Brave and Bold, or The?

It was a dark and stormy night. You drive across a bridge and up to the front of an enormous Gothic structure. You exit the car, and drag the Joker to the door, ready to turn him over to the authorities at Arkham Asylum. You are Batman, and you are about to have one crazy night. That's the set up to Batman's latest foray into the world of video games, and the execution falls in line with the hype for the first time in his long history. Batman has had a lot of bad luck with games over the years, and Arkham Asylum walks a fine line between falling to the same problems as its predecessors, and becoming one of the standards for super hero games.

Arkham Asylum really works hard to immerse the gamer in the atmosphere of the Asylum, and tries to make the gamer feel like they really are Batman. In some ways, like the combat and gadgets, this succeeds wildly; in others, like some of the boss fights and some level design issues, it is disappointing at best. Using gadgets as Batman is easy and fun, and if you can't do something that seems like you should, just come back later with your newest gadget and try again. However, gadgets are not as useful in combat situations as one would think for the Dark Knight. If Batman hits a mook with a batarang, he should go down, unless it's an uber-mook; yet at best a batarang in Arkham Asylum will stun someone for one or two seconds. Eventually they will go down, but not before multiple batarang hits. Combat situations rarely devolve into the chaos required for the use of gadgets, luckily, because when they do the gadgets sometimes are a little unpredictable. Most boss fights are simplistic pattern recognition exercises most gamers have mastered years ago, and that are simply frustrating to those who have not yet mastered them. Also, some of the level designs break the mood of being Batman, because Batman isn't going to climb up an elevator shaft, he's going to use his grapnel gun to just zip up to the top floor.

Combat is something that has gotten a lot of print in Arkham Asylum, with some saying that it is too easy, and others saying it is a solid and entertaining system. I come down somewhere in between, in that it is perfect to keep you in character by allowing Batman to destroy standard enemies in hand to hand combat with three or four strikes, effortlessly counter an attack from behind, and incapacitate enemies in a variety of ways. However, the warning indicator in place on easy and normal mode, while useful initially, becomes both annoying and counterintuitive after a short period of time in the game. The inclusion of "challenge rooms" is a perfect way to show off the combat system in battles the magnitude of which make no sense in story mode, but which gives the experienced player a much-needed challenge. The opposite of the combat would be the stealth abilities that Batman is well known for also. In some ways, this is where Arkham Asylum both shines brightest and stumbles in the dark. The feeling of picking off enemies one at a time, slowly building the fear of the remaining enemies until only one remains is unlike anything I have experienced. The tension of some of the late game situations could be cut with a knife, as you hunt the enemies while they hunt you. The only problem is that the game encourages you to use its "detective mode", an x-ray view of the surrounding area that highlights interactive objects and shows the skeletons of all characters in the game, including enemies. While not removing all of the difficulty of the game, it does considerably reduce the challenge of the campaign. There is also a challenge mode for the sneaking, which challenges you to perform three specific enemy takedowns while clearing the level as quickly as possible. Strangely, I learned most of the optional takedowns in this mode rather than in the story mode, although my favorite is introduced in the story mode (inverted takedowns are awesome!).

Graphically, the game looks good, and the art direction is great in creating a mood more in line with the latest Batman movie, while still retaining some comic book styling. Unfortunately, with the game encouraging the use of detective mode, most of the graphical polish goes unnoticed. The sound is wonderful, with Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy, and Arleen Sorkin reprising their roles of the Joker, Batman, and Harley Quinn from the Batman animated series of the mid to late nineties. Ambient noise is subdued, and music intrudes less than you would expect. Most noticeable is the taunts and information played through the loud speakers of the Asylum from the Joker. These range from funny to sinister, but capture the character of the Joker perfectly.

Extra content is limited, and ranges from entertaining to frustrating. Extra content includes both challenge modes, as well as the search for all of the Riddler's "Riddles". Some are merely statues hidden away in difficult to locate vents, or hard to reach ledges, while others are all about finding an object that links to another character, such as a picture or a piece of their equipment. The search for these riddles becomes a sort-of side story of a competition of sorts between Batman and the Riddler. Since I'm a packrat at heart, these game wide collectathons always interest me, and because of that it is where I spent the majority of my time with the game. As I like collectathons, I also am an achievement whore to a point, so I can tell you that many of the gamerpoints are locked away in these extras.

Overall, I like the game, despite its flaws, because the atmosphere it creates is so powerful. Yes, even with detective mode. After all, glowing skeletons are all the rage, right?

Graphics: 7 out of 10

Would be better, but detective mode kills too much good work.

Sound: 9 out of 10

Voices are perfect, especially Hamill, but the little noises could be a little better.

Gameplay: 8 out of 10

Engrossing, but some level designs are for monkeys instead of superheroes, and it shows.

Controls: 9 out of 10

They do the best they can with what they have available.

Replayability: 5 out of 10

Challenge mode only goes so far. Really, it does.

Overall: 8 out of 10

Solid and entertaining, but with some flaws that detract more than they should.