Batman: Arkham Asylum

Ever wanted to be the Dark Knight? Ever wanted to use more devices than Inspector Gadget to give criminals their just deserts? Do you just like wearing a cape for no apparent reason?

If you said ‘yes’ to the last question, then you need to check in to Arkham Asylum. If you said ‘yes’ to either of the first two then you are in for a treat. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a well designed game and guarantees its player hours of enjoyment.

Overview

To the surprise of everyone at Gotham, the Joker has given himself up and has allowed himself to be captured and brought to Arkham Asylum: Gotham’s home for the most criminally insaine. It turns out to be a trap and with help from the inside, Joker takes over the asylum and it is now up to Batman to save the day.

Armed with his trusty tool belt and enough devices to embarrass Inspector Gadget, Batman has to take on the Joker, his crew ranging from the eccentric Harley to the muscle headed Baine and even the numerous mental inmates of the Asylum.

Game Play

Genre wise, this game is a mix of action, adventure, puzzle solving and even stealth. This brings up some concern as Uncharted 2 also has a mix of genres but failed to keep neither a consistent nor justified ratio between them. Arkham Asylum, thankfully, does not fall down the same trap. The proportions are consistent, the game flows between them well and each element is well designed and thought out.

In terms of adventure, the player often presented with obstacles (often placed there by the Joker) and has to explore other regions of the asylum to find clues and/or answers on how to overcome them. Puzzle solving is often in the form of the odd device what Batman has to decrypt in order to open a door or activate a required device. To support puzzle solving and player movement, Batman is also equipped with an array of devices that range from placing explosives to grappling from far off ledges.

In addition to this, there is also an immersive stealth element to the game. More often than not, the player will find him- or her-self in a situation where there are more enemies than Batman can handle thus has to work toward putting the situation into his or her favour.

This would have to be the shining feature of the game. Even on normal difficulty, the enemies are intelligent and will often work in groups to give themselves an advantage. Thus, using the surroundings, the player has to find ways to take enemies out without drawing any attention.

As their numbers decline, it is reflected in the actions of the remaining enemies. They all start to become stressed and even start calling out to each other loudly. The player still has to exercise caution though as all enemies are often equipped with high powered weapons that can easily take out Batman in just a few hits. In some cases, enemies are even in the vicinity of hostages and will not hesitate to make them expendable if Batman is seen.

Finally, there is the element of action. If Batman cannot solve a situation with gadgets or stealth, he still has trusty melee combat. While only starting out with light punches and kicks, the player eventually unlocks a broad range of moves as the game progresses: such as the ability to throw enemies at each other. The combat itself is also very fluid and the transition between steal and combat is seamless.

In all, this game does the impossible: take a broad set of different genres and integrate them with no noticeable transition. Furthermore, despite stealth being the most standing genre, I did not find it at the expense of other genres. In through this mix there was balance, and I could not be happier with it.

Story

I will be honest though, I do not consider myself a fan of Batman. In all my life, I only really watched the odd episode of the animated series and nothing else. Thus, I have no other avenue than to analyse the story in a general sense. Despite my lack of Batman knowledge, I still found the story very solid.

Story progression is very much like the BioShock and System Shock games: all character dialog is in the present tense and all back story is learned by finding audio logs appropriately referred to a patient interviews.

I personally cannot find a single fault with this. The logs themselves only contain additional details that enhance character depth. It is still possible to play the game without listening to a single log yet still be given the complete story.

In the event that some history is required, Batman engages in conversation with his allies via radio. These situations only happen in quite transitions between wards of the asylum thus never restrict the flow of game play.

Graphics and Sound

When it comes to games with high definition graphics, it is very rare that they have the colour range to back it up. More often than not, when a game claims to have HD graphics, it almost always turns out to be at the cost of the colour palette. Thankfully, Arkham Asylum follows the trend set by Mirror’s Edge and Uncharted.

As well as being realistic, each character Batman encounters is just as colourful as their personality. From the Joker’s purple suit to Killer Croc’s green scales, this game deftly avoids the pitfall of using brown-scale graphics.

The attention to detail is best seen with how Batman has been rendered. From the flow of his cap to the stitching on his suit, there is almost a sense that such a suit could exist (if one could afford the $12 million price tag). Also, as Batman is subjected to intense battles, the damage is also reflected in his character model. The player is able to see parts of suit rip off and leave holes as the game progresses.

Besides the characters, the environments also take on a life of their own through their detail and sound. While outside, one can here the crash of waves near the shores of Arhkam and the crumble of bricks at Batman attempts to climb the various ledges. While inside, the environments are filled with the typical sound scheme found in any hospital. The buzz of lights, the echo of footsteps and the occasional call from the PA system. All working together to create an environment that actually could exist.

The best demonstrations are the scenes where one villain, Scarecrow, uses gas on Batman thus causing him to go into a world of his own and be haunted by his own deepest fears. Immediately, my worries about villains roaming the asylum were transferred to the environment itself: a twisted wreak of reality where everything was in turmoil and where Scarecrow was god.

Overall

In short, this game has been so well designed that even a person like me who knows close to nothing about Batman is still able to have an enjoyable experience. From the simple hand over at Arkham’s entrance to the climactic battle at the end, there is hardly anything I can find wrong with this game.

While the game makes good use of graphics and sound, its real testament is in its combination of different (and frankly, incompatible) genres into a single seamless game experience. Regardless of one being a part time gamer to a Batman expert, there is bound to be something of interest to anyone in this game.