It’s been very long since we’ve had a good batman game. Namely the NES Batman game by Sunsoft which I reviewed recently. Sure, it didn’t exactly feel like we were playing as Batman, but it was a fun game nonetheless.

Now we have Arkham Asylum, and it might just be the video game Batman fans have been waiting for for years. Is it true to the hype, or was the hype train a bit too big again?

Read on and see if random developer Rocksteady got it right!

Developer: Rocksteady
Publisher: Eidos
Date of Release: 2009/08/25
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

Genre: Third-person brawler/stealth game
Players: 1

Looks and Sounds
Graphically, this game is awesome. Normally I whine that games only use a few colors, mainly grays and browns, but here it frankly doesn’t bother me that most of the game is like this. There’s quite a lot of different looking areas and despite the sorta limited color palette each area looks unique. And the visual style definitely fits great with the Dark Knight. The character models are really cool too. The basic henchman or police officer is a bit meh, though they look fine by normal standards, but the Batman vilains, and batman himself, definitely take the show. Killer Croc, Bane, Poison Ivy, ScareCrow, The Joker and Harley Quinn just look fabulous.  I frankly have nothing bad to say about any of them. Except maybe the Joker when you actually fight him… And some people might be sad to see Harley Quinn in a different outfit, but I like schoolgirls/gothic lolita so I’m happy. ScareCrow looks quite scary, Poison Ivy is hot, Bane looks big, badass and evil, Killer Croc looks perfect. I have no complaints here at all.

The attention to detail is phenomenal too. Mainly the damage on Batman through the game. The game takes place during one night, and it shows, as Batman’s costume keeps getitng ripped up and his cape gets damaged. By the end of the night his cape is in horrible condition and there’s cuts everywhere on Batman’s body. Even his face starts showing fatigue and such.

The sound of the game is also great. What steals the show here is the voice acting. Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy, and Arleen Sorkin all reprise their roles from the animated series as, respectively, the Joker, Batman and Harley Quinn. This is probably the best performance anyone did as the Joker, EVER. Damn, he sounds just so awesome, this is crazy. I don’t think any voice has ever been so fitting for the Joker. Batman sounds great as well. Dark,commanding, sure of himself, but not as badly exagerated as Christian Bale’s Batman. The other voices are really good too, no complaining on that aspect. The rest of the sounds are fine. Gunshots sound like gunshots, the gadgets sound good, and the music is really nice, keeping a similar style to previous Batman soundtracks.

The presentation couldn’t have been much better than this. Rocksteady nailed it. This, is Batman. Pure and simple.

Story
The story isn’t incredibly original, as, or so I’ve heard, has been done a few times in the comics and such, and the final boss battle is taken from an episode of the animated series. After capturing the Joker REALLY easily, Batman brings him to the asylum. Sure enough, he gets away and goes deeper to the asylum, to get ready for the big party! So Batman takes on the job to stop the Joker’s plan… whatever they are. Along with the Joker, a bunch of his henchmen were taken in as well, making the takeover a lot easier.

The story is quite well put toghether, and you encounter a few vilains in the series. The plot has no HUGE twists or anything, but you don’t exactly know about the Joker’s goal with all this for a while through the story. Each vilain adds something to the story, so they don’t really feel tacked on.

Overall the story is quite well done, and feels like a Batman story should. I’m not 100% familiar with Batman stories, so there might be some better ones, but I still really liked this one, and there was never a dull moment.

Gameplay
Basics
Well, I’ll start right away by saying that the gameplay here is great. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s describe it a bit.

There’s a few gameplay elements here. Stealth, combat and exploration. Each done in a third-person perspective, of course.

The most important one is probably the stealth. Basically, there are multiple areas in the game where you must try to get to the next place, or knock out all the enemies, without being seen. Some areas only have enemies with firearms, and in those cases you can’t go all Rambo on their asses, since you’ll get killed in seconds. Enclosed rooms require strategy and proper use of your gadgets to make it out not only alive, but with enough life left afterwards to survive later areas. Luckily the asylum is FILLED with gargoyles you can hide on top of(who the hell decorated the place anyways?). If you’re seen, you have to swing out of sight to survive. You had quite a few things you could do. Sneaking up on someone you can take them down from behind, if they pass under you when you’re on top of a gargoyle you can grab them from above and leave them hanging(inverted takedown=win). You can distract them with your tools, lay down traps to distract them… Use your imagination, as long as you take everyone out you’ll be fine. And if those areas are just a bit too easy, one part adds proximity mines on gargoyles to change up your strategy. In more open areas, goons are usually very perceptive and can see you from miles away, accurately shooting you with a sniper rifle. So you must use the environment at your advantage so that they don’t see you. Anywhere in the game you can use detective mode. It’s especially useful in the stealth parts, since you can see through walls, seee where the enemies are, what they’re doing and scan their current mental state (their behavior really changes as you knock out their partners). Overall, the stealth element is probably the best in any game I’ve played. Yes, including MGS4.

Combat is a bit simple though. At first you can button mash your way through. You have 3 buttons to use here. A basic attack button, a stun attack and a counter-attack. You get alerts when an enemy is about to hit you so you can counter. Pressing your normal attack button, at first, makes you attack straight in front of you. As you build up your combo, you’ll be able to change direction in the middle and attack anyone in the direction you’re facing (as long as they’re standing, or getting up). You can also try to use your gadgets in battle too, though only the batarang will be really useful (unless you lure bad guys towards explosive gel). Some enemies take anything you throw at them, unless you stun them first. And enemies that are knocked down but not knocked OUT can be knocked out while on the floor, if you crouch and press the counter/takedown button. Others require dodging properly to get out of the way and avoid certain weapons they use.  It’s basic, but it’s fun learning to get your combo count high, and the combat isn’t exactly BAD. It’s simplistic, but it’s actually fun to play.

The exploration is simple. Run around each area, looking for secrets. Maybe it be hidden trophies, or answers for riddles, there’s quite a few things to find in here. Riddles are given to you through your headphones, and you actually have to find the answers in the environments, and scan the answers by holding the detective mode button. Not much more to say here, but it’s a fun element.

Other stuff
Bosses offer different gameplay styles. The Scarecrow show some REALLY weird stuff, and then bring you in semi side-scrolling areas where you must get to the end without being seen by Scarecrow (now in Giant form) in the background. Also, the third Scarecrow segment starts out AWESOME. Other bosses are pretty standard stuff. Finding patterns and figuring out when to use different attacks, stuff like that. Scarecrow is the funnest of the bunch though.

Otherwise, you have a bunch of gadgets to use. 3 variations on the batarang (normal, multi-targetting and sonic batarang which is made to annoy enemies), explosive gel that you can use to trap enemies, a weird device to open doors, a Batclaw to knock down certin walls and grab onto enemies… There’s lots of fun to be had by experimenting with your gadgets.

The best part though is that you can upgrade everything you have. Health, attack power, melee attack moves, inverted takedown, all your gadgets, adding batarangs to combos, remote control batarangs, proximity explosive gel… It’s awesome. Just get enough experience to get an upgrade available and choose what you want.

Overall, the gameplay in this is awesome. It makes you feel like you’re Batman, for sure. Great stealth, relatively fun combats, and a bit of exploration add up to fun times.

Overall
I don’t understand how this happened. Rocksteady only made 1 game before, and it was a crappy FPS on the PS2, which was more of a budget title. So… How did Eidos figure they should get those guys to make the game? I thought they’d have chosen a company that has, you know, a track record of SOME sort. I have no idea what happened really, but DAMN, they couldn’t have done a much better choice than this.

They created, by far, the best Batman game ever. Sure, I still have quite the liking for the NES Batman game, but it’s nothing compared to this. This is the first time they managed to make you feel like you’re Batman. The presentation is great, the gameplay is great, the stealth element surpasses that of any other game with a stealth element(that I’ve played). The combat is a bit on the simple side, but at the same time I feel that if it was deeper it might not have felt that fitting.

The replay value is a bit on the low side, but it’s one of the few Current-Gen games that I know I’ll find myself replaying in the future.

I’d say this is a solid contender for game of the year. The high reviews and hype for this game are no joke.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Awesome presentation
- Great voice acting
- Great stealth gameplay
- Simple yet fun combat
- Riddles and challenges add replay value

Cons
- Some boss battles (especially the last one) feel like they could have been a lot better
- After you get all the riddles and finish all the challenges, the replay value isn’t huge (higher difficulty levels if you really like the game)

The Save Factor
With a starting price of $60, the Save Factor for Batman: Arkham Asylum is

For Batman fans: $75 (if you’re a Batman fan and you DON’T have this game already… WTF ARE YOU DOING? This is the greatest value you’ll get from any batman game, and is more than worth the starting price)
For anyone else: $55 (yeah, surprisingly there’s lots of value for anyone with this game, not JUST Batman fans)

jobocan Console, Games, PC, Review, ps3, xbox 360