To be Batman in Batman Arkham City

A quick review of the 15 minute free demo of Batman Arkham City.

I never had the chance to play Batman Arkham City when it released, so I played the 15 minute demo on Steam and recorded it. I'm not a huge fan of single player games on computer mostly because I get on my computer to play multiplayer games.

Story Aspect

I don't know if you start the demo at just a random point in the game, or if you are actually starting at the beginning. The demo doesn't really explain what point of the story you are in. I can't really judge the game based on that alone, but it is a bit off as far as an intro to the story. When you start the demo, it drops you on top of a building with the goal to rescue Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, from Two-Face Harvey Dent. Your mission is to find out what Catwoman knows about what is going on in Arkham City, so it would be bad if Dent killed her. You also run in to Harley Quinn in the demo, and, man, her voice annoying in this game. Other than that there isn't much in the way of story in the demo, granted it is only 15 minutes long so that is to be expected.

Gameplay Aspects

Roaming

As I said, you start on a roof in the city and you have to travel a short distance to get to the court house. You can accomplish this several ways, you can drop down to the road and fight your way there, glide most of the way, or you could utilize your grappling hook for part of it. In the video I utilized the gliding method, because honestly that is the most awesome-looking method. To glide you just have to hold the space bar after going off the ledge, so it's really simple to control.

Combat

I really wasn't a fan of the combat system for the PC version of Arkham City. The combat is done by spamming left click, countering with right click, dodging with space bar, and using the grappling hook with the F button. Timing is thrown off by searching for the F button so the court room battle was a bit difficult, since you had to grapple up to the upper floor to kill the guy with the gun. The combat is why I gave this game a 7 out of 10; if I already dislike it in demo form with only 4 inputs then I can't see being able to get into it in a more in-depth situation.

Certain games aren't for everyone, if you enjoyed the Steam version let me know below. Also, don't forget to check out this and other free Steam demos to find games that you might enjoy playing. As always thanks, for reading.

Our Rating
7
A quick review of the 15 minute free demo of Batman Arkham City.

Featured Columnist

Currently an unpublished author working on multiple full length novels 3 of which being a 3 part trilogy. Also an avid video game player with a penchant for MMOs.

Published Aug. 13th 2013
  • Vijemo Media
    Contributor
    I'll agree with you on that, Using the Keyboard just doesn't feel right for most games ( <- Opinion). I do use my 360 controller for most of my gaming, so it's not really a personal hassle, although I do see where you're coming from.
  • Pierre Fouquet
    Featured Correspondent
    7 for the demo, fair enough. Add 3.5 for the full game. Being Batman makes it go over 10...hehe :D
  • GabrielKross
    Featured Columnist
    I don't know, I'm really not a fan of the computer version's combat. If I could program it to use a controllerthen it wouldnt be so bad.
  • Pierre Fouquet
    Featured Correspondent
    Xbox wirecontroler, get a program called Xbox Accessories for Windows, or something along those lines, done. :D
  • GabrielKross
    Featured Columnist
    lol why so complicated? T_T
  • Pierre Fouquet
    Featured Correspondent
    Easier than Xpadder...or PS3 controllers. And you get the prompts for an Xbox controller.
  • GabrielKross
    Featured Columnist
    I don't bother with going the extra effort of downloading programs to run games.

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