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CG rating |
The Bad
- The atmosphere
- Attention to details
- Music and voice acting-ul
- Gameplay
- Lots of extra content
- Challenge mode
- Killer Croc's lair
- The Detective mode can be too useful
- Some gadget improvements are a bit far-fetched
Review
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If we ignore the publisher’s insatiable appetite for money and its repercussions on game development, the main problem a super-hero title has is the very nature of the characters. Let’s be honest, what reasonable explanation can you come up with for Superman to be beaten by a bunch of thugs with missile launchers? Not to mention the fact that when you’re playing such a character, any fear for one’s own (virtual) life vanishes the next instant, even faster than usual. After all, you’re Superman for Christ’s sake. If he can’t pull it off, who can?
Maybe that’s why I have a lot more appreciation for Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) or Bruce Wayne (Batman). Because they’re just ordinary people. True, men who have trained for years on end to have above-average physical qualities, but which ultimately rely on their intelligence, wits and gadgets to take down the bad guys. From this point of view, Rocksteady Studios had a huge amount of possibilities when they started working on Arkham Asylum (AA), both gameplay and character wise. All they had to do was make the right choices.
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As the name suggests, the action takes place on Arkham Island (perhaps the most “colorful” destination for a Gotham City tourist), where Batman is just about to return The Joker. Only this time something isn’t quite right, and even the Dark Knight has his doubts about his arch-nemesis’ real intentions. It allowed himself to be captured way to easily and, as it happens, a large portion of his latest “associates” were moved to Arkham due to a fire in the Blackgate holding facility. Basically, a powder keg waiting for a match.
One of the things that AA does really well is to throw you in the thick of things right from the get go. You barely have time to get comfortable in your chair when you’re attacked by the first wave of enemies. An easy fight, in hindsight, but one which underlines two important facts: you’ll always be outnumbered and this isn’t something to joke about. What follows is a constant hunt for the Joker which, although as crazy as they come, does have his reasons for wanting to be on Arkham and not anywhere else.
Another upside is that although AA can be catalogued as “easy to learn, difficult to master”, this isn’t obvious from the start. Let’s take the said fights, during which you only have to use 2 buttons, one for attack and one for counters (later you’ll get one for stun as well).
If you see a lightning bolt above an enemy, it means that he’s about to attack you, so it’s recommended to press the counter button when he’s about to strike. Simple and to the point. But as you start pummeling the poor bastards who made the mistake of getting in your way, you notice that with each hit, a number changes in the top-left side of the screen; x1, x2, x3, x4… whoops, I got hit and the counter reset. Hmm, so the more enemies I hit un succession without taking one myself, the higher the multiplier will go.
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This is the basic principle for the “Freeflow” fighting system, and a higher multiplier will always mean more experience points. Simple, right? Yeah, you wish, because later on you’ll encounter inmates with knives and electric batons which aren’t so dumb as they’re colleagues. And that’s if you’re lucky and they don’t shoot you outright. So the “button mashing” will only get you up to a point. If you want to reach the end, especially on the Hard difficulty (where the said lightning bolts are no longer shown), you’ll have to examine the enemy behavior and their animations to correctly anticipate the next attack.
Bah, and if I don’t? What? Big deal, I’ll just get hit a couple of times and move on. True, but there are two problems with this approach: one, minor for some, is that you won’t be able to unlock all the Achievements, among which is scoring a 40 hit chain. The second, and more important in my opinion, is that you won’t get the maximum number of experience points, which means that you’ll get access to some gadgets much later. The latter (Explosive Gel, Batclaw, Ultra Batclaw, Line Launcher, Hacking Tool) you’ll get in fixed points along the way, but you’ll have to “buy” the upgrades.
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Although the idea itself is good, I was annoyed a bit the fact that some of the upgrades are there just to make the list look bigger. No offence, but I can’t imagine that in the beginning, Batman only knows how to throw one batarang, but “learns” over the course of the story that he can actually throw three at the same time. Or suddenly discovers that he can use the said batarang in melee fights as well. While it’s true that the large number of unlockables encourage you to get a higher multiplier and offer a very rewarding sense of progressions, I can’t help but feel that some of the options are pretty far-fetched.
Utility wise though I can’t complain, as all of the upgrades come in handy at one point, but they also offer multiple choices, especially when you want to silently take down enemies. Yes, sometimes it’s easier to just smack them around, but when you’re dealing with submachine guns, that changes things. You’re not Superman, remember?
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Comments [Add a new comment]
| Yes | |
 | 59% |
| No | |
 | 27% |
| Haven't decided | |
 | 14% |
Total: 1664 votes
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