Batman: Arkham Asylum

The Good
I am going to do things a bit different from other times and I would really appreciate a little feedback. If anybody reads this, I would love it if you could send me a PM on this website and tell me if this new style of reviewing is better than my usual method. With that said, enjoy the review and thanks for any help you may offer:

The game is very accessible to people interested in the game, but without back-story. Only a few lore-references and useful character bios.

The combat is very smooth and fun due to the fast moves and overall intuitive controls.

Sneaking feels satisfying and tactful.

The story is well-written and additional dialogue tapes help to flesh it out a little.

Story is also well-paced.

Fun challenges to be found.

The commentary you hear characters giving changes depending on where you are and at what stage of the game.

The Bad
The Joker is not as visceral as he was in the movie.

DRM is beyond stupid.

The game is very linear, but has a lot of open areas with no enemies in it. This leaves me with an hour of work every time I come somewhere new.

Detective vision is obnoxious

Very often you need to go to insane lengths to save random characters who die a few minutes afterwards anyway.

Boss-fights aren't spectacular.

The Bottom Line
story

In this game the player takes control of Batman who has just apprehended his rival, an insane murderer called The Joker. Upon returning him to the asylum (that is located on a large) island Joker makes an escape and releases all the convicts, including some of the major villains from the Batman lore. The island quickly falls under Joker's control and it's up to Batman to punch all the villains back into their holding cells.

What is interesting is that Batman comics go back to like 1939, but the game demands little to no knowledge from the player. Instead, the game turns around the isolated event on the island and characters never really talk about events that go back too far or are unconnected to the task at hand. This is comparable to how you can play Mario Galaxy 2 and never ever have to have touched upon a NES before. For those who are interested in learning more there are a number of character bios and interviews that can be found in-game (more on that later) that flesh out the characters a bit more.

Another major plus is that not all the villains in the Batman lore make an appearance. Prior to playing this game, I took the time to sit down and watch "The Dark Knight", after that I looked up a list of Batman villains and found myself somewhat staggered. The game instead circles around a core group of the more interesting villains; Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and Bane. The pacing is also not too bad and at the beginning you notice that Batman is struggling to get his bearings, but as time passes you will soon take out the first villain and then run them all down a lot quicker. It doesn't feel too rushed, but at the same time it never really drags on too much either. If I have to give out one complaint though, it's that Joker is not as insane as he was in the movie and comes off more as a clown. While that is certainly the idea of the character and heck he even wears clown make-up for crying out loud, in the movie he was more than just that and came off as very threatening too. He also uses guns to kill people a lot, while in the movie his kills were very well-crafted and visceral (such as ramming a man's head into a needle stuck in a table early on).

gameplay

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a very rare example of a game that brilliantly mixes combat and stealth together in one tasty soup. The reason for why Batman always appealed to me as a character is that he doesn't have superpowers, he can't just conjure webs out of the ether or turn into a green giant. Batman has to use his wits and his hard-earned combat abilities to make it through the day and that is very visible in this game too. When combat shows up, Batman stands out as an obvious powerhouse, but when enemies bring guns into the fray or alarms, you'll have to sneak through ventilation shafts and hang from the ceilings to survive properly.

While the sneaking does work really well, I often went for combat regardless of that. The reason is that the game utilizes a very clever engine that makes combat feel very flowing and natural. You don't just awkwardly string together combos, you will have to deal quick blows, switch between baddies and keep an eye out for enemies that you can counter. When punching you can also steer in a direction to make Batman leap for another enemy and this is where the flow comes in. Because you can switch so easily I managed to rack up pretty decent combos and for once enjoy a beat-em up game.

Navigating through the asylum works pretty well too, but lacking an auto-run functions is kind of obnoxious. If auto-run turned off for stealth sections, then that would make sense, but here you have to keep your thumb on the space in order to run. Especially when backtracking this can get very annoying or when you're spotted by some armed thugs and kinda want to get the hell out of the fight. Other then that, Batman uses a variety of gadgets that help him opening up parts of the asylum; a grapple hook allows him to reach ledges normally out of reach, explosive gel blows up weak walls, a claw can pull down items and that line-thingy can help you cross large gaps. There is also small computer that allows Batman to hack doors and open them up.

presentation

Batman has a problem that I run into an awkward amount of times lately and that is graphics that are simply too dark. Even when messing around with the Gamma-settings a bit, the game's environments are still so dark that I run into walls or have to zoom in if I want to see anything. The art-style is also very familiar to people who play a lot of modern games and this title seeks to recreate the realistic and gritty feel that the movie had as well. It's not too bad, but I feel like opportunities are been missed to go all-out with Joker's style.

Overall Batman does a decent job in terms of presentation, but it never rises past it. Perhaps the only remarkable points are some of the story-heavy sections that often involve Scarecrow, something we rarely see in mainstream games these days. If anything, it proves that a widely popular title (6.3 million copies sold!) doesn't need to have a tacked-on multi-player of any kind. I was however surprised when I was browsing some articles on relyonhorror.com and found that Batman was credited as an "honorable mention" among horror games. I admit that the Scarecrow sections are fascinating a way, but horror is a much different kind of sandwich, if you ask me.

One thing that I have to mention, even though it has little to do with in-game presentation, is the irritation that is caused by the DRM present in this game. I have debated with myself over purchasing this game for at least a month, not because I wasn't sure if I would like it, but because I tried a pirated copy to see if the game was fun, but ran into so many layers of excessive protection that I started to doubt if the game was customer-friendly or not. Tucked away in the smallest corner of the sales page is a note saying "4 times activation limit", meaning the game may only be activated on four different systems. This is vague at best because sometimes replacing the hardware on your system counts as a separate activation in the world of DRM and sometimes it can just mean that every single re-installation eats up another precious activation. Even when buying the game on a service as great as Steam, this rule still applies, even though it goes in against everything Steam stands for. Also obnoxious is the forced use of Games for Windows Live, which literally demands that you log into or make a Windows Live account in order to freaking SAVE your game. This is once again regardless of whether or not you are using Steam, ignoring the fact that Steam has a Cloud service and can make save-files locally on the user's system.

replay-value

Batman: Arkham Asylum actually strikes me as a game that isn't too bad to pick up and replay every once in a while. The focus on combat and the lack of expository cut-scenes makes sure that you never really have to sit through anything grating and in the few cases that the game does take away the control from you, the cut-scene that follows it can often be skipped immediately. The game also has several difficulties, so after completing it once, it can be fun to revisit if with a meatier challenge ahead of of you.

The game however offers little in terms of customization and while it is possible to get upgrades for Batman, you get enough points to get everything that's available to you. Even if that was not the case, the upgrades don't really make much of a difference to the gameplay, so it's unlikely you're experience will differ that much from the first time you played.

collectibles!

Though the Joker is your main target throughout the game, there is a very large side-story on the side which involves "The Riddler". As the name implies, this villain is obsessed with Riddles and would very much like to test his wit against Batman's detective skills. His challenges come in several different kinds, the most prominent of which are the actual Riddles. Every time you enter a room where a challenge lies, you get a message containing a riddle. You then need to look for the item that the riddle refers to and use detective vision to capture it. Detective vision is a mode in which you get a colored filter over the screen, all the enemies show their skeletons (X-ray) and important items start to glow. It sounds interesting, but since you pretty much need to have it on all the time to spot Snipers, weak walls and receive general information, it feels like something that should have been implemented better, preferably in the regular HUD.

Aside from the riddles there is also a large amount of collectibles that you can find; "Arkham statues" that reveal a large part of the asylum's background story are hidden in secret locations, Interview tapes are character-specific recordings that flesh out the villains a bit, Joker Teeth are obnoxious buggers that you can destroy and the trophies are more or less filler content. This brings the total of collectible items to 240. To make this more do-able, the game provides you with constant commentary from Riddler himself, which is very enjoyable. What starts out as arrogant comments soon turns into disbelief as you slowly solve each and every single riddle.

That's where the in-game content ends, but outside of the story, there is also a challenge mode. Personally I have always resented these modes and this particular one is a clear example as to why. The challenges all exist outside of the story and contribute little to nothing to the narrative or experience of the game. All they do is put you in a room with a few baddies and say "Hey, hope you mastered the mechanics. Good luck". There is not even a set goal, you sort of need to get a certain amount of points in order to get the best ranking and if you don't get the best rankings, you won't be able to get a 100% save. I have always stood by the notion that getting a 100% should always be a case of will; I was willing to spend hours scouring every last nook and cranny for the collectibles, I was willing to see the story through to the end, I was willing to go through the many fights just to get all the upgrades. Challenge modes aren't about will, but more about skill, which is a completely different kind of virtue. If a casual player were to put in all the hours to get the items and even complete the game, then he or she will run into a brick wall, just because they aren't capable of putting together endless combos with varied attacks.

recommendation

Before we finish this up, I would like to remind all readers that I would really appreciate feedback on this new style. You can send me a PM on this website or my Backloggery account of the same name, thanks once again for any help you can offer. Back to the important things though: a recommendation. Well, fans of the Caped Crusader are certainly in for a treat with this one, but like I said before, you don't need to be a fan to get into this game. The combat, decent presentation and good integration of the story make this a very appealing game for the mainstream-gamer and the extra content offers a nice challenge for the Completionists out there. Casual players are also not excluded, but not particularly played to either.

The Good
For all the impact he's had on comics and all other kinds of media, Batman's portrayal and success as character has always been confusing. He's innately dissonant in nature: here we have an emotionally scarred, near sociopathic man haunted by events of his childhood, who fights crime in a grim dystopian city where it's always night and the glass is always half full (...of BLOOD!). One who dresses up in a rubber animal suit and is directly responsible for many of the tropes of the campy, childish silver and golden ages of comics. This disconnect is most jarring in the comparison of the infamous Adam West Batman of the 60's TV show and classic comics, and the gritty, harsh, GODDAMNED BATMAN of the modern age and the Dark Knight film series: the same character seen in a different light can become completely unrecognizable. If anything, Batman's characterization has been dreadfully inconsistent, which is not too big a deal, especially considering his roots in comics. However one thing is certain, which Arkham Asylum makes perfectly clear: Batman is a Badass.

Much as the animated series of the 90's has been praised for, the Batman of Arkham Asylum perfectly balances the new and the older sillier Batmans from across the decades. Dark and edgy but also completely unashamed of its quirky comic roots. Not just for Batman as a character but for the franchise as a whole: while it is most reminiscent of the aforementioned animated TV series (mostly due to its returning voice actors and script penned by writer Paul Dini), this is no specific Batman, but ALL of them. And the sum is most definitely greater than all of its parts, because this is arguably the best adaptation of Batman the franchise has ever seen. A celebration of what makes Batman great: The Essential Batman.

Arkham Asylum, uncommon for a licensed game, is completely unique in its execution. Whereas most licensed games can usually be summarized as something along the lines of "RPG", "shooter" or most common historically, "platformer", Batman is its own animal. It's sort of a cross between a gadget-based action-adventure like Zelda, with a battle system somewhat like a 3D beat 'em up, and a completely unique take on stealth like nothing that has come before.

As expected, gameplay relies heavily on utility belt gadgets, such as batarangs, bat explosive goo, and at least three variations on the bat grappling hook. Speaking of which, echoing Bionic Commando, the jump button is gone and replaced by a grappling hook, and arguably for the better. It's automatically aimed and fired at the press of a button, and will have you zipping around rooms, from ledge to ledge or gargoyle to gargoyle with ease. The whole thing feels extremely streamlined, but manages not to come across as being too casual-friendly: the easier to manage controls make it less aggravating and allows the player to deal with the tense and difficult stealth combat situations, rather than having to wrestle with the controls. Other toys are used in predictable but welcome ways, such as the explosive gel which serves as the remote-controlled answer to Link's bombs, or the upgraded bat-grapple which is used to pull down obstacles and reel in enemies.

In terms of exploration, it is fairly solid and comparable to something like Metroid Fusion in its structure and linearity - a semi-linear exploratory adventure game with frequent options side-paths and optional backtracking, and a linear main road with frequent twists and turns. It does a decent job disguising its relatively straightforward path by making it sometimes difficult to find exactly what is the right way out of the particular puzzle room you're in, and littering the various secret trapdoors and air ducts with hidden character logs and collectible trophies courtesy of Batman's nemesis, The Riddler, who is portrayed as a bloodthirsty and insane genius with an inferiority complex. One of the most satisfying aspects to the exploration is solving his riddles, which are given as hints leading you to various decorative objects lying around the Asylum, sometimes hidden in plain sight, sometimes devilishly hard to find. These unlock character bios for plenty of people in the bat's rogues' gallery, some of them very obscure.

Melee combat is adequate. You have a fairly standard punch and kick combo, as well as some throws and takedowns which seem to be used automatically when the combo meter is racked up. Every standard attack is initiated with the press of a single button. More interestingly, you have the ability to interrupt and counter any incoming melee attack with the press of another button and proper timing. Opportunities for these maneuvers are shown by a symbol appearing over enemies' heads, depending on difficulty. You also have a finishing attack, usually smashing enemies' faces into the floor with your enormous fist. This is all liberally sprinkled with a healthy dose of slow motion. It's mostly unnoticeable while you are playing, but when watching someone else play the amount of slow motion is fairly jarring. It runs extremely smoothly with very few cheap deaths - you are given a directional dodge roll which mercifully seems to make you invincible to attacks that only graze your hitbox, and the counter system allows you to make it through most altercations unharmed, with skill. Things get a little tense when enemies with unblockable knives, assault rifles, or worse, stun guns show up, but you soon learn how to prioritize and take out mooks in the proper order depending on what they're carrying. There are few differences between enemies besides what weapon they're carrying, but it manages to mix things up enough to keep things interesting.

The boss battles are a mixed bag. The introspective drug-induced hallucinations provided by the Scarecrow are surreal and atmospheric with excellent sound and art direction. But the way you actually fight him isn't particularly amazing. Similarly, the boss fight with Poison Ivy is quite visually impressive but consists mainly of 'shoot the boss in its weakpoint and don't get hit'. Worst of all is Killer Croc's battle, which should have been tense and unnerving, but is effectively tedious due to its ease and predictability. Additionally, there are an alarming number of re-skinned minibosses which are fought by simply throwing a batarang and side-dodging.

The main attraction and what will most likely win the player over is the stealth combat. Typical of stealth games, you can crawl through ducts, lurk directly over mooks' heads without them looking up, and peek around corners. What makes this completely different from Hitman or Metal Gear Solid where you enter and dispatch enemies completely undetected, is that your enemies will inevitably know you are there, watching them from the shadows. And you want them to. As you take them down one by one, you can watch and hear them become noticeably more agitated, looking over their shoulder often, shooting at random noises, and nervously shouting at you when they have no idea where you're coming from. This is all supplemented by the hilariously malicious taunts of the Joker, who is quite possibly the worst person anyone could ever work for. And hunting them down feels really good. There are no enemies in Arkham Asylum: only your prey.

One of the most helpful items to supplement your stealth in Arkham Asylum is the Detective Mode, a sort of X-ray vision and all-purpose scanner for the various forensic activities the game has you participate in. More effectively, this amounts to institutionalized wall-hacks, allowing you to see enemy skeletons from anywhere in the room, as well as whether they are carrying a weapon. X-ray vision in stealth is nothing completely new (Perfect Dark may have been the first example), but this game does it so well that when gadgets of the sort become standard equipment in the stealth action hero's toolbox, they will have most likely done so following Batman's example. Knowing where baddies are at all times is extremely helpful, and going back to sneaking around otherwise will be quite difficult. Besides that, it highlights in orange items of interest such as the many convenient human-sizes air vents for you to sneak around in, as well as breakable walls and collectibles. This presents a minor problem, as with no disadvantage to leaving it on constantly, players will inevitably run around with the screen completely blue-tinted and outlined, obscuring the beautiful graphics.

On that point Arkham Asylum doesn't disappoint. While it suffers slightly from the same graphical problems as most 7th-gen games, with textures and normal lighting giving characters and certain objects the appearance of naugahide or resin anime figures, it looks impressive in motion, and even seems to have passed that textural uncanny valley for some character models, especially Batman's, in game. The textures for Bruce's enormous, manly chin are so high-res you can easily see his hair follicles in glorious HD. And the game takes pleasure in you doing so: during the events in the game, Batman grows an astounding amount of stubble to accompany his battle-torn bat-suit, over the course of only a few hours. Other characters weren't as lucky. Harley Quinn, in her horrifying and sexy new outfit, has hair which appears to be made of PVC. Something similar happens with Poison Ivy, where the vines covering her almost naked body are cut from the same polygons as her skin and cloth, with normal lighting compensating for the compromised geometry. One annoying flaw is the foliage: in 2009 I never thought I would see plants rendered with the 'clusters of leaves turning so they always face the camera' effect, but it still appears even in an otherwise graphically superior game. Those flaws aside, the game looks simply excellent.

The characters are presented with plenty of charisma, especially Batman himself who oozes manliness (er, in a family-friendly way of course). Voice actors from the well-received animated series reprise their roles for major characters, and the new guys they got to do voice work do a very good job as well. There are no voiceovers that fall below the line of adequate. The music is dark and heroic, and fits the tone of the game perfectly. The writing isn't particularly amazing for its dialog, but the storyline itself is fairly engaging. As expected it has Batman facing the Joker in Arkham Asylum, where all hell has broken loose. While following the Joker's trail Batman uncovers a conspiracy involving Arkham staff to produce a toxin with effects like super-steroids. You apprehend various Batman villains one by one and save the day.

The Bad
Overall, Arkham Asylum is nearly flawless. The framerate drops occasionally at obvious loading spots, and it sports the same styrofoam physics engine games have been using since early last gen which often does humorous things with ragdolls. But for a game with such seemingly open stealth combat and pseudo-platforming, there are surprisingly few bugs. In a single playthrough I encountered only two such errors, and neither were game-breaking, one only requiring me to load from the checkpoint which was passed a few seconds earlier.

The game is a bit shorter than perfectly ideal. It feels like it would have been the perfect length if you took on just one more villain before the (somewhat anti-climactic) final showdown, perhaps Mr. Freeze. Nevertheless it should be seen as to the game's credit that it's over before it wears out its welcome.

Another thing that will bother anyone used to games such as Fallout 3, where nearly every single device can be picked up, read, hacked or otherwise interacted with is that very few of the objects seen lying around really do anything. Almost nothing even has physics with which you can knock it around or play with it, as pointless as that may sound. Everything that is even remotely important is highlighted orange when looked at through your detective mode scanner. One can only imagine how much more immersive and entertaining the game would have been if you could interact with the various books and terminals scattered about the asylum.

The PC version isn't inferior at all to its console counterparts, but it does not take full advantage of the platform. There are no options to change the controls in-game - you have to do it from the launch menu. Other luxuries PC gamers might be used to such as quicksaving are also absent. Make no mistake, this is a PC port of a console game. There is some rather nasty DRM present even in the Steam release, which may bother some. None of this is a big enough inconvenience to make the PC version worth skipping.

The Bottom Line
Minor nitpicking aside, as a complete package Arkham Asylum does not disappoint on any front, something highly admirable for a licensed game. While it is undoubtedly the best comic-based game ever, one need not be a fan of Batman to find something to love here - it is an excellent game in its own right, and anyone with an interest in action, stealth, or cinematic games should check it out.

The Good
Batman is been paid somehow as he deserves. After some good films directed by Tim Burton (films that have little to do with comics, but good films anyway), Joel Schumacher buried and destroyed the bat. Since that moment, nothing remarkable, but then, without a great fanfare, Christopher Nolan directed Batman Begins, an incredible film about the superhero that was a new beginning., and the film that Batman deserved. Nolan did what he should with Batman, and the confirmation arrived with The Dark Knight.

This evolution of the superhero in the movies has a similar path with the evolution in the games. We have some good games for the 16-bit (maybe the best one Adventures of Batman & Robin for Genesis), but they're only funny games and nothing more. It all changed when Batman Arkham Asylum arrived.

The most important thing is the fact that Batman Arkham Asylum is not just the best superhero game released, we're talking about one of the best games made in some years. When people started to talk about this game, some people started to think that it was not going to be as good as it was looking at the moment, but when they played the game themselves they realized that an incredible game was released, a game made with respect, an homage to Batman as never made before. Talking about the homage, we have a lot of information during the game with biographies of many characters, as well as many different antagonists selected for the game.

The game is the perfect combination between beat 'em up and Stealth games, that made the game more dynamic. Without a doubt, the Stealth parts are the most remarkable, you'll feel like a true superhero with many different weapons (none of them are useless) and different ways to defeat your foes. Your foes will react at every action that you do in this game, they'll fear you once you start defeating their partners, which is something really funny (for you, not for them of course...) The beat 'em up parts are good too, with a perfect battle system with many different and suitable movements. In spite of this, when you begin the game you don't have the special movements and it may look a bit limited, what's more, in the first battle you may think that his game is just a beat 'em up game where you're only going to push a button many times to fight your foes, but nothing further from the truth.

At the beginning, the storyline looks a bit typical, but when you progress the storyline turns better. The depth of the story is enormous, specially when you face the scarecrow, which is one of the best parts of the game. Facing the scarecrow means facing yourself, your fears and all the things that made Bruce Wayne to become Batman. Every confrontation with the scarecrow is placed in an strategic point of the story, it's good because it made the game varied. The number of confrontations with him are just the confrontations that the game needed.

Music has an important part of the product. It's more gothic than orchestral in some parts, and it's the perfect ambient for the perfect game. The music is the perfect accompaniment to carry out your plans to defeat a handful of thugs without being noticed. Voices and FX are great too, like the other aspects of the game.

Graphics has no defects, making a compact game without nothing to threw it up. Animations are amazing, special facial animation, and textures are magnificent. You can admire that work with the models in the main menu, by unlocking some concrete secrets. Stages are big with many details and different elements.

Gameplay is precise, not just the incredible battle system. Moving all around the island is a pleasure using all your "powers", soon you'll feel comfortable with the controls and you'll be exploring the whole island without any problem. A good point for the game is the fact that you don't have to open the menu to select a weapon, you only have a map screen (and the secrets and biographies) and nothing more, so, the game is very flowed. You have also different difficulty levels.

If all that's not enough, there are secrets all over the island. You'll be addicted soon to find them all because it's not something really difficult, and it's really funny. To help, you can take the secrets map (which is also a secret) in the game to know where they are hidden. That's something good because most of the times you'll find that valuable item once you've reached most of the secrets of a concrete area, and with the map you will not spend a lot of time wondering where the hell are the rest of the secrets.

To finish with, besides the main story and the secrets on it, you have a challenge mode where you have to reach a score (in beat 'em up challenges) or achieve concrete goals (the stealth ones). Stealth mode is specially funny, with many different goals to gain the medals. Without any doubt, a extra mode for a perfect game.

The Bad
There are no things that I didn't like of this game. The worst thing of the game is that it's not long, but it's so funny that it looks that it lasts the half. When you're near the end you'll start to pray for more.

To find fault with the game, most of the big enemies need the use of the batarang to defeat them. Only the battle with Joker and the one with Poison Ivy are different about that.

The big problem of a game like this is the fact that the shadow of the game is going to be really long, and to repeat its success something really hard.

The Bottom Line
Arkham Aylum is one of the best games made in a long time, not just the best superhero game, I'm talking in general terms. You'll feel like you're the dark knight, knowing all the things that you're going to do in each moment making possible incredible strategies for a game that combines stealth with beat 'em up.

Fear the dark knight.