will be one of my favorites, and I can't wait till Tuesday to pick it up.