GamerRespawn

As a massive comic book fan and of Batman in particular, I was insanely excited when I heard about Arkham Asylum. But then I also had some worries, would Rocksteady do Batman’s history the justice it deserves? Gamers are more than used to Comic or film adaption’s being terrible, half arsed excuses for games. The world of Batman is so deep and full of lore that it is a very tough job to get a game just right. But now Rocksteady has brought us an offering that will make gamers proud to join the ranks alongside movies, comics and animation with a properly good Batman. Finally.

 

Most people have heard of Batman, but if you haven’t read the comics you may not have heard of Arkham Asylum. This iconic hospital for the mentally unstable has housed most of Gotham’s supervillains. Every good story usually has a hero and a villain and since 1939, Batman and the Joker have become the archetype for the battle between good and evil. The game is different from all the mainstream Batman stories that comic fans will be used to, but still keeps a lot of elements from the Batman mythology and brings all those elements together and makes its own little corner in Batman history.

 

This makes Arkham Asylum look visually stunning. The lush scenery and excellent character models (especially love the way that Batman’s suit gradually gets more and more damage as you progress through the game) as well as the brilliant voice work from Mark Hamill (Joker) and Kevin Conroy (Batman) make this game truly awe inspiring. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a third-person action game in which you play as the Dark Knight. The game starts with Batman racing through the streets of Gotham in the Batmobile, transporting the Joker back to Arkham Asylum. But something isn’t quite right. The Joker let himself get captured far too easily and doesn’t seem to mind the fact that he is locked up again. Add to that the large number of his goons that have been transferred from Blackgate prison following a mysterious fire and you have a recipe for disaster. Once returning him to the Asylum, you escort him on a short walk into the asylum, during which you will get your first look at Killer Croc. Shortly after this encounter you meet up with Commissioner Gordon and the Joker is taken away to be put in his cell. He manages to escape again with the help of Harley Quinn and takes over control of the asylum.

 

As soon as the opening cinematic is over, you are thrown straight into a fight with the Joker’s goons. Here you will learn how to attack and counter attack. Which are the staple moves you will need to dominate throughout the game. The combat system is very easy to learn, but will take a long time to master. Batman moves pretty fast and can attack enemies in any direction with a push of the left stick. There are four buttons you will use during fights, attack, counter, stun and evade. The counter system is initiated when you see a spider-sense style icon above enemies heads and with a simple button press you will counter their attack. To add variety to combat, different enemies are introduced that you will have to use different strategies to dispatch. For example you will come up against knife wielding enemies who you can only beat if you stun them then attack. As you bounce around a group of enemies knocking them all to the floor and using all of your skills to knock them out, a combo meter on the left of the screen will keep track of how many hits you land. As long as you don’t get hit and connect with each of your attacks your combo will continue to climb. It sounds like a relatively simple system, but you will be surprised how good you have to be to get really high combos. If you manage to get up to eight hits on the counter (five with an unlockable upgrade) the combo meter turns yellow and you have the option to do one of Batman’s special moves, be it an instant takedown or a throw move, these help to further your combo and eliminate enemies very quickly. Getting a high combo will provide bonus XP which will add show up as a cloud of bats that will add themselves to the little circle next to your health bar. When the two ends of the circle meet you will level up and be able to choose an upgrade for more health, gadget upgrades or new combo moves.

 

As well as putting Batman’s awesome combat skills to full use, you will also get to employ satisfying stealth tactics as well as a whole slew of gadgets including, Remote control Batarangs and Explosive Gel. The special sections of the game where you enter a room full of bad guys makes you truly feel like Batman. My general tactic was to grappel up to a gargoyle and employ detective mode to get a view of the room and how many enemies I was up against. As well as watching their patrol routes to figure out ways to take them all out without getting caught. You have so much freedom when it comes to taking these guys out, you could simply run in and beat them all up, but you will forsake the XP bonus you get for doing it silently. This is one of the things that make this game as good as it is. Once you have all the gadgets unlocked you will have a whole plethora of options available to you. You can use explosive gel to destroy walls and knock guys out or chuck a sonic batarang to lure them away from a group. But in the end simplicity is the best, crouching and sneaking up behind enemies will allow you to pull off a silent takedown, in which you choke your target out and then escape to safety.

The enemy AI isn’t particularly impressive, sometimes you can jump down to somewhere in real life you would definitely be spotted but you won’t be. Playing the game on hard not only removes the icon for countering but also boosts the AI slightly but there is definitely room for improvement. The Detective Mode can be activated with a press of a button and will allow you to see through walls as well as picking out enemies and telling you what kinds of weapons they are carrying. This is definitely a handy thing to have for avoiding trouble, but it’s far too easy to just leave it on and play through the entire game like that. The boss fights are truly epic and will see you squaring up against a few of the asylums famous inmates, including Bane and Killer Croc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite any little problems the game might have it still excels far beyond anything that could have been expected from it. Arkham Island is split into six different buildings which are all huge and have plenty of little nooks and crannies to explore. Most of the interesting places are locked or hidden behind destructible walls, these will require you to utilise your explosive gel or cryptographic sequencer to access them. On top of all the fights and sneaking about there are 240 Riddler challenges for you to find. Some will simply be a trophy that you pick up, while others give you a riddle to solve and scan the solution. Another thing that you will have to find as part of the Riddler’s challenges are audio tapes. Each of these is a five part mini story for certain characters, detailing various Psychiatric evaluation sessions. Each one of them gives you a little bit more of an insight into the games main villains and why they are so messed up.

Walking around Arkham Asylum is truly rewarding, as the place is stuffed to the brim with little nods to the Batman franchise. You will find newspaper cuttings detailing Firefly’s escape from Arkham as well as a body hanging out of a morgue drawer with a toe tag that reads Ra’s Al Ghul. This body also disappears later on in the game just to add a bit more mystery to it. None of these are an integral part of the story but further add to the believability and depth of the game.

 

Outside of the main story mode, you also have a whole load of challenges to complete. These are split into two main groups; Invisible Predator challenges and Combat challenges. The Combat challenges will see you chucked into one of the locations from the game and you will have to fight off four separate waves of enemies that gradually increase in size and difficulty each round. The aim is to score as many points as possible and this can be done in a number of ways. High combos will give you big points, but the real points lie in getting the Perfect Knight and Perfect freeflow bonuses, which require you to not get hit in any round and complete each round without losing your combo. Try and use as many different moves and gadgets in each combo to truly maximize your score. The Invisible Predator challenges revolve around the stealth aspect of the game. Each level will give you three different takedowns that you have to perform to complete the challenge. These will range from knocking an enemy down with a batarang then performing a ground takedown to harder challenges like using the line launcher to knock out an enemy through a window. On top of these you are scored on the time it takes you to complete the challenge. PS3 players will even get an added bonus in the form of DLC that allows you to play some challenges as the Joker himself.

I’ve already touched on how good the game looks, but it is certainly something that needs reiteration. The island has a perfect balance of creepy and stunning scenery that fits in amazingly with the Batman mythology. The way Batman’s suit and face take more and more damage as you progress further push the point of how much of a rough night he is having. The voice acting is awesome and the score plunges you even further into the nightmare. Sure there are some times when the lip syncing is pretty bad, and the cutscenes occasionally have some graphical issues but as a whole the game is nigh on flawless.

 

Batman Arkham Asylum is the greatest comic book videogame ever made and Rocksteady have truly hit the nail on the head and fans of Batman will truly enjoy this insight into the world of the Dark Knight. The visuals are stunning, the voice acting top notch and there is enough packed in to keep you busy for hours on end.