Vital Stats

Genre: Action Adventure
Players: 1
Online: None

Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
ESRB Rating: T
Release Date: 8/25/09

Platforms

• Xbox 360
• PC
• PS3

It’s a tired fact that licensed games try to span two entertainment media and so fail at both. The license does little justice to the source material, and the source constrains player agency. So instead of a good license or a good game, you get half of each. However, now and again, the source material dovetails with established genres. Lucky for Batman, he already lives in an action adventure game.

Batman is a dream license. The adventures of a costumed crusader who stalks and pummels bad guys practically adapt themselves to action adventure games, brawlers, and even stealth. Any developer holding the license practically has carte blanche to code whatever kind of game they love. So it’s strange to discover that Batman games have been all over the map in the past twenty years or so.

So it’s good news that Batman: Arkham Asylum falls on the high end of that chart. Small wonder too, because game builds a solid action-adventure foundation, with the Batman elements buttressing the design with some inventive tweaks.

It must be so hard to keep from laughing.

Places to Go, People to Beat
Arkham Asylum revolves primarily around the Joker’s plot to seize control of Gotham’s asylum for the criminally insane. The mad clown cherry picks a tourist’s guide to Batman’s foes, and each takes over a chunk of the institution. You spend most of the game tracking each one down to deny the undeserved parole by fist and by gadget.

Exploration is probably the most standout part of the game. Arkham asylum has been lovingly rendered to be brooding and gothic, but without sacrificing smart level design. From its cluttered corridors to the yawning courtyard, the island is packed with so much detail that you can forget that most of the asylum is painted gray.

Of course, it’s easy to love (but not savor) scenery as you’re zipping past it on the end of a grapple gun. Nearly every convex corner in the game is a potential grapple point, and it’s a joy to poke around the nooks in Arkham’s cement honeycomb. The developers noticed this as well, and riddled the game with trophies, taped interviews with the villains, and fobs of all kinds. It could be argued that there are so many of these collectibles that they drag down the pacing of exploration, but anyone who resists the completionist instinct can simply expect nice perks for poking around.

Even if you’re not a huge fan of winding your way through a huge 3D maze, the game has an olive branch to extend. You can enter detective mode with a button press, which runs the gray environment through a color filter and lays bare all the interactive elements in the world. You can see enemies through walls, potential grapple targets, and hidden collectibles. It’s a handy tool that speeds your passage without undermining agency.

Speaking of enemies, you’ll encounter groups of cannon fodder inmates as you slip from place to place. It’s possible to pass unnoticed over their heads, but administering a beating offers more satisfying thuds. There’s surprising depth in Arkham Asylum‘s pushbutton combat. Single presses let you attack, counter, and stun your enemies, and Batman will spring halfway across a room to hit your chosen target. These adroit mechanics allow the dark knight to manage crowds of twenty foes. Combat therefore gravitates away from tedious combo stringing and toward channeling the pack so they can’t overwhelm you. It’s an agile take on God of War‘s strength-driven combat system that feels fresher for the difference.

The instructions probably read, “Point away from face.”

Before you wade into the thick of combat, you can even the odds by picking off weapon-toting enemies. Careful application of the grapple gun will let you position yourself undetected in the local architecture. This lets you string the unaware from gargoyles, soften them up with batarangs, or just glide into melee range feet first for a free knockdown. A clever bit of AI work has made Arkham Asyum‘s fodder enemies a cowardly lot, and the enemy ranks become increasingly frightened as they dwindle. Enemies start out working together, but cooperation collapses as they jump at shadows. It’s a predatory take on stealth gameplay that’s empowering and fun.

The Family Belfry
Arkham Asylum‘s photorealistic art style belies its lineage. If anything, it’s less closely related to Batman’s cinematic outings than to Batman: The Animated Series. The game draws its most prominent voice talent from the acclaimed cartoon, along with characters and writers. The old hands turn in mostly exemplary performances (Mark Hammil screeching as the Joker never ceases to amaze), though some of Harley Quinn’s lines are awkward.

If anything, the weak link in the production values is the photorealism. Far from a lack of quality or polish, the real problem is that the style can’t quite claw its way out of the uncanny valley. The problems are subtle, like improper eye contact or occasionally unnatural body animation, but they mar characterization by making the villains unsettling for the wrong reasons.

The Bat-Summary
It’s not often that you can say that a licensed game makes good use of both license and game, but games like Batman: Arkham Asylum are reminders that we shouldn’t write the idea off entirely. The gameplay is accessible enough to justify casual gamer interest, if only as a rental. More invested gamers, however, will find a tactical sandbox of stealth and brawling that punctuates exploration of a richly-detailed world. This one’s a keeper.

What It Costs: $50

What It’s Worth:
•To The Hardcore: $60 (buy)
•To The Genre Fan: $60 (buy)
•To The Casual: $40 (rent)