I like to think that I can tell if a game is not going to be for me just by playing a short demo of it.¬† That’s what demos are for, right?¬† I’d played the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo when it was released on the Playstation Network in August, and walked away from it not being as high on the game as I thought I would be.¬† It seemed like Splinter Cell-lite, and while it was an exceptionally pretty game, it appeared to be a bit by-the-numbers in the gameplay department.¬† I sort of forgot about the game after playing the demo but the hype train for this game kept rolling along in the media, and guys I trusted from various places were scoring it extremely high.¬† I finally broke down and picked up a copy to play through on the Playstation 3.¬† Did it wash the bad taste the demo left out of my mouth and live up to the hype?¬† Absolutely.
It surpassed all expectations by such a ridiculous margin that I actually felt stupid for not buying it on day one.¬† That doesn’t often happen with me.¬† The list of great comic book games is certainly not that long, but Batman Arkham Asylum is easily atop that list.¬† It blows away any other licensed Batman, comic, or movie game that I have ever played, period.¬† I realize this sounds very hard to believe.¬† We live in a world where licensed properties in games 99% of the time are complete suck, but developer Rocksteady has managed to avoid all the traps that most others fall into and have cranked out something truly awesome.
Batman Arkham Asylum begins with the man himself (voiced by Kevin Conroy) hauling ass to Arkham with the Joker (voiced by Luke Skywalker) in the passenger seat.¬† Batman knows something isn’t right, the Joker was apprehended way too easily, and before you know it, Joker has broken free, has the Arkham island locked down and is in charge of the nuthouse himself.¬† The story isn’t exactly to the level of Dark Knight maturity, but it’s perfectly serviceable and utilizes a shit ton of classic Batman villains in order to flesh it all out.¬† The cut scenes all appear to be in-engine.¬† This is something that would normally doom a game’s cut scenes to being poorly rendered, texture pop-in glitchfests but not with Arkham Asylum.¬† The game is jaw-droppingly beautiful while in motion, so these in engine cut scenes are stunningly detailed as well.
The game takes place over the course of one long ass night and while the game is not short, it’s definitely not too long.¬† The pacing seems just right throughout up until the ending, more on that later.¬† As Batman you expect to get to play with all of his gadgets, be able to kick the asses of 20 guys at one time, and solve puzzles and it’s all in here.¬† Batman’s combat is like butta.¬† It’s a graceful dance, and is heavily reliant on countering in order to string together combos and, well, not fucking die.¬† The fighting is limited to 2 buttons.¬† One for countering and one for punching/kicking/elbow dropping/ass ramming.¬† It’s extremely fluid and has to be experienced to really get a feel for just how easy it is. The longer you string together counter moves, the more vicious your attacks become as your multiplier continues to add up, and if it gets high enough it turns into one critical strike after another.¬† It’s a sight to behold watching Batman clear a room of 20 guys and then calmly readjust his gauntlets like it was nothing.
The gadgetry is like the icing on Batman’s combat cake.¬† It enhances everything- from the Riddler puzzle solving that is spread throughout, to just letting owning bad guys more fun.¬† Batman’s grapple gun will be used heavily, as you will be needing to move quickly, often and to high places.¬† While there may be a silly amount of convenient spots to hang from throughout Arkham, it never gets so distracting that you roll your eyes right out of your head.¬† Instead, you’ll be having too much fun hanging from a gargoyle, waiting for bad guy #2 to walk underneath so you can swoop down, and then take him out.¬† After you disappear back into the shadows you can chuckle to yourself a little more as the last idiot in the room is scared shitless and starts shooting at shadows.¬† Batman also owns a few other nifty toys like the explosive gel, which can be remotely detonated and is fun to watch guys walk right into.¬† One of the most fun would have to be the batclaw.¬† When you see that escaped mental patient across the way, and just don’t feel like moving, it’s no problem.¬† Just fire the batclaw his way and yank him over the railing.¬† Ahhh, so satisfying.
Along the way you will be able to upgrade weapons, your armor and your combat multipliers.¬† It’s all dependent on an experience system that you gain as you take more people out and solve the Riddler’s puzzles, and pick up his question mark trophies he’s left in the Asylum.¬† If that’s not robust enough for you, there’s also a fairly extensive amount of collectibles.¬† Character bios, Arkham interview tapes, and all kinds of other goodies are littered throughout the game and are fun to listen to or read, making the game just a little bit longer.¬† The story involves most of the classic Batman villains.¬† Of course there is the Joker, and in addition you’ll come across Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Bane and Scarecrow.¬† Scarecrow actually is responsible for some of the coolest parts of the game, which I will not spoil.
Even if this game was not the Batman property, I think I’d still love the shit out of it.¬† It falters just a bit towards the end with a somewhat underwhelming boss battle and sort of an abrupt rush to the credits, but the rest of the game is just so great, it’s not much of a problem.¬† I plan on playing through it again and going back to get all of the things I didn’t get the first time through.¬† I still haven’t touched any of the challenge rooms (which you can also do as the Joker on PS3) or any of the other DLC that has being released.¬† If you like Batman and own a PS3 or Xbox 360, this is a no-brainer.¬† I’d recommend getting it on the PS3 for the extra content exclusive to that system.¬† If you don’t, then 360 is relatively the same performance-wise, there isn’t much of a graphical difference.¬† If you don’t own a videogame console, it’s also being released on the PC.¬† In other words, just get the damn thing.
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