Review Score:

Batman doesn’t kill people. Batman’s enemies certainly find murder enjoyable, though, something immediately obvious in exploring the unsettling environs of Arkham Island in Batman: Arkham Asylum (hereafter referred to as Batman:AA) for the Xbox 360. Batman:AA isn’t a particularly original game. Rather, it’s a very polished game with a nice mix of styles, taking gameplay cues from several other popular franchises, including the Metroid/Castlevania games, the Metroid Prime games and Assassin’s Creed, wrapping them inside a well-written story and a creepy, disturbing and detailed world.

The game begins with Batman returning a recently escaped Joker to Arkham Asylum, Gotham’s favorite place to house the criminally insane. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished – Joker manages to escape his captors, leaving Batman stuck on an island madhouse with Joker running the show.

Batman’s a tough customer, and combat is brawler-based. Button mashing is usually enough to get you through the early third of the game, but as the story progresses, you’ll be going up against larger groups of tougher inmates and bigger stronger bosses. Batman has basic strike and counter moves along with combo attacks that can stun his enemies with his cape, throw enemies or take them down to the ground. Knocking inmates to the ground isn’t enough, though – you’ll need to mix in “ground takedown” moves that will knock out prone enemies – otherwise, they’ll get back up and try to slap you around again. Ground takedowns are tougher to achieve in the game’s later sections because of the larger number of enemies you’ll face. Batman’s not lightning-quick (he feels appropriately ponderous – after all, he’s wearing a big heavy suit and carrying a bunch of tools), so the amount of time it takes to execute the move often leaves you open to getting hit from behind. With large groups, you’re better off keeping up your physical assaults than bothering with knocking out inmates on the floor.

Stringing attacks together will increase the amount of XP you receive from combat and, of course, net you some achievements. There are a variety of upgrades available to Batman’s offensive and defensive arsenal – he can upgrade his armor, his Batarang and several other items he’ll acquire by proceeding through the story. I upgraded armor first, since my grasp of combat was a bit lacking when playing through the early parts of the game (I played on Normal difficulty). Believe me – I’m no fighting game expert – upgraded armor was helpful in getting my brawling act together without dying constantly.

The boss encounters aren’t horribly difficult, but they usually boil down to one tactic – quick-fire your Batarang, strike, evade and repeat. Many times, you’ll be fighting a boss while, at the same time, being attacked by thugs and other inmates. This rapidly becomes annoying as having to fight these huge gangs while taking on a boss is the least enjoyable part of the game. Batman can be fairly slow, so until you learn to counter nearly EVERY time an enemy flashes a “counter” visual cue, you’re going to end up getting constantly hit from behind, leading to a diminishing health circle and a retry screen.Throw a few enemies that can’t be countered into the mix and you’ve got a recipe for irritation. The most I had to retry any boss fight was five times, which  probably isn’t too terrible for someone who’s no fighting game expert, but I wish the developers had included a little more variety. Two or three of the more unique boss fights happen to be the easier ones in the game, but I found them preferable to the more common, “Let’s throw more grunts into the mix,” approach to difficulty.

Brawling may be the main focus of the game, but it’s hardly the only one. Batman’s stealthy, too, and it’s also an important part of his arsenal. The grappling hook (the “Grapnel Gun” in Batman lingo) is a joy to use, allowing you to zip around the more open areas of the island with ease. Inside buildings, it’s essential to gaining access to closed-off and hidden areas. Batman can hide under grates, crawl around in air ducts (a standard gaming convention – at least there aren’t crates!) and, with certain upgrades, hang upside down from gargoyles and string up his foes. These abilities allow him to perform “silent takedowns”, allowing him to take out single enemies without alerting the entire group.

Enemies react appropriately when finding Batman’s unconscious victims – they’ll show fear, and sometimes, when armed with a gun and terrified, will fire wildly into the air in a panic. They’re not always the smartest knives in the drawer – you’ll often be able to silently take down a thug standing right next to another thug without him noticing. On the whole, however, their behavior makes sense and adds to the feeling that you’re someone criminals should fear.

The most enjoyable part of the game is when using Detective Mode. Batman’s view of the world can be toggled between a “normal” view and “Detective Mode”, a filter that emphasizes the interactive elements of the environment. Batman will have situations where he’s required to analyze certain clues to proceed with the story, and will need to follow different types of physical evidence to where they lead . More often, you’ll be employing it to solve the numerous “Riddler Challenges” issued to you by the criminal himself.

The “Riddler Challenges” are varied – some will require you to solve riddles by scanning certain locations or items throughout the island while others can be solved by scanning mysterious messages written on specific stone carvings. You’ll also be searching for audio recordings of psychiatric sessions with the Arkham’s villains. The island and buildings are scattered with “Riddler Trophies,” many in areas that can’t be accessed until you’ve obtained certain specialized tools or equipment upgrades. Completing these challenges awards significant amounts of XP, which is essential to upgrading Batman’s capabilities. Completing challenges unlocks other game elements, including character biographies, combat challenges (scenarios separate from the main storyline) and virtual “Character Trophies”, 3-D renderings of the numerous allies and enemies Batman’s will encounter as the story progresses. As a VERY casual Batman fan, I found the biographies helpful in fleshing out the backstory.

If there’s one drawback to Detective Mode, it’s that because it filters your view of the world, it keeps you from being able to fully appreciate the artwork and atmosphere the developers obviously spent so much time and care creating. While using the mode, the world will appear as primarily blue or yellow, with areas of interest highlighted in orange. As the game progresses, it becomes necessary to be in Detective Mode on a near-constant basis. You’ll need it to be able to see enemies through walls (their skeletons, anyway) and to see which ones are armed (Batman does NOT deal well with gunfire.) You’re not going to have much luck being stealthy without it. You’ll also need it to be able to easily spot areas and items necessary to solve both Riddler Challenges and to progress through the story.

The voice acting throughout the game is almost uniformly terrific. I STILL can’t visualize Mark Hamill voicing lines as The Joker – he’s THAT good. The 5.1 surround mix is well done with plenty of environmental cues in the surround speakers – this is the ideal game to play with the sound cranked up and the lights turned off. Batman:AA is built on the Unreal engine, so all of the character models have that weird Unreal “shine”, but I think most regular game players are probably used to it by now, given the number of games based on it (the Gears of War franchise being the most obvious example.) It’s certainly no knock on the development team.

Save points are very closely spaced together, something I wish ALL developers would emulate. Inside buildings, your game will be saved nearly every time you go through a door. Batman:AA will also save directly before boss battles – load times are extremely brief and cut scenes before the actual fights are skippable after a few seconds, so you’ll be able to quickly get back in the action. The only areas where you’ll have to be careful about saves are in the open areas areas of the island. Several times, I’d solved a half-dozen challenges and then quit the game, not realizing that upon quitting, the game won’t automatically save your progress. The easiest solution is to enter a building or another area before quitting to the main menu.

As far as game length goes, I didn’t find it either too short or too long. While I’m sure you could speed through the game in 8 or 10 hours, I don’t know why you’d want to. I probably spent 30 hours playing through the storyline, but that involved solving every single Riddler Challenge. I was also able to obtain every upgrade with about 20 Challenges remaining. (One piece of advice – don’t worry if you haven’t found every Challenge by the end of the game – you’ll have a chance to finish them up after the story is over. I nearly had a heart attack when I thought I’d have to replay the whole game again to get all 240, but my fears were unfounded…) I didn’t spend a great deal of time with any of the Combat Challenges, but they’re a nice addition and something I plan to revisit later. They have varied goals (e.g., defeat as many enemies as possible, take down x number of enemies via stealth within certain time limits, etc.) There’s no multiplayer here and the game certainly doesn’t need it (does Batman REALLY need a sidekick? I’m not missing Robin here…) It’s nice to see that Rocksteady recognized that multiplayer (or even co-op) doesn’t belong in EVERY game. Their focus was on the story and the single player experience and it shows.

Highly recommended.