Name: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Publisher: Eidos Interactive, Warner Brothers Entertainment
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Genre: 3rd-Person Action-adventure, stealth, beat-em-up
2009 seems to be turning out to be an interesting year in gaming. There were many predictions made at the beginning of the year about which console would win this year, and about which games will cause the most stir. Who would have foreseen the success the superhero game has had in 2009. Early on, we had Watchmen games, followed by X-Men: Origins. The summer saw inFamous, Prototype and GI Joe video games. Not to mention the recent Champions Online release and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Yet somehow, in the middle of all these great and highly anticipated superhero games, one managed to stand out as a contender for game of the year all these months. I, of course, am referring to the new game featuring the caped crusader himself, Batman: Arkham Asylum. Does the game indeed compete with the already well-represented superhero games? Read on...
Batman is no stranger to the video game world. Dating as far back as 1986, Batman has appeared in games of all sorts on many different platforms. Batman has only seen one other release on current-gen systems, which is Lego Batman (also published by Warner Bros). Eidos is the publisher of Arkham Asylum, and is familiar name to anyone remotely connected to gaming. Publisher of the Tomb Raider, Kane and Lynch, and Hitman games Eidos has enlisted relatively unknown developer Rocksteady to develop the game. Rocksteady also developed the moderately well-received last-gen shooter Urban Chaos: Riot Response. But enough history, lets get into the game.
Batman: Arkham Asylum takes place in the infamous Gotham prison. Batman has just returned from rounding up The Joker and leading him to his cell when The Joker springs a trap and the game begins. In this trap, Joker sets loose many of the series' most notorious criminals and its up to Batman to round them up. Without spoiling what happens, you deal with villains such as Harley Quinn, Bane, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, and Poison Ivy. Along the way, you will learn much about the backstories of many characters through data files and such. The Riddler also plays an important part, but we'll get to that in a moment.
The gameplay is a mix of many things. The bulk of the gameplay takes place in 3rd-person viewpoint and alternates between solving puzzles, stealthing around, and beating baddies up. All of it feels very balanced and well put-together. The puzzles are all interesting and varied, the stealth is easy to control and doesn't feel like an artificially lengthened portion of gameplay, and the combat is terrific. Lets take it piece by piece.
The puzzle-solving areas don't play as much into the core gameplay as the stealth or combat does. It mostly takes the role of side-quests which will be useful for experience. The Riddler notifies you early in the game that there are riddles hidden all over the island that you must seek out. They can come in the form of trophies, audiotapes, or actual riddles that must be solved. The neat thing about the riddles is that they contain references to other Batman characters, so even if your favourite villain isn't in the main part of the game, you at least get to solve a riddle modeled after them. Seeking these out is very addictive, and the collection screen is easy to read and keeps track of all of your progress.
The stealth is a very cool section of the game. Unlike a Superman or Spiderman game, Batman does not belong in open cities. A good game with him in it will limit the gameplay to interior areas with corridors and the like. Arkham Asylum melds these decisions well with the stealthy portion of gameplay. Oftentimes, you will come upon a room full of armed guards that cannot (or I mean to say SHOULD NOT) be confronted openly. These sections often takes place in rooms with lots of vents, ledges, and narrow passageways to stealth around and plan your attack. The idea is to take each guard out separately and evoke terror in the other guards when they find their comrade's body. These parts can be stressful and time-consuming, but always very rewarding.
The combat is built around the new free-flow engine designed for Arkham Asylum. The basic gist of the system is that the game will do the locking on for you, you need only direct your thumbstick in the direction of where you want to attack. Combos build the longer you go attack, dodging and countering foes and you can take out a whole room of enemies with one freeflow combo, provided you are skilled enough. Its always neat to see Batman leaping across a room, mid-combo, to take out a thug with a stun baton. The combat works very well, and getting into the groove of a well set-up combo feels great.
In addition to the standard thugs you'll encounter, you will also fights Poison Ivy's plant minions and have to deal with certain boss fights. The unique ones are the ones with Scarecrow and Poison Ivy, while many of the other ones are one of the game's shortcomings. Many boss fights feature Batman against some crazed mutant, and is won by dodging his charge, letting him hit the wall, and then wailing on him. Its a poor design choice that set back an otherwise excellent game design.
Speaking of game design, the one thing I noticed about Batman is its similar game design to Metroid. Both take place in fairly large, yet restricted environment. Both have you collecting upgrades for your character, and both games open up as your arsenal gets bigger. Batman has a great arsenal of gadgets. Of course, with such a large backstory to draw from, the hard part is narrowing down what gadgets you want in the game. I'm pretty pleased with the selection Rocksteady has left Batman with. You get the Batarang, the Batclaw, some explosive gel, a zip-line, and more. The Batmobile and Batcopter both make an appearance in Arkham Asylum; unfortunately neither vehicle is drivable. The exploration becomes much more fun when you can access all sorts of places with your gizmos.
I was not a Batman fanatic before this game was released, but I certainly learned a lot about the Batman universe while playing it. Part of The Riddler's challenges are collecting audiologs, which are recordings of doctors interviewing the detainees. Some of these are pretty funny, but many are quite grim. Which brings me to my next point: Arkham Asylum is a dark game. I wouldn't go as far as The Dark Knight style of moodyness. The Joker for one, is voiced by Mark Hammil who voiced him for years in the Batman Animated Series. Don't be fooled, though, this game bares little similarities to the show. There's cursing, gruesome backstories, and lots of dead guards. Sure The Joker has his funny commentary, but for the most part you are dealing with a very mature game.
The extras in the game come in the form of challenges outside the story mode. More challenges are unlocked by finding more Riddler challenges, and come in two forms: action and stealth. The action ones consist of beating several rounds of thugs. The stealth ones consist of taking out rooms full of them by stealth or with clever gizmos. The idea is to build up your score on both types. you want high combos in combat challenges and fast times in stealth. Both are charted on online leaderboards, and fulfilling certain conditions can help you towards achievements or trophies. Of course this is outside the already lengthy main story, which gets even longer when you factor in the Riddler collection. Batman Arkham Asylum is worth the price, easy.
The look and sound of the game are top-notch. The graphic are beautifully done, and every detail was put into to giving Arkham a lot of life. On the audio side, you have a tremendous and brooding score, booming sound effects, and overall outstanding vocieovers from Mark Hammil and the rest of the cast.
Now, before I wrap up, I need to address some complaints I have about the game, as it is not perfect. I have already addressed how disappointing some of the boss fights were, but there were other issues. The controls are usually pretty good, however there were plenty of times where Batman's clunkyness would affect the gameplay. Too often, during a stealth mission, I would find Batman had stumbled, stupidly off of a ledge right in front of a guard. The even bigger issue is that many times the guard would not notice. I would land right in front of him and he wouldn't register I had landed. I know Batman wears all black and is hard to see, but this is ridiculous. Also Batman has a very Metroid-like visor that lets him see through walls, spot secrets, and monitor enemies conditions and whereabouts. Despite the well-designed graphics, I almost always has the goggles on. It's a great gameplay element, but it made the art direction seem a little fruitless, as there was so much more reasons to have the goggles on then off.
Despite all complaints I have, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a work of genius and is truly worthy of every bit of praise it receives. Everything from the combat to the collection is well balanced and well executed. Rarely are superhero games so good, and we've already had so many good ones this year. I wholeheartedly reccomend Batman to anyone, fan or not. While this design is not for every superhero game to follow, I think we've found a great new slate for Batman games to come. Best superhero game of the year, and one of the top games as well.
9.5/10