The day started off with Rocksteady Game Director Sefton Hill introducing us to the game, explaining how Batman was returning the Joker to the Asylum but was in fact walking into a trap. Soon things take a turn for the worst for Batman and he finds himself having to escape from the Asylum and having to rescue many hostages on the way.

 

 

Now many superhero games have you going in all powers blazing and taking out as many enemies as possible, however it was noticeable from the walkthrough and from our short hands on time that this game has you play Batman as he is portrayed in the movies and comic books. You see to run in and face all of the enemies here would be suicide, instead in Arkham Asylum, Batman does what he does best, using a mixture of stealth and his skills to take out the enemies. One such example of this was when he was trying to rescue a doctor and some hostages, here he was jumping from one Gargoyle statue to another high in the air and using his detection vision (which allows you to see through walls and also shows the heat emanating from the enemies) he was able to wait until they were out of sight and then pick them off in various ways such as by using his Batarang or by using his glide attack. It was great to see the action take place in this way as it not only looked realistic but also showed how much thought has went into the game.

 

It’s not all stealth though as there are times when you will just need to beat the enemies to a pulp and here you can again see the thought that has went into the game. Fighting as Batman really is fighting as Batman, the way he moves, counters and attacks feels so real, it’s very impressive stuff. Batman also has plenty of gadgets to help him through the levels, such as a spray which helps you blast through walls, which is especially handy when enemies are standing behind them as it allows you to knock them out at the same time.

 

So from first impressions I have to say that the single player campaign looks good and I really can’t wait to get some real hands on with it.

 

The only other part of the game I managed to get hands on with was a level from the challenge room, here you are tasked with taking out waves of enemies in order to achieve a high score, which will then be uploaded to the games online leaderboards, this area of the game was decent fun, however I would be more interested in seeing what else the game has to offer online.

 

 

Once we had been shown through the level Sefton was then asked some general questions which threw up some interesting information, for one we now know that The Jokers character is an exclusive deal signed with Sony, therefore this character will only ever be playable on the PS3, we also found out that the games single player campaign is roughly 12 hours long, and even more if you fancy collecting the 240 items spread throughout the game. There are also plans to have downloadable content for both systems and finally we found out that there are 47 achievements/trophies to be unlocked.

 

At the end of the day we all walked away pretty impressed by what we had seen, this is a game that has been in development for at least two years, has voice acting by a cast that includes Mark Hamil and a script by Batman writer Paul Dini and believe me when I say it shows. Batman Arkham Asylum really is shaping up to be one of the best comic/movie based games around and in our opinion it’s already a success even before it hits the stores.