It doesn’t take any explanation for you to understand who Batman is. Every adult, teen, and child knows the Dark Knight and if not, well then you’ve been sleeping under a rock. Batman has left a huge impact on the comic book industry, and so many tales have been woven using him and all the fierce arch enemies he’s made over the years. However, I think there’s a reason why Batman is so special. Not just for his iconic look and the mass amounts of dollars the property has made, no. What separates Batman from a majority of superheroes is that he’s human. Not in the sense of what species he is, but what he is physically and mentally capable of. He has no superpowers, and he has to face the day to day struggles we as a society have to deal with. He lost his parents at an early age, his father’s business got placed into his hands, and he coped with that pain all the way until his adult years. Any friends he makes are either short lived or get chased away. The life of Batman is quite lonely and with loneliness comes this urge to break. To scream in pain and let all that rage out. That’s not what Batman does though. What Batman represents is control. To not lose yourself despite all which frustrates you. He channels the pain into strength, and uses said strength to fight those who have no control. The people who don’t recognize right from wrong, and harm others out of spite. He fights criminals not to just throw them behind bars, but so that they don’t have to feel the pain he goes through. The pain he had to deal with for years.
That’s why Batman is so special as a character. He is good will being found in the darkest places. That’s why Batman at his worst is when he loses control. When he lets all his urges and pain out. When he beats his villains up and expresses no remorse. The Batman isn’t the Batman when all that made him a respectable hero is lost. I’m sorry if this analysis is more than it really should be, but that’s why Batman holds a place in so many superhero fanboys’ hearts. He’s the most human superhero out there, and since he has no inhumane superheroes it means anyone can aspire to be like him. They can be like Batman, and do what is right not because there’s a reward lying at the end but because it’s the right thing to do. Batman is just brilliant. He’s not perfect and has faced numerous shortcomings, but that only makes more interesting as a whole. I’m not really a huge comic book person nor do I stay in touch with superhero media. I have this little thing we like to call “Superhero Fatigue” where I’ve grown tired of the mass advertisement, franchising, and hype of superhero properties. Just gonna get this opinion out there: I think the MCU is overrated and my favorite Marvel film is Into The Spiderverse. Can’t wait to see what the comments look like. If I was asked who my favorite comic book superhero is, it would probably be Batman.
Not a DC guy to be honest, but Batman is more interesting than any other Marvel hero I’ve seen. I’ve watched the Dark Knight trilogy, Joker, and recently The Batman and I quite enjoyed all of them. They aren’t my favorite films, but they were enjoyable and I recommend them. One piece of Batman media I’ve been planning to check for a really long time is the Arkham series. A well acclaimed collection of games made by Rocksteady Studios. Picked up the main trilogy for nine dollars during sale and during that period Kevin Conroy, the man voiced Batman in the animated series and Arkham games. passed away which was really sad since he was one who brought the character to life and made him shine. In honor of his passing I thought it would be a good time to finally play one of the most well praised video game trilogies he helped make. Starting off with where the series started, Arkham Asylum. A title tons of people were expecting to flop, especially since it was a licensed video game, but ended up being fantastic and a 2009 GOTY contender. Arkham Asylum is what happens when you take the character progression of a metroidvania, the art direction and tone of Bioshock, and combine it with other third person acting games from the time. You get a tightly focused experience starring Batman in a house of horror. Ten years later, Arkham Asylum has aged like fine wine and remains to be a superhero classic. Today we’ll be talking about Arkham Asylum and why it deserves your attention. Time to become the night.
Story
Gotham has locked up a lot of criminals and they usually get sent to Blackgate Prison. The most secure prison the city has to offer, but recently a fight broke out. All the goons that were involved were insane and worked for the crazy madman clown, Joker. Meanwhile, the Joker himself tried to assault Gotham City Hall and Batman was called in to cuff him up. Surprisingly, Joker easily turns himself in and rather than get sent to Blackgate he is transported to a place for the mentally insane like him. Arkham Asylum, a highly secured complex lying on the outside of Gotham and has been used for years. Batman leads the Joker in as Commissioner Gordon waits for them at the gate. They take an elevator that leads them deep into the asylum, but along the way they find that Joker’s henchmen who were in Blackgate earlier were transported here as well. Something strange is going on, and a few minutes later the power goes out and Joker escapes. Harley Quinn managed to take control of security, free all of the henchmen, and now they are running around the asylum causing trouble. Joker and Harley manage to kidnap the warden, take control of the place, and send anyone who is willing to work for them to hunt down and kill Batman. Yet, this is Batman we are talking about and he manages to fight all the baddies that are thrown at him and escape the depths of the asylum. Arkham Asylum is a complex facility and within the depths lie secrets. Research and experiments hinting towards something strange and the Joker is in on all of this. It’s up to Batman to explore the asylum, meet old acquaintances, defeat Joker, and survive the night. He may even have to confront old fears of his. Fears of the past.
Gameplay
Arkham Asylum is a third person action game with an emphasis on exploration. All of the major areas in the game are connected with one central hub area, and every new tool you unlock will open up more pathways and secrets. This is where the Metroid influence comes into play. There’s explosive gel to blast open certain walls, a zipline to get across large gaps, a hacking device, and much more. Not every area will be accessible from the start, so it’s your job to figure out where to go and what to do next. There are rewards for exploring though. Occasionally you’ll encounter these interview recordings of certain inmates. Messages left by the creator of Arkham Asylum, or maybe mysteries leftover by the Riddler. Trophies to be collected and screenshots to be taken which give you experience points. I should mention that besides major navigation upgrades and tools there’s also skills. You level up everytime you collect enough experience points, and this allows you to purchase skills from a skill tree. New combos to use, buffs, increased efficiency to certain tools, increased maximum health, and much more. Which brings me onto the combat, one of the more crucial aspects of the Arkham series. Do you remember the freeflow combat of older Assassin’s Creed titles. It’s similar to that, but with a few systems to make it more aggressive.
Enemies often come in groups and you have to deal with them coming from multiple directions. You can bash away at them using basic punches, counter when one of them is about to attack, and dodge when too many surround you and you need to space them out. Keep up the pressure and you’ll maintain a good combo meter. This is one of the few aspects that makes the game’s combat somewhat demanding. If you keep the combo meter up then you can use special skills. This includes a throw maneuver to chuck one enemy at another, or an immediate takedown that knocks a guy down instantly. The combo meter goes down if you don’t maintain a streak or get hit while fighting enemies. The combo meter is really useful especially for when you are trying to take care of lesser foes quickly. You can knock enemies down, but they will get back up and continue fighting you. The second fastest way to bring down a foe quickly is to perform a ground takedown, but that takes much longer than an immediate takedown and leaves you exposed for attacking. The game eventually introduces special enemies who need to be taken down with specific moves. Enemies who dual wield, need to be stunned, and can’t be countered. You have these men armed with electric batons, and you need to flip over and hit them from behind. Then you have armed men who kill you quickly if you take them head on. That’s why stealth is here.
Stealth is another crucial aspect of Arkham as you are Batman and Batman is known for getting the edge on his foes. He can hide behind corners, sneak through vents, and zipline towards high points. He has a scanning ability to figure out where the enemies are in an area, what they are armed with, and who is best to take out first. If you jump from a high area you won’t make a ton of noise like a lot of stealth games. Meaning you can technically hide above an enemy, wait for them to pass by, jump down from where you were hiding, sneak up, and knock them out. As you progress further into the game new challenges are thrown in to make stealth harder. Soon all of Joker’s men will be wearing rebranded asylum collars, and once you knock a guy out a beeping noise will start playing which alerts all the other patrolling enemies. It forces you to either knock out enemies quickly before more show up, or pick them off in such a way where you don’t stay in one area and get spotted quickly. Stealth is done rather well here and at least a lot of the areas are designed for it. If you are spotted you are forced into combat which can either go well or bad. Well that’s about all I can about the gameplay. It’s rather simplistic, because it’s a Batman game and they had to make something understandable enough for the Batman fans that aren’t good at games. They still managed to make a game that was fairly challenging though and the game gets harder the more upgrades you unlock. There’s cool cinematic sequences with each of the villains and you’ll have to topple all of them to get what you need. Good luck bats.
Thoughts
Batman: Arkham Asylum is a really well made game and a wonderful start to what would be the Arkham trilogy. Some edges are a little rough and underdeveloped, but what does work works. The story isn’t fantastic or something to get emotional over, but it was an engaging story. Filled with memorable characters, moments, and sequences. It’s well paced and I never felt like certain sections of the journey were being drawn out. Although I will complain, the intro doesn’t leave a good impression. It’s reeving you up for what is to come, but it takes awhile for the actual game to begin. You just walk down a hallway slowly until you are thrown into a combat scenario. The time I say I started getting into the game was right when they plopped you into the middle of the courtyard. When they gave you an outlook of the asylum and the grandness of the place. I was enthralled with the world I was given to run around in, and I was even more enthralled when the first Scarecrow section popped up. The long hallway I was just walking down started to shift and turn. Transforming into this hellishly stylized nightmare, and me wondering how Rocksteady could make such a set piece back in 2009. However, it took an hour for the game to properly start and I can see this hurting reruns of the game because you have to sit through it each time.
The world & level design is fantastically put together. The rewards you get for venturing off the main path aren’t great, but I liked certain rooms connected and looped back into each other. The many secret compartments hiding behind walls and the way you navigate the world. There were even moments when the game told you not to take the most straightforward path. Spoilers, but Harley eventually kidnaps Gordon and you need to get to him. You enter the front door of the place he is being held and Harley has it locked off. You head back outside and you start looking for an alternate entrance. It not only feels slightly creative, but it feels something Batman would do.This happens whenever the simplest path is blocked off, and it helps make a linear game feel more explorative. The metroidvania styled upgrades you unlock are fun and open up interesting ways to get around or tackle problems like rooms you have to stealth around in. I also never felt lost during my playthrough. Well they give you a map and plop an icon on where to go, but when it comes to the main story they either place enemy fights that lead you down the correct path or label rooms to tell you what they are. It feels like an actual asylum with special facilities. A place that could be operated and make sense. Arkham is a well realized location and I love it.
Stealth is well done and like I said all of the environments were at least designed around stealth. It’s easy to see where you can retreat to, where everyone is, what can and cannot work, and it gets harder as more complexities are put into place. The art direction is mesmerizing and I think all the performances for this game are well done. Joker is the crazy lunatic we expect him to be, and I really love the voice for Batman here. It’s deep, mature, and none of the grotchyness we all think of from the Dark Knight trilogy. There’s a lot to love about Arkham Asylum, but some areas did not age well. The combat I wouldn’t say it’s terrible. Every attack has impact and for the most part it’s fair. Challenging, but never to a point where it’s punishing. However, attacks also feel floaty and Batman can feel a little off putting to control. His movement is tanky, there’s inaccuracy on how far he can attack, and what I hate a lot is how takedowns work. When you are performing a ground takedown you can’t counter enemies which are approaching you. Meaning trying to do so during a group fight is suicide and you just have to keep pummeling dudes even when they get back up. I know there’s the instant takedowns gained by maintaining a combo, but the combo meter is funky. From what I can tell, it’s not based only on how you keep the pressure but by making correctly timed button presses. You can be wailing away at enemies and it goes down because you were button mashing too much. Meanwhile, Devil May Cry does a style meter purely on how fast and aggressive you are. It doesn’t work here because you need those combo charges to perform the instant takedowns. The weakest part of Arkham Asylum are the bosses. The boss fights are bad. Some of them can be hard at first, but once you get their basics down they become a cakewalk. There’s one boss they reuse maybe three to four times across the game, and it diminshes the first encounter.
My last complaint is that gliding feels somewhat underutilized and not many environments are designed around it, but this is a problem that would be fixed with later games. So in the end I do recommend Arkham Asylum. One of the joys of reviewing older games is seeing how well they hold up, and this is one of the few games that holds incredibly well. Is it a masterpiece? No, but I can see why this game holds a special place in many Batman fans’ hearts. In the end I am going to give Arkham Asylum a 9/10 for excellence at best. Now, what’s this city I keep hearing of?
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