Is Batman: Arkham Asylum the best superhero game ever made? We think so.
By TAN KIT HOONG
If we said that Batman: Arkham Asylum (AA) is the best superhero game ever made, it might not be such a compliment.
After all, practically all superhero games released have been rubbish and it doesn’t take much to top that.
Let’s put it this way then — AA is one of the best games released this year, and at this point, it’s certainly got our vote for game of the year.
It’s that good and if you’re sitting on the fence with regards to getting it, just go out and purchase it now.
So what makes it such a good game? That’s not an easy question to answer, but we’ll try to set down in words just what makes it so in the following paragraphs.
Into the nuthouse
AA puts you into the shoes of Batman as he brings the Joker back to Arkham Asylum after thwarting yet another of his schemes.
The only problem is that Batman thinks that the Joker was caught a little too easily this time and as it turns out, the Clown Prince of Crime does indeed have something up his purple sleeves.
WHY SO SERIOUS?: The Joker escapes custody in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Shortly after entering Arkham, the Joker escapes, releases the other prisoners into Arkham’s grounds and sets into motion a diabolical plan involving a chemical called Titan, with a little help from Harley Quinn and a few other villains from the Batman rogues’ gallery.
Incidentally, the voice characterisations are impeccable in this game — no wonder, as the producers have hired the same voice actors from Batman: The Animated Series to do the voices, namely Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as The Joker and Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn.
You’re Batman
If we could describe AA in a single sentence, it would be that the game is a third-person brawler adventure game.
HELPFUL HINT: You’ll know a goon is about to attack you when there’s a lightning sign above his head. However, what I can’t describe adequately is that the game actually lets you be Batman — from the moment the game puts control into your hands, you can engage in some incredible kick-butt hand-to-hand combat.
It’s amazingly easy to look good doing this too as you only need to hit either one of two buttons — one an offensive manoeuvre and the other defensive — and Batman will string together a bunch of incredible martial arts moves that makes you look cooler than Bruce Lee.
Just two buttons may sound easy, and while you can get over the early levels by simply mashing buttons, the game soon throws you into ever larger groups of the Joker’s goons, some of whom have guns and tazers, and in these situations you really need some finesse with the controller buttons to survive.
FREE-FLOW COMBAT: Hand-to-hand combat in Batman: Arkham Asylum is incredibly satisfying and uses just two buttons. Once you get used to the controls, you can, for example high-kick a goon here, then transition to sweeping the legs off another goon while disarming another with a punch and throwing a Batarang (this requires a third button) at the goon just out of your reach.
It’s all incredibly visceral and looks so good that you’d think the game is showing you a choreographed cutscene.
The game also rewards you for stringing together as many hits without actually getting hit yourself, earning you experience points which you can use to purchase weapon upgrades.
However, AA isn’t only about brawling — you’ll engage in an equal measure of stealth, especially where all your opponents are armed.
In this case, facing your enemies directly is impossible — once your enemies are aware of your presence, they’ll unload a hail of bullets in your direction and not being Superman, it won’t be long before the Dark Knight goes down.
SEEING IN THE DARK: Detective mode also allows you to identify gratings which you can pull open and find alternative routes or Riddler trophies. In these levels, you need to use stealth techniques and it’s here that AA really shines, as it gives you a great variety of options — for example, you can use the grappling hook to take you up to a convenient gargoyle and wait to swoop down on a goon that’s got separated from his comrades.
Oh yes, swooping and gliding is really cool in AA, and I found myself doing it a lot all over the place, especially in the wide open gardens of the asylum.
Alternatively, you can hide under a grating on the floor and pop-up behind a goon as he passes over you, taking him down silently.
You can even set a booby trap by spraying explosive gel on the floor and then detonating it as a goon walks over the gel.
STEALTH MODE: Various levels in Batman: Arkham Asylum require you to stealthily take down enemies by hiding in the shadows or perching on a convenient gargoyle. Boss fights in Arkham Asylum are also notable — almost every one throws in something unique into the mix.
For example, there’s one level which has you fighting goons on three separate arenas, with the electrified flooring on each arena turned on sequentially, forcing you to move over to the unelectrified arena or risk turning into Bat-satay.
And guess what? This is only one of the more normal boss levels — we don’t want to spoil it for you, but watch out when Scarecrow makes an appearance!
These sections of the game are some of the coolest (and creepiest) moments we’ve ever encountered.
Dark Knight detective
At various points in the game (not enough, IMHO) you get to do some detective work and use a so-called “detective mode” in the Batsuit to analyse chemicals or objects and then follow a trail left by these chemicals or objects.
DETECTIVE MODE: Using the advanced gadgetry in his suit, Batman can see through walls and identify hostiles. Detective mode also allows you to see through walls and identify any goons around corners, so it’s extremely useful even in the stealth sequences or to find hidden doors, which are highlighted in orange.
You also get a cool “cryptographic sequencer” later which breaks electronic security locks — the game mechanic here makes good use of the controller’s rumble feature and works very well.
SO COOL: The crypto sequencer in Batman: Arkham Asylum takes good advantage of the rumble feature in the Xbox 360/PS3 controller. As said before, you get to do everything the Dark Knight does, and it’s extremely fun and compelling stuff.
The only problem is that detective mode is so useful that you tend to feel compelled to use it all the time, which is a bit sad, because the blue and orange scheme in this mode won’t allow you to appreciate the beauty and detail of the environments created by the game’s design team.
Killing joke
Written by Batman: The Animated Series’ Paul Dini, the story elements in AA are very well integrated, and each villain Batman faces is brought into the story in a logical, believable manner.
In fact, the story has a number of interesting twists and turns and isn’t there just to string together the action set pieces.
SOLVE THE PUZZLE: Taking a photo of a cell inhabited by a famous villain also helps solve Riddler puzzles. No prizes for guessing whose cell this is. However, the game designers have gone even further — those villains that don’t actually appear in the game turn up in various ways in the form of 240 Riddler challenges. Yes, there are 240 of them.
There are essentially three types of Riddler challenges — the simplest is collecting hidden “Riddler trophies” peppered throughout the levels, while the second type is to solve an actual riddle and take a snapshot of the solution, which usually means a cell of a famous villain or an object relating to a villain.
The third type is to solve a riddle and find a question mark hidden by The Riddler, which can only be seen while you have Detective mode turned on.
The catch is that the top curve of the question mark and its dot are not in the same place — you need to get up to a point where you can see both lined up properly and take a snapshot to solve the riddle.
While you can get by without solving these riddles, if you take the time to do so, you’ll get an increase in experience points, which will allow you to upgrade your weapons.
If you’re a fan of Batman, solving these riddles will give you a much richer experience, unlocking character biographies, tape recordings of the villains’ interviews and pointing you to such cool details as Two-Face’s cell.
ADDED BONUS: Solving Riddler Puzzles will unlock biographies for all the characters in the Batman universe. I’m not one to usually find all the unlockables in a game, but I found myself wandering the halls and grounds of Arkham Asylum till I solved all the riddles — it really was worth the effort.
Oh yes, solving riddles also unlocks additional challenges that you can play when you’ve finished with the story mode.
These challenges put you in an arena with more goons, with specific rules and goals you need to abide by to complete the challenge.
Serious house on serious earth
So the answer to the question we posed at the beginning is this — AA is a great game not just because it gives the gamer a variety of things to do without pulling you down with clunky controls, but because the producers have paid a great deal of attention to the story and the world that Batman lives in.
Every little detail, from the combat style to the little snippets of information you can get when you find the Riddler trophies, is lifted right from the pages of comics like Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum graphic novel (notably the Amadeus Arkham monologues) and various Batman comics.
EDGIER: Designs for characters like Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham Asylum are a little more edgy, reflecting the mature title nature of the game. If you’re a Batman fan, you’ll certainly appreciate finding all these little details peppered throughout the game and if you’re not a fan, the game’s solid mechanics and good pacing will still give you many hours of visceral enjoyment.
The game is difficult enough that you won’t feel like it’s a walk in the park, but it’s not so difficult that you’ll feel like throwing the controller at the screen every five minutes.
Having played through the game finding all the 240 Riddler challenges, we highly recommend looking for them all — finding them all will reveal an answer that will tie up some loose ends in the story.
And wait around for a post-credit sequence too.
Pros: Fun and varied gameplay; excellent story and voice characterisations; unlockables are fun and worth the effort to find.
Cons: Some game mechanics not clearly explained.
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