Arkham Asylum is destined to be Batman's best game ever (though it doesn't have competition). As many have already brought up, Arkham Asylum isn't tied down by any movie tie in deals, the this one's freed up to explore much more interesting territory, and boy is it interesting.
In all the years I've seen Batman, Arkham has always been a mysterious area to me. Bad guys go there, do hard time, and eventually escape so Bats can throw'em back in. This time around, you, as Batman, will be spending a lot of quality time in Arkham Asylum with it's psychopathic inmates running around as they like.
The demo took me through three elements that Arkham Asylum is going to blend into gameplay. Combat, puzzle work, and stealth. Combat-wise, Batman borrows liberally from the mechanics at work in Prince of Persia (Sands of Time anyways). You have a basic attack button, counters, and a cape stun along with a dodging. When surrounded (and you will be surrounded) you simply push in the direction you want to go while attacking and Batman will fluidly sock the enemy in that direction. You can easily build up impressive looking combos beating down one thug then suddenly sending a flying dropkick to the dude behind you. You'll usually find yourself in combat like this one Batman is forced to walk into an area with thugs already out and about.
The puzzle as I called it, is more of a problem solving situation. A security guard is being held hostage by a psychopath and it's my job to take him down in one swift move without being noticed. With detective vision, built into Batman's cowl, all of Batman's detective work is boiled down to a special x-ray vision that gives you all the info you need. With it, I was able to spot the gargoyles near the ceiling and grapple from one to the other until I was in a prime position to drop on the would-be killers head. Detective vision looks like it'll be awesome to play with on, if the next scenario is anything to see.
The stealth element is presented as a group of enemies on patrol armed with assault rifles which will cut through Batman pretty easily. With detective vision and some (thankfully) quick crouch walking, I was able to silently takedown two enemies with no trouble. Next, I grappled to a gargoyle and hang down to sleeper hold an enemy walking by. He doesn't go quietly, but it works to my advantage. The last two enemies see his body dangling from my cable and detective vision lets me see their heart rate and how they're obviously nervous. From the shadows, I could hear them panic and throw around questions like what they should do (I threw a batarang to cut the cable suspending the body, just to freak them out more).
This stealth gameplay will by far be the one to yield the most interesting gameplay. This predator stalking his prey mindset really lets you feel like Batman picking off the henchman in the classic 90s cartoon. I even found myself swooping down right in front of the last bad guy going, "Boo!" shortly before knocking him out with a 3 hit combo.
The demo ends there, leaving you with the prospect of a boss fight with some sort of mutated inmate the Joker personally sicks on you, but the demo pretty much got me interested in having a longer at the retail version.
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