Arkham Asylum: GOTY candidate shoe-in

by Pramath Parijat

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy

When this generation is through, we’ll be counting some of the landmark titles, and ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ will be right up there, near the top of the list.

Last year, Batman shot into pop culture with the dazzling blow of a megaton’s worth of explosions, thanks to the psychological masterpiece crafted by director Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight. The movie took us deeper into Batman’s world than anything ever before, whilst also making it so much more believable. Nolan managed this tremendous feat by using the indisputably greatest comic book villain of all time: The Joker, who, by his subtle taunts and his snide smugness of his own purpose, or the lack thereof, delved deeper into Batman’s psyche than previously thought imaginable. It would only seem fit, then, that this unforgettable rendition of the Joker would influence the next big Batman project. The Joker is the plot device used throughout Arkham Asylum, and he is back, as manic and insanely gleeful as ever before.

Simple action at first

Indeed, Arkham Asylum seems almost like a direct sequel to The Dark Knight: the story begins with Batman having caught The Joker, and seeing him transferred into the titular prison for all the lunatics of Gotham City. However, once there, The Joker weaves his enthralling charm all over again, as he releases all the inmates of Arkham with the help of Harley Quinn. Batman is, naturally, summoned to look into the matter, and from there, we embark on an experience that is thus far unparalleled in this generation. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a psychologically unsettling game, and it presents the comic book realm of Batman’s reality in an all new light.



The game plays simply enough. Gameplay may be roughly broken down into three distinct elements: fist-fighting, stealth and exploration. Fist-fighting is like the game’s interpretation of the God of War combat system: Batman’s moves are controlled using four buttons. Different combos can be strung up if the right moves are used in quick succession, and the combat presented on screen is worthy of any major Hollywood blockbuster.

At first, the action may seem to be quite repetitive and dull -- you can get away with mindless button mashing, and that does get boring after a while -- but soon enough, the game mixes things up quite nicely, and a plethora of new moves are introduced, all of which control in the simplest way possible while still provide satisfying results that sate our thirst for primal action on screen.

Until it shows its full potential...

What urges you to actually use this combo system, and pull off these new moves, is a neat little feature that this game calls the XP Gauge. Pulling off legitimate combos awards you with XP. Accumulate enough XP, and you unlock upgrades for the Batsuit, or conversely, health upgrades.

XP is also earned by using stealth properly; there are various sections when we have to silently take down a group of thugs patrolling a room, and these sections force you to think and act wisely. It is these parts that make you feel like you are playing a Batman game, rather than just any ordinary action title, for here, you attack from the shadows, like the trained ninja that Batman is after all.



This stealth aspect lends Arkham Asylum the depth that it really needs to go from being just a good title to a great one, because of the varied and often innovative workabouts that one has to come up with to make their way through a level. Also, hiding in the shadows and striking stealthily gives an almost eerie atmosphere to the game, one that most Batman based properties really require, but almost always lack.

That Arkham Asylum is a good game, I have established by now. However, what would really make it so enjoyable and satisfying is the fan service that it juggles to long time followers of the Batman saga. For instance, the very setting of the game, the titular Arkham Asylum, is a location that has scant appeared in any Batman media outside the comics. Now, the game offers a fresh new take on almost every Batman character ever conceived. Save The Joker, who has already been perfected, we get whole new angles on fan favourites like Scarecrow, Bane, Gordon and Poison Ivy.

A tribute to all the whack jobs

However, I found the game paying tribute to its source material the most in its boss battles. All of these are protracted showdowns against one of the many supervillains in the Batman universe, and if you are well versed in Batman lore, then you’ll enjoy recognizing the subtle references to numerous episodes and fan interpretations of these villains that pop up so frequently throughout the course of the game.

The best of these boss battles, I found, was the one with Scarecrow. Not because it is particularly challenging, but because of the Fear Gas sequences that it includes, where we are in a warped sort of reality, seeing Batman’s worst fears being enacted. These sequences offer us unprecedented insights into The Dark Knight’s tortured mind, and the only complaint I have with them is a testament to their quality: there were too few of them. There should have been more.



From whatever it is that I’ve written so far, one might get the impression that Arkham Asylum is a great game only if you are acquainted with Batman in one form or the other, and just a good game otherwise. However, it is my belief that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Far from it, Arkham Asylum is in fact the perfect way for newcomers to get acquainted with the Batman mythos, because no other Batman instalment in any media has come close to offering what this game does, except for of course the Nolan movies.

The game’s almost free-roaming nature, its free-flowing and easy to learn yet hard to actually use combat, its great boss battles and its genuinely intriguing story all come together to deliver the best gaming experience so far this year. As a cinematic experience too, Batman is unmatched by any. Assuming that you actually bother and manage to follow the game’s plot, the psychological thriller that the story really is becomes more involving than any story that a non-RPG game has ever had so far.

Not just a game, it’s a psychological thriller

What adds further to the involvement is the fact that this is a living world. The people in this game all behave exactly as you would expect them to. For instance, the common thugs set loose in Arkham begin to get visibly uncomfortable, and then downright scared, during the stealth missions, as soon as they realize that they are being struck at from behind their backs. This really immerses you into the game world, because then it is not just a game you are playing. It is a drama that you are seeing unfolding before your own eyes, with you yourself playing an integral part in its unfolding.

The game boasts incredible replay value. There’s tons of stuff for you to unlock, including bios for each of the villains, which again, for long time fans, reeks of fan service, and for newbies, is a good way to become acquainted with the Batman lore. There’s a separate mode centred around the stealth aspects of the game, which get progressively harder, and yet still manage to almost goad you into continuing to play them.



I’ve spoken of almost everything but the most important aspect of the game: the sound. The voice acting is of course excellent, as is to be expected from a game that includes names such as Mark Hamill (returning to reprise his part as The Joker). And yet, the best part is the peripheral sounds of the game. Oftentimes, if you just stand still and listen, you’ll be able to hear sounds like the footsteps of some goons echoing in the distance, or of water dripping down some pipes, or of air blowing in through some ducts. Again, it all adds up to create one of the best atmospheres gaming has seen this side of Metroid Prime.

Summary

Ultimately, it boils to this: Arkham Asylum is awesome. It’s hands down the best console game released this year so far, and is in the running to be one of the very best this entire generation. Mark my words, when this generation is through, we’ll be counting some of the landmark titles. And Batman: Arkham Asylum will be right up there, near the top of the list.

Go, get this today. It’s a psychological masterpiece the likes of which gaming has never seen before.