Finally, the definitive Batman game
You play the Dark Knight himself as he returns a captured Joker to Arkham Asylum, Gotham City's home for the criminally insane. Unfortunately Batman's concerns about Joker's ease of capture quickly ring true as the madman turns on the security staff and manages to take control of the whole asylum, using the always helping hands of Harley Quinn.
Most Batman fans will jump with joy when these main characters open their mouths for the first time. This is down the ingenious decision to bring back the cast from Batman: The Animated Series. So you'll be hearing Kevin Conroy's superb Bruce Wayne, Mark Hamill's timeless Joker and Arleen Sorkin's squealing Harley Quinn. Unfortunately these three beloved actors completely overshadow the rest of the voice cast who all seem incredibly dry by comparison. Most of the major villains are well voiced, but some of them just don't sound quite right for the job.
So the voice acting is a mixture of joyous and mediocre, but you certainly won't find the same mixed bag in the gorgeous visuals. The game was built on Epic's Unreal Engine 3 and for the most part it does a fantastic job of avoiding the obvious Gears of War look. The tone of the graphics is actually much closer to another Unreal game, Bioshock. This is achieved both through the game's colour palette, which changes very distinctly as you move around the free-roaming Arkham Island, and also through the animation which is an awful lot more intricate than you might expect from the engine. It's a shame in some ways that you can't see more of the world, as the camera is often incredibly close to Batman.
There are some truly beautiful special effects though on Batman himself, from tearing to the suit and cape and the way that the cape moves in the wind and wraps around enemies and the environment. Rocksteady have really nailed the atmosphere of Gotham City, particularly when compared to the Batman graphic novels of the nineties and The Animated Series, which presented a realistic modern city, with some slightly supernatural undertones.
Unfortunately, if you're a fan of the realism portrayed in recent movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight then you might be put off by the plot's emphasis on the supernatural connotations associated with the rogues gallery of villains. I had one problem in particular, with The Joker. The game portrays him as a character with a very clear plan and motivation, but most fans have come to expect a high level of randomness and chaos in his behaviour. It works in the context of the wonderful story, written by The Animated Series' Paul Dini, but in the larger framework of the Batman universe it doesn't quite fit.
What makes Batman: Arkham Asylum stand out from Batman games of the past is the feeling of truly being The Dark Knight. Rocksteady can definitely claim to be the only developer to empower the player to do everything you would expect from The Caped Crusader. Nowhere is this more evident than in the "silent predator" scenarios littered throughout the story mode. These involve large rooms, usually with gargoyles to hide on in the rafters and filled with several of Joker's goons. You can use Batman's immense arsenal of bat-gadgets and the room itself to pick off the thugs one by one, gradually creating more and more fear in those that remain. It's very reminiscent of the Arkham Asylum scenes in the Batman Begins film. It's also something EA tried to achieve in their Batman Begins game, but they didn't give you anyway near as much control over the situation as Rocksteady have done.
You can hang upside down from gargoyles and sweep thugs up to the rafters in your cape, hanging them upside down for their friends to find. You can then cut them down with a well aimed batarang from a distance, making those remaining panic even more. You can explode weak walls into enemies or pull them over ledges from a distance with the bat-claw. It feels like a playground of fear and you're completely in control, toying with the guards however you see fit.
The more traditional combat in the game uses a technique called "free-flow combat." It's a deceptively simple style of fighting, using one button to attack and one to counter your enemies when a warning symbol appears over their head to show they're about to launch an attack. It sounds dull, but it's so fast that you often can't stop to think. You're constantly watching for attacking enemies as you'll often fight 10 or more at a time. The simplicity of the combat and the brutality of the animations are just another way that you are made to really feel like Batman. As you progress you'll learn to use the batarangs and bat-claw in combat and you'll discover vicious finishing moves and takedowns. Like the silent predator events, this feels like it has been greatly influenced by the fights in the Christopher Nolan films.
It's not just the combat and violence of Batman where Rocksteady have paid close attention to detail. They're also the first developer to have taken note that Batman is "The World's Greatest Detective" and they give you the tools to achieve it. Batman has a "detective mode" in his cowl which allows him to determine threat levels of enemies and find hidden objects in the environment, like breakable walls and other interactive objects. Some key story moments also require the analysis of finger prints, DNA in blood and other forensic techniques, similar to gameplay in Sega's Condemned: Criminal Origins.
Progression through the story is largely influenced by clues in the environment which lead you to different locations around Arkham Island. You're free to go anywhere you like, but you'll often need to backtrack repeatedly to places you've already visited to collect something to further your investigation. This makes the story feel very stilted and progress can feel slower than it really is. There are no ways to quickly travel around the map either. You have to run or swing on your grapple everywhere. This could have been avoided if Batman's on-site Bat-cave had been located more centrally on the map, offering a hub to make the island easier to navigate.
Thankfully, the developers offer you more than a few things to keep you going. There are twenty suit and weapon upgrades to work towards. You earn these by gaining experience points as you play. Eventually you gain items like a zip-line gun and special batarang variations. These upgrades become essential in the harder boss battles later in the game. The bosses themselves can be a bit too "gamey" though. One fight against a larger enemy involves standing near walls and dodging their charges so they injure themselves. Most of the boss fights are similarly unimaginative, so it's a good job that everything in-between is so beautifully executed. The major stand-out boss fights are those that involve the Scarecrow. These usually take place in a nightmare world covered with imagery of Bruce Wayne's worst fears. It's without doubt the most thoughtful portrayal, in any medium, of the effects of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin.
When you're not beating criminals to a pulp you can take time out from the story to hunt for hidden items and riddles placed around the Asylum by The Riddler. There are Riddler trophies hidden all over the Island and several sneakier riddles which really require a bit of thought to solve. These usually involve some cryptic clue from The Riddler which leads to a hidden bit of Batman history. Completing these riddles unlocks detailed bios for each character and character models which can be viewed from the main menu.
The story will take most players between 7-10 hours to complete, depending on how many of The Riddler's side missions you attempt to solve. The game doesn't end there though. There are also a variety of challenge modes, involving completing specific goals in predator or free-flow combat scenarios. More of these will be made available as DLC in the future and PS3 owners can exclusively access several Joker challenge maps as a free download from the PlayStation Store.
Overall, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a triumph for a developer who is only on their second full retail game and it is comfortably the best Batman game ever made. It's not without its flaws but there is enough content and enough action to satisfy every gamer. Whether you're a Batman fan or not, this just a hell of a game.