Batman: Arkham Asylum Hands-on Preview

Jun 29, 2009

Good Batman videogames just don't come around very often. Outside of last year's Lego Batman, it's been about 15 years since a Batman game -- The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES, specifically -- really knocked anyone's utility belts off. It's a bit perplexing that DC Comics' richest character rarely gets his digitized due; you'd think a guy described as "The World's Greatest Detective" would lend himself to untold awesome game concepts.

Fortunately, it looks like developer Rocksteady Studios (who you may remember from 2006's Urban Chaos: Riot Response) found one. Batman: Arkham Asylum unshackles the Caped Crusader from tie-in hell, instead spinning an original story courtesy of longtime Batman writer Paul Dini. I recently took the first two chapters of Arkham Asylum for a spin -- and I couldn't help but recall the following four classic Batman tales (comprising both comic book and screen stories) as I played.

Arkham Asylum

"No duh," the Batman faithful are probably saying right now. Yes, it's an obvious choice... but Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's warped window into the nuthouse that Amadeus Arkham built serves as an obvious inspiration for this particular Batman adventure. It's clear from the start -- as you somberly escort a ranting, raving, and recently apprehended Joker through the halls of Gotham City's revolving-door psychiatric facility -- that the developers put plenty of emphasis on the setting itself. Arkham is a creepy place, with plenty of dimly lit corridors, eerily colorless medical chambers, and distant cries of madness from the resident population. And once the Joker quickly frees himself (with the handy help of some inside men) and establishes control of the facility, it becomes an out-and-out spook-house with danger at every turn.

The Joker serves as a twisted narrator during the game, egging you on as you comb the asylum and its expansive island grounds for the clown prince and his captive police commissioner. A map of the island points you ever-forward toward your next objective, and what starts out as "Find Commissioner Gordon" quickly turns into a cavalcade of mini-missions that include everything from protecting Arkham's staff to deterring a gang of miscreants away from vandalizing the Batmobile. One particularly memorable sequence of events -- which I won't spoil here, save to say that it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end -- takes place in Arkham's morgue, and almost made me wonder how this game escaped the hawk-eyed ESRB with a Teen rating.

Batman Begins

One of the chief criticisms leveled at Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer's 2005 big-screen Batman reboot was that its action scenes felt too cramped -- frantic flashes of chaos in the darkness, devoid of any (discernable) fight choreography. I maintain the less-popular opinion that these parts were pitch-perfect, as the fights unfolded in a sort of slasher-flick way, with Batman as the invincible monster who pops out of the darkness just long enough to take out his hapless victim. He's the predator, they're the prey... and whether you dig the camerawork or not, "Batman Begins" makes us believe their fear.

Obviously, Arkham Asylum's action isn't quite so confined, but its best combat sequences retain that tense relationship between Batman and his enemies. When you see a group of armed thugs fan out in search of the Dark Knight, it's time to grapple up to unseen vantage points (Arkham is conveniently decorated with myriad stone gargoyle statues) and stalk targets one by one. These stealth segments feel a little bit like Metal Gear Lite, but I mean that in a positive light -- isolating a target, gliding down behind him to perform a silent takedown, and then escaping back to the shadows to watch his comrades discover your handiwork is devilishly fulfilling.

Toe-to-toe combat, on the other hand, isn't quite as engaging. Run into a gaggle of escaped inmates (which is pretty much the new status quo, given the Joker's self-appointed rulership), and the game turns into what is quite frankly an exercise in button-mashing. It's certainly cool to watch Batman effortlessly glide around the room and take down six guys at once, but it really doesn't require you to do much beyond jam a couple of buttons in fairly mindless fashion. An experience point system allows Batman to upgrade his moves every now and again, which (at least this early in the game) makes things even easier. Some of the boss fights -- notably, a brawl with Bane after you finally locate the captive Gordon -- involve a bit of tactical consideration, but I definitely found myself wishing for ways to sidestep most of the regular combat scenarios, as I vastly prefer the stealth approach to full-on melee.

Batman: Detective

OK, so Batman: Detective isn't a Batman story... rather, it's a series of one-shot comics (written by the aforementioned Paul Dini) that focus a great deal on Batman's detective work (see also: the follow-up volume, Batman: Death in the City). Arkham Asylum places a welcome emphasis on Batman's analytical side, with exploration and environmental puzzles comprising a healthy majority of the adventure. A quick tap on one of the shoulder buttons enables Detective Vision, which allows Batman to see heat signatures through walls (and plan accordingly for combat situations), scan the environment for evidence (which leads to a handful of annoying hunt-the-pixel scenarios), and quickly note nearby objects he can interact with.

In fact, Detective Vision is so necessary and so useful that you rarely have a reason to turn it off. From locating the many (many) air vents inside the asylum, to identifying weak surfaces that are susceptible to Batman's explosive gel, to pinpointing malfunctioning fans that just need a little batarang-powered kick to turn on (and thus clear a given room of the Joker's deadly laughing gas), this mode is essentially mandatory unless you're in the middle of a fight.

Thankfully, you're encouraged to find ways around direct combat during key story encounters, usually due to a hostage who gets popped (read: Game Over) if anyone sees you coming. At one point, Joker-groupie-cum-girlfriend Harley Quinn challenges you to take her (and a roving entourage) down without alerting anyone to your presence; this is one of several sequences that rewards patient gamers, as those who go in with batarangs blazing won't have much success (fortunately, frequent checkpoints minimize grief when it comes to botched stealth ops).

Batman: The Animated Series

It might seem like a trivial thing, but the fact that Arkham Asylum makes copious use of fan-favorite voice actors from Batman: The Animated Series really sells the characters and the story that much more. Notably, Batman (Kevin Conroy), the Joker (Mark Hamill), and Harley Quinn (the inimitable Arleen Sorkin -- reprising a character whose trademark voice absolutely defines her) are performed admirably, although Harley's newly sexed-up costume makes her look like she's ready for a Suicide Girls photo shoot. The fact that B:TAS writer/producer Dini was responsible for Arkham Asylum's script only legitimizes the cast choices further, sort of positioning the game as a spiritual successor to one of the greatest animated series ever created. Now if only my favorite animated Batman baddie, the Clock King, could make an appearance....