Arkham Asylum: The Demo Didn't Lie

A month or so ago, I wrote a blog post about Batman: Arkham Asylum, wherein I expressed my high hopes for the title. Of course, I knew that licensed videogames are usually awful, and that superhero games in particular have a dark history. Rocksteady, the Brits behind Arkham Asylum, had only released one game before Batman: A mostly-forgotten shooter called Urban Chaos: Riot Response. I hoped Arkham Asylum would live up to the promises of its second demo, but I didn't expect it to be quite as good as it turned out to be. Arkham Asylum is one of the best games I have played this year – and I have played some very good games – and probably the best single game released in 2009. It's not perfect, but it tries really hard.

I've described the basic gameplay in my previous post on Arkham, so I'm not going to go over the basics again. Instead, I'm going to talk a little about how the developers made Arkham Asylum so successful.

First, while Arkham never feels like a real place – the facility's architect clearly had Batman in mind, what with all the ducts, gargoyles, and breakable walls – it nonetheless feels alive. Part of this has to do with the much-praised Riddler challenges. Some of the "challenges" consist of nothing more than finding hidden question mark trophies, while others require you to find various "relics" of famous and obscure Batman characters. You never get to fight Mr. Freeze or Killer Moth, for example, but you get to see the traces they left on the island. Though Batman can't interact with most objects on the island – if there's a book on a table, you can't move it, nor can you break the table – all the little details help make Arkham Asylum vibrant. There are 240 Riddler challenges, but the developers, evidently kind people despite their Britishness, provide in-game maps that, once found, make it comparatively easy to locate any remaining Riddler challenges. You won't be tearing your hair out trying to complete all the Riddler's "missions."

Most of my friends will tell you that I have far too high an opinion of Christopher Nolan's two Batman films. So some might be surprised to hear that I think one of Rocksteady's best moves was to ignore Nolan. True, there are some aspects of Nolan's Gotham that appear in this take on Batman, but villains like the Scarecrow and even the Joker are far different from their most recent cinematic appearances. More importantly, the game uses a few villains unlikely to appear in a third Nolan movie: Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Killer Croc. All these villains have distinct purposes in Paul Dini's script; this isn't just a boring supervillain team-up. And while none of them ally with Batman, it's clear that some of the villains are working at cross purposes with the Joker and his crowd.

Paul Dini has done great things with Batman both on television (Batman: The Animated Series) and in comic books (Dini wrote Detective Comics for several years), but the TV show had strict content limitations and there are some things you just can't fit into a twenty-two page monthly comic. Dini's script for Arkham Asylum is "adult," but not painfully so – there's not much in the way of blood or cursing for the sake of cursing. There is, however, some wonderful black humor, especially if you take time to listen in on the conversations of Joker's henchmen. When you sneak into a room of foolish and unaware thugs, it's tempting to jump from cover and beat down the bastards quickly, but it's worthwhile waiting to punish them, as their conversations are frequently laugh-out-loud funny. Dini's script only loses its quality at the very end of the game, when something ridiculous happens to facilitate a final boss fight.

Even the weakest parts of the script benefit from the wonderful voice acting. Mark Hamill, the best living Joker actor, gets first billing in the VA credits. He deserves it, as his Joker gets by far the most dialogue of any character in the game – the Joker taunts Batman over intercoms, lectures to his thugs, and even occasionally tries to kill you. Kevin Conroy, another actor from the Animated Series, plays Batman. He sounds great, as ever. The rest of the cast is just as good, but Hamill and Conroy are by far the most important to the game's success.

I've played many games that hide their best parts behind several hours of tedious or over-easy gameplay. Metal Gear Solid 4, for example, has some of the best stealth gameplay I know. Unfortunately, it also has awkward rail shooter segments and a few poorly-implemented fights. I might want to replay parts of it, but there are several portions I never want to touch again. There are no really odious portions of Arkham Asylum, but even if there were, Rocksteady has added a "Challenge Room" feature to help us avoid them. As you finish Riddler challenges, you will gradually gain access to these rooms, which can be accessed from the main menu. Not only do the Challenge Rooms let you replay the best stealth and fighting segments from the main game, but you can also compare your scores to others' with the online leaderboards.

Whenever I finish a game, I think about what I would have differently from the developers. In some cases, it's a lot. With Arkham, there's not much. As other reviewers have said, the boss battles are somewhat weak; there are some portions of Arkham Asylum that are almost straight lifts from Metal Gear Solid, but Rocksteady doesn't yet have Hideo Kojima's knack for memorable boss fights. I'd also like to see more Bat-gadgets. While most of the gadgets are great fun to use, especially the Batline, the grapple, and the Sonic Batarang, a few of the items disappoint. One item, for example, is only used to hack into security panels. Couldn't hacking have been automated and that gadget slot been filled with ninja-style smoke bombs? I'd like to see more integration of gadgets into combat; as it stands most gadgets are fairly useless in a fistfight. Finally, I'd like to see more gliding and more jumping from really high places. Because Arkham Island only has so many insane leaps to take.

I absolutely loved Arkham Asylum. Though it's a somewhat short game, there's plenty of good post-game content, and the game is so fun that, for me at least, a replay or two seems inevitable. If you like Batman and have a PS3 or an Xbox 360, this is a must-own. If you're one of the two people who doesn't like Batman, you should try it too. It just might make a convert of you.

I Should Not Be So Excited: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Many of the worst videogames ever made have been licensed games based off popular movie, TV, or comics properties. For every licensed masterpiece like Goldeneye, there have been dozens of mediocre to awful games with big names on their covers. You would think that a James Bond or Superman game would be hard to mess up, but it has been done time and again. So I make it a rule to not get too excited about licensed games - they may turn out OK, but it's best not to get your hopes up.

I'm afraid the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum has made me break my own rule. True, there have been mediocre (Batman Begins) and awful (Batman: Dark Tomorrow) Batgames in the past. But Arkham Asylum has a new developer, and they really seem to understand what makes Batman work. Batman does tend to punch people, yes, but his appeal isn't based on the punching any more than 007's appeal is based off his shooting megalomaniacs and odd henchmen. What both Bond and Bats have is style - Bond always keeps his charm and his cool, while Batman darts through shadows and scares the hell out of his enemies. He's more a trickster figure than a brawler. Arkham Asylum emphasizes these points: the game takes place on the secluded island housing Arkham Asylum (The Joker has taken over), and it takes place at night. The Asylum itself is suitably gothic, dark, and forbidding. In theory at least, it's the perfect playground for the Batman.

I must admit, the first Arkham Asylum demo disappointed me. It was completely combat centric, and the only gadgets you had access to were Batarangs. The combat engine is quite good - it plays well, and Batman is as efficient and brutal as you might hope - but the best part of a Batman fight is often his dramatic entrance, and the original demo didn't let us make it. The new demo, thankfully, fixes this. Most of the demo consists of a rather guided introduction to combat and stealth, but it ends with Batman in a large, high, and catwalk-filled room facing six enemies; how you eliminate them is up to the player. Here's what I do: I sneak up one enemy and knock him unconscious. Then I grapple up to a gargoyle - grappling works extremely well, which is very important for a proper Bat-experience - then make my way around the room until I am standing on a gargoyle above another enemy. I hang down from the gargoyle, then fall down on top of him, pick him up, knock him out, and hang him by his feet from the gargoyle. After this, the remaining enemies are justifiably nervous and easy to pick off; it's great fun to glide down from the ceiling and kick an unfortunate thug in the back. Like any good stealth game, you have many different ways of going about your mission, many ways of making your opponents fear your wrath.

As much as I loved the new demo for Arkham Asylum, it does have some issues. For one, the titular asylum has way too many bat-sized ducts and convenient gargoyles than is plausible. It makes for fun, but not believability. Furthermore, the camera does take a bit of getting used to, as when you're not in combat, it will automatically stay extremely close to Batman. I suppose it's done for atmosphere, but it does feel a bit awkward.

Arkham Asylum's gameplay seems pretty great, but I was also struck by the high production values of the game. There are unlockable character trophies and profiles, some of which you can view in the demo. They're quite well-done and fairly in-depth; in the Joker's profile, for example, you can listen to an audio interview with him. Furthermore, developers Rocksteady made a very good decision in hiring Paul Dini to write the story for the game. Dini, along with Bruce Timm, was one of the two people most responsible for the wonderful Batman: The Animated Series. Arkham Asylum is much darker than that TV show, but Dini also has long experience writing Batman stories for adult audiences, as he's spent years writing for Detective Comics, one of the monthly Batman titles. Also returning from the TV show are Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker. Conroy does a far better Batman voice than Christian Bale, while Hamill is the best living Joker actor. Based off what little I've played, both do fantastic jobs.

Many people were surprised that there was no game adaptation of The Dark Knight. I must admit, I'm glad we're getting Arkham Asylum instead. As much as I love Christopher Nolan's take on Batman, his franchise doesn't yet have enough villains to support a game like this. Arkham Asylum, on the other hand, features the Joker, the Scarecrow, Bane, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Mr. Szasz. I get the impression other villains appear, especially since there are "Riddler trophies" scattered all over the island. And while Arkham Asylum isn't based off a movie, it's plenty cinematic. When you clear a room of enemies, for example, Batman's finishing strike is shown in slow motion. Plus there is a lot of chatter going on in the background: the Joker uses Arkham's video and intercom systems to mock you; his insults are sometimes quite funny. Though Arkham's architecture is sometimes too videogame-y, it often feels like a real, albeit very sick, place.

After playing the first demo, I was a little worried about Arkham Asylum's prospects. After playing the second, I think I'm going to buy the game on day one. I just hope that the full game lives up to the promise shown in the demo. More to follow later this month when Arkham Asylum releases.