I was shocked when I read the reviews. Very low scores. I had it pre-ordered, so I got stuck with it I thought. But I've been playing this game now for quite a few hours and I absolutely love it. No, it's not the free roaming game that its bigger brothers are, but it is still fun to play. It gave me sort of an Arkham Asylum vibe. You travel between 3 parts of Blackgate prison, 4 if you count the Lighthouse to find clues to crimes, upgrades to your equipment, finding Joker's teeth etc. and of course freeing civilians and hunting down the bad guys. The only catch here is that it's not in 3D, but in 2,5D.
2,5D because you can move into the back ground or foreground of certain areas. And sometimes you walk around corners after which the camera swoops around to show you the side scrolling perspective again. The 2,5D is done very nicely I must say. The combat is still pretty cool, although being able to move in all directions as you are able to on the consoles is a lot cooler of course. The 'stealthier' predator mode bits are a little underwhelming though, because you only have so many places to go in a side scrolling environment, although you can swing to and from hiding places (think Gargoyles, although they are not Gargoyles in this game, more sort of plank like ornaments) in the front and back of the screen it still looks strange when you come out of an airduct in full view (at least that's what it looks like) of an enemy and nothing happens.
The exploration bits have not frustrated me yet, most of the time when I was wondering where to go next, I checked the map and found out that I actually had to visit another part of the prison or I simply retraced my steps only to find out I didn't go into a certain airduct, or through a certain door or hatch when I though I did. The map is not the most convenient, but once you sort of learn to work out how it functions it already becomes a lot easier top navigate. The map never rotates, so sometimes you move left, right, around a corner or back and it may become confusing. The map may show an airvent, but from where you're standing you don't see it even though you are right on top of it. In these cases it's never really very hard to figure out where to go to get to it, unless you have not been paying any attention to your surroundings while moving through them.
As a Metroidvania clone it also works quite well. You first start out with just the basic batarang and a standard Cryptographic Sequencer, but you will soon find the Batclaw, the Line Launcher, new versions of the Cryptographic Sequencer and Batarang and Explosive Gel which opens up routes and hidden areas that were blocked of at first.
I have to admit, I have yet to finish the game, but it will not be long before I do so as this game is just a total blast to play. It may not posess the free roaming gameplay of the console versions, but the 2,5D environment fits the Vita wonderfully well in my opinion.
8,5/10