Ever since Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, Batman has been on a quality comeback. And this comeback doesn’t just apply to film! In a weird way, it’s kind of like the quality of Batman films and Batman videogames have followed the same rollercoaster of a timeline.
Batman for the NES was one of the very best Batman videogames ever made. Actually, scratch that: Batman for the NES may be the only good Batman videogame ever made. And the same goes for the films: The first two Batman movies were pretty darn awesome, and — until Batman Begins — well … not so much.
Because of this, I was very curious to see how Eidos’s very anticipated Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 game Batman: Arkham Asylum would hold up.
After meeing with Eidos I can confidently say things are looking up … with a few small exceptions. I know we have already covered this game to death on the site, but hit the jump to read my overly dramatic impressions of my E3 hands-on with Batman: Arkham Asylum.
There were two things I really liked about Batman: Arkham Asylum and two things I really didn’t. Since Anthony talked a lot about the details of the gameplay, let’s just focus on these.
Do you want the good or the bad news first?
No, I will not take off my top. Please just answer the question!
Okay, the good news. Thank you.
When I first started up the game (what seemed like the full retail version), I was greeted by a stunning cutscene showing a very Dark Knight-esque Batman taking a very non-Dark Knight-esque Joker into Arkham Asylum for imprisonment. Of course, along the way, things go horribly wrong and the Joker escapes, causing havoc and chaos throughout the facility.
The first thing I noticed was not just how gorgeous the sequence was, but how cinematic it all came across! From the beautiful cinematography to the pretty decent voice acting, everything about the game’s opening cutscene felt like a really well-produced movie. And since I love Batman movies this was a very good thing!
Most importantly, the reason all of this got me so excited was it was one of the first videogames in recent memory that sucked me into its story this quickly. And not that much happened! It surprised me, but after I saw the opening cutscene I was genuinely looking forward to what was going to happen next. I can’t wait to play the full game and see where Batman’s adventures in this very gloomy Gotham City takes him.
The second thing I liked about the little I got to play of the game was the focus on its detailed polish. Sure, it was fun to perform fighting combos as Batman, but that was a given: I liked the little details as I was playing through the first few levels of the game. I liked how every time a new character was introduced this slick interface popped up telling you their profile was added to your record accompanied by an actual link to take you there. I liked how some shadow bats appear and surround the enemies that you have recently defeated, telling you that they are dead and not just knocked down.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is full of little touches like this and it made for quite the polished, high-quality experience.
And now for the bad news: Well, not so bad … just a couple of concerns.
The action in Batman: Arkham Asylum, while amazing to look at, feels a little slow — which is odd given the game’s amazing combo/experience system. Fighting a huge gang of thugs was satisfying, but each kick and punch felt like it was going through molasses, and that is not even counting the numerous slow motion shots the game utilizes to emphasize a powerful final blow. I get that the slow motion shots look cool (and they really do!), but once you see a few in a row you will be a little over it.
On a similar note, I was worried after a few levels that the action in Batman: Arkham Asylum may feel a little repetitive over time. For a game that is as beautiful as this game is, I was surrpised at the lack of variety in what I got to play. Granted, I played a very small chunk of the final product, but what I experienced felt little more than walk-into-a-room-and-fight-a-group-of-enemies.
But with the promise of some awesome bosses and cool uses for Batman’s multiple tools (Batarang!), I am thinking (and hoping) everything will turn out fine.
Based on my hands-on time with the game, I am giving my impressions of Batman: Arkham Asylum a 7.0.*
*This is a ridiculous scoring system and has nothing to do with the final game. I just thought it would be fun to score all the games I play this week based on my hands-on time with them all.
UPDATE! After playing a little more of the game again this morning (6/3), I am upgrading my first impression score to a 7.0. I saw something (without trying to ruin anything) that made me really happy.
