First let me preface this by saying I really did enjoy Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game really did immerse me in the Batman universe with its gorgeous aesthetic and superb atmosphere. Honestly, the pleasure one receives from stringing up one thug then proceeding to drop him on one of his fellow thugs, scaring both of them senseless, is a feeling rarely duplicated. Along with very good level design and some great game play mechanics, Arkham Asylum is a fantastic achievement. However there are several mistakes that Rocksteady made that tarnished the experience for me and, I would be willing to bet, for others as well. I am not going to discuss the complaints of the professional reviewers, like ?if detective vision allows one to see through walls, than why would the player ever want to turn it off?? Oddly enough, I did not find myself playing the game with detective vision on besides when I needed it. The game is just too pretty to do that. However, I would agree that boss battles were a bit predictable (dodge the charging behemoth and attack while he is stunned). My main complaints regarding Arkham Asylum are perhaps a bit more damning than that.
I would like to get the petty, less damning complaints out of the way first. Most of the voice work in Arkham Asylum is supreme. Mark Hamill is fantastic as the Joker, Harley Quinn is also very, very good. However the actor who voices the Dark Knight himself is not at all what I would have expected. Now, I am not asking for Christian Bale style grittiness that would leave one believing he eats nothing but gravel for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But it would have been nice if he had sounded a little less heroic and a little angrier. It would have felt more fitting during the trippy Scarecrow sequences that revealed Batman?s dark past and tortured mental state if his voice sounded a bit more Cole McGarth and bit less Commander Shepherd. It didn?t help that the script barely met B-movie standards. One last extremely petty complaint can be wrapped up in the phrases, ?God, those air ducts are HUGE!? and ?Why is it that someone as muscled as Batman can run through them??
Even these complaints I can overlook if the game play is top-notch. I enjoyed Just Cause 2, despite all its faults, because of fun game play. But in this category, Arkham Asylum takes one step backwards for every step forward. That leads us to my biggest complaint(s) concerning Rocksteady?s gem. The game play. More specifically, the linearity of movement and platforming, and the overly simplistic combat. For me, the former is far worse than the latter. I can ignore the button mashing, virtually QTE combat because I generally tried to play Arkham Asylum like a stealth game. But the linearity of exploration and movement just about ruined the experience for me.
I?ll start with the grappling device. Please, someone explain to me why the developer thought it was a good idea to place an ?X? over the grappling target if the function does not work and a circle if it does? This is not immersive. Rocksteady should have done one of two things: either allow the player to try and fail, leading to discovery, or program the environment and the grappling hook to function regardless of whether the desired position will further the players physical progression. Even if the location is not advantageous or meaningful, it gives the player a sense of freedom and control. So hypothetically, I grapple onto a wall and there is no place for me to go next. Well, then I drop down and figure something else out, simple. Why may I only hide on gargoyles? The rooms are plenty dark, I could be similarly hidden by grappling into the ceiling and dropping down to kick terrified thug ass from a vantage point I specifically selected with the same affectivity as the pre-programmed gargoyles. This leaves me to ask, why not?
The same principle applies to on-foot exploration and platforming. I know that Arkham Asylum isn?t a platformer but it still has some platforming sequences. The sequences unfold as follows: walk up to a chest high wall, if said developer wishes for the player to scale this chest high wall, the applicable button prompt will appear, if not, you can walk around until you find a wall that is more compliant with your platforming wishes. That leads me to ask, why no jump button, Rocksteady? GTA IV wasn?t a platformer, but Niko could jump. And not only beside the applicable wall. If the player desires, Niko can jump in place like an over caffeinated four-year-old. Once again, this gives the player a sense of freedom and control instead of feeling chained to a linear sequence of button prompts left behind by the developer. Maybe I?ve just been playing too many sandbox games but what Arkham Asylum lacks is a sense of choice.
The combat is another problem all together. Don?t misinterpret me; the combat animations are nothing short of brilliant. Also, the combat has an appropriate sense of weight so when I punch a bad guy in the face it really feels like hitting a person, not a cardboard cut out. But my first problem is that you can dispose of most villains by mashing the square button (on PS3) with an occasional flick of the triangle button when enemies project an attack from Batman?s blindside. This is why I mentioned earlier that the combat can feel almost like quick time events. The ?spidey sense? style projection above the blindsiding bad guys head might as well be a triangle button prompt. I never saw the point in using the unlockable combos because the combat looks cool enough without them and using them would district me from the ?QTE spidey sense?. I don?t need God of War style combos here. I guess I was hoping for, at the very least, the ability to grab an enemy and pummel his face in or throw him at his buddies. Something more than the aforementioned mash square, tap triangle, repeat. The Devil May Cry games gave the player more combat choice and Capcom even stuffed the best looking and potentially most fun fights into cut scenes.
Please bear in mind, I really did enjoy this game, Arkham Asylum does a lot of things right and I am glad the game was successful because now we get to look forward to Arkham City. I can only hope that I am not the only person who complained about these issues. With any luck Rocksteady will be making changes for the sequel. I am not going to cross my fingers and I will still pre-order Arkham City but if none of these issues are addressed I will definitely be disappointed.
