Batman: Arkham Asylum

"...Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Become The Goddamn Batman."

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC
Developed by Rocksteady Studios

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a game which functions far, far better than anyone could have reasonably expected it to. A licensed superhero brawler from a largely unknown gamemaker, it seems like the sort of game which was just waiting to show up and let everybody down, even despite the impressive budget it has clearly commanded.

Yet Rocksteady Studios has acquitted itself with flying colours, with Arkham Asylum debuting to strong sales and a critical welcome warm enough to net the title a (spurious) Guinness World Record. The praise, however, is justified.


Arkham Asylum, as one might expect, puts players in the rubbery boots of Gotham City's vigilant protector, as the hero deposits the reliably maniacal Joker at the titular madhouse. Over the course of an engaging semi-interactive intro, the gamer is given a brief overview of the dank asylum, while Bats expresses concern over the relative ease of Joker's most recent surrender.

Sure enough, the Joker swiftly springs free and wrests control over Arkham, leaving Batman trapped and forced to fight his way through the villain-riddled facility, while attempting to get to the bottom of the Clown Prince of Crime's latest scheme.

It sounds like a winning premise straight off the bat, but then, don't all Batman games sound good on paper? For all of the property's potential, it has proven strangely resistant to interactive adaptation thus far, with most efforts satisfying themselves with crude attempts to shoehorn the Dark Knight into pre-existing genre templates, with limited success.

Rocksteady, on the other hand, has chosen instead to organically grow an idiosyncratic gaming experience from scratch, using the iconic features of Batman's universe as a sturdy root. This allows Arkham Asylum to develop a fittingly Batmanesque identity of its own; intelligent, thoughtful and moody, but ready and able when the time comes for a fight.

Indeed, it's the developer's recreation of authentic Bat-combat which ranks as one of the game's most striking successes. Arkham Asylum makes the bold choice of minimising the threat level posed by each individual thug, instead focusing the challenge on achieving unbroken combo attacks and stylish takedowns.

On the surface, this can make the game seem overly easy, but although formless button-spamming can carry you further than one might have liked, the payoffs provided by the system are well worth it. By establishing an ideal vision of sweeping into a room and taking down every opponent in one balletic, seamless movement, the game's combat takes on a level of grace, fluidity and tactical creativity which is as surprising as it is refreshing. More to the point, it allows the player to feel empowered and immersed in the reality of being The Goddamn Batman™, while leaving plenty of room for development and progression.

The game is equally effective when the action slows down and Bats is presented with a room full of lethally armed thugs, with an array of gadgets and years of ninja training to protect him. Again, Arkham Asylum offers a refreshingly well-conceived spin on traditional stealth gameplay, with the onus being on controlled, strategically-planned enemy suppression rather than tension or paranoid creeping.

This incorporation of mood, atmosphere and DC Comics authenticity as an integral part of mechanical design is reflected through the game as a whole. Grappling hook upgrades, flying challenges and follow-the-breadcrumbs clue tracking are hardly new innovations, but they largely succeed in feeling like expressions of character here rather than reheated gaming clichés.

Of course, this authenticity is helped no end by the creative talent on board. Batman: The Animated Series veteran Kevin Conroy's vocal performance as the Dark Knight shows no sign of losing its rumbling and comforting stoicism, while Mark Hamill predictably revels in Joker's position as the game's ever-present and malevolent MC. Paul Dini's script, meanwhile, delivers most of what you'd would want from a standalone Batman adventure, including well-integrated roles for a small but satisfying proportion of the famous rogues' gallery.

Inevitably, not every aspect of Arkham Asylum meets the game's own ambitious standards, with much criticism having been levelled at the game's disappointing boss battles. The good news here is that "disappointing" in this case means "just OK" rather than "unplayable", but it doesn't change the fact that confrontations with the likes of Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and Bane seem rather flat and conventional compared to the ingenuity on show elsewhere.

One could raise further gripes; the game's system of collectables offers good value for committed kleptomaniacs, but can often verge on acting as a clunky distraction, while the title's score seems to be trapped somewhere between Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman, without making any convincing movements in either direction.

Focusing on such points, however, seems churlish when measured against everything Rocksteady has accomplished with Arkham Asylum. The developer, with few exceptions, has successfully delivered on the promise of a true Batman adaptation, translating everything that's ever allowed the character to thrive on page and screen and recreating them in videogame form. It has taken a beloved franchise and nurtured it with the necessary care and thoughtfulness, and totally deserves to reap the harvest of goodwill. Batman, after decades of fruitless effort, has finally taken his first confident steps as a videogame hero, and both the character and format seem richer for it.

Now roll on Mr Freeze and Batgirl for the sequel, Batman & Robin Do Arkham. We all know it'll happen.

9/10