Batman is a really cool superhero. I could write an entire Factoid about how cool Batman is, but two of the key points would be his tragic, dark past and the fact that he is not really a superhero, not a supernatural one anyway. He has no powers. He is simply a super intelligent human who has been trained to the peak physical condition and extremely well equipped.
Batman video games on the other hand, have not always lived up to the coolness of the character. In a word, up to this point, they have sucked. Up until now, it has been very hard to transfer Batman’s abilities into a video game that is fun. Make note of the phrase “up until now”. Batman: Arkham Asylum is great.
For those not up on Batman lore, the Arkham Asylum in the title is the maximum security insane asylum where Batman sends the villains he defeats. This is not to be confused with the Blackgate Prison where normal criminals are sent, but Arkham is where the really famous Batman villains are sent. The Joker, Poison Ivy and the Riddler all dwell in Arkham. It is situated on a small island in the Gotham City Bay, and it is on this island that the game takes place. At the beginning of the game, the Joker has escaped and has just been recaptured. Batman returns him to Arkham where he escapes–again–and launches a plan to take over the island and poison the city’s water supply. It’s up to you, as Batman, to stop him.
That’s the plot, and in execution, it’s very good, but more important, in a game is it’s gameplay. And that’s great too. The gameplay breaks down into three basic segments: armed combat, unarmed combat and what I will call ‘puzzles’. I will look at each phase individually.
-Unarmed combat - this is the most straightforward and easily understood segment of the gameplay. As Batman, you hit people until they fall down. Combat is simple - you mainly mash the X button to hit, while occasionally dodging, countering and stunning enemies with your cape. But, because of the fluidity with which attack combos are linked and general brutality of some of the hits Batman pulls off, unarmed combat is fantastically rewarding.
-Armed combat - because of Batman’s past, he never uses guns. But because he is really just a human underneath that outfit of his, he is vulnerable to them. When facing armed opponents, Batman cannot fight them directly. He has to sneak around, swoop down on them and take them out one by one. This is one of my favourite parts of the game. As your opponents fall one by one, their allies gradually become more and more panicked. When you’ve knocked out 3 or 4, the remaining 2 will begin to really freak out, shooting at anything that they think they saw move. These segments are almost like puzzles, trying to find the right way to take the men out.
-Puzzles - Batman has a lot of gadgets: the batarang, various grappling hooks and explosive gel, to name a few. The puzzles mainly involve using these tools to get from place to place. There are also the Riddler challenges–special, optional side parts that involve collecting things like patient tapes and trophies.
There are also the Scarecrow segments, where Batman gets gassed by the Scarecrow’s fear gas. I can’t go into too much detail with these segments without spoiling some of the fun of the game, but suffice it to say, these are probably the single best part of the game.
The only complaints I have is the fact that it resembles the structure of a Castlevania or a Metroid game a little too closely. There are a lot of passageways that remain blocked off until you acquire the proper tools to open them. It’s fine from a gameplay perspective, but those inaccessible passageways always bother me.
The other complaint is a truly minor nitpick: while the graphics are very good, the characters’ skins seem to be a little too shiny and plastic looking. It might be explainable as sweat, but that would mean that every character is sweating profusely all the time.
But those are just minor nitpicks in what is a great game.
