Arkham Asylum

Spoilers 

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a much better game than I thought it would be. I know that’s not exactly the best intro or the most glowing endorsement of the game, but it also happens to be true. I am a snobbish bastard when it comes to video games (and movies for that matter) so not being disappointed by something which could so easy be taken into a negative light is, I think, an accomplishment. Now, in no way is this game perfect. It has many problems. However, I can honestly say from experience that this is the best Batman game and quite possibly the best super hero game ever created.

Arkham opens with a cinematic of the Bat Mobile (not Christian Bale’s Tumbler, but the kind of spiky, jet powered phallus that Joel Schumacher salivates over) skidding through the streets of Gotham. Batman is speeding towards the infamous Arkham Asylum; a repository for Gotham’s criminally insane. Seeing as how everyone in Gotham is criminally insane, you can imagine the place is pretty big. The team at Rocksteady Studios did a fantastic job of designing a dark and creepy environment. Arkham looks like a mash-up of Alcatraz and a gothic castle. It’s a fun place to explore and could be downright scary in the right atmosphere.

The first moment the player has any control is an establishing sequence where they have to follow some guards who pulling the Joker along on a Hannibal Lecter-style dolly to his padded cells. From the beginning, Batman has a baaaaaad feeling about this. Why did Joker come so quietly? What’s his scheme? While anyone with even a cursory knowledge of stories knows that the Joker is going to break out and rain havoc upon the asylum, it is still a very effective introduction. It is eerie listening to the Joker speak. He is an unsettling character and one of the most effective in literary history, including the vast universe of comic books. It is worth noting that Mark Hamill reprises his role from various cartoon series as the Joker and is, for lack of a better phrase, fucking fantastic. It’s easy to see why, when people argued whether Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson was the better Joker, many said Mark Hamill (though I would still say Ledger. I know he doesn’t play the character exactly right but goddamn it he’s so good. Mark Hamill is a close second.) Many of the people associated with the voices of various characters in the Batman universe return, including Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn and Kevin Conroy as Batman. The voice acting is top notch and really helps suck the player into the world they’re building.

Of course, Joker breaks free and starts to let out all of the prisoners/patients and it is up to Batman to save the day. To be honest, the story doesn’t matter. You could put these characters into any situation and, as long as they act like they should, people will love it, and I was no exception. I am not an enormous comic fan, but even with my paltry knowledge I felt a real connection to them. Bane, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, The Riddler…many are present and all are lovingly written (though Bane is reduced to more of a plot device than anything.) Then the omnipresence of Joker runs through the game like a shiver down the spine. If it was a real treat for a n00b like me to see these characters, one can only image how a die-hard fan would feel.

However, while characters and setting are important, there is the issue of game play. This is where I have a few issues. Game play really can be broken into two main categories; beating and stalking. Batman either beats the hell out of every bad guy in the room or beats the hell out of one guy at a time while every other bad guy in the room isn’t looking. The mass beating portion of the game felt a little boring. There were a few cool moves to be employed, but overall the experience felt like just another beat-em-up. A well done beat-em-um, to be sure, but the genre has existed since the birth of the consol and has barely evolved since. Now, the stalking on the other hand, was fantastic. Rocksteady did a fantastic job with both the mechanics of hiding (usually by swinging from gargoyles) and even more importantly, the enemy AI. These sequences would be unbelievably boring if it weren’t for the fact that every time you take a guy down, Joker will come on over a loudspeaker and inform his men that they are missing someone. The enemy NPC’s then search around for their comrade and, once they find him, start to panic. They rove around in packs, looking for Batman with sweaty palms and bated breath. You can take them out any number of ways, including knocking them out with exploding walls, popping out of grates, hanging them from gargoyles, the list is quite long. There is a strange satisfaction to be gained from watching these bad guys wandering around in a daze, trying to find you, and listening to their frantic conversations before you knock them out. That part is important, as well. Batman kills no one in this game. People die, but never by Batman’s hand. What a swell guy.

An element which makes this stalking element very easy and palpable is the detective vision. With the push of a button, you can see everyone in a room and identify whether or not they are good or bad. This is also used as something of a deus ex machina used to find people based on their brand of tobacco or their pheromones. The detective vision is a very powerful device in the game, and one which speaks somewhat to the core idea of the game. Batman, while vulnerable, is never in real danger. This game is not meant to be read as a treatise on the frailty of man. You are given every opportunity to succeed. Batman is a powerful character with powerful tools which he uses to get the job done. Why can’t he have a HUD which can be programmed to detect a specific brand of tobacco? He’s Batman. Rocksteady never wants you to feel powerless because you are goddamn Batman. This can even be seen in the death screen; the menu which shows up when you die. In it, whichever supervillian is responsible for killing you, be it Joker or whomever, will appear and taunt you. They’ll make fun of you for actually dying in this game. You aren’t supposed to die. You’re Batman! It’s not that he’s overpowered, the game does offer some resistance, and it’s just that there are no real choke points. There is no time during the game that you think that this is just impossible. If you die, you curse to yourself under your breath for screwing up something so simple. In fact, even if you were stuck, the game helpfully tells you flat out during the death screen what you were supposed to do. There is no mystery whatsoever. I found this a little annoying. I understand making Batman powerful and almost all-knowing, but it seems insulting to assume that the player just didn’t know what to do. That must be the problem. It wasn’t that the flying mechanics were a little clunky which caused them to fall right into a spore-spewing plant (by the way, the flying mechanics are a little clunky.) I’m not saying I didn’t like the ease of the game or the power of the character, because I did. It would be weird to see a weak Batman. I’m just saying that maybe they didn’t need to rub salt into my wounds every time I made one miscalculation bout how much health I had.

On the subject of a weak Batman, the boss battles in this game can be great, specifically Scarecrow. I love Scarecrow. His sequences are the most interesting, both in terms of the visuals and the narrative. Scarecrow scenes always begin with a very subtle dosing of Batman with his patented fear gas (which could use a better name.) The world changes slowly. Little bits of the mise-en-scene starts to be different. The camera tilts ever so slightly until it is canted at a forty-five degree angle. Then, craziness. Morgues come to life. Batman becomes a young Bruce Wayne and finds his dead parents again. All of this while Scarecrow’s whispers fill the world with horror. Then, at some point, Batman enters a scene that is hard to describe. Scarecrow stands in the middle, larger than life, with his needle-hand waving menacingly. Being much smaller, Batman is forced to hide and run to his only weapon, a searchlight. These scenes have a flattened, almost 2D perspective are some of the most effective I’ve encountered. Rocksteady actually uses platforming, which is one of gaming’s oldest conventions, and the camera to create a sense of fear and a false perspective. It is a commendable effort that pays off with really rich scenes and some of the most challenging moments of the game.

The other boss battles are a little more standard, though Killer Croc’s is inspired, forcing you to tread lightly on planks above the water, lest he find you and eat you. All of the others are fun enough but grow old, including the unbelievably easy showdown with the Joker. Also, fighting the Banes (yes Banes) becomes extremely tedious. It gets to the point where you realize that if you see a big enemy, you know that all you have to do is hit it in the face with a Batarang and get out of the way. It becomes dull quickly.

In the end, Arkham Asylum can be a little hit and miss, but is overall a fantastic game. Some of the moments, such as the Scarecrow parts and the stealthy stalking, are truly inspired, but are weighed down by the boring beat-em-up and some lackluster bosses. All in all, it’s certainly a step in the right direction, both for Batman games and video games as a whole. I’m looking forward to Arkham City later this year, but it remains to be seen if it’ll fit in-between hours of Skyrim and Mass Effect 3. We’ll just have to wait and see.