Batman is an amazing superhero game distinguished by an enjoyable story with some nice stealth action and free flowing melee combat.
Posted by nutcrackr on Oct 1, 2009 06:15 (337 days ago)
The game isn’t just about combat and a good story; it also distributes Riddler puzzles, detective mode challenges and some simple platforming elements. Platforming in general is mostly about using the grapple to ascend, but there is also gliding with your cape and using a zip line to travel a horizontal distance. It’s not a heavy platforming game, the existing elements feel relatively natural and not a separate sub game. Part of this platforming is also included in the combat, when you are taking out armed guards in the towers or on gargoyles for example, plus floating with your cape from high above the island is pretty cool almost every time you do it. Detective mode is used as part of the story in order to track enemies or friendlies. This basically means you scan an area for a particular chemical, such as alcohol, and then this chemical is highlighted in the world for you to follow. There is nothing incredibly amazing to it; basically it’s just a really clever way to avoid using unnatural arrows and making the breadcrumbs part of the world rather than taking you out of it. The detective mode also shows enemies through walls via x-ray type vision, although this makes normal vision very inferior taking away some of the presentation. Finally the Riddler, who doesn’t actually make an appearance in the game, has left lots of puzzles across the island to find. Maps will reveal their locations but you will be given a list of items in your menu to find or complete. These can range from destroying blabbermouth teeth, lining up question mark symbols, or finding question marks trophies. Finally many of the combat scenarios in the game (both stealth and hand-to-hand) can be repeated via challenge modes outside the story mode. Your goal here is to take out grunts quickly in the case of stealth, or score high combo points when engaging in melee combat. This element would be very enjoyable for those that really feel on top of the combat. Although most of the game is enjoyable there are some situations that recur a little too much.
Repetition is perhaps Batman’s worst enemy in the game and at times they push the limits of how often something can be done before you get sick of it, especially early on. The game tries to minimize the amount of repetition by changing things in subtle ways, or giving you access to new gadgets. Apart from the storyline the gameplay can be quite formulaic at times with no real surprises to the standard stealth gameplay. There is some backtracking throughout the world; you will go into some locations more than once or twice. The combat scenarios and the detective tricks seem to be most repeated among other things. Very early on the vent system is almost abused, you’ll be in and out or more vents than you can count. Essentially they are just means of getting to other locations because doors have been locked shut but the process of actually opening a vent can get occasionally tiring. Thankfully the latter half of the game these vents become much more optional alternative routes or places for Riddler to hide his question marks. This is also paired with a few early tasks that are repeated for no real reason and it felt almost like padding. In fact once you get passed the first scarecrow mind game the game seems to start picking up. Even though the story and dialog is generally great at times it is brought down a notch or two when the characters repeat the exact same line just 10 seconds previously. Recording a variety of lines would probably have made the whole presentation almost perfect. The little tricks they implement to minimize obvious repetitive sequences will be enough for many, but most should notice similarities.
Batman: Arkham Asylum does an excellent job representing the Batman universe and the villains in it with some outstanding voice work. It also manages to implement a wonderfully colourful story that will give everybody a few chuckles. The stealth action and hand to hand combat are both satisfying and distributed nicely throughout the Asylum with good pacing in between. The main villain boss fights aren’t too long and generally aren’t complex or demanding physically. Dream sequences with Scarecrow are nicely done and immediately bring variety to the world you are in. The story seems to continually improve as it reaches the climax with a fairly satisfying conclusion that should leave people smiling just because they were a part of it. It’s clear that a sequel to this game will be fast tracked with some more famous villains from the universe that were hinted at through the game. There are really only a few minor issues with repetition which does seem to decrease in the second half of the game. Batman Askham Aslyum is very much worth picking up, the game will keep you interested from start to finish. The presentation through sound and visuals is clearly first class and it’s certainly one title you shouldn’t ignore this year.
Presentation An amazing looking game with some great voice work, wonderfully designed characters and world, great use of the Unreal Engine 3.0.
8.8
Gameplay Stealth combat and hand to hand fighting are well put together, mixing in some puzzle solving and platforming let down a tiny bit by repetition.
9.0
Single Player Great story, told very well and keeps you intrigued to the end. Well constructed series of boss fights with additional commentary, story arc finishes well.
NR
Multiplayer None
9.0
Performance Runs very well even at high resolutions on the PC, loads quite fast and seems pretty stable.
8.8
Overall It would be hard to be too critical of Batman; it’s a superb experience of stealth and action surrounded by an amazing story where some well known Batman characters are brought to life in an impressive narrative.
I definitely agree that something like Call of Duty has many times more repetition than Batman but at times especially early on I got way too many cases of deju vu, and some of the generic voice work could have had a little more variety. I was actually worried the killer croc battle would be very hard based on the lead up, but in the end it was perhaps a bit long.
My critique(of the review) is that i found this game no more repetative than a call of duty or any kind of Triple A shooter, I felt that batman did a better job than most great games(especially shooters like halo) at building upon the foundations of Stealth and Action with new mechanics over the course of the game. My largest let down is the Killer Croc battle(boring). But overall i love this review because it echoes all my other thoughts on the game. Battman was the first game in a long time i just enjoyed playing, no glitches or anything getting between me and being confused and confounded by the scarecrow!
ESRB - Mature 17+: Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
The game isn’t just about combat and a good story; it also distributes Riddler puzzles, detective mode challenges and some simple platforming elements. Platforming in general is mostly about using the grapple to ascend, but there is also gliding with your cape and using a zip line to travel a horizontal distance. It’s not a heavy platforming game, the existing elements feel relatively natural and not a separate sub game. Part of this platforming is also included in the combat, when you are taking out armed guards in the towers or on gargoyles for example, plus floating with your cape from high above the island is pretty cool almost every time you do it. Detective mode is used as part of the story in order to track enemies or friendlies. This basically means you scan an area for a particular chemical, such as alcohol, and then this chemical is highlighted in the world for you to follow. There is nothing incredibly amazing to it; basically it’s just a really clever way to avoid using unnatural arrows and making the breadcrumbs part of the world rather than taking you out of it. The detective mode also shows enemies through walls via x-ray type vision, although this makes normal vision very inferior taking away some of the presentation. Finally the Riddler, who doesn’t actually make an appearance in the game, has left lots of puzzles across the island to find. Maps will reveal their locations but you will be given a list of items in your menu to find or complete. These can range from destroying blabbermouth teeth, lining up question mark symbols, or finding question marks trophies. Finally many of the combat scenarios in the game (both stealth and hand-to-hand) can be repeated via challenge modes outside the story mode. Your goal here is to take out grunts quickly in the case of stealth, or score high combo points when engaging in melee combat. This element would be very enjoyable for those that really feel on top of the combat. Although most of the game is enjoyable there are some situations that recur a little too much.
Repetition is perhaps Batman’s worst enemy in the game and at times they push the limits of how often something can be done before you get sick of it, especially early on. The game tries to minimize the amount of repetition by changing things in subtle ways, or giving you access to new gadgets. Apart from the storyline the gameplay can be quite formulaic at times with no real surprises to the standard stealth gameplay. There is some backtracking throughout the world; you will go into some locations more than once or twice. The combat scenarios and the detective tricks seem to be most repeated among other things. Very early on the vent system is almost abused, you’ll be in and out or more vents than you can count. Essentially they are just means of getting to other locations because doors have been locked shut but the process of actually opening a vent can get occasionally tiring. Thankfully the latter half of the game these vents become much more optional alternative routes or places for Riddler to hide his question marks. This is also paired with a few early tasks that are repeated for no real reason and it felt almost like padding. In fact once you get passed the first scarecrow mind game the game seems to start picking up. Even though the story and dialog is generally great at times it is brought down a notch or two when the characters repeat the exact same line just 10 seconds previously. Recording a variety of lines would probably have made the whole presentation almost perfect. The little tricks they implement to minimize obvious repetitive sequences will be enough for many, but most should notice similarities.
Batman: Arkham Asylum does an excellent job representing the Batman universe and the villains in it with some outstanding voice work. It also manages to implement a wonderfully colourful story that will give everybody a few chuckles. The stealth action and hand to hand combat are both satisfying and distributed nicely throughout the Asylum with good pacing in between. The main villain boss fights aren’t too long and generally aren’t complex or demanding physically. Dream sequences with Scarecrow are nicely done and immediately bring variety to the world you are in. The story seems to continually improve as it reaches the climax with a fairly satisfying conclusion that should leave people smiling just because they were a part of it. It’s clear that a sequel to this game will be fast tracked with some more famous villains from the universe that were hinted at through the game. There are really only a few minor issues with repetition which does seem to decrease in the second half of the game. Batman Askham Aslyum is very much worth picking up, the game will keep you interested from start to finish. The presentation through sound and visuals is clearly first class and it’s certainly one title you shouldn’t ignore this year.
Oct 5, 2009 06:59:47 (333 days ago)
