Good, but not great
Controls are simple. At times, they are too simple. Fighting, specifically was over simplified tot he point that for me, I didn't even want to be part of it. I'd have rather seen every massive brawl as a cut scene video, because that's roughly the amount of involvement I felt I had in the spectacle. But then the controls show off their dualism and become too complicated. After knocking a character down, you have to hold a shoulder button and press triangle to finish them. You have to tap a shoulder button to cycle vision modes. Hold that same button to do a forensic scan thing. Hold X to run. Tap X twice to evasive roll. Hold X near a climbable wall to climb. Hold X in the air to glide. Hold X to use ladders. Tap X to climb up when dangling. Hold the shoulder button and press another shoulder button to set explosives. Hold a shoulder button and press a different shoulder button to detonate it. Those same shoulder buttons with a different shoulder button toss a baterang, unless the button is tapped on its own to quick throw... The control scheme starts to get confusing with the awkward need for 2 simultaneous button presses and with so many functions mapped to a single button. I found myself often throwing batarangs the entire time I played. I could never down attack an enemy, because It was an off combination of buttons to hit at the frantic pace of battle. It was always easier to just beat them with my fists while they tried to stand. I died repeatedly on some platforming sections because of the multiple uses of the X button and the odd button press order I had to go through to swap into my explosive gel and use it. And I would constantly have vision scan problems because of dual mapping that button when one of the funtions is a toggle on/off thing.
I mentioned how good the game looks, but it's actually not worth mentioning this. You'll play 100% of the game in detective (X-Ray) mode, except when the game forces you to go it normal. There's no reason to ever use real vision mode. X-ray tells you where the enemies are, if they are armed, which direction they are facing, and how many are in the immediate vicinity. Normal mode shows you an indistinguishable thing that might be an ally or enemy. You don't know until you've broken cover and gotten right up on them, which can mean death when dealing with guns.
Back on the game play gripes, this game's action and stealth all pales in comparison with other games that have used the formula. I'd rather play Tenchu for my stealth fix, and I'd rather play Saints Row 2 for my action fix. Batman's action game is a single button (2 if you are bored and want to see soem fancy counters, even though counter punching is always faster). If you ever face an unarmed enemy, you win, period. The game felt dull when walking into every single unarmed enemy crowd and beating them senseless without even trying. And that was the only aproach. The game has made it clear that groups of unarmed enemies can only be handled in 1 way (brawling). Stealth sections suffer the problem all stealth games do. You can follow an enemy forever as long as he doesn't turn around, and enemies don't turn around. They walk straight lines, stop, smell the roses, then walk some more. You are never challeneged by a lone enemy in stealth, nor are you ever challenged by groups of enemies when they are stationary. 3 enemies with guns isn't a problem. You grapple hook over them, drop behind them, then stealth ko each enemy, 1 after the other. They never stop to check their whimpering buddy behind them. They stare in a single direction as though there was no other entrance or route possible. Roving enemies aren't much better. At worst, you just sit and wait for the enemies to part ways, then pick them off in the same fashion as always. It's very dull and unrewarding.
The worst part of the game is the extras, or it would be more approapriate to say, lack of worthwhile ones. Challenge maps are your basic race for points type of events. If you are like me, and hate playing for hgih scores, then the challenge maps might as well not even exist. The main game is pretty linear, so replay value falls to nothing after you beat the game. There are extra quests to do in the main game, but they are all variations of fetch and hide and go seek. It's about as much fun as hunting for your keys at home when you have places you want to be.
All in all, the game is solidly made, but once you wipe away the fanboy paint on the surface, the product is nothing special. It's actually pretty mediocore when compared to similar games that came before.