Demo's: Batman Arkham Asylum vs Alone in the Dark

Normally I take a demo for what it is, its a little version of the game that developers will hope make you want to buy the full game. Very rarely will a demo blow my mind, OMG!, I have to buy this now.

So last night I played 2 demos and each had the opposite effect on me. First I played the new Batman, Arkham Asylum demo. This game, I was probable going to pick up anyway, because I am a Batman fan and its not based off a movie and rushed out the door. My banker (if your reading this) told me that he got his hands on a early demo version of this and said that it wasn't great at all. Just an old mash button fighter. So I was very skeptical about the demo.

But, I"m sorry, I have to disagree". I loved the demo. I agree there arn't a ton of combos and there's one button for punching. But I do enjoy the counters and slides and cape whips. The grappling around the ceiling while bad guys freak out and look for you. Detective mode which shows all the stats of the enemies, nervous, calm, and my favorite, DEAD. Hanging upside down and grabbing guys and wrapping them up, it all felt very natural and fun.


I"m thinking we didn't play the same demo of the Batman game, cause I really enjoyed what I played. So much so, that this is one of the few, very few demos that sealed the deal and made me go, "I GOT to get this now". It was super fun, I loved the character cards, the 3D models section. I was really surprised, good surprised. I can't wait for this game now, even more than Marvel Alliance 2.

The second demo I played was Alone in the Dark. I know this game is old and got horrible reviews. But it was one of those games that always made me go, "Is it really that bad?!"
Plus I read a article saying that the PS3 version fixed alot of the bugs, camera issues, the batteries in the flash lite, new level, etc. It made it sound has if its the savior for this game.

And its super cheap at the stores, so I thought, maybe the demo will show me whats going on. If its bearable than I will pick it up. Good God, were they right about everything wrong in this game. If they fixed the camera, then I hate to see what it was like before. And getting batteries for the flash lite. Really, there's no inventory space to begin with, let alone filling up your pockets with batteries.

Its not just the camera, nothing feels smoothed out, the controls, how he moves, just feels clunky. And after just playing batman where I picked it for the first time and the controls were smooth. This was just horrible, going in and out of first person and 3rd person is just hectic in the heat of battle.Getting stuck in a corner, trying to turn and run, selecting a item to use, shooting. It all seemed/felt like shit, I couldn't believe how bad it was. The blinking thing in First person view, you have to blink to clear your eyes, that's just annoying!


I did like everything about the premise of the game. Grab this and combine with this to make that, dragging bodies into fires, the swinging weapons was cool, but again, super hard to control to be effective. The beginnings is there for a great game, they just put the steering wheel in the trunk and gave you a spoon to steer with.

So needless to say, after this demo, I WON'T be picking up this game, no matter how cheap it gets. I can't take the controls, if you want to get a sensation of this game. Put in your favourite game and sit in a swivel chair and spin around and have someone tug on your arms while you try and play it.

So, BATMAN-GOOD, ALONE IN THE DARK-BAD