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Games featuring familiar and iconic comic book characters typically are terrible, mainly because they’re linked to a movie. The most recent Wolverine game slipped out of this trap primarily because it only became a movie tie-in mid-way through development. Batman: Arkham Asylum, from Rocksteady studios, is completely free from a movie tie-in despite last year’s stellar Dark Knight movie and the media to date have had me optimistic, but cautiously so. The game couldn’t feel as cool as the videos made it look. Something would go wrong along the way, and maybe it would be good but not great.

Today the demo has hit the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live. I took the PS3 version for a spin and if the final game is like this, Batman fans of any kind are in for a treat.

Gameplay
The videos to date have focused on two aspects of gameplay. The first is brawling with a peppering of counters and a cinematic finisher or two when a fight is over. The second is the stealth mode where Batman uses the old gargoyles and other architecture of Arkham to flit about the larger rooms and take out enemies as best he can. Defeating enemies or eliminating problems with a batarang nets Batsy some bat points of some kind. I’m not sure if they can be spent on something or not.

Brawling does indeed feature the cinematic slowdown at certain points of a combo that I’d seen in previous videos of the game and it works to enhance the combat. I’d worried that was just a marketing gimmick before but the demo proves that it’s in the game and since it’s entirely a single-player affair it works very nicely.

Graphics and Sound
I’m very surprised at how nice everything looks in the demo, although I will admit the videos on GameTrailers showing the Xbox 360 version do seem to look a bit cleaner. As an Unreal Engine game you’d expect some strangeness and texture issues here and there but the areas you play through look great and show excellent detail. The detective mode is a heads-up display that Batman’s cowl gives him to highlight grapple-able structures and clearly marks the orientation and heart rate of regular enemies below and whether they are armed or not. Detective mode also will highlight breakable items and other aspects of your environment. Faces of ordinary folks not in cowls or bearing huge grins and crazy amounts of makeup do seem to look a bit off as you’d expect in other games, but it doesn’t come across as a problem.

The brawling sounds, the voices of the enemies, Batman’s voice, and the Joker’s voice are all excellent. Even Harley Quinn sounds great. All of Batman’s wonderful toys — you use the grapple and the batarangs in the demo — also sound believable.

Story
So how does Batman get locked in the Asylum? It’s a quick and easy setup and it works very well as a comic book introduction. The demo abbreviates the introduction that’s hinted at in a cinematic you see when you’re finished with it, but the gist of it is that Batman has captured the Joker and is returning him to Arkham. He does turn him in, and Joker enters Arkham, which quickly comes under his control. It’s up to Batman to enter the lion’s den and, I imagine, subdue the population of Arkham as best he can, and bring the Joker out.

The mood of the game perfectly fits my own non-comic-book-reading knowledge of Batman, and having what sounds like the voice actor from the most recent TV series I’d seen definitely boosts its authenticity.

Content and Conclusion
The demo runs you through some brawling and tours a few major tactics of stealth gameplay in what generally amounts to a meaty offering of what I would expect will be in the final game. One thing it stops short of is a boss fight, but the video preview at the end shows you some of what you’re in for.

All in all the brawling is satisfying, the stealth gameplay is fun and keeps you from charging into harm’s way, the main character voices are excellent, and the story holds together very well. Get the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum. It has bumped it up higher on my list of game releases to keep an eye on, and it’s put all of my concerns about the game I could think of to rest.