In this thread, I and anyone who cares to join me will talk about the newly released Batman game,
Arkham Asylum. I kindly request that anything related to the plot or gameplay which might spoil the enjoyment of the game by someone who hasn't played it be ensconced in a
Spoiler tag as appropriate. That doesn't include stuff like the existence of the batarang, that you fight thugs and villains, and do detective shit on Arkham Island, i.e. stuff anyone who knows who Batman is could surmise themselves.
Long story short, it's a pretty awesome game. Not
totally awesome, but pretty awesome.
Short story long, you get to be the Batman. This is really cool, and stays cool throughout the experience, but it has its pitfalls. Namely, that you are not really the Batman. You're still you, ordering Batman around like a puppet on a string. And you are certainly not the master detective and world-champion asskicker that the real Batman is.
This shows through in the game design. That's not a complaint per se, because otherwise the game would be about an hour long and would need no saving function, but it creates some logical problems.
For brevity's sake, I'll list all the stuff I personally like and dislike. A few of the dislikes are enjoyment-critical, so I'm spoilering all of it. Fairly warned be ye anyone who hasn't played it, and I highly suggest you do.
1) The fighting mechanics. While I'm normally opposed to one-button fighting, there's enough fluid motion and context sensitivity that its really enjoyable to watch, and its not really one button anyway since you need to at least pick a direction.
2) Mark fuckmothering Hamill. Oh my God. Forget Luke Skywalker, the animated incarnation of The Joker was the roll of a lifetime for Hamill, and he's back in full style, with none of the restrictions of PG rated television. He makes Joker the perfect villain - the foe you love to hate. Every line is hilarious (and I think he got like half the game's dialogue), and even at the end I really wanted to punch him out just to hear how he'd react. Obviously the writing is fantastic, and the whole cast comes through in style. Except Kevin Conroy himself maybe who's a little too subdued even for Batman, but if Batman talked too much I'd probably complain about that instead.
3) The art and animation. Even on the lowest settings (because on anything higher my computer would chug like a fratboy in molasses), the whole game is just beautiful. Gothic without being too dark to see, and dismal without being nothing but gray and brown (mostly green and blue, but still). Atmosphere is everything.
4) A story that actually makes some kind of sense. In other words, there's a paucity of inexplicable locked doors, golden keys, invisible barriers, or other bullshit means of restricting your movement. Instead, you actually have to (well, Batman has to) figure out where to go next. And the story itself is pretty good, if hackneyed in ways one would expect from a videogame based on a comic book.
5) Being Batman. What else is there to say? The "Predator" sections are a lot of fun.
6) Scarecrow. Unimaginative gameplay? Maybe. Satisfying imagery and introspection? Oh fuck yes.
1) The fighting mechanics. Let's face it, it really was just "tap HIT and press direction to next target". Sure there's a half-dozen special fighting options, but you don't get most of them until later on (and kind of need to be told to use them), but none are nearly as effective as just spamming HIT. Sure, they're mostly for special instances like escapes and stuns, which makes sense in a way, but it felt really gimmicky to me.
2) The "Boss Battles". Killer Croc's whack-a-mole is the most infamous, but Poison Ivy was a real let-down too. (Bullet hell? In my Batman?) No, I can't think of a better way to have handled it, but it's still lame.
3) Detective segments. Not detective mode, that's fine. The "find clues and follow trails" thing. It happens all of like three times, in the first half of the game. I mentioned that I liked the story, but I didn't like that the whole thing was handed to you. You never have to actually decipher clues or evidence yourself, you just follow points on the map from one dialogue trigger to the next. Lame.
4) Gaining equipment. I mentioned logic problems; well the biggest logic-hole for me was right after the Titan fight in the Greenhouse. Faced with a wide chasm, Batman calls in the Batwing (I've been running around this stupid island for hours when I had a fucking remote-control jump jet?) to drop off his automatic zipline. Really Batman? You had to remember to get your goddamn zipline? This goes for all the tools. If there's one thing Batman's known for, it's being a superhero by virtue of having really cool toys. Sure it makes sense for the sake of game balance to have to acquire new accessibility options, but it still sticks in my craw.
5) In that vein, the level design. No, not the design in general, it was quite good. Just the lack of realism. In addition to the general lack of anything but hallways and big open "kill"ing grounds (with indoor gargoyles WTF), there's quite a few rooms that don't make sense. For instance, that library in the Mansion. You know that top level where you cut down the chandelier? Take another look at it. There's no way to get up there except the airduct. It's one of several otherwise-ordinary rooms that are impossible to get to without being Batman or a really dedicated janitor.
6) Not enough buttons. One of several ways I think the game was hobbled for the sake of consoles, and then left hobbled in the computer version. The same button controls running and context jumping and mantling over handrails into bottomless pits? Thanks a fucking lot rocksteady, I had tons of fun flying off into the waterworks over and over.
7) Checkpoint only saving. This is by far my biggest complaint about the console-hobbling aspect. Because there's no way to go back to an earlier part of the game without starting all over again. RAEG.
8 ) "Play as the Joker" Playstation Exclusive. Eidos, unless you release this as a PC downloadable at a later date, I swear to all the Gods of vengeance that I will make you feel my hatred.
Like the Zero Punctuation review, it's telling that most of my complaints are either about ways the goddamn Batman's abilities were restricted for gameplay's sake, or ways that features could have been expanded on. Wasted potential in several areas, but nothing that I would actually call wrong. In summation, it's not the be-all-end-all of action games, but it's damn good, enjoyable from beginning to end, and overall a great play. Like all the best parts of Metal Gear Solid, Thief 2, and Battletoads rolled into one game, plus Batman.
Now, if I may make a request.
Nobody talk about the ending. Or if you do, put it in its own spoiler marked "hey I'm talking about the ending". Because I haven't seen the ending yet, because of that checkpoint-only problem. I went to the final area not realizing I couldn't leave again, only to then remember that I still had five secrets to find in the Penitentiary. So I'm playing the whole dang thing again. But because I need more than 100% Completion to drive me, I'm leaving the ending unknown.
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Topic: You are vengeance... You are the night... (Read 1948 times)