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There are two types of people in this world, well two types of nerdy people anyway, Superman types and Batman types. Cheery and optimistic or moody and pessimistic, the do the right thing types and the ends justify the means types. I always leaned towards the Batman type I have to admit. But there was always the small problem of my lanky uncoordinated ass training to become Batman as a young pasty Irish lad. There's no question he's an iconic character and one whose appeal has extended far beyond comics, probably because the jingoistic, all American bent painted on Superman in the 40's spoiled him a little for the rest of the world but Batman and his fight for right seemed to cross class and cultural boundaries.
Sorry, this isn't meant to be some kind of intellectual jerk off over Batman, this is supposed to be a review of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the latest in a long line of mostly crap games featuring the dark knight. Batman: Arkham Asylum stands out for two reasons, one, its actually a brilliant game in its own right, take away the Batman mythology and its still a fantastic game, and two, aside from the Christopher Nolan films this is just about the best interpretation of the Batman character you're ever going to come across. As gritty and mean as the movies but as gadget filled and fantastical as the cartoons. The game achieves a terrific balance between the two.
The Joker, making clowns terrifying for over fifty years
The scene is set in a playable introduction which has you walking with the manacled and ranting Joker into the bowels of Arkham Asylum, passing a fearsome looking Killer Croc on the way. The actual game begins prior in a cut scene as Batman drives a defeated Joker back to Arkham Asylum to be incarcerated. When you meet with Inspector Gordon and Warden Sharp the game jumps from cutscene to gameplay and you have to move Batman along with Joker and his guards into the Asylum. Naturally as soon as the guard says 'I'll take it from here' it's a matter of seconds before Joker escapes and Batman charges after him. Throughout the course of the game you'll meet a number of the brighter sparks of the Batman Rogues gallery inlcuding Poison Ivy and Scarecrow and some of the more obscure villains like psycho slasher Mr. Zsasz and Clayface (although you only see him passively, his appearance is a cool and memorable one, that many people will probably miss all together). The Riddler makes an appearance as a taunting voice, challenging you to solve all his riddles hidden in the game, but more on that later.
The Asylum itself and its grounds feel like a whole other character to grief Batman. Its corridors and rooms literally radiate with malice and evil, its exactly what you'd imagine Arkham Asylum to be like in reality. An old river side mansion renovated to be a hospital for the mentally ill and then further developed to house the increasingly violent and deadly members of Gotham's crime fraternity. The street sign as Batman drives towards Arkham that reads "Warning, Hitchikers may be escaped convicts" is just the begginning of your journey into hell. The atmosphere of the game is also quite creepy, I should mention that this is definitely not a game for children. It's not quite Silent Hill levels of buttock clenching fear, but some moments, particularly when dealing with the aptly named master of fear Scarecrow are very unnerving.
The Detective vision makes it easy to keep track of enemies
The gameplay is split into three distinct parts fighting, the predator sections and detective work. The fighting is, at first, deceptively simple. Batman has one button to kick all kinds of butt, one counter button and one to stun. It's a thing of beauty watching Batman leap and dive between his opponents, sometimes ten or more at a time and beat the complete stuffing out of them, each punch and kick fierce and bone crunching. It's some of the most satisfying fighting you'll experience in a game. Bad guys can be taken down with a fair bit of punching but you can speed things up with a ground takedown, you need to time these well to avoid getting attacked during a takedown but they score you a lot of experience points. Your points can be used to buy upgrades and the fighting upgrades include hurling a Batarang mid combo to take out enemies out of range and using throw and instant takedowns at certain levels of a combo. The instant combos are particularly fun; Batman pounces on an enemy drops him on the ground and snaps a limb with a loud crunch. Later in the game things get increasingly hairy, uncounterable enemies with knives need to be stunned and quickly taken down and enemies with tazers need to be evaded and then hit in the back. Individually these enemies are manageable, but when you face a gang of ten guys with steel bars, two with knives and two with tazers, things get very tricky and button mashing won't get you far.
This bad guy will be wetting his pants in 3.. 2... 1...
Remember that bit in Batman Begins where the baddies were running around screaming 'where are you?' while Batman picked them off like flies. Predator mode is all about that. Using his Detective special vision mode Batman can identify enemies with guns over the regular enemies. These guys are often in an area with lots of hiding places and ambush spots and you need to take them down as silently as possible. Sneaking up behind an enemy gives you the option of a silent takedown but you can also use a few Bat tools including various Batarangs and explosive gel to booby trap areas. Batman can't take very much sustained gun fire so you need to sweep in and out as quickly as you can. It does seem a little corny that every area that has bad guys also has conveniently located gargoyles for you to leap to with your Batrope and hide, but it's so much fun watching the bad guys panic as their mates keep turning up unconscious that you'll be pretty accepting of this convenient game element. One of the annoying things about this game mode and a lot of the rest of the game is that you need to spend so much time using Detective Vision, which washes out all the lovely visuals in a single colour and gives you an Xray view of the bad guys.
Batman makes crushing trachea's look fun AND popular
The final third of the gameplay is made up of the various detective activities that are part of the gameplay and discovering hidden secrets in the game. The gameplay application of the detective play is pretty limited. Batman picks up a clue trail and you have to follow it using your special vision mode. But discovering the Riddlers secrets is the real meat of the detective gameplay, to access most of these you need to hold down the detective button to scan an area. They come in four forms, little green collectibles hidden around the place, Riddler symbols spray painted that need to be lined up with the dot below the question mark, for instance one of them is a huge question mark on the roof of the Arkham mansion, but the dot is on a ledge on a clock tower you need to climb to. The third are riddles that need to be solved that point towards a particular item or object in the area. These always relate to a character from Batman's extensive cast and each one unlocks a profile of these characters, for instance objects like an umbrella unlock the Penguin's bio. Lastly there are audio tapes of interviews with each of the games main protagonists, these haunting recordings add to the games lunatic atmosphere. Discovering each of these clues can net you a lot of experience points that can be spend on all sorts of upgrades. However, many of them are hidden behind obstacles that can only be reached with certain tools that you don't get access to until much later in the game. It's worth waiting until you get these tools before you get stuck into the riddle solving.
If the Riddler never seemed 'that crazy' to you, here's his cell
Whenever you get tired of the single player game and want to just get stuck into some bad guys you can use the challenge modes; online ranked versions of the brawling and predator sections of the single player game. They're ridiculously difficult to gain trophies in and any smart ass who accuses the game of being a button masher will be hard pressed to mash their way to the scores achieved on the leader boards, or even gain the basic achievement/trophies for completing these challenges. There's all ready several packs of Challenge DLC available for free that will keep you bashing away with Batman for some time.
Other than the over reliance on the detective vision mechanic in the campaign there really isn't much to gripe about. The game looks great, sounds great and plays great and I'm eagerly anticipating developer Rocksteady Games next title if this is the level of quality they're willing to put into someone elses intellectual property. My main complaint would be with some of the later sections of the gameplay, after some satisfying boss battle experiences the last few anticipated confrontations are downers, it's almost like they ran out of ideas and threw out the most basic boss battle they could. Some people might not be troubled by these encounters, but when the rest of the game was so much fun, its dissapointing when the pay off for a particular build up doesn't feel like something better. The final battle has an over reliance on brawn as well, Batman doesn't outwit his opponents as he does beat them stupid. It's not the conclusion I was hoping for and the game goes a little, dare I say, Gears of War in its execution.
Where does he get those wonderful toys
Still, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a water mark for license games and much like Star Wars: Force Unleashed (almost) did it proves you can take a well established, well known non gaming universe and crank out an absolutely top notch title. Unfortunately the best things about Batman: Arkham Asylum are its individual moments which I really can't detail, though I'd painfully love to do so, because it will spoil the game for you. Suffice to say even an old Batfan like me can feel a new sympathy for the tragic comic book characters story. Batman: Arkham Asylum hits all the right notes, it provides an experience of complete fan service for fans of the character, with plenty of amusing and delighting nods to the characters history and provides a brilliant game for people who may know nothing about him. It's easily in the top five games you'll play this year and it deserves to be up there.
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