Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum is the best superhero game you will ever play.  Granted, the paean of superhero games is not exactly long and illustrious (Who can forget the ‘classic’, Superman 64 – where you took the Man of Steel on a harrowing journey flying through giant rings in the sky for no reason whatsoever), but that doesn’t stop people from saying ‘Catcher in the Rye’ is JD Salinger’s best novel, does it?

From the very opening scene when Batman catches the Joker and accompanies him to the titular hospital for the criminally insane, you realize just how intense and immersive this game is.  The video game cold open has been around since Half-Life way back in 1998, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful if it’s done well.  The story involves Joker hatching a plot to take over Arkham with Batman trapped inside and, as the caped crusader himself, you must subdue his henchmen, do battle with a hodgepodge of recognizable bat-villains (in boss battles of varying degrees of difficulty and cleverness) and prevent the Joker from taking over the city.

There’s a level of polish present in this game that just doesn’t exist much - even in your triple-A titles -  nowadays.  Everything is slick and sleek, from the incredible voice-acting (Mark Hamill voicing the Joker is a particular delight – listening to him over the intercom berating his henchmen as you pick them off one by one is hilarious and really immerses you in the setting),  to the razor-sharp controls (you’re Batman, so you should be able to beat 6 low-level thugs up at the same time without breaking a sweat, and thanks to the way the game handles, you can do just that) and the sheer volume of easter eggs - Bat-fans will find tonnes of hidden goodies here covering the character’s entire comic run, from the obvious (Penguin’s umbrella) to the more obscure (Calendar Man’s cell) to the downright creepy (Croc’s lair).

Part of what makes the game so great is how it lets you really feel like you are Batman.  As mentioned, you can brawl with the best of them,  but the game incorporates nearly every aspect of the Batman mythos – the gadgets, the Batmobile, even the Bat-Boat makes an appearance.  As fans of The Bat know, his strength lies in the fear he instills in ne’er do-wells, and the game handles this with aplomb.  Say you find your way into a room with six henchmen wielding AK-47’s – using stealth (and the Bat-hook attached to some conveniently-placed gargoyles which blend in nicely to Arkham’s draconian décor) you manage to pick them off one by one.  As each henchman falls by your hands, the remainder grow increasingly agitated until the last one left is a babbling mess.  When you finally put him out of his misery, you almost feel sorry for the poor schlub – but it definitely doesn’t make it any less cool.

With its tight controls, sufficiently-creepy soundtrack and the uncanny manner the game allows you to ‘become’ Batman himself, Arkham Asylum is an achievement in superhero game design – and it makes the upcoming Arkham City one of the top titles to look forward to in the latter-half of this year.

Geek Score: 9 out of 10 Bacon Strips.



What I’m Playing: LA Noire for PS3

What I’m Reading: Batman: The Long Hallowe’en