Why Batman: Arkham Asylum is Awesome

By
Community
Published: October 8, 2009Posted in: Featured, Games, PC, Playstation, Xbox 360Tags: Batman, Batman Arkham Asylum, PC Games, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
batman_arkham_asylumWhy Batman: Arkham Asylum is Awesome…
by Dylan Faust
Sick of hearing about how surprisingly good Arkham Asylum is? TOO BAD. I really…really liked the game, and now I’m going to tell you why.
Prior to the game’s release, a whirlwind of hype rolled around claiming the game to be a “good Batman game,” perhaps if these previewers had a chance to play a heftier chunk of the game, this wouldn’t have been their big thing to say about it. The amazement and slaps to the forehead that a “Batman game done right” inspires wears off after the first few hours; what keeps you playing for the 10+ hour span of the game is the amazement and slaps to the forehead that a “game done right” inspires.
As you start the game, your descent into the madness of Joker’s elaborate scheme is rather slow in comparison to the rest of the game, but your initial downtime is spent being treated to some wonderful introductions to major concepts of the game. The very deliberate execution of the game is apparent from your beginning walk with the Joker as the Asylum seems to go about its routine day, adapting to your arrival. An aspect that stood out to me was the forward thinking the developers had when designing the opening. They knew that upon the game’s release, everyone would understand the game’s premise of Joker taking over Arkham Asylum; they KNEW that the gamer would be spending the entire opening eagerly awaiting business going bad, so the initial fake-out is truly surprising and gives you a “hell yeah Batman” moment early in the game. This forward thinking and deliberate execution is applied wonderfully to the rest of the game, leaving the gamer constantly surprised and astounded. When a type of enemy suddenly acts differently than it has the entire game, leading you—who could kick all of their taints without breaking a sweat—to feel legitimately uneasy, that’s a level of game design that separates a developer who’s truly passionate about their product from the crowd.
As you run, glide, sneak, and fight your way around the somewhat open Arkham Island, you get the lingering feeling that something’s very right with how it plays. You may have gotten this feeling playing Spider-Man 2 back in the day; don’t be alarmed, this just means that the game’s world was designed properly for your character. Spider-Man’s high flying exploits made you want to swing freely around an open area, but all that other superhero game developers saw was the successful numbers of the game, and open-world superhero games started popping up all over the place to mostly lackluster response. The point is this: while most superhero’s inherent…super-ness makes it easier to explore an open city, Spider-Man did it first—and arguably best (if it weren’t for that damn Hulk…)—because swinging is more fun in an open-world, not because it’s a practical alternative to cars. Batman is not super-powered. Batman is the world’s greatest detective. Batman’s powers do not lend themselves as well to exploring an open-world. Batman should be placed in a world where there are clues to follow, where there are skulls to crack, and where there aren’t any witnesses. Sure, developer Rocksteady could’ve made an interesting open-Gothem, but they wanted to make something that would stand out, and how different would driving the Batmobile REALLY be from driving cars in other games? Different enough to spend a considerable amount of their development cycle perfecting as opposed to something else in the game? I think not.
This isn’t to say that Arkham doesn’t feel open. Apart from the fact that you can free-roam all previously explored locations—indoors and out—the game’s stealth and combat can also be approached openly. Apart from the boss battles—which really include any time the enemies see you before you see them—you’ll always have as much time as you need to decide how you’ll be eliminating your room full of light AI=more fun goons. Sure, there are obvious “stealth parts” and obvious “fighting parts,” but with fully upgraded armor and sneaky triple Batarangs, who says you can’t have the best of both worlds? The fact that your individual gadgets will often have multiple uses for stealth, combat, and puzzles helps give these situations a fluid feel in accordance to the rest of the game, and give you—Batman—a relationship with every single gadget. This isn’t Prototype; there won’t be any gadgets you’ll never use. Even if you’re the most boring gamer in the world, in order to complete the game you’ll have to use each and every gadget–but for the most fun, try using them in situations where you don’t need to.
The story of Arkham Asylum, as Harvey Dent said to Commissioner Gordon, “plays it close to the chest” for the most part. I force myself to say “for the most part” because there is one instance in particular that you are pulled away, and it’s not good, but the rest of the storytelling shines. Paul Dini of Batman the Animated Series and Detective Comics was brought on to write the story, and after playing it I’ve got to say that was a great decision. The story is authentic and compelling to the point where you’ll often find yourself choosing to play “just one more chapter” only to see what happens next. Every character the game spends a lot of time with is entertaining and always exciting to see. The Batman/Joker relationship is at the same time interesting and hilarious, while Batman’s back story and weaknesses serve as great buffers, so when Oracle warns Batman that “Joker’s going to *insert bad thing  here*” it’s all the more satisfying when our damaged hero confidently responds “no he won’t.”
When Batman’s done fighting inner battles, sneaking around, and foiling the Joker’s scheme–after Batman flies away from the island–after the credits roll, all plot continuation is thrown to the dogs and you’re dropped right back onto the island with Batman just as you  left him and an impressive ongoing fireworks display rewarding your win. This is when the real business starts. All of those places that you haven’t explored, all those oddly worded green messages that keep popping up, those are the Riddler-Challenges…and they’re awesome.
What separates a good environment from a great environment is all in the details; a good environment is detailed, while a great environment is detailed with references…that matter. Half-Life 2’s environment gave you a great sense of place and enforced the idea that it was there before you first saw it through use of Combine propaganda and rebel tags littered wherever you looked, Batman’s environment is great because of its secrets and references to the Batman universe; the Riddler-Challenges serve as encouragement for paying attention to all of this work that went into the world. This great idea is furthered through two new plot developments that can only be obtained through collection on an epic scale, one of which will completely change how you look back on certain aspects of the story. The fact that you’re limited in how many Challenges you can complete on the first pass through—because of the fact that you’ll need certain gadgets to access some—is genius. It’s great nostalgic fun going back through old areas you haven’t seen in ages, scouring your Riddler-Map for the locations before realizing that you’re standing right where you first saved that scientist, or where you fought that boss, or where the Joker said this…
It just all adds up to be something so surprising and impressive. People would’ve been smitten with a good Batman Game, but Rocksteady refused to give it to us. Instead, they crafted one of the most polished single player adventures of this generation, which will surely be considered for game of the year. Well they came out of nowhere, but Rocksteady is on the map now, and whatever they put out next, I’ll be there.
Why Batman: Arkham Asylum ISN’T Awesome…
-The final boss fight, and how it comes to be, seems totally out of place with the tone of the rest of the game.
-Sometimes the lines can get a little stupid. I’m all for Batman being overly badass, but the line “no Bane, this time I break you”? It sometimes seemed like the cut scenes and the in-game dialogue was written by two different people.
-I don’t mind how game-ie the unexplained upgrade system is, but the intelligence of the character takes a hit when he doesn’t just grab all the gadgets the Batcave has to offer on his first visit. Give a reason why next time…for me?
-More boss fights akin to the Poison-Ivy fight would’ve been neat in a game so centric on Batman’s villains.
-The Killer Croc encounter seemed extremely anti-climatic after all of the build-up.

batman_arkham_asylum

Why Batman: Arkham Asylum is Awesome…

by Robo Funk

Sick of hearing about how surprisingly good Arkham Asylum is? TOO BAD. I really…really liked the game, and now I’m going to tell you why.

Prior to the game’s release, a whirlwind of hype rolled around claiming the game to be a “good Batman game,” perhaps if these previewers had a chance to play a heftier chunk of the game, this wouldn’t have been their big thing to say about it. The amazement and slaps to the forehead that a “Batman game done right” inspires wears off after the first few hours; what keeps you playing for the 10+ hour span of the game is the amazement and slaps to the forehead that a “game done right” inspires.

As you start the game, your descent into the madness of Joker’s elaborate scheme is rather slow in comparison to the rest of the game, but your initial downtime is spent being treated to some wonderful introductions to major concepts of the game. The very deliberate execution of the game is apparent from your beginning walk with the Joker as the Asylum seems to go about its routine day, adapting to your arrival. An aspect that stood out to me was the forward thinking the developers had when designing the opening. They knew that upon the game’s release, everyone would understand the game’s premise of Joker taking over Arkham Asylum; they KNEW that the gamer would be spending the entire opening eagerly awaiting business going bad, so the initial fake-out is truly surprising and gives you a “hell yeah Batman” moment early in the game. This forward thinking and deliberate execution is applied wonderfully to the rest of the game, leaving the gamer constantly surprised and astounded. When a type of enemy suddenly acts differently than it has the entire game, leading you—who could kick all of their taints without breaking a sweat—to feel legitimately uneasy, that’s a level of game design that separates a developer who’s truly passionate about their product from the crowd.

As you run, glide, sneak, and fight your way around the somewhat open Arkham Island, you get the lingering feeling that something’s very right with how it plays. You may have gotten this feeling playing Spider-Man 2 back in the day; don’t be alarmed, this just means that the game’s world was designed properly for your character. Spider-Man’s high flying exploits made you want to swing freely around an open area, but all that other superhero game developers saw was the successful numbers of the game, and open-world superhero games started popping up all over the place to mostly lackluster response. The point is this: while most superhero’s inherent…super-ness makes it easier to explore an open city, Spider-Man did it first—and arguably best (if it weren’t for that damn Hulk…)—because swinging is more fun in an open-world, not because it’s a practical alternative to cars. Batman is not super-powered. Batman is the world’s greatest detective. Batman’s powers do not lend themselves as well to exploring an open-world. Batman should be placed in a world where there are clues to follow, where there are skulls to crack, and where there aren’t any witnesses. Sure, developer Rocksteady could’ve made an interesting open-Gothem, but they wanted to make something that would stand out, and how different would driving the Batmobile REALLY be from driving cars in other games? Different enough to spend a considerable amount of their development cycle perfecting as opposed to something else in the game? I think not.

This isn’t to say that Arkham doesn’t feel open. Apart from the fact that you can free-roam all previously explored locations—indoors and out—the game’s stealth and combat can also be approached openly. Apart from the boss battles—which really include any time the enemies see you before you see them—you’ll always have as much time as you need to decide how you’ll be eliminating your room full of light AI=more fun goons. Sure, there are obvious “stealth parts” and obvious “fighting parts,” but with fully upgraded armor and sneaky triple Batarangs, who says you can’t have the best of both worlds? The fact that your individual gadgets will often have multiple uses for stealth, combat, and puzzles helps give these situations a fluid feel in accordance to the rest of the game, and give you—Batman—a relationship with every single gadget. This isn’t Prototype; there won’t be any gadgets you’ll never use. Even if you’re the most boring gamer in the world, in order to complete the game you’ll have to use each and every gadget–but for the most fun, try using them in situations where you don’t need to.

The story of Arkham Asylum, as Harvey Dent said to Commissioner Gordon, “plays it close to the chest” for the most part. I force myself to say “for the most part” because there is one instance in particular that you are pulled away, and it’s not good, but the rest of the storytelling shines. Paul Dini of Batman the Animated Series and Detective Comics was brought on to write the story, and after playing it I’ve got to say that was a great decision. The story is authentic and compelling to the point where you’ll often find yourself choosing to play “just one more chapter” only to see what happens next. Every character the game spends a lot of time with is entertaining and always exciting to see. The Batman/Joker relationship is at the same time interesting and hilarious, while Batman’s back story and weaknesses serve as great buffers, so when Oracle warns Batman that “Joker’s going to *insert bad thing  here*” it’s all the more satisfying when our damaged hero confidently responds “no he won’t.”

When Batman’s done fighting inner battles, sneaking around, and foiling the Joker’s scheme–after Batman flies away from the island–after the credits roll, all plot continuation is thrown to the dogs and you’re dropped right back onto the island with Batman just as you  left him and an impressive ongoing fireworks display rewarding your win. This is when the real business starts. All of those places that you haven’t explored, all those oddly worded green messages that keep popping up, those are the Riddler-Challenges…and they’re awesome.

What separates a good environment from a great environment is all in the details; a good environment is detailed, while a great environment is detailed with references…that matter. Half-Life 2’s environment gave you a great sense of place and enforced the idea that it was there before you first saw it through use of Combine propaganda and rebel tags littered wherever you looked, Batman’s environment is great because of its secrets and references to the Batman universe; the Riddler-Challenges serve as encouragement for paying attention to all of this work that went into the world. This great idea is furthered through two new plot developments that can only be obtained through collection on an epic scale, one of which will completely change how you look back on certain aspects of the story. The fact that you’re limited in how many Challenges you can complete on the first pass through—because of the fact that you’ll need certain gadgets to access some—is genius. It’s great nostalgic fun going back through old areas you haven’t seen in ages, scouring your Riddler-Map for the locations before realizing that you’re standing right where you first saved that scientist, or where you fought that boss, or where the Joker said this…

It just all adds up to be something so surprising and impressive. People would’ve been smitten with a good Batman Game, but Rocksteady refused to give it to us. Instead, they crafted one of the most polished single player adventures of this generation, which will surely be considered for game of the year. Well they came out of nowhere, but Rocksteady is on the map now, and whatever they put out next, I’ll be there.

Why Batman: Arkham Asylum ISN’T Awesome…

-The final boss fight, and how it comes to be, seems totally out of place with the tone of the rest of the game.

-Sometimes the lines can get a little stupid. I’m all for Batman being overly badass, but the line “no Bane, this time I break you”? It sometimes seemed like the cut scenes and the in-game dialogue was written by two different people.

-I don’t mind how game-ie the unexplained upgrade system is, but the intelligence of the character takes a hit when he doesn’t just grab all the gadgets the Batcave has to offer on his first visit. Give a reason why next time…for me?

-More boss fights akin to the Poison-Ivy fight would’ve been neat in a game so centric on Batman’s villains.

-The Killer Croc encounter seemed extremely anti-climatic after all of the build-up.

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