I’ll first admit that when I learned that a Batman game was coming soon, I didn’t give it another thought. The screenshot made it look like a simple brawler and nothing much past that. It wasn’t until I read that the company had enlisted some of the voice talents from Batman: The Animated Series that I raised an eyebrow. Then I found that the script was from Paul Dini–then I thought, that’s gotta be good.
Alumni Influences
Batman: Arkham Asylum is a remarkable game, and worthy of its honor as one of the best comic book game ever. Rocksteady studios tied together great game mechanics and design to a compelling comic book plot from Paul Dini. I have always held Batman: The Animated Series in high regard for their animation, style, but most of all, story. Much of that is due to Paul Dini. Having Dini influence Batman: Arkham Asylum definitely raised the bar for the game.
Not to dismiss the excellent voice work from other alumni of the Batman: The Animated Series. Kevin Conroy has the best Batman voice. I think Christian Bale does an admirable job, but it’s too raspy. And I think Mark Hamill’s best work has got to be his voice for the Joker. I almost wish I could see him in the recording studio–just to see for my own eyes Luke Skywalker sounding like the Clown Prince of Crime. Kevin and Mark carried Dini’s story with their voicework. Especially Mark Hamill. The Jokes was a hilarious, sometimes taunting, and occasionally haunting commentary throughout the game. He commented as Batman made progress or jokes with his thugs through the Arkham Island’s loudspeakers.
Being the Dark Knight
The gameplay was very reminiscent of Metroid, and confirmed on an interview with the game studio. When I wasn’t taking down thugs with Batman’s martial arts skills, I was exploring Arkham Island going to my next objective or solving one of the Riddler’s riddles. There were certain of areas only accessible with the right Bat-gadget, similar to Metroid where certain weapons were required to enter some rooms. Using the bat-vision, I would see clues on surfaces, telling me how to access hidden areas.
All of the locations on Arkham Island were highly detailed, even simple passageways that led one room to another. It really felt like Arkham was modeled after a true locale. I haven’t seen an Unreal 3 engine game look this good. I enjoyed that Batman’s suit got more and more damaged as the game went on.
The fighting mechanics were easy to pick up and definitely empowered me to feel like I’ve had years of martial arts training. Each battle was a dance with punches, kicks, take downs, and counters. The fighting system is almost a rhythm game like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, I just had to hit the right button in the right timing to get a beautiful fight sequence where Batman laid waste his opponents. Even though the fighting mechanics were simple, it still took a bit of skill to take down large sets of thugs, especially when there was a mix of weaponry they carried. I respect Batman more than most heroes because of his value for life. When he defeated his enemies, he did not kill them but immobilized them for the authorities to take to custody. But that doesn’t stop him from breaking some arms and legs.
I was most intrigued by the stealth sequences. When the demo was released before the game, I replayed one area of the demo over and over again where I hid in the shadows and/or the ceiling, preying on armed thugs. It was just like out of the movie Batman Begins. I really enjoyed surprising enemies silently, taking them down into the shadows, one by one. The thugs would get more nervous and scared as their buddies “disappeared.” I’m thankful that Rocksteady realized how much fun the stealth gameplay was and have a separate game component where you are timed how fast you can take down a room of armed thugs as the invisible predator.
Battling Supervillans
I disagree with some of the reviews that said the boss battles were too easy. They were just right for me at the normal difficulty (although the last boss battle was a joke, pun intended). There were some standouts from the norm. The Killer Croc battle wasn’t all about brute force like I anticipated. That section was filled with tension as I snuck around Croc’s lair to reach my objectives. The Scarecrow sequences were effectively vertigo inducing and conveyed Batman’s vulnerability to the Scarecrow’s scare tactics. Fighting Harley’s thugs on electrocuting floor panels was fun too, although it would’ve been nice to fight her directly afterwards.
I also enjoyed that not all of Batman’s famed supervillains were direct boss encounters in the game. It helped give the game focus, however, there were many nods to other Batman’s famous villains, some in the form of riddles.
The Riddler left riddles throughout Arkham Island for Batman to solve throughout the game and some of them are pretty clever. The first time I saw the riddle type where you match the top portion of a question mark to the lower period got me to grin when I solved it.
Soundtrack
I wanted to give a small kudos to the music as well. There were strong influences from the works of Hans Zimmer from the latest Batman movies. The style fit perfectly and added a lot to the atmosphere.
Holy Nitpicks Batman!
Batman: Arkham Asylum only had a few irks, and they stick out only because the game is otherwise great. Bane and Croc’s demise were a bit puzzling to me, especially Bane’s, since Batman generally does not kill. However, I later learned that there are three possible endings, which negates this nitpick.
I also found it somewhat annoying not being able to solve riddles because I didn’t have the right bat-gadget. It would’ve been nice of Rocksteady to include one additional voice track from Batman stating that I needed something specific to finish the riddle or reach a secret area.
While this game feature is essential to Batman’s advantage, the detective vision proved too useful throughout the whole game. The detective vision allowed me to see where enemies were, possible secrets, actionable environments, and more–so it was a disadvantage to turn it off. The game has wonderful graphics, so it was a shame to miss out on the graphics because I’m in detective mode most of the time.
Lastly, my biggest gripe is no user-defined save system and no way of returning to a given point of the game. I can forgive the lack of a save system if the game would allow me to choose a specific checkpoint to return to, but with neither, I can’t revisit a boss battle or set piece to share with someone without playing through the entire game again. I hope that a future patch will remedy this.
Shine the Bat-Symbol Once More!
I hope that Rocksteady creates another adventure for the Dark Knight. I’m not sure how they’ll do it since Arkham Asylum was a perfect setting, but I’m hopeful that this won’t be the last great Batman game.