If you’re a console gamer then you’ve been rocking the Batman action for almost three weeks already, but for the humble PC gamer this game only came out on the 15th, and I’ve only had it since yesterday 
*****Please note, the initial several paragraphs is a rant about GFWL, if you wish to skip straight to the stuff about the game itself, scroll down to “Anyway, I digress, on to the game”, thanks.*****
Generally speaking when one acquires a new game one wishes to play it as soon as possible, PC gamers are used to the installation period by now – Batman is quite a long install, maybe 10-15 mins on my system. So I’m all pumped up, ready to play, the game is starting up and…. I can’t play, the Games For Windows Live overlay pops up and tells me “update or sign out” so I choose update, after all, who wants to play a game that might be bug riddled poop without this update?
In my experience the following appears to be an issue with all titles that distribute patches via GFWL – a progress bar appears and fills up almost immediately, it then appears to hang there for what feels like an age – leave it long enough and it eventually does install the patch, but because you’re left with an apparently frozen screen for an hour (and yes, I do believe it took an hour to download a 266MB patch) doubts begin to encroach upon your mind and after 15 minutes you’re starting to thing “maybe it is really frozen?” .
GFWL is a shit system, I wish developers would recognise that and stay the fuck away. it’s ugly, it’s slow and it’s restrictive to the actual gamers. Case in point, Eidos are giving away free DLC for the game, but because they’re distributing it through GFWL only paid “Gold” members will get it initially and everyone else has to “wait a few days” – they won’t even tell us how long we have to wait, which is bull crap, it’s a case of MS using other developers content to make their ridiculous Gold member system look more valuable – and on PC it’s worth precisely nothing. What really ground my gears about this one was the explanation given on the Eidos forums by a staff member jaycw2309:
“This is not something Eidos controls, this is MS servers and systems.”
Well, bullshit. Eidos controlled it at the point they decided to use GFWL to distribute content and patches. Had they decided to use their own server and systems or even distribute it via a 3rd party means like freakin bittorrent then everyone of Eidos customers would be equal.
Anyway, I digress, on to the game.
It’s freakin Awesome. This game has been hyped like a mother fucker for most of the year, if not longer so you’ve got to sort of approach this with a sceptical eye, however Eidos/Rocksteady did the absolutely 100% correct thing by releasing a demo of the game several weeks before the original August release date for the game. Jaws dropped, pants were jizzed in, and fanboys cried tears of joy. I can’t remember the last time I pre-ordered a game, but I pre-ordered this (the £17.95 pre-order price at Zavvi helped 
Likey
I Am The Batman
You get to be Batman, the character model is great, the voice acting is great, the abilities and gadgets are great, the sound affects are great, everything about the game screams Batman – this is what Batman fans have been waiting 20+ years of shitty shitty Batman games for – one that makes you look and feel like Batman and feel cool doing it.
Arkham Asylum
The Asylum covers an entire island so there’s a lot to do and see here, one thing that surprised me was the outdoor locations, maybe it’s my ignorance of Batman cannon, or maybe it’s a liberty the game devs took, but I had always thought of the Asylum as a single structure – I’m sure it has been portrayed that way in the past, but it doesn’t really matter. Most of the buildings are pretty old and worn looking, very dark and Batman-ish, and the island appears to be riddled with a network of caves and hollows for Batman to explore. The story is fairly linear, but there is plenty of exploring to be done in the vast areas in the game, and as you progress previously inaccessible areas become available to you as you expand your abilities and as the Joker leads you around by the nose
The Riddler
The game is littered with puzzles, collectibles and other secrets and tasks all left by The Riddler to prove that he’s Batman’s intellectual superior. Finding/Solving thigs grants Bats more information and bonuses about the Batman universe (primarily its characters) and earns you experience to put towards new abilities.
Invisible Predator
Batman doesn’t have any super powers, he’s vulnerable to gun fire, therefore he strikes from the shadows, taking out enemies without being discovered. This is one of the most fun parts of the game. The A.I. in Batman doesn’t have set scripts, they patrol however they feel, and if they notice a dead or unconscious buddy they’ll move accordingly , they might even get scared and clump together for a while – so it’s all about identifying the places where you can attack without attracting the attention of the others, or employing distractionary tactics to lure some guards away while you pick off others. It’s quite a mental process and very very fun.
Combat
The devs call it a “Free-flow combat system” it’s awfully reminiscent of the modern Prince of Persia titles for me, but that’s not a bad thing – in fact the combat here is amazing. Basic combos are strung together by timed presses of the attack button while using your movement to direct just who gets the kicking, you can counter flagged attacks too and after a certain number of hits Batman can fit in special moves and take-downs earned through upgrades. Just like PoP combat tends to be a gang affair, so you have plenty of opportunities to string together massive combos. The animations for the combat are also excellent, the game slows right down on particularly impressive/crippling moves which looks awesome.
Upgrade
There is an upgrade system in place, this allows you to gain and improve skills as you progress, basically making you more awesome as you go. “experience” is gained a variety of ways, defeating enemies, performing long combos, solving Riddler puzzles, so there’s plenty of opportunities to upgrade.
No Likey
Combat Camera
Generally you’re given free reign of the camera control, but during combat this is often wrested from you in favour of computer control, sometimes this will obscure some enemies from view and result in you missing a counter move, which is pretty annoying.
Hold X to Run
Yeah, you have to hold a button to run. I noticed this during the demo and found it slightly strange/annoying, then I watched the Zero Punctuation review and Yahtzee mentioned it – and now I can’t help but notice it. I sort of get the point, you are supposed to analyse the surroundings and work out where to go and where Riddlers secrets are etc, but still, as Yahtzee points out in his review, the analogue stick is analogue for a reason, the further you push it, the faster you move, so the run button feels a bit extraneous.
The Save System
The game is pure auto-save, you can’t just save when you want to finish up, and to be perfectly honest this is an unacceptable situation in today's world. I should be able to save when I’m ready to quit, not when the game says so. To make matters worse the save symbol is a fairly missable appearing as a small (5 pence sized) circling thingy in the bottom right corner of the screen, which generally means you don’t know when the last time the game saved was and have to keep pressing on until it decides it’s time to save again.
The in-game Menu System
The only way to access the map, your riddle status, your upgrade page and the character profiles is via the select button, you then use the right and left bumpers to switch between the four. This’d be fine except it’s so frustratingly slow, each tap of a bumper causes a swarm of bats to swoop over the screen before you get to the screen you want, it’s all rather over dramatic and really I just want the functionality rather than the style. Another irritation is that navigating through options requires a separate tap of the analogue stick per option, I’d like to scroll quickly from one end to the other ta guys, you know, if I want to upgrade my explosive gel I shouldn’t need to tap my analogue stick 15 times to get there.
Conclusions
So, yeah, as you can see there isn’t a lot to complain about, the game is awesome and you should buy it now.
Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, freedoms_stain! I mean Batman!
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