Recently, I picked up a copy of Batman: Return to Arkham, a remastering of the highly acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Batman: Arkham City. It may surprise you to learn that besides being a big fan of Star Trek, I also enjoy things related to Batman as well. I know! I'm so full of surprises! I discovered Arkham Asylum in 2009 so shortly after it was released. It was at that exact moment that a romance born. We'll get to that. The Arkham series was built on a pretty solid foundation, although that was not the case at the beginning. In the beginning, Arkham Asylum was a rhythm game in the vein of Dance Dance Revolution. Although that might have been a pretty fun way to play, and certainly an innovative use of the technology, my pasty 35 year old body probably wouldn't enjoy it very much now. However, that idea of getting into a rhythm to do things like combat carried through and influenced several games later on down the road. Let's delve into this franchise and see what they're all about.
Arkham Asylum
Arkham Asylum, in my opinion took the world by storm. The premise is actually really good, especially in an overall franchise where everything has already been done. The Joker has staged a fire at Black Gate prison in order to get all of his thugs temporarily transferred to the titular Arkham Asylum. In the meantime, Joker has been apprehended by Batman, again, and is being processed in as a returning inmate. This is when everything goes to pot. During the secure transfer, the place goes berserk, and the Joker is freed from his restraints. He disappears into the bowels of the asylum, and the facility is locked down, cutting off Batman and the Gotham Police from pursuing Joker. We find out that Harley Quinn has taken the warden hostage and is using his computer access to run the facility in the way that the Joker has instructed her to. It's going to be a long night for Batman as he has to figure out Joker's end game, and wrangle up inmates in order to bring order back to the asylum.
Throughout the game, you, as Batman, get to fight some of Batman's best known and most beloved villains. You'll find yourself pitted against Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Bane, and even Scarecrow. Of course, by the end, you have to actually fight the Joker, but there's a twist. It's a mystery that unfolds carefully and deliberately as you play through the game. It turns out that one of the doctors at the asylum was being paid to develop a serum that is basically Bane's Venom serum on steroids. It's called Titan, and the Joker has engineered a production facility on Arkham island where he's experimenting with the inmates to perfect the formula. As a result, you occasionally have to fight inmates who have been dosed with the serum, and they can be pretty tough. There are also a few other features that make this game incredibly enjoyable so let's take a look at some of those.
Another battle that rages on throughout the game is a battle of wits as you're pitted against the vast intellect of the Riddler. He's hidden trophies and riddles throughout Arkham island to test your deduction skills, your patience, and your resolve. One of the more innovative ways that you deal with this is through the use of detective mode vision. This mode allows you to see what lies beyond most forms of sight as you explore the environments that Arkham Asylum. You're able to see walls that can be blown up, air duct grates that can be removed, pick up chemical trails to track individuals, and generally this vision mode is a great way to pick up on subtle things that will help you move through the story more easily. It's also been exploited by the Riddler as many of his riddles require you to use detective mode in order to see the various elements of his riddles. In this way, the game actually has really strong puzzle solving mechanic to it, and really enjoy games that put puzzle solving to good use.
You also get tools like Batman's grappling hook, Batarangs, and a hacking device that help you to reach areas of the island that might otherwise be inaccessible. These devices also lend themselves to keeping combat interesting as you can use them in creative ways to create distractions, stun enemies, knock enemies unconscious, or stalk certain targets to do stealthier attacks. While we're straying close to that subject, the combat system in this game is particularly fun. You are Batman, and so combat does boil down to beating the ever-loving snot out of thugs, ultimately, but the twist is the rhythm system that was devised when the game was going to be dance based. You can just brute force your way through the game as the upgrades that you get help you to stay ahead of your enemies for the most part, but there is an elegance available to you in the timing of actions that allows you to seamlessly beat your enemies to a pulp. This chaining of attacks also allows you to temporarily open up more powerful attacks as you do it successfully. You're also encouraged to use a wide variety of attacks in order to get higher amounts of experience that will allow you to unlock upgrades more quickly.
As you use the tools at your disposal to dig deeper and deeper in the mysteries surrounding the island, and the Joker's plot, there are a lot of opportunities to get information that, while not crucial to the main story, adds a ton of depth and richness to that story. There are little stone monuments that you can scan that give you a history behind the founding of Arkham Asylum, and the shady things that have gone on there from its inception to the present day. You can unlock therapy session tapes for various villains and learn more of their stories. It's all very fun to do, and it's integrated in such a way that you don't feel like you're being pushed into pursuing these Easter eggs, you just want to get them so you can learn more about this rich and engrossing world that's been built up around you.
This game does a great job tailoring boss battles to the characters that are acting as the boss as well. When you fight Poison Ivy, she's using her plants to thwart you and you have to avoid their attacks while also timing Batarang strikes against her in order to temporarily incapacitate her so that you can attack her directly. When fighting the Scarecrow, you're forcibly whisked away to the theater of the mind where a fear toxin is wreaking havoc. You have to navigate a labyrinth puzzle while avoiding detection by the Scarecrow in order to use Batman's formidable mental discipline to attack Scarecrow. This takes the form of using spot lights to metaphorically shed light on Scarecrow's assault and drive him out of your mind. It's well-designed, well-executed, extremely creative, terribly intense, and loads of fun! This is the bar that was set by this game. Remember this as we move to the next titles.
By the end of the game, you've captured Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Bane, Harley Quinn, and probably a few others. Killer Croc is ostensibly on the lamb, and you have a final showdown with Joker that can be as intense as it is difficult. You fight waves of goons, some of whom have been hopped up on the Titan serum, and you only get a chance to fight Joker directly intermittently during the battle. It's tough, but it's a fantastic ending to a supremely enjoyable game! I finished through the first time wanting more, and ended up playing through a second time almost immediately after the first play through. Since then, I've played through the game probably five times since. I think the only other games that I've played that many times are the Streets of Rage games, and Shinobi 3. It's that good.
Arkham City
Batman: Arkham City got released two years after Asylum, and as a sequel, it was a pretty solid release. It takes the format of Asylum, and takes it to the next logical level. With Arkham Asylum in shambles, a portion of Gotham City has been cordoned off to be used as a temporary prison for Arkham inmates. The whole thing has been orchestrated in a political power play by none other that Hugo Strange. The game begins as Bruce Wayne is holding a press conference denouncing the new facilities and the practices that needed to be overlooked in order to put it in place. Wayne is arrested and Strange informs him that he (Strange) knows Batman's secret identity. Wayne is thrown into the newly minted Arkham City with the hope that the inmates will find out all about Bruce Wayne, and get their revenge. Batman is always prepared, and he gets his suit via an aerial drop, and thus begins your quest to bring order to Arkham City, and escape the hell that's been created by the dregs of Gotham.
This game opens up the world that Asylum began building quite a bit, and honestly, it fulfilled all of the hopes that I had had going into it. I loved the first one, but wanted to explore Gotham proper. I appreciated the villains that were included in the previous game, but there were some glaring omissions. Some of the notable villains that you have to battle are Two-Face, the Penguin, Ra's Al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, and because it wouldn't be an Arkham game without him, the Riddler, who has hidden a bunch more secrets for you to track down all throughout the city. The story continues the story that was set up in the previous title. The Titan serum that Joker used is unstable and it's slowly killing him. Sensing a potential for a power vacuum due to the Joker's impeding death a couple of villains attempting to preemptively fill that void, namely Two-Face and Penguin, although the Riddler is using his cunning to try for supremacy clandestinely. Batman finds himself caught in the cross hairs, and spends the bulk of the game fighting goons from Two-Face and Penguin.
The game play is similar to what you'd expect if you have played Asylum. You solve puzzles, you find hidden collectibles, and you beat thugs to a pulp. The difference in this game is that everything is on a much grander scale. You'll find yourself grappling between buildings as you glide your way across Gotham, just like in the show! The other big difference is that there are civilians also caught in these particular cross hairs. You'll find yourself saving them in addition to you plot quests. There are a number of separate mysteries to be solved, and like the first game, there are a few big mysteries to be solved as well, particularly, what's really going on with the Joker, and second, what does Hugo Strange have planned with his Protocol 10 initiative. That last one puts you in a race against the clock as there's a set point in time that the plan will be unleashed. There's also a mysterious assailant killing people and surgically removing their faces. It's a pretty intense soup of awesomeness!
Another welcome addition to the game is the ability to play as other characters. You get missions where you play as Catwoman, and those missions factor into Batman's overall progress through the game. Then in a DLC mission, you play as Robin. It's a roller coaster of a story! You spend a lot of time tracking Joker, and trying to get to the bottom of that story, but you spend at least an equal amount of time with all of the other things, and there's a lot to do. By the end you realize that Clayface has been impersonating the Joker in order to keep up appearances within his gang, but that Joker has ultimately died. There's a point where Batman is dosed with Titan and has to fight back the effects of it. This becomes an important detail later. Suffice to say, you're Batman.
This installment offered much of the same kind of game play as the previous title, just on a larger scale. At this point, I really feel like the franchise had reached a sweet spot. There was an environment that was extensive enough that you could spend hours exploring, but it wasn't so big so as to be overwhelming to the player. The aspects of Asylum that had been entertaining had remained, and were built upon in prudent and practical ways, and this just added to the fun of the experience when playing. I think my only real gripe with this one is that there were a ton of things to be found. If you're a completionist, you're going to be spending a lot of time tracking down collectibles, and solving riddles. That's not to say that it's not a fun process, it can just be overwhelming when there are around 425 of them to be found. However, if you're looking for a game that's well-crafted and fun to play, this is a solid title.
This installment offered much of the same kind of game play as the previous title, just on a larger scale. At this point, I really feel like the franchise had reached a sweet spot. There was an environment that was extensive enough that you could spend hours exploring, but it wasn't so big so as to be overwhelming to the player. The aspects of Asylum that had been entertaining had remained, and were built upon in prudent and practical ways, and this just added to the fun of the experience when playing. I think my only real gripe with this one is that there were a ton of things to be found. If you're a completionist, you're going to be spending a lot of time tracking down collectibles, and solving riddles. That's not to say that it's not a fun process, it can just be overwhelming when there are around 425 of them to be found. However, if you're looking for a game that's well-crafted and fun to play, this is a solid title.
Arkham Knight
Arkham Knight is the point where the franchise proper finally begins to suffer from its own success. I say franchise proper because in between City and Knight, Rocksteady Montreal released the critically panned Arkham Origins. I'm not going to talk about that one here because most people didn't find it very enjoyable, and quite frankly, I think their opinion is in error, but would need an isolated article to focus on that. Knight by contrast, got a lot of support from the developer in terms of advertising, it got a lot of hype from critics, and it was hotly anticipated by consumers. I remember watching some of the trailers and thinking that the game was going to be the pinnacle of the series, and a high note end to a great story. Let's briefly see if expectations were satisfied.
The game starts with Gotham being evacuated as Scarecrow has threatened to release a new and more volatile fear toxin on the entire city. Batman does some sleuthing a tracks down Poison Ivy at one of Scarecrow's secret hideouts. She directs him to ACE Chemicals, where Scarecrow plans to use the infrastructure of that facility to brew and release his toxin. When Batman arrives, he's confronted by a new villain calling himself the Arkham Knight. The Knight has an entire militia at his disposal complete with tanks, and in order to prevail, Batman has to battle these tanks with his own tank, the Batmobile. This is an excellent time to delve into some of the major changes that were made between City and Knight. Quite a bit of what made the previous two installments fun is still present. We're not in a prison facility this time around, and you do have to save random citizens who missed the evacuation call throughout the game. There are three main islands that you have to unlock as you go as AK has them heavily guarded, and has taken measures to isolate each one from the others. To get around such a immense environment quickly, you're encouraged to drive around in the Batmobile. This is a welcome addition to the game play, to an extent, and can be a really fun time sink when you find yourself with little else to accomplish in the game.
The game offers a story tracking menu that adds new side missions to a wheel display when they're obtained, and shows progress for each as you get things done. This is especially helpful as there are quite a few subplot missions to be done and this at-a-glance mechanism makes tracking things much easier than it could have been. The elements of the game that carried through from the previous titles evolve with some of the advancements that were made for this one. For example, the Riddler has hidden a bunch of trophies around the city, but now, some of his puzzles involve you doing time trial races in the Batmobile, and using its capabilities to solve these puzzles. Also, some side missions require you to use the Batmobile in order to complete the various legs of these missions. Upgrades that are available in game allow Batman to use the Batmobile as a help while he's fighting thugs in the street. You can probably see where this is going. There was a lot of emphasis placed on the introduction of the Batmobile.
This emphasis on the Batmobile tends to be the biggest gripe amongst fans of the series. Many felt that the addition was gimmicky, and that it took away from the isolated scope of the previous games. Where you had been skulking around alleys, and jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the previous games, in Knight you're flying down streets in a souped up tank. It detracts from the intimacy that the previous games offered, and that does make the experience feel a little bit hollow. This was most notable in the evolution of the Riddler challenges. Gone are the actual riddles only to be replaced almost entirely by puzzles and time trial races. They're still tough to accomplish, but not necessarily because they challenge the player intellectually. It was fun using detective vision to find hidden pictures and line them up in Asylum, or tracking a chemical trail to solve a mini-mystery. These were aspects of the games that fans had grown to love, and that were sorely missed in this title.
I felt like the story for this entry was a bit shaky as well. You gumshoe your way around Gotham and tick off a bunch of powerful evil people, and then Oracle gets kidnapped. Guess the bad guys figured that if they took Batman's search engine offline, Batman would be crippled, and unable to do things. You find yourself one step behind the Arkham Knight for most of the game, but when your paths do cross for real, it's a pretty good payoff. You find out that Arkham Knight is Jason Todd, the Robin that came after Dick Grayson, and that when Batman saw Todd killed, he really saw Todd 'killed'. Todd's resentment over Batman's abandonment, and psychological torture at the hands of the Joker turns him into an efficiently deadly killing machine. This explanation of Todd's resurfacing is much better than some, which have been known to include Ra's Al Ghul's Lazarus pools. This boils most of the motivation behind the primary plot down to revenge. That's an okay foundation upon which to build a story I suppose. The rogues gallery is not terribly shabby either. Besides finding yourself working with Poison Ivy unexpectedly, you also find yourself fighting Firefly, Two-Face, Penguin, Harley Quinn, and Scarecrow. However, some of these villains' treatment lacks the amount of care that was put into them in previous titles. Specifically, Scarecrow is mostly relegated to a voice in your ear over your communications channel that taunts you most of the game. And you don't really get a chance to go at him like you did in Asylum.
However, there are still plenty of twists and turns to be taken as you punch your way across Gotham City, and there are some great character dilemmas as well. Particularly, Batman finds himself tracking down five people whom Joker dosed with Titan via his own blood, which he send out to local hospitals before he died. One of those five people is Batman! So there's some extremely interesting internal conflict going on as Batman attempts to compartmentalize Joker from his psyche, and we're even given a glimpse into the Joker as we find out that the Joker's biggest fear is being forgotten. When Oracle gets kidnapped, Commissioner Gordon blames Batman and that sours their relationship quite a bit. Of course,there's the aforementioned connection between Batman and the Arkham Knight. The revelation of Batman's contamination with the Titan serum drives a wedge between Batman and the current Robin as well, a situation which gives you an opportunity to play as Nightwing, who comes in to try and help out. It's not as if the story is lacking by any means, it's only that some of it will start to seem a little repetitive, and hollow as you grind your way through, and unlike the other two entries, there are some areas where the plot lags a little bit. I'm not sure if they were trying to let the plot breathe or if they just didn't know how to fill things, but it's definitely noticeable. But by the end the payoff is totally worthwhile as Bruce Wayne destroys all things Batman, and holds a press conference to explain everything. The last thing we see is Bruce and Alfred walking back into Wayne Manor just in time for Wayne Manor to explode in a fiery conflagration! I'm sure this was Rocksteady's not so subtle way of announcing that they were done since they had intended to stop after City, but it was definitely an explosive way to end the franchise.
The series on the whole is an extremely well put together series. It offers mystery, action, puzzles, deep and complex plots, and well-developed characters. From a technical stand point, the voice actors all do an incredible job, hardly surprising since quite a few of them have done voice work on previous Batman projects, the controls are pretty smooth once you learn how to use them, and the rendering of environments and characters is done well. The atmosphere created is creepy, but engrossing. You'll find yourself looking in the direction of noises wanting to see what's coming only to realize that you actually need to turn the camera in a direction to where you can see. It started off tremendously strong,and although bowing to the desires of the fan base did rob the last game of some of its substance, I don't personally think you're any worse off for it. It started strong, and it ended nearly as strong. Any video game franchise could only hope for so much! It's a franchise that you can pick up for a fairly reasonable price on PC, or console, and I'd definitely recommend playing them through. I promise that you won't be disappointed! Don't believe the hype, they're all great! Stick around for next week to see what we're roasting then!
However, there are still plenty of twists and turns to be taken as you punch your way across Gotham City, and there are some great character dilemmas as well. Particularly, Batman finds himself tracking down five people whom Joker dosed with Titan via his own blood, which he send out to local hospitals before he died. One of those five people is Batman! So there's some extremely interesting internal conflict going on as Batman attempts to compartmentalize Joker from his psyche, and we're even given a glimpse into the Joker as we find out that the Joker's biggest fear is being forgotten. When Oracle gets kidnapped, Commissioner Gordon blames Batman and that sours their relationship quite a bit. Of course,there's the aforementioned connection between Batman and the Arkham Knight. The revelation of Batman's contamination with the Titan serum drives a wedge between Batman and the current Robin as well, a situation which gives you an opportunity to play as Nightwing, who comes in to try and help out. It's not as if the story is lacking by any means, it's only that some of it will start to seem a little repetitive, and hollow as you grind your way through, and unlike the other two entries, there are some areas where the plot lags a little bit. I'm not sure if they were trying to let the plot breathe or if they just didn't know how to fill things, but it's definitely noticeable. But by the end the payoff is totally worthwhile as Bruce Wayne destroys all things Batman, and holds a press conference to explain everything. The last thing we see is Bruce and Alfred walking back into Wayne Manor just in time for Wayne Manor to explode in a fiery conflagration! I'm sure this was Rocksteady's not so subtle way of announcing that they were done since they had intended to stop after City, but it was definitely an explosive way to end the franchise.
The series on the whole is an extremely well put together series. It offers mystery, action, puzzles, deep and complex plots, and well-developed characters. From a technical stand point, the voice actors all do an incredible job, hardly surprising since quite a few of them have done voice work on previous Batman projects, the controls are pretty smooth once you learn how to use them, and the rendering of environments and characters is done well. The atmosphere created is creepy, but engrossing. You'll find yourself looking in the direction of noises wanting to see what's coming only to realize that you actually need to turn the camera in a direction to where you can see. It started off tremendously strong,and although bowing to the desires of the fan base did rob the last game of some of its substance, I don't personally think you're any worse off for it. It started strong, and it ended nearly as strong. Any video game franchise could only hope for so much! It's a franchise that you can pick up for a fairly reasonable price on PC, or console, and I'd definitely recommend playing them through. I promise that you won't be disappointed! Don't believe the hype, they're all great! Stick around for next week to see what we're roasting then!
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