Review: Batman, Arkham Asylum

Game: Batman Arkham Asylum
Format: XBox 360
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher: Eidos

Before getting down to the specifics of this review let me first make an admission. I am, and have been for as long as I can remember, a huge Batman fan. I learnt to read thanks to the Fleetway Batman comics that were sold in the local newsagents. Every Saturday I would forsake a lie-in to catch the latest episode of Batman The Animated Series on shows like What’s Up Doc and Scratchy and Co. To this day I spend more money than a grown man probably should do on following his adventures in his numerous monthly comic books. I even went to see the awful Batman and Robin in the cinema. Twice. So you might understand why I may consider myself something of an authority on Batman. With that out of the way, let me say that Batman Arkham Asylum is not only quite probably the greatest Batman game ever made, not only is it one of the greatest super hero games ever made, but it is one of the best games to be released on this generation of game consoles.

The game begins with Batman escorting the Joker through Arkham Asylum after having successfully thwarted his latest plot to kill the Mayor and cause havoc in Gotham city. Surprised by the ease of defeating the Joker, Batman decides to accompany the guards as they escort the Joker to his cell, as he fears that there may be more going on than he realises. Unfortunately, Batman’s fears are realised when the Joker manages to escape with a little help from his friends who have infiltrated the Asylum. With the Asylum under lock down, and the Joker in charge of the keys, Batman must fight his way through the Joker’s henchmen and a number of the more unusual patients in the Asylum.

Batman fights his way through a sea of henchmen, as well as other assorted mentals

It would be impossible to discuss the story any further without first commenting the sublime voice acting work and sound design in the game. The game features a number of the main voice over actors from the early 1990′s Batman The Animated Series Cartoon, including Mark (Luke Skywalker) Hamill as the Joker, and Kevin Conroy as Batman. These actors have been portraying these two characters in various media for nearly twenty years now, and as such their grasp of the characters is second to none. The story itself was written by Paul Dini, the man who scripted many of the better episodes of Batman The Animated Series as well as numerous Batman comics, which helps round out this game as an authentic Batman experience.

In terms of gameplay the story mode consists of a fairly open world; Arkham Asylum is located on an island with several main structures to explore, as well as the grounds of the Asylum itself. Yet at the same time your path through the story mode is fairly linear, as not every area is accessible from the start. At first there is little room for you to branch off from where you are supposed to be going, until you unlock more of the gadgets and progress further through the story, although you can return to most areas at any time. By pressing the left bumper you can activate detective mode, which allows Batman to scan the surrounding area and identify enemies, objectives, and interactive objects in the environment, such as destructible walls or air vent grates. When looking at enemies in detective mode, you see their skeleton, as if looking at them with X-ray glasses on. Enemies that are unarmed are blue, while enemies that carry guns are red. You can also check their pulse rate which indicates how frightened they are. The more frightened an enemy is, the more likely he is to break formation and run off on his own. The only downside with detective mode is that it is so useful that you may rarely find yourself switching it off, meaning you will miss out on some of finer points of the beautiful environments.

Exploration is the key

While wandering the Asylum you are contacted by The Riddler, who informs you that he has left 240 challenges on the island that he demands you solve. These challenges usually revolve around finding question marked shaped hidden statues, patient interviews, and following a cryptic clue in order to find an object of the Riddler’s choosing. Solving riddles unlocks character profiles, 3D character statues, and challenges in the challenge mode. The challenges revolve around the two main aspects of the game, combat and stealth.

Combat in the game is deceptively simple, yet at the same time is fairly deep. Pressing X makes Batman punch, Y is counter, B is stun, and A is dodge. Combat is entirely based around the concept of building up combos and maintaining momentum, dodging and reversing enemy attacks, to cause the maximum amount of damage. The combat itself is really very satisfying once you get to grips with it, Batman deals out a lot of damage, and each connecting blow delivers a satisfying thud. New attacks, weapons, and improved abilities can be unlocked by earning experience. Experience is earned through building up combos, successful stealth take downs, discovering riddles and completing objectives. Eight combat challenges come on disk, featuring online leader boards so you can see how badly you suck compared to the rest of the world. Each challenge features three medals that you can earn by scoring a certain amount of points. In order to achieve all three medals you need to keep your combo going as long as possible, and try not to get hit, while using as many different moves as you can. The combat challenges are by far the hardest part of the game if you’re particularly obsessive about earning 100% completion. As you progress further through the combat challenges tougher enemies are thrown in to the mix, including enemies with knives that have to be stunned before you can hit them, and enemies with tasers that can only be hit from behind.

The real area in which Batman shines is the stealth. Unlike many other stealth games you feel really empowered as you stalk your prey, hiding up in the rafters or on conveniently placed gargoyles, watching the enemy. There is no need to memorise the patterns that the guards walk, all you need to do is turn on detective mode and look for an enemy on his own and strike him down. There are numerous ways to stealthily take out your enemy, from sneaking behind him and choking him out, to dangling upside down from a gargoyle and stringing your hapless victim upside down, leaving him to call out for help from his friends. While Batman is physically superior to the Joker’s henchmen, he cannot survive sustained shooting for very long. If you are unfortunate enough to be discovered, then all you need to do is zip line up to a gargoyle and swing around the rafters. The enemies are stupid enough that they will quickly lose sight of you. In order to earn all of the medals in the level, you must perform specific take downs (press the back button at any time to read a description for what you need to do in each level) which range from easy – punching an armed enemy – to hard – taking down three enemies with one destructible wall. As the challenges progress the difficulty is increased by the fact that the enemies wear collars that ring an alarm when they are defeated, causing the rest of the enemies to come to your location. Bombs are also placed in the rafters, limiting the area in which you can hide.

Tell your friends about me.

Overall the challenge mode adds a decent amount of replayabilty to the game, especially if you aim to earn all 48 medals. More challenge levels are being made available by download, with one map being included with the special edition of the game, and one scarecrow themed survival mode map being made available to customers who preorder with Game. Judging by the sales success of the game, Rocksteady would be foolish not to release more downloadable content, in fact a banner at the bottom of the main title screen proclaims that more downloadable content will be made available soon.

The only real downside to Arkham Asylum is that some of the boss fights are a bit repetitive with the final boss in particular being the most guilty of this. Some might say that the lack of multiplayer is downside, however I am of the opinion that having a superb single player is far better without having some generic multiplayer mode tacked on. Arkham Asylum certainly delivers a fantastic looking, smooth handling, well written single player experience.

Review Round Up:

Graphics: 5/5
Gorgeous art design, fantastic character models, and a dark, yet colourful world really brings the Asylum to life.

Sound: 5/5
Atmospheric music, heavy satisfying punches, and some of the best voice acting in any game ever courtesy of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy. Honourable mentions go to Arleen Sorkin, the voice of Harley Quinn, who delivers as strong a performance as ever.

Gameplay: 5/5
A nice mix of stealth, action, and exploration. The game is just about challenging enough without getting frustrating. The combat is simple enough for casual gamers to pick up, but there is enough depth to it for more hardcore players to really have fun experimenting.

Longevity: 4/5
Finding all 240 riddles may very well consume your life. The addition of the Challenge mode gives players something extra to do once they complete the game, and attempting to climb the leaderboards is fairly addictive. However, if you’re not particularly competitive, or do not care about earning achievements, then there isn’t much else for you to do once you beat the game.

OVERALL: 5 Batarangs out of 5

[starreview tpl=16]

Tags: Arkham Asylum, Batman, Mightyles, Review, XBox 360

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