Holey rusted metal Batman!
I was fairly impressed with this game right from the start. The first thing you notice are the pretty sharp graphics boasted in the game. What impressed me though right toward the start was the seemless transition from cutscene to gameplay. I mean you know they've done a good job when you can't even tell the transition has occurred. After the opening cutscene you drop right into control of batman, I was unaware of the fact that I had gained control of batman and was standing there thinking to myself, "man this cut scene is long, why's he just standing here?" Then I moved the stick and realized the cut scene had ended about two minutes ago and I could've been on with it; the transition was that good.
I've played for a few hours and have completed 10% of the game so far, according to the game mechanic that tracks it anyway. The combat is pretty enjoyable, never gets old taking a batarang to some chumps head. The more engrossing fights are the predator combat encounters. Typically a group of thugs enters the enviroment and you have to use your cunning as a predator to take them down one by one. These are the instances where the bad guys are armed so charging in and taking them all on is suicide. You have to be cautious and quick because noisy take downs quickly draw the attention of the other sentries. It's weird how the game forces you to think like batman but it doesn't seem like a burden. Once you obtain the explosive gel the trap setting gets even more fun.
I do wish the melee combat was a little more indepth. So far you can get by with mostly just button mashing and simple counters. For the most part there's one attack button, there's also a stun attack but you don't really need that too much unless your reaction time is horrible. Though from what I understand the enemies get more challenging later in the game so this may not really be a valid assumption.
All in all though so far the game is great fun, it also has tons of easter eggs in the form of various riddles and trophies for you to solve and find. Scouring for these alone can keep you occupied for hours. Some are very straight forward, others require a bit of thought.