Batman: Arkham Asylum

Sorry for the delay, readers, but what with Thanksgiving, finishing teaching and starting a new job the time to review has taken a hit. However, I return to the foray with a charming new review about Batman: Arkham Asylum.

You start the game as Gotham's famed caped crusader, having just captured the Joker. You are transferring him into the hands of the police at the most dangerous prison/looney bin in the world, and something doesn't seem right. Joker gave up far too easily this time it seems, and on a hunch you escort the Joker, tied up like Hannibal Lecter, to his cell. Along the way you're introduced to several famous enemies from the comics, all who have a deep seated hatred for the dark knight. Sure enough right when everything seems golden and secure Joker escapes his bonds and with the help of Harley Quinn hides behind a force field, leaving you to fight several inmates and eventually practically the entirety of Arkham.

It's a great setup to a great game. During the intro sequence you quickly get immersed into the dark and slightly unhinged atmosphere, and the first battle brings in the awesome with hard hitting punches, kicks, and slow-mo finishing moves that flow easily as you simply direct Batman towards his target and hit the "kick ass" button. The fun increases when you realize you can use your cape as a fighting maneuver, and a quick throw of the batarang, to stun enemies. Unfortunately, hitting the "give-em-a-whoopin" button over and over again can get tiresome, especially in the later sections when you need to push another button to counter enemies who swarm you while in the middle of a combo that basically can't be stopped (there are also "takedown" final moves that make sure enemies stay down that are almost impossible to pull off due to the sheer mass of enemies who come at you and hit you right in the middle of the animation). So combat, while initially fun, gets a little boring and repetitive after a while.

Once you give a thorough licking to the inmates, Joker opens up the force field from the way he exited and invites you into the madhouse of death that is Arkham. This is where the real fun begins.

Along the way you learn that the Riddler has hidden several little statues and riddles and some odd diagrams that tell the story of the original owner of Arkham ALL OVER EVERYWHERE. He gleefully hacks into your suit's radio and taunts you whenever you can't solve his riddle or when you find a really easy statue. That's another thing about this game...the humor. Every villain has such a wonderfully dynamic voice and personality, especially Mr. Luke Skywalker Mark Hamill as the Joker, and they say such very silly things that it makes the game a lot more enjoyable. One thing this game does amazingly well is bring the atmosphere and character of the comics to life. Anyways, you learn some fun things by collecting all the riddles and decoding all of the Arkham founder's messages, but other than satisfying that RPG urge to find everything and level faster, there really is no value to the side quest. Still, it kept my RPG instincts happy.

The true grit of the game comes in the massively explorable and constantly changing environments. There's nothing like taking off from the top of a big tower and glide-kicking a baddy in the face. Enemies constantly shift places, making you take different strategic routes and really make use of anyplace you can hook to. Of course, you can also just beat them down and not have to worry about that. As you progress and level up you can unlock various gadgets and upgrades that make combat easier and allow for things like spraying explosive glue on the ground and then throwing a sonic batarang to lure an enemy over to it and BOOM. But frankly, as cool as that was there really were no major drawbacks to just running in and kicking everything. Stealth is an important aspect of some missions (where if you get caught you lose), but in most cases it just makes the initial takeouts a little easier.

They added a handy "detective mode" wherein your screen goes blue and you can see enemies' skeletons through walls, as well as breakable walls and other riddler clues. The only problem with this awesome feature is its a little too awesome. There is almost no reason not to have it on the entire game. The only drawback is that sometimes it's hard to tell whether an enemy is directly beneath you or if they're one floor down, but a quick switch off the mode and then back again solves most problems like that.

Boss battles are the standard find a pattern, exploit it so they take damage, rinse and repeat fare. The truly unfortunate thing is that with so many great bosses to choose from they decided that Poison Ivy was basically the only one worth differentiating. Every other one is either some form of Bane (he charges, you throw a batarang and dodge, he hits the wall and takes damage) or is defeated in a lame way. Scarecrow's battles, which should be terrifying, are basically 2-d sidescrolling levels where you hide behind obstacles, and Killer Croc, who they keep building up the tension for, is defeated by a some quick batarang throws and a well timed explosion. Even the Joker is reduced to a Bane-like battle. Fairly disappointing.

Still, there's a charm to Arkham Asylum that kept me coming back for more, and even if it was more of the same it was still very enjoyable. After you beat the game there are various challenges you can try, and pit yourself against the top scorers online, where things like stealth are much more highly emphasized but I just didn't like them as much. While it has its flaws, they certainly aren't terrible, and it's been like....ever since we've had a good Batman game. At the very least it's worth a rent, especially due to low replayability, but it's still a heck of a fun game.

Batman: Arkham Asylum gets an 8.5/10.