More Than Just The "Best Comic Game"
To say that Batman: Arkham Asylum is the best comic book game ever made is to do the game a disservice. Think about it. Most games based on comics are average at best, with only a few rising to greatness. Arkham Asylum easily leaves all of those games in the dust with its superb graphics, varied game play, and compelling characters. It is much more fitting, then, to say that Arkham Asylum resides comfortably alongside Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV as one of the best games of 2009.
From the moment Arkham Asylum kicks off, it is clear that this is a different type of Batman product. The game immediately finds a comfortable medium between the dark, brooding tone of the recent Dark Knight film and the more easygoing nature of the cartoon, and the results are wonderful. This is a game that has the ability to make me laugh, cringe, and everything in between, all in the span of an hour or two. It is really quite rare to find this quality in a video game. Like Bioshock and last year's Dead Space, Arkham Asylum owes much of its impact to its environments. The Gothic architecture melds well with the more high tech aspects of the environment, and many rooms, such as Calendar Man's cell littered with discarded calendar clippings, tell their own little stories. It really is a cool place to explore, which makes the myriad collectibles all the more exciting to find.
The game play that forms the backbone of Arkham Asylum is solid and varied. Batman can hold his own in combat with any number of unarmed foes, dishing out brutal punches and kicks with carefully timed presses of the Square button. A press of the Triangle button can counter enemy attacks if timed right, and after the combo counter reaches a certain point it is possible to perform take downs and throws. Although it is possible to mash the Square button and get through most fights - the combat portions typically aren't too tough - timing the button presses and making use of Batman's full arsenal will lead to a more rewarding experience and make some of the later fights easier. Combat with armed foes takes on a vastly different tone, though. Remember the scene about half way through Batman Begins in which the Dark Knight breaks into a mob-owned facility and picks off the goons one by one? It's a whole lot like that. It is imperative that Batman stay up high, swinging between rafters and gargoyles to keep out of sight. Picking off enemies one by one and laying traps for the larger groups of thugs is one of the most unique and rewarding gaming experiences of the year. The feeling of getting in the bad guy's head and making him panic before taking him out is a great one, made even better by the fact that each of these stealth sections can be approached in several different ways.
The final piece of Arkham Asylum's game play comes in the form of playing detective. By tapping L2, it is possible to scan the environment for clues and other important objects. Occasionally Batman will have to put these clues together in order to advance. In these cases, the game does most of the work for players by showing Batman putting the pieces together, and then giving the player a string of breadcrumbs to follow. These portions often stretch credibility a bit, and they feel like the could have been more interactive. Something more like the detective system in Condemned, in which players sometimes had to figure out the clues for themselves, would have been welcome.
As mentioned above, Arkham Asylum is a gorgeous looking game. There's no mistaking that this is an Unreal game due to the character's faint plasticky sheen, but overall the models and environments are top notch. The environments are especially well done, giving the fabled asylum a real sense of history. Sound design is handled with equal ambition. Voices for Batman, The Joker, Harley, and others are spot on, lending the game a feeling of authenticity absent from previous games residing in the Batman universe. What really surprised me, though, was the sheer amount of voice work that had to be recorded for this game. Stand around for a while and The Joker will run through a number of lines over the intercom, some funny, some disturbing. Numerous recordings of patient's psychological examinations are scattered about the environments, offering insight into the motives of several villains. Even random thugs will hold conversations revealing some disquieting insight into the takeover of the asylum. It is worth listening to each and every one of them, as some are just priceless.
Batman: Arkham Asylum represents a new frontier for comic book games. The time and care that obviously went into crafting each room, each random conversation, and each collectible serve as a testament to Rocksteady's devotion to the Batman license. If more developers put this much effort into crafting their licensed games, the gaming industry might finally banish phrases such as "best comic book game."
