The Right Trigger: "Batman: Arkham Asylum" Review

First of all, let me make something clear: Batman is my favorite Superhero, and "The Dark Knight" is my favorite movie. Period. However, I have never read a comic book in my life, hence why I say "Batman is my favorite Superhero," instead of, "I love Batman." Not a lot of people do Batman in a non-hokey or non-bat-nipples way (and the game market is even poorer, because all we have in terms of Batman video games are "based on T.V. show" games or those God-awful lego games), so despite the excellent reviews, I never really had much interest in the Arkham series when it was first on the market. But as the years passed, more than a few friends told me I was missing out, so I picked up Arkham City for super-duper cheap during the Steam summer sale, and I loved it so much that I went out and got on-sale copies of Arkham Asylum and Arkham Origins (despite the poor reception) as well. I have at this point played all three, but I will be reviewing in order of release, just to make things more...I don't know...orderly, I guess. So, with that in mind, as the title of this review implies, the first one I will be reviewing is Batman: Arkham Asylum, the greatest game in the series thus far.

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You get a chance to learn about Batman characters who, more likely than not, will never see the light of day again (1).

The first thing I'd like to address has to do with the point I started this article with: the fact that I've never read a comic book in my life. Well, Arkham Asylum does what I believe every game with a background as absolutely extensive as Batman should do: It educates. The Riddler leaves a boatload of riddles around Arkham Island, and with nearly every riddle, you learn about a character who isn't in the game. By the end, if you have solved all the riddles, then you have character bios on around 40 different characters, if I remember correctly. A lot of these characters who aren't in the game, but who you learn about, are Batman's hokier enemies (villains such as Killer Moth, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, Humpty Dumpty, the Rat Catcher, etc.). These character bios give you the backstory, defining traits, and the Batman comic in which these characters first appear. It is a rich resource for people such as myself. After playing all three of the current Arkham games, I can say that I am much more knowledgeable about the Batman world outside of Christopher Nolan's imagination. This is a major point-scorer for the game; if you know that Christopher Nolan has created unknowledgeable Batman fans, do you exclude them? No, you educate them. Now, all the current Arkham games do the character Bio thing, but none of them do it as extensively or cover as wide a range of characters as Asylum does.

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The Gameplay in Arkham Asylum is fantastic on all fronts (2).

Now, onto other things. The combat in Arkham Asylum is free-flow beat-em-up combat that got some criticism. People complained that it was just pressing two-buttons to win, and I can see where they are coming from, but I think they're being a bunch of babies. Batman could win with only one button. They just had to make it a little more complex than that for us lesser beings. Essentially, you have three major moves: strike, counter, and stun. You need to use all three in order to win, as new enemy types emerge that you need different tactics to beat. The way to summarize it would be to say that it is fast-paced. Now, there are two different kinds of fast paced: good and bad. Bad fast-paced would be Bioshock: Infinite, Brink, or Rage. Good fast-paced would be games like the Uncharted Saga or Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I'm happy to report that Batman: Arkham Asylum is the good kind of fast paced. Once you get into the free-flow...flow...of things, Batman leaps and flips around the battlefield knocking enemies down and dishing out punishment on all corners. It is fast and engaging, and it makes you feel like you are Batman doing this, not like you are watching Batman fight. But being Batman is not just about beating people up, it is also about being like a bat: unseen, moving along the rooftops. You get to do this in the "Invisible predator" sections. Sometimes, Batman will enter a room with armed thugs, and though Batman is strong, he can only take so much gunfire. With that in mind, Batman must turn to stealth to clear the room. In these sections, you need to do silent takedowns or inverted takedowns (where you string a thug up from the gargoyles) in order to survive. But the thing that really makes Asylum stand out in the Arkham series is the variety. Unlike in Arkham City or Arkham Origins, in Arkham Asylum, there are some sections where the Joker tells his guards, "If you see Batman, kill the hostages." In sections such as these, you absolutely can NOT be seen. In other stealth sections, it is ok to be seen, but you need to escape to cover. But in these special sections, you can't ever be seen. But this isn't where the variety ends. There is also a particular section in which Joker tells his thugs, "If you even think Batman is there, kill the hostages." In this section, you can't take anybody out until you take out the lead henchman, who is on the other side of the area. There is also an entirely different kind of section, something other than beating people up or taking down henchmen from stealth. At some point in the game, you need to go down to Killer Croc's lair to find some plants. The only way to get around the lair is by walking across wooden planks that are floating on water. The catch? Killer Croc is below the water at all times, and if you walk too quickly across the planks, you will send larger ripples across the water, alerting Croc to your position. It is a potent, well-done section that forces you to be really careful. To summarize, the gameplay in Arkham Asylum is varied, intense, and fun on absolutely all fronts.

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Can you find them all (3)?

That brings us to another aspect of gameplay, the collectables. In Arkham Asylum, the collectables are managed by The Riddler, who has set up 240 challenges across the map: Trophies, riddles, joker-teeth-for-you-to-destroy, and stones bearing a message from someone named "The Spirit of Arkham." It is incredibly satisfying to comb areas for walls that look like they can be broken down, break them down, and find a trophy on the other side. Every minuscule area of the map has many, many riddler challenges to complete, and it took me a while to finally complete all 240 of them. If you want to 100% this game, then you are going to need to do a lot of exploring, which is a perfect segway into our next topic.

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Even Batman can be freaked out when surrounded by lunatics (4).

Exploration in Arkham Asylum is not incredibly extensive, as you are confined to Arkham Island for the entirety of the game, and the Island is not that big. But that doesn't really matter, because the claustrophobic, creepy atmosphere makes the small size of the map seem to fit. News flash: You are at an asylum, and all the cells have been opened. Crazy people are freeeeeaky. There is a particular point where you enter a maximum security area, and you walk through the door to find you are in a room of cages holding hundreds of people who are barking like dogs, breathing heavily, and looking like they are about to eat themselves. And it is enough to make you suddenly feel claustrophobic and look behind yourself every two steps. Arkham Asylum is not your typical brightly colored "holy halloween, Batman!" kind of Batman experience. It can be really freaky sometimes. If you aren't using Detective vision at the right time, there will be a few jump scenes involving some of the more dangerous, mentally deranged lunatics. At all times, Arkham Asylum reminds you that you are trapped in a mental institution with people who might want to wear your right hand as a hat. Don't get me wrong, it is not a scary game, but it is sometimes freaky; so if the prospect of walking through hallways with people who run on all fours and communicate by gargling at you makes you a little bit uncomfortable, then rest assured, Arkham Asylum will absolutely command your attention.

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Just turn Scarecrow into an ostrich with a monocle, and you have one of my recurring childhood nightmares (5).

While we're on the topic of atmosphere and immersion, it would be a crime to review Arkham Asylum without talking about the fantastic Scarecrow segments. If you are like me, you may know the Scarecrow as one of the villains from "Batman Begins." But after playing Arkham Asylum, I would argue that Rocksteady did a better job with the Scarecrow than Christopher Nolan did. In the scarecrow segments, Batman must endure disturbing trials involving talking corpses and flashbacks. After he endures the psychological trials of the Scarecrow, he must go through a small fixed-camera platforming section in which he must avoid Scarecrow's gaze. It is something resembling a cat-and-mouse dynamic. Scarecrow taunts you and talks about how he is going to find you, and if you make the slightest bit of noise by pulling something down or anything like that, he will start looking around your cover and asking where you are in a disturbing-kind-of-playful kind of voice. These are segments very much resembling a recurring nightmare I had up until I was around 10 years old. Rocksteady must have known that people have nightmares like that, where something is taunting you and trying to find you, so it is a brilliant move on their part to make the Batman villain who operates on fear into this kind of nightmare character. Whenever Batman seems to be having a hallucination, and you know a Scarecrow portion is about to start, you are in for some of the best parts of this game.

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Mark Hamill is very nearly Heath Ledger level good (6).

But all the character depth and well-handling in the world would mean nothing if the performances behind the characters were lackluster. But Rocksteady thought ahead and hired people who have voiced these characters for years. Kevin Conroy is an actor who has voiced Batman for somewhere around 20 years, and his performance is fantastic. But even more noteworthy is the performance of Mark Hamill as the Joker. You may know Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker from the original Star Wars trilogy, or you may know him as Skips from the Regular Show, or you may know him as an actor who has voiced the Joker for somewhere around 20 years as well. Either way, Mark Hamill's Joker is second only to Heath Ledger's. I think the way to put it would be to say that Mark Hamill does the best comic book Joker, while Heath Ledger does the best film interpretation Joker. But either way, Batman and the Joker are well-acted in Arkham Asylum, and it makes a difference.

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Home, Sweet Home (7)?

Can a Batman story be anything other than, "'X' has escaped and he's going to destroy Gotham,"? Well, the team at Rocksteady seems to think so. Here is the way it goes: Batman has just apprehended the Joker easily, too easily for Batman to be comfortable. So, Batman walks with the Asylum staff as they escort the Joker to his cell to make sure everything is all right. But, sure enough, the Joker escapes and tells the Asylum that he is hosting a party, and that Batman is the guest of honor. From there, you go out into the Asylum to find out what Joker is planning and how to stop him. It is a story that takes some Bioshocky diversions (in other words, the good kind of diversions). My only complaint is that it seems to end out of nowhere. All of the Arkham games thus far suffer from ending-out-of-nowhere syndrome, but it is least prominent in Asylum. In Asylum, you are told that the next objective is the final battle, giving you time to go out and find more collectables or do some more exploring, should you so desire. As I will explain when I review City and Origins, as the saga goes on, the endings become more and more sudden. But in Asylum, despite the fact that the story does seem to reach its final battle out of nowhere, you are at least warned.

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Zsasz, a more minor Batman villain who is more compelling than most of the major Batman villains (8).

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a triumph in comic book re-imagining. It manages to not be hokey while at the same time never losing sight of its roots. It educates Batman fans who don't know much about the comics while not dragging on the player's patience. It brings some minor characters into the spotlight and makes them special. For instance, I had never heard of the villain named Zsasz before playing the Arkham Series, but Mr. Zsasz makes some very potent appearances in Asylum (and in City, as I will talk more about in the City review), and his character is well-handled to the point that I was more compelled by him as a villain than the Joker at some points. Character development and delivery is spotless at all times, and the atmosphere is potent and immersive. Gameplay is incredibly varied, and never once was I not having fun. But it goes beyond that. I finished Asylum about a week ago, and I've tried to move onto other things. But every night, I keep wanting to go back and play it again, and that is part of what makes Asylum so great. It isn't a game that makes you think, "I think I'll play that again." Rather, it is a game that makes you think, "I want to play that again." All in all, my only complaints about Batman: Arkham Asylum involved its sudden ending and small map, but neither of these things took anything away. The ending was...embarrassing...but not embarrassing enough to take any enjoyment away from the experience. Combine that with the fact that it didn't seem like there were any load times, and what you have is a flawless game.

10/10

Nice work, Rocksteady, nice work.