The Caped Crusader has taken more than his fair share of abuse over the last 15 or so years. Whether it was Joel Schumacher rubbing ice-cubes across Mr. Wayne’s chest to make sure that the Dark Knight had the awkwardly erect nipples that 1997’s Batman & Robin is remembered for, or sitting down with a friend and being eye-raped as you tried to play through the SNES/Genesis game Batman Forever. The pain we all fault was very real and very saddening. Luckily though, the 80’s and early to mid- 90’s had provided enough quality Batman content through films, graphic novels and after-school cartoons for fans to remain optimistic about the detective’s future.
Fast forward to 2005, Chris Nolan teams up with Christian Bale and what was once a career ruining franchise (I’m sure Bob Kane himself would apologize to Chris O’Donnel), suddenly became a mainstream career launcher. Critically acclaimed and loved by fans alike, Nolan’s Batman Begins brought a fresh spin to Gotham City for film goers. While the movie itself brought a new list of ingredients to the big screen, Batman unfortunately couldn’t escape the video game industry’s movie tie-in failures. Put out by Electronic Arts the Batman Begins game was widely accepted as a slightly above average merchandising cash-in. The game took one-part Burnout, two-parts Splinter Cell and slapped them together to produce a six hour experience that managed to fulfill the markets sad and commercially driven desire for a Batman video game.
Thankfully, some five years later, Bat fans can rejoice as the team over at Rocksteady Games has managed to put out a game that can not only stand next to Chris Nolan’s recent movies, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s graphic novels, but in itself can stand up next to the Bioshocks and Final Fantasy’s of the video game industry as a ‘triple-A’ top tier video game experience.
From the ground up, Arkham Asylum is a video game. Simple enough statement, but oddly relevant none the less. The core gameplay definitely makes no attempts at trying to trick you into one of those “completely immersive” entertainment experience where you’re walking the line between movie and game. The combat is based around striking and counter buttons with a few additional evasive manoeuvres that have you up and running as a hand-to-hand combat bad ass in no time flat. Based heavily around correctly timing you physical advances, the action flows in a similar fashion to that of Assassin’s Creed with you disarming, stunning, and KO’ing the all mighty hell out of the fiends and goons. Your typical goons can be dispatched in good time as combos can be strung together through rolls, jumps, blocks and critical strikes that leave a broken bone wasteland in their wake.
While the battles are intensely enjoyable, they’re actually a rather minor part of the general gameplay as you’ll spend a much greater amount of time skulking in the shadows, crawling through air-vents and hanging atop some conveniently placed (albeit somewhat feasible?) gargoyle statues that must’ve been all the rage in early 20th century Gotham architecture. Planning your attack is as important, if not more so, than the actual attack itself. Thanks to the games detective mode, you’ll be able to conduct an extensive amount of recon on your foes. Studying their patrol patterns and being able to pick them off one by one through a number of trademark attacks and gadgets is what the encounters essentially boil down. However, if your plan goes awry and you stumble into a fight with a batch of goons that happen to be carrying firearms, Bats will find himself neck deep in a shit tornado as bullets act as some sort of life-ending projectile that deal enough damage to exterminate the rodent problem on Arkham Island in a matter of seconds (bullets causing actual damage to your character in a video game? Who’da thunk it?).
When Bats isn’t dealing out the hurt, he’s busy taking in the views that the game’s backdrop, Arkham Asylum, has to offer. Separated from Gotham’s mainland, Arkham Asylum is on an island that, for gameplay purposes, is broken up into three distinct districts. Arkham East, Arkham North and Arkham West. With each district acting as a hub for the games various environments you’ll bounce back and forth between each area as the story progresses and as you unlock new abilities that open up previously inaccessible areas in a very Metroid-esque fashion. The pace in which you unlock these abilities and gadgets keeps the game feeling fresh as the story progresses and the game builds up to its grander confrontations with some of Batman’s more notable villains from over the years. Through the course of Arkham Asylum you’ll find yourself standing face to face with some of Gotham City’s most infamous villains such as Poison Ivy, Bane, Harley Quinn and of course the clown prince of crime himself, the Joker.
To help these foes pop on the screen Rocksteady has brought back some of the original cast from Batman The Animated Series from the mid 90’s. Kevin Conroy is back behind the mask as the Dark Knight while Arleen Sorkin reprises her role as Harley Quinn. Both actors do a more than commendable job but the spotlight is most definitely, and rightfully so, fixed on Mark Hamill as he throws down his cards once again as the Joker. Taking his performance that won over countless fans back in the 90’s as the Joker in the Animated Series and tossing a more sinister and adult-orientated spin on things, Hamill steals the show.
To go alongside the brilliant voice acting is a solid (if not a tad exaggerated) art style that strongly paints the world in shadow. Within the first few moments of the opening cinema you’re faced with one very true reality: This isn’t Adam West’s Batman. From the bone-breaking animations of the combat to the grime-covered walls of the Calendar Man’s prison cell, Arkham Asylum doesn’t hesitate as it strongly strides into the darker more “realistic” world that has been created over the years through the work of Frank Miller, Jeph Loeb, and Tim Sale.
As the story of Batman’s night in Arkham progresses you’ll find yourself digging deeper and deeper into the world that Rocksteady has so finely crafted. Exploring Arkham, while key to the progression of the story itself, also bares many worthwhile fruits. Through the Riddler’s challenges, patient interviews and hidden Arkham chronicles you’ll begin to unravel the asylum itself as you’ll find yourself becoming emotionally connected to the very walls that confine you for the duration of the 15 (or so) hour campaign.
Batman Arkham Asylum is a game that adds up to more than the sum of its parts would suggest. The combat, while visceral, is nothing ground breaking. The exploration and uncovering of hidden secrets has been a gameplay mechanic woven into the industry since Mario first slammed his head into that brick in hope of finding a 1-up. Arkham Asylum succeeds so strongly because not only does it do the source material justice but it also brings enough core elements together to round out the package. The combat is enjoyable, the exploration rewarding, the characters are well written and brought to life by glorious voice acting all the while being tied together through a well designed and beautifully envisioned world. It’s the best Batman game, best comic game, perhaps even the best license based video game ever release, and easily one of the best games of 2009 thus far.