Batman Finally Gets What He Deserves: A Kickass Game
"More times than not, when a company doesn't have a movie tie-in, or some famous license to follow they can create more inventive and all around better things than if they did have some license to follow."
That was the first line in my inFamous review. It has been true since the NES days that licened/movie games just don't hold up to their unlicenesed counterparts. Occasionally you will get a really good licened game (i.e. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) but it isn't something you see every day. Fortunately, now that Batman: Arkham Asylum has been released you can add another game to that very short "good licenses game" list.
The storyline of Arkham Asylum is thankfully not based off a movie, a cartoon, or anything in the Batman universe. It's its own very unique storyline, a great storyline at that. It wouldn't be a Batman game without The Joker, right? Right. So, the main focus of the game is no other than The Joker, along with all of his criminal thugs from Blackgate prison. Joker is being brought into Arkham by Batman at the beginning of the game. Batman spells something funny, and he is right. Once Joker being escorted to his cell, he fights off the guards and manages to escape. Yup, this is where you, Batman, come in. It's up to Batman to get The Joker and the rest of the prisoners that have gotten loose, including Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, and other notable Batman villians. One fault of the game would be that the boss fights of those villians are weak and repetitive. It gets old saying this, but the last boss fight will dissapoint you.
Even though the game is rated "T" it still has a very dark, violent, and adult story. Everytime Batman turns around The Joker has done something. Maybe he's taken a few doctors hostage, maybe he's captures Commissior Gordon or Quincy Sharp, or maybe he threatens to blow up Gotham. Or... maybe he threatens to give all of his henchman "Titan", a chemical that will basically turn the recipient into a giant beast.
Though the genres of Arkham Asylum and the 2D Metroid and Castlevania's are very fundamentally different, the pacing of the two are very similar. All you start out with is batarangs, but then you'll slowly unlock new gadgets and technology that can be used at Batman's disposal. This includes explosive gel to blow out walls, a batlclaw to yank enemies off ledges, a line launcher to zip across gaps, and many other gadgets that will allow you to reach previously inaccessible areas.
Arkham Island is a great setting for the game. It allows the MetroidVania progession that I mentioned earlier to work really well. It's pseudo-sandbox. What I mean by that is you can only go the places the game wants you to go to, but once you've been everywhere you can roam all of Arkham Island. The world isn't too big, and it isn't too small. You'll venture through the Arkham Mansion, the Medical Facility, the Batcaves, and other neat places. The attention to detail
Those secrets are provided to you by another familiar name, The Riddler. After a little while playing the game you will encounter him. He will basically tell you he is smarter than you are and he has hidden many secrets across Arkham Island and he wants you to find them. These include trophies which you just have to simply find and pick up or the more hidden "riddles" he gives you. He'll tell you a sentence or two, and you'll have to solve the riddle and find what he talking about and scan it. There are 240 of these in total, so they should add some time to the games playability.
What will really stick out to you about AA is the huge variety of gameplay. Stealth and combat lead the pack, but others
The combat is probably some of the funnest combat in any beat-em-up/hack-and-slash I've ever played. In a way, it fails to do what God of War tried to do. What I mean by that is the animations in God of War never really flowed. They all looked like seperate animations. In AA it looks completely smooth, almost like it's only one animation. On top of the incredible animations is some pretty superb hit detection. The game's combat usually takes place against the unarmed thugs of Arkham and is a lot like Assassin's Creed in that you must counter to be successful and push the stick in the direction of the enemy you would like to attack. When you land a hit you start a combo, the higher the combo the more points/experience you will earn. The combo function adds and
The stealth is also really fun. When Batman encounters armed criminals he can't just run in and start swinging can he? Nope, he isn't bulletproof. He must cleverly (and silently) take everyone in the room out. Convenietly every room that has armed thugs in it and also has old stone gargolyes. From these gargolyes Batman can do many of things. He can hang from them, swoop down, and grab an inmate, or he could jump off and fly down to ground level and kick a criminal in the face, knocking him out. The immense ammount of ways to take out the enemies is what really shines. You can jump through a glass ceiling onto somebody, you could place some explosive gel and have it auto-detonate itself when someone is detected, or maybe you could lure a unsuspecting foe around a corner to preform a nice corner takedown. That's just the bottom of the barrel. There are many more ways to deal with the gun-wielding bastards of Arkham Asylum.
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Another gameplay type present in AA is, well, being a detective. Sometimes you'll be stuck and won't be able to advance. In this case you'll have to turn "detective mode" on and observe your surroundings to figure out what to do. Or you may have to scan a crime scene to pick up a way to track someone, such as using their DNA or fingerprints.
The graphics are pretty good, too. I wouldn't say they're the best, but they're certainly not bad. Standing of the edge of a cliff and looking over all of Gotham City is a pretty memorable experience. Sadly, seeing texture pop-in every time you enter a new room is also a memorable experience, just not in a good way. I guess you can expect that when you're playing a Unreal Engine 3 game.
The game has plenty of extras to along with the incredible story mode. There are bios, facts, and stats for every character that is in or even referenced in the game. Also, you can find interviews with the patients scattered across Arkham Island. Then you can unlock "trophies" (basically action figures) for most of the characters in the game for you to look at, not really anthing special, but a cool addition. Then there are the challenge rooms. The predator (stealth) challenge rooms require you to preform certain action (i.e. blow up three walls at the same timeand take down an enemy with each wall) to the thugs in the room and take everyone down in as little as possible. The combat challenge rooms will throw 4 waves of henchman at you and you must score as high as you can.
The last thing that I feel that I should mention about AA is this: the voice acting. It's pretty much as good as it gets. There's Mark Hamill as The Joker, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn, and many other great voice actors.
All in all, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a great game. Certainly one of my game of the year contenders.
