This week, I got to do just that with the first two chapters of Batman: Arkham Asylum .
As a DC fanboy, this was nothing short of nirvana for me -- a sweet piece of relief. Since the title was announced, Hilary and I have been splitting coverage duties and, frankly, I've been getting sick of seeing the same old challenge rooms. Thankfully -- although I unlocked those mini-games in my play session -- this preview gave me so much more. If you're just joining us, this Batman title begins with the Caped Crusader returning the Joker to Arkham Asylum after yet another failed breakout. However, there's something different about this scheme -- namely, the Joker went down without a fight… almost like he wanted to be captured. After the opening movie chronicles Batman racing back to Arkham and delivering a cuffed Joker, the gameplay begins with you walking him through the bowels of the building.
We actually
previewed this a few months ago, but this time it was just me and the action; I didn't have to worry about anyone trying to point out anything. Honestly, the opening is a bit of a gamble for the game. For just under seven minutes, all you do is walk with some guards escorting a Hannibal Lecter-like shackled Joker deeper and deeper into the insane asylum. Sure, this gives you plenty of time to absorb the story from surrounding conversations (hundreds of the Joker's men have been relocated to Arkham after a suspicious Blackgate Prison fire, the warden's trying to make a name for himself to bolster a mayoral run, etc.) and listen to the Joker ("Need to take my temperature? I'd be happy to drop my pants."), but it's definitely a slower way to introduce the title. What it does do is give you a sense of the desperate, dark and dank conditions at Arkham as well as the uneasy feeling Batman has about the Joker's re-admittance that builds to the crescendo moment of Mr. J dropping the guards and Batman smashing through the viewing glass to pursue the maniac. This leads to swarms of baddies coming out of their cells -- Harley Quinn and Joker are in control of the prison's electrified doors -- and Batman opening up a can of whoop-ass.
I've said it before and I'll say it again -- fighting's a blast in Batman. Usually when you're just hitting one button to attack, things can get stale, but so far Batman keeps it pretty entertaining. On top of the fact that the vicious punches and kicks look different and devastating, things are kept interesting because enemies are coming at you from all sides. Once you get a feel for the mechanics, you'll chain attacks together as you wail on one guy, flick the joystick so you're beating on a guy who was behind you, and then pop back to finish off the first guy. When I got these basics down, I was dropping in counter attacks (a Spider-Sense-like graphic goes off over an opponent's head when he's about to swing) and stealing away bad guys' clubs to bring them to their knees. Of course, just because a guy is down doesn't mean he's out. You'll need to leap on top of dazed folks for ground takedowns (such as slamming heads into the floor) so that they don't get back up. All that stuff is great and is probably my favorite part of the game so far -- well, aside from the fact that the talent from Batman The Animated Series, including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin, are back as Batman, the Joker and Harley, respectively. But what I found interesting on my first
playthrough is that the stuff surrounding these fights wasn't nearly as exciting as the fights themselves. Batman actually looks a bit stiff as he walks the halls of Arkham, and the transition between these frantic fights and slower sections of scouring empty hallways for Riddler trophies and crawling through the endless heating ducts were a bit jarring. Back in Hiil's E3 Preview, he talked about something being a "bit off," and I feel it too in the pacing and presentation.
Thankfully, it seems like the game is able to overcome this stumble (keep in mind this is simply preview code and isn't the final product). On my second playthrough, I ran through the halls of Arkham and had a better sense of the controls. The speed helped this feel like a Batman game, and Batman's ability to pick people off without being seen and easily zipping around via grappling hook definitely made the experience more enjoyable. I still felt like Batman was a bit clumsy (I was walking off a lot of edges while struggling to get the Dark Knight to grab on to low ledges), but once I settled into how the game plays, everything felt better. What this means for you as a player (Do you want things to feel a bit off so that you can find everything or do you want to sprint through levels as if you were actually searching for the Joker and a kidnapped Commissioner Gordon?) is still up in the air.
I also noticed how graphic the game was my second time through the first two chapters. It's not super-bloody like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but there are dead bodies in the halls, the Joker's men blowing away cops, and Gordon calling Harley a bitch -- this shouldn't be confused with the cartoon by fans. On top of that, there are also a few subtle things players will begin to notice. Sure, there are a couple different takedowns for when you creep up behind a villain and choke him out, but Batman also takes off grates for the ducts he's crawling through differently depending on if there are people around (he'll kick'em out of his way when he's alone and slowly/silently move them to the side when he's got a baddie in front of him). This silent but deadly approach plays into just about everything in the game, but specifically it popped up when I was chasing down Harley and Gordon. Harley had the Commissioner stashed in a lookout booth above this multi-tiered room in Arkham. With Mr. J's men roaming the floor, Harley was threatening to ice the Commissioner if anyone spotted Batman. Watching the bad guys roam the area via my detective goggles -- which turn everything blue and highlight bodies -- and then coming out of ducts and blind corners to take down bad guys was great. Plus, if you fail, you get to watch Harley kill Gordon. This extensive playthrough also shed some new light on one of my biggest questions about the game -- what is up with that Doomsday-looking guy? In the original trailer, hil and i spoted a hulking dude in green shorts that looked to have some spikes growing out of him. All of that reminded us of the Kryptonian monster that killed Superman. Still, no one was willing to talk about the beast -- even after I saw him wreck shop at a Pre E3 Event. Anyway, after brawling through that first group of baddies and making your way a bit deeper into Arkham, Joker's actually going to unleash one of these uglies on you. Granted this one seems sickly -- one of his arms is dramatically smaller than the other, his eyes are glowing green, etc. -- but it's still a whole lot bigger than Bats and able to pound your worthless cowl if you let it. I won't spoil the fight for you (HINT: those electric barriers sure look painful!), but I think I might have stumbled upon where these meanies are coming from. See, as you slink through the hallways of this place, TVs are running messages from the Joker as well as Arkham propaganda. One of the videos from the mental hospital is actually the warden introducing Dr. Penelope Young. After the good doctor makes her pleasantries, she begins talking about her role at the institution -- a certain project named Titan. Seems this process is for weaker patients. She says that it's designed to make them physically strong so that they are capable of undergoing rigorous mental rehabilitation, but I say it's a scam that's turning the crazies into those monsters. Am I right? We'll have to wait and see. Oh, and those TVs? You can bust out the screens with your unlimited batarangs. Once I smashed out three in a row that were broadcasting the Joker's message -- there are cameras all over the place so that the Clown Prince pops in every now and again to talk to you directly -- and Mr. J quipped about the unprovoked attack. Nice. Eventually, at the end of chapter two, I ran into Bane, the 'roided out foe who broke Batman's back. Similar to the possible-Project Titan experiment, Bane's main attack was to storm at Bats and try and crush the hero. When he'd do this, it was up to me to stun him with a batarang and leap on the bad guy's back. Of course, stopping him was easier before Joker began filling the arena with his minions, but Batman eventually found the "key" to success. Throughout my play time, I was earning experience points for wailing on folks like Bane and finding hidden gems like the Riddler trophies and such. These points can be exchanged for armor upgrades and new moves such as a combo throw, but what I found interesting was that there wasn't a point value assigned to the add-ons. You earn XP until the game says the possibility to upgrade is there. I guess everything costs the same amount of points. It's not a big deal, but most games have you saving your points to earn a certain attribute, but that doesn't seem to be the case in Arkham Asylum. Of course, the majority of upgrades were locked since I was so early in the game, so maybe that will change. I could write 12 more pages about everything I saw in my all-too brief play session -- the audio interviews with the Joker and Riddler, the hidden engravings of Amadeus Arkham, etc. -- but I might as well leave some of the mystery for you. I've been worried about Batman: Arkham Asylum because I'm a comic fan and comic games tend to be all right or complete garbage, but this title seems like it's on track. I still feel like the pacing might be off and that some of the characters might be literally opening their eyes too wide, but there's no denying that fighting is fun and picking bad guys off one by one from the rafters is satisfying.
