Batman: Arkham Asylum - First Impressions

Well, I just got Batman: Arkham Asylum on Monday, and all I can say is that this is one of the best action hero game I've played. I'm not a Batman fan (not a comic nerd) so the fact it's Batman wasn't what really drew me into getting the game. What drew me into getting the game was all the reviews and videos I've been finding all over the net.

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So is Batman: Arkham Asylum that good? Well, currently I only completed 4% of the game and so far it's been exhilarating. The game is by no means easy and has a pretty good difficulty to it even on Normal which is great. Give me about 12 - 14 hours and I should be able to beat this fantastic game. The visuals are absolutely stunning considering that it's running the Unreal Engine 3.5. Although, I'm no big fan of the engine due to the fact that I find it horrid to tweak on the PC. However, I was able to run the game in stunning DirectX 10 on my Radeon HD 4850 which is a plus over the console versions.

However, from my first impressions, the game works better with a controller. Currently, I'm waiting to get my hands on an XBOX 360 Controller for Windows so I can just plug it in and play since the game is a Games for Windows LIVE game anyways so it tends to have XBOX 360 controller support. The reason why controller feels nice is because the fact that the game was created with the controller in mind and the keyboard/mouse is an afterthought. This isn't to say that the controls are clunky but it just works better with a controller. Plus, I don't think I want to wreck my mouse since all the attack and counterattack moves are mapped to left click and right click (respectively). Thus, I think it's better to just get a controller.

Speaking about it being a Games for Windows LIVE game, a great functionality I love about it is the fact that I can use my XBOX Live gamertag to communicate with my friends on the XBOX 360. You can host private chats across platforms and earn achievements which is always a plus. In addition to that, I put STEAM overlay on top of it so I get to access the STEAM and the LIVE community all at the same time which is a major plus. The only issue I have is the fact that you need to sign into XBOX Live in order to save your game which gets a little annoying. At least there's auto sign-in which makes the process transparent.

So far the game's great, so I'll finish the game and will post a review for the game when I finish =)!