In my glowing review of Marvel's Spider-Man, I include some throw away line about how certain aspects of the gadget use in the game were borrowed from the Arkham games. Boy, did I underestimate just how much of that game was blatantly stolen from this game and its sequel, and with excellent reason. These games are trailblazers of how to do a modern superhero game well, and any subsequent game that didn't learn from these are idiots.
Well, I've spoiled the ending to this review, but boy is this game excellent! It's a game in which you control Batman as he tries to stop Joker's attempt to take over Arkham Asylum, his home away from home. Arkham is on an island off the coast of Gotham City, so you get a pretty generous amount of real estate to roam, explore and cleanse of the villainous filth that has spread. You'll follow the Joke from building to building, adapting your technology to face off with the devious traps and schemes your hilarious foil has left in your way, and bashing through countless crooks and super villains.
Combat is very similar to Spider-Man in a completely anachronistic way. Rather than dodging, however, you have a counterattack ability that will stop enemy attacks in their tracks and return an elbow, fist, knee, or foot in very satisfying fashion. You have access to a wide range of gadgets which you can use in combat, although I used them very little. You have batarangs, remote controlled batarangs, sonic batarangs, multi-batarangs...you get the picture. The combat is insanely fun, and doesn't suffer nearly as much from one of the main issues in Spider-Man, which is that it's actually pretty accurate when selecting which opponent to attack. The animations are not quite as fluid as Spider-Man, however, and there's a certain joy to witnessing the finesse of the webhead, even though Batman's brutality is its own delight.
Batman, however, is not just an incredible boxer, judo expert, kickboxer, wrestler, etc. He's also the World's Greatest Detective, and somehow this game makes you feel like it. You'll be decoding security terminals, analyzing DNA, tracking alcohol residue and fingerprints, analyzing evidence, and generally being five steps ahead of the menagerie of villains you'll be facing. Batman's "detective mode", a visual filter that highlights weak spots in walls, trails to follow, enemies hiding behind walls, etc. will facilitate your detective skills along the way.
The game has a superbly fun system of secrets in which you must find hidden objects and solve riddles left by...who else? These are a great little side quest, and give you the delightful Zelda-esque rush when you discover a new gadget and are able to backtrack to get that one Riddler trophy that you just couldn't figure out.
One of my biggest complaints about Spider-Man was that the stealth sections were dull and uninteresting, and would quickly devolve into you jumping into the middle of your enemies and brawling it out. Well Batman, without the supernatural spider-sense gifted to the webhead, can't just jump in the midst of his enemies without a plan, particularly if they have guns. Stealth is a must in this game, and fortunately, they made it extremely fun and rewarding.
The writing for the game, penned by longtime Batman writer Paul Dini, is flat out superb. The man knows how to coax all of the pathos he needs to out of Batman's villains, and let Batman talk with his fists. All of the baddies here are pitch perfect in tone, with a particularly genius turn from Joker, voiced by long-time voice actor Mark Hamill. Hamill is the equivalent of peak Roger Clemens in his voice work on Joker, and this is perhaps his best performance ever. He manages to wring exactly the right blend of dark humor, viciousness, and depression out of the character, and Kevin Conroy's Batman is similarly correct in tone.
The visuals for the game are really good, even today. The character models are extremely detailed, and they did a superb job making the creepiness of Arkham truly come to life.
The music is pretty good. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a Batman game, and does the job well.
While I'd like to make this review a hagiography, it's not perfect. The controls can occasionally be finicky and imprecise, particularly in the sections in which you need to glide from higher places to lower. You'll face plenty of awkward situations where Batman will feel clunky. This is one area where Spider-Man is truly miles ahead of the Bat. There are also some points that just don't feel like an authentic Batman experience, such as the Riddler conveniently leaving out maps displaying the locations of all of his secrets throughout the Asylum. I mean, come on. It's also difficult to navigate around the island, as you'll just have to walk/run, and it's pretty big. Getting to the one particular spot to which you want to get can be pretty tough. I wish they'd included some sort of subway type situation like in Spider-Man. The bosses are also not nearly as fun as they should be, and this is another area in which Spider-Man is ahead of the curve.
Spider-Man is the superior game, but it's also nearly 10 years newer than this. This game just shines in its love for the Batman universe, and created an extremely fun and inventive experience that other comic book games should absolutely emulate. Apparently, Arkham City is even better than this one, and I just so happen to be playing it through right now. I just can't get enough Batman! I'll give this one a 9.5/10 for inventiveness, quality, and huge amounts of fun.
-TRO
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