[geggis]

I've just finished the demo and was a little underwhelmed in places and quite impressed in others. Bearing in mind I don't follow game news/previews so it's the first I've seen/heard/played of it. Ever.

The thing that irks me the most is the 'digital' style of gameplay where a single button press can carry out a series of actions as opposed to individually applying them yourself. Instead of just taking control away I'd like to see a set of small 'analogue' interactions that add up to a larger emergent 'event' like in Bioshock or Dark Messiah. If there are enough of these 'digital' interactions then things may get quite interesting later but it feels like a cheap and albeit effective way of making players feel 'cool'.

I don't like the way all the barrel chested nutters are practically identical either. The AI is fun but the enemies suffer from a mild form of MGSSED (Metal Gear Solid Shit Eyesight Disorder). If the ceilings/tops of rooms were made significantly darker and higher, and Batman's actions weren't quite as noisy I'd be able to suspend my disbelief a little more but as it stands it seems too dumb even for a comic book adaptation.

On the plus side, the graphics are suitably stylised and the voice work seems great overall, particularly the Joker who made me laugh out loud. I loved his remarks to his henchmen over the tannoy, very amusing. I also didn't know Mark Hamill did his voice, no surprise either - he's a great voice actor. The Bio section and character gallery are interesting, though I'm not sure sure about the collecting of their 'Trophies' but then again I hate obligatory trophies ie. most of them.

I'll also be very interested to see how the detective mode pans out. Overall I had fun, let's see how it goes on release!