Batman: Arkham Asylum
Let’s just establish one thing first, Batman: Arkham Asylum caught me off guard. I’ve been playing games since I could hold a controller, and I’ve been reading coming books since I could read. To the best of my memory, the ONLY decent Batman game I’ve ever liked was “Batman” by Sunsoft on the NES. I think that came out right after the first dark film came out with Michael Keaton. That movie was good, and that game was good. Since then? Not much.. I’ve been looking for a good “dark knight” style Batman game ever since. Even further, Arkham Asylum itself is also one of my favorite locales in Gotham, because it’s just a little humming nexus of all the most evil people in the mythos. A good choice for a game setting for plenty of reasons. If you take all of these factors, blend them up into a solid action adventure game, you’ve got my attention.
Batman: Arhkam Asylum is an original story, which borrows from plenty of other older Batman stories. This one, by the end, feels like it could have been it’s own miniseries, or at least a graphic novel. It’s dark, brooding, and recalls most of what I enjoyed about the original Frank Miller “The Dark Knight”. It deals with the deeper mental issues of Batman/Bruce Wayne, but only for a little moment between ass beatings. Perfect. The gameplay is simple. You are Batman, doing Batman shit, all around Arkham Asylum, which is in a pretty crap situation. That’s it! You get to wield a wide array of Batman gadgets which are slowly added & unlocked (with fair reasoning) through the story. Plus, all the benefits of being a super well trained martial artist, billionaire vigilante, chemist, and superstar detective. Fun stuff.
The graphical style is great. The UI gives reference to the Frank Miller work I’ve already mentioned, and the game engine is DARK. Which, is ideal for Batman. If you’re put off by the extra blueness they seem to have added to the costume, fear not, as that is maybe the only reason you can even SEE him in the game engine. The character designers have taken some liberties with the costume & overall look of the character & villains, and this is good. You can tell that the Rocksteady team really wanted to get this to feel like it’s own Batman story, and it’s a huge success overall. Personally, I felt that the last 3 hours felt “a tad too long”, but anyone who plays this over more than two marathon sittings (as I did) will probably enjoy the pacing more.
Thirty minutes into the game, I get some nice recollections of Riddick: Butcher Bay (and that’s a good thing), hints of Metroid Prime, a touch of Assasin’s Creed, and a deep undercurrent of any recent Zelda game (Ocarina/Twilight) especially with hookshots and boomerangs all over the place. All of these are awesome things to borrow from, in my opinion. The game uses visual layers (dubbed Detective View), in engine narrative, and a hub-and-spoke world map system that has worked very well before, and it doesn’t fail this time. The game progress is very linear, and while it feels very natural, you pretty much know everyone else playing the game is having the exact same path & experience as you. Sorta like a comic book! Hey, look at that! Another thing I really enjoyed were the Scarecrow sequences, they usually sneak up on you in interesting ways, and remind me of the “fear effects” in Eternal Darkness or some of the trickery Kojima had Psycho Mantis try in MGS1.
The combat system is solid, I found the “Freeflow” combo system to be fun for the first half of the game, but get a bit tiring towards the end as the game dishes out tons of enemies at once, and there’s not that much variety in your capabilities. This feels quite similar to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time or Assasin’s Creed. Tolerable, but not ideal for the 10 hours or so I plopped into the game. There’s not too much of a unique metagame to be had here, as collectibles, all the Riddler’s lame puzzles, and the hidden trinkets end up unlocking some character statues, bios, but nothing of note that would advance or hold up the game beyond the normal progression. Batman never pushes beyond the well crafted story & execution that is it’s single player campaign, and I don’t really think it needs to. It’s a great story as it is, and the extras are there if you’re a completionist, or have way too much time on your hands.
As I began with, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a brilliant use of the Batman license. Over the years I’ve almost become conditioned to expect a licensed game to suck, and occasionally I’m pleasantly surprised by something slightly better than average. In this case, this game not only earns the respect that the Batman license deserves, but it hold solid with every other top tier action game of this year. This is a huge win for Eidos (who desparately needs some wins lately) and a great effort by Rocksteady Studios. Overall this is not just one of the best Batman and comic hero games ever made, in many ways this is the Bioshock of the superhero genre. It’s a refreshing mood, tone, and approach to experiencing the Batman world, and has enough unique moments in it to make you think back fondly of the time you spent with it.
One Liner: Not just a great Batman game, this is the Bioshock of the superhero genre.
Final Grade: [A]
The trailer and stills look sweet.
Typically the superhero games are released in conjunction with a forthcoming movie – and as such they feel half-baked. I’ve typically written them off.
That said, I’m looking forward to the Scott Pilgrim game.
This review definitely pushed me in the direction to buy it. Cant wait.