Just a quick note, I wrote this review (and this is a review, not a close analysis of the game) shortly after buying Arkham Asylum in '09. Put it on my Facebook for people to have a gander at, to which it received only 1 "like". Figured for my readers (if any) I'd put it up. While it's not as analytical as it could be, and it's more from my idiot stage of being a student (drinking a lot, going out a lot, trying to shag things a lot...) I feel it still has merit, as I did put a lot of effort into it. The short is that if you haven't, you should play Arkham. The character design for Harley and Ivy are horrible, but fairly accurate to the comics, though what they're doing to Catwoman in City is a bit ott.
Anyway, here it is.
My review of Arkham Asylum
I won’t beat around the bush with this game. Arkham Asylum is great, and a must-play-if-not-have kinda game. You should at least rent it at some point. From the first to the final second you’re dropped in Batman’s high-tech muscle-moulded boots, setting his skills, gadgets and wits against some of his deadliest enemies. If you’re still a bit indecisive or just curious, then read the rest of my review. That is of course unless you haven’t already rushed out to get it, you big nerd.
I’d have to say that this game plays like 3 in one. A spectacle fighter in the same vein as devil may cry, a stealth-predator game akin to Metal Gear Solid, and it also has elements of detective-exploration like some strange mutant hybrid between Assassin’s Creed and Tomb Raider. It is however, all Batman, and while a little divided, it’s far from schizophrenic.
On the exploration side of things Arkham is gorgeous, and is easily the most interesting and well structured gaming environment ever created. It’s huge like Rapture, and as fun to explore as Fallout 3, but without the feeling of areas being copy-pasted. I especially like the fact that the whole world feels functional, like it could actually be an asylum, be it a ridiculously overkill one, and still retains game-play value.
While the whole game reeks of this dark noir, almost Burton-esque atmosphere there’s everything from a botanical garden to a high-security holding cell, so while consistent things never get boring. As you become geared out with a variety of gadgets to explore Arkham Island, there’s an element of covering familiar ground to find more secrets.
On secrets. While the main enemy is Joker, many of Batman’s other enemies and allies are running amok on the island. One of the more interesting ones is Riddler, who while you never see occasionally talks into Batman’s earpiece to goad him into solving puzzles and finding trophies. Ironically, while testing Batman’s wits in a rather rival-kinda way, the Riddler feels more like an ally, as both he and Oracle are unique in that they talk to you remotely, and respectively encourage or become infuriated at your success. Of course, it may just be that is because Riddler is one of the few characters not trying to kill you. Guess that’s what passes as a friend for the Dark Knight.
The Riddler challenges also unlock some back-story on the various characters from the Batman universe, and also allow for you to experience some cameo appearances. One example I can think of is Mr Freeze’s frozen-cell being one of the answers to a problem, or clay-face metamorphosing into other characters behind a wall of solid glass.
While the environment is open and there’s an element of backtracking the game-play stays fairly linear, which works surprisingly well. Whether it’s Poison Ivy transforming sections of the island into dangerous plant-ridden death-traps, or more inmates escaping as the story progresses, there’s always new hazards or indeed terraformed areas to stave off repetitiveness.
Batman’s “detective mode” also serves 2 purposes. When he activates the sensors in his visor, he can see pathways and hidden areas, as well as enemies. It’s essentially a wall hack, and it smacks of the sonar-thing from the recent Dark Knight film (I miss you Heath...), but that’s not a bad thing. The whole game is like a glorious smoothie made of the best ingredients of the graphic novels, the new movie series, and the old cartoons (even going so far as to have half of the cast included!) all blended together.
The combat is also very well done, and I can only think of summarising it as “everything Enter the Matrix should have been”. It’s akin to Creed’s one button system, only it works so much better. It uses the 4 face buttons, a dodge, an attack, a counter and a stun. There’s also a quick batarang and a quick bat-claw (the grapple) that can be used, but these along with the stun move tend to be reserved for special enemies.
The combat is simple, yet vindictive. You can rain hell upon your foes with the attack button until a particularly brave/stupid enemy decides to try his luck, at which point you need only hit counter to cause them all kinds of discomfort. If you miss the attack however, your enemy will get a hit in, and playing on hard that meant quite a large loss of health-bar. If you pussy out and play the game on easy/medium then you also get a nice obvious prompt to help you out on this, though this is also true on the challenge maps.
unlockable (buyable with experience) moves that you can perform when reaching a certain chain-number, such as an instant knock-out or a throw.
This chaining is so fluid, and the counters so realistic that ETM’s stiff-spastic jerks can be paralleled to a hotdog turd at the family barbecue. There’s also a neat little slow-mo that happens occasionally when you’ve stunned a powerful enemy or after a critical hit, which becomes VITAL (in 40ft tall neon-fucking letters) on hard mode, as it’s the only breathing space you have to gauge enemy attacks.
Unlike ETM however, Batman can’t hack the game with his brain, and bullets prove a problem. This rarely happens in regular combat, but a few shots and the big-guy goes down, which is only fair I guess. After-all, Superman has Kryptonite.
Stealth mostly relies on hiding on conveniently placed gargoyles and then picking off enemies one by one. This is INCREDIBLY satisfying. The voice-work in the game is great, even for the standard peon, so you get to hear all their moans and whines as they discover their friends in a multitude of orchestrated agony. Some take-downs you can perform are completely sadistic as well. Leaving explosive spray on the floor and detonating as an enemy walks over it. Hanging upside-down from a gargoyle and then capturing a peon as he walks underfoot, or rather, overhead...
Actually, screw the minor examples, I’ll give you my favourite scenario I’ve played thus far.
Detective mode tells me there’s 6 guys, all armed. The room’s 3 floors, a circle of gargoyles around the top and stair-cases linking. I start by entering the room in stealth-crouch, and taking out the first guy I see with a silent-takedown. I then spray some explosive gel next to the body, and grapple up to the top.
Joker’s monitoring these guys vitals with some tech, and informs them all over loud-speaker that one’s been knocked out. As they all run to the lower floor I grab another with an inverted take-down.
They’re all crouching around the guy on the lower floor. The gel’s detonated and I swoop down with a flying kick to knock out another straggler, before retreating back into the safety of the rafters.
Disorientated and with diminishing numbers, the final 3 pick themselves up. Joker's shrill voice echo’s around the room, informing them another one’s out. At this point I can’t tell whether he’s excited or aggravated.
They make their way hesitantly upwards, watching each others’ back. Minutes pass. They’re more confident now, my visor tells me their heart-rate’s slowing. They start to spread out. Bad move. 2 batarangs knock-down two, and I swoop on the third. When they get back up I’m gone.
They shift around, cautious once more. “Only two left... Wonder who it’s gunna be!” chides Joker. They finally spot my second victim hanging from a gargoyle. I use this distraction to take one out. The other spots me, raises his gun too late. I hit him with a custom batarang. One made to short out the collar around his neck. He falls, and I lay a knock-out punch on his buddy I was standing over.
I love this game. It’s pretty close to a perfect gaming experience. I could go on with the sense of atmosphere, or the mind-fucking Scarecrow sequences, but I’ll quickly list its imperfect failings. A lack of variety of gadgets, which aside from two of ten are all batarangs and grapples, nothing really combatty, as even though you can grapple opponents, it leaves you open to their friends, and the batarang is only useful when fully invested in.
The camera can be a douche at times as well, and bringing up your visor for the wall-hack blinds you for a quarter second, so there’s some moments of lucky guessing on a counter-attack. On hard this is especially noticeable, as you don’t get the nice big “press triangle not to die” flash over the opponents head.
I’d also say that having some Riddler challenges and the secret areas only accessible after getting a certain gadget smells strongly of padding, as it requires some serious backtracking. Oh, and having an on-screen mini-map would have been nice, as it’d stop having to shift to the main map that pauses the game, keeping the immersive experience. I mean, dude can have a wall-hack on his visor but not a gps?
The final boss was kind of a fail as well, but what are you going to do? That’s universal for most games.
Aside from these minor gripes, there’s very little wrong with the game, and plenty right. This is why it might surprise many of you that I took it back to get a refund. See, the problem I have with the game is it lacks replay-value. Even the challenges don’t inspire a sense of “I wanna play”, and I left most of them unfulfilled.
It’s a 12 hour experience that’s sublime from beginning to end, and in that sense I’d akin it to Portal. Short and sweet. It doesn’t however carry the same price-tag as Portal, and 40 pounds for a 12 hour experience that I won’t revisit for about 2 years definitely isn’t worth it, especially considering the risk of disease. Don’t get me wrong, Arkham will once again find itself in my gaming library, just when it’s not the same price as 2 weeks food... or one nights drinking... Or 12 hours with a beautiful Philapinian boy.
There is one minor caveat kiddies. DLC’s hot at the moment, and the PS3 already carries the rather humours badge of playing as the Joker. If you have both good consoles (Wii not included) then get it for the PS3, otherwise don’t worry, it’s not game-breaking.
Anyway, back on topic. If Arkham were given extra maps and extra areas as part of expanded content, then that could potentially “suade” me to re-buy it, as the game could be longer, and that’s something I’d enjoy.
To summaries, a must play game for both Bat-fans and not.
Anyway, hope you all liked this review.
Steve.
As you can see, this is before I adopted the subtitled methodology I use more-so now, meaning it's a little bit more tough on the brain, but probably a smoother read in its way. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!
Oh, and don't ever play a game and not give money to the publishers. I have since bought Arkham Assylum on steam for a slightly lower price. I still stick by what I said, it wasn't worth 40, but I'll be damned if I was going to play it an never give any money to the hardworking devs.
teh_steve
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