Okay, just finished playing the demo and I have to say I was very impressed. I’m a huge fan of the Dark Knight and this seemed better than I’d dared hope.
First the few negatives. The length of the demo…
It is very short, but I got what they were going for. We got a taste of the “free flow” combat, which I liked, (more on that in a minute), and the stealth combat, along with a short segment where we’re supposed to utilize the “detective mode”, (finding the grating after taking out Zsasz). That seems to cover the three main modes of gameplay and I thought it did so very well.
And the voice acting for Gordon. It’s obviously not Bob Hastings and I thought the voice they chose had a little too much “tough cop”, and not enough “replacement father figure”. For Gordon it’s important to balance the two.
And the positives, of which there were many…
First of all the atmosphere seems to be nearly perfect. It nails the Batman mythos spot on, with darkness and grittiness, combined with just a pinch of over the top superheroics. Of course the inclusion of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill helps this a great deal and I thought the voice acting was great with the exception of Gordon. Even Harley sounds perfect to me as it sounds just like Arleen Sorkin, though I’m not sure if it is, in fact, her or not. (It sure sounds like it though…)
About the combat, I understand where people are coming from about the controls feeling “off”, but this just seems right to me. Batman is not an agile character, he’s fast and brutal and I thought the controls reflected this more than adequately. I didn’t need to actually have Batman facing in particular directions to fight his enemies, I simply needed to be aware of where they were they were at relatively speaking. A quick strike was a straight punch or kick if they were in front, and back fist or a back kick if they were behind. It feels like context sensitive animations will be a big part of the combat in the game, along with timing “takedowns” and counters.
The stealth combat later on was phenomenal, (when you have to take out the 5 or 6 armed thugs), and very intuitive. Batman should be pretty much helpless against an enemy with an assault rifle. They have to be dealt with quickly, or from an advantageous position. The first time I did that section I let the first thug go and grappled up on one of the gargoyles. Trying to glide kick five enemies got me into trouble real quick. The second time I tried it I took out the first thug with a “stealth takedown” before he reached the staircase, (right after the Joker finished his speech), and grappled the nearest gargoyle again. From there I hung down from the perch and used an “inverted takedown” to remove the second thug. After that the other three were spaced far enough apart to glide kick and remove them from the room before their friends could respond. It felt very tactical to me personally.
The presentation was incredible. Cubsfan asked about the graphics and, frankly, I thought they were some of the best I’ve seen this console generation outside of a tech demo. Detailed and high resolution, with no slowdown. But it isn’t just the technical side of things, the art design and music were really good to. It’s like they’ve cherry picked the best parts of the comics, the animated series and the Nolan movies and combined them into one package.
I know I’m gushing, but it really feels we may be getting the definitive Batman game at long last. For hardcore Batman fans, like myself, this seems to be a no brainer. For general gamers this merits a rental at least. I think the developers might have something very special here, and I know I was really trying to temper my expectations for a long time. The demo has laid a lot of my fears to rest. The final version might still be a disappointingly short game, but that seems to a very minor criticism at this point.
In short, I liked it. 
