The week before last, I went out searching for a cheap copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Eventually, I found it through a British retailer (Zavvi) for what ended up being about $35 (PC version, of course). It arrived on Thursday and I began playing it through. I completed it late Saturday night, and was quite impressed. First, and most importantly, the gameplay is solid throughout. With a licensed title like this, there is a substantial chance of it being simply shovelwear. That isn't the case here at all. The game plays as a third person sneaker with melee combat and platforming (of the hookshot variety) being rather common. Over the course of the game, you slowly unlock additional combos, movement methods (such as a zipline), and the like.

Aesthetically, the game seems to fit perfectly in the Batman universe: the asylum is grim and dingy, lighting is poor, and inmates are in the drab brown one might expect. The game itself is an Unreal 3 Engine game, but is perhaps the best looking game to have come out of that engine yet (that I've played). It also seems to have overcome the texture pop-up issues that plagued earlier games (like UT3 and Last Remnant). What's most striking, though, are the character models of the villians. All of the models are new and unique, almost certainly due to the realistic nature the UT engine tends to inspire, but nevertheless are extremely good at evoking the characters in question even when the models are substantially different. As a prime example, I'd offer Harley Quinn. In B:TAS (where she originated), as well as in the comics into which she was imported, she tended toward a harlequin outfit of the skin-tight spandex form with a bi-color scheme. Here, she has something more along the lines of "crazy, slutty, catholic schoolgirl" complete with bi-color miniskirt, thigh-high boots (of matching color) and low cut blouse with excessive cleavage. This is a completely different model, but instantly it is recognizable at Harley even without her speaking. They've done this sort of update with all of Batman's Rouges Gallery that actually appears. In no case was I disappointed with the adaptation.

Finally, all of the voices are right. Batman is Kevin Conroy (who has been the DCAU Batman for like 15 years). The Joker is Mark Hamill. Quinn is Arleen Sorkin.

I recommend this game strongly.

Now, there are some things about it that I found frustrating. First, I never really grokked the combat system. I made most of my way through the game using only the basic strike without ever really advancing to the better moves. Also, the game uses a combo system that it fairly unforgiving. Missing a blow, for instance by Batman throwing a high punch above an enemy lying on the ground, causes the combo meter to reset. Being hit or waiting more than about half a second between blows will also reset the counter. This is especially frustrating with the game has an acheivement for getting the combo meter up to 40 (my best for the entire game was 36). I also never managed to understand when I was supposed to counter. The enemies have a trigger symbol over their head when I am supposed to be able to counter, but it seemed random as to whether the counter would work, be ignored completely, or result in my foolishly readying a batarang while in melee (due to the button for counter being shared with the alternate weapon button). Also, a couple of the true platforming puzzles that involve gliding seem to be arbitrary. I would seemingly repeat the same action several times with me coming up very short once or twice before making it on a later try with no obvious change in strategy. Lastly, I am sad that the game doesn't provide a "level select" option once the game is cleared. I can reenter the game even though I've finished, but since I have been everywhere and collected all of the collectables, I am left on an empty island almost entirely devoid even of enemies to fight.

Nevertheless, it is certainly one the better games that I've played recently. If you like Batman, buy it. If you like action games, buy it. If you like Mark Hamill making snarky comments in a crazy-person voice, buy it.

Published by XPost^curses