This is literally my first trip out to the Atari offices, and it's definitely larger than I imagined. Upon arrival I'm ushered into the media room equivalent of my dream lounge room. In the centre of the room are two chairs with swivelling bases and a small coffee table. On two walls are massive HDTVs connected to dev consoles - one is showing the Wii version of Codemaster's take on Formula 1, the other playing the menu screen for Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Around the room are life size figurines of Lara Croft and Kane & Lynch, but the real winner - the piece I contemplate stealth KO'ing my gracious hosts for - is a framed canvas for Metal Gear Solid, signed by Hideo Kojima. I'm considering a sneaking mission of my own...
Why do asylums always look so creepy?
Hudson Hawk-esque capers aside, even a MGS canvas couldn't hold my attention as long as Batman: Arkham Asylum. I waltzed in the room and I'm immediately asked the all important question "Do you have a preference? PS3 or Xbox 360?"
It's already on the screen on the 360, so my decision is made for me. The game loads straight to Batman escorting The Joker into Arkham Asylum, a sprawling island correctional facility. I'm immediately reminded of the beginning to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - except this time you're X to the Z, not V to the D.
As you walk the comedic criminal down the corridors of Arkham an immediate distinction is made - this is the cackling maniac Joker from the comic books, not the frighteningly psychotic Joker of The Dark Knight. This doesn't mean the Joker isn't scary - voiced by Mark Hamill he exudes almost a Hannibal Lecter air in the way he speaks with guards, picks at their flaws and... Well, let's just say at one point you might consider fitting him with a mask.
Batman on the other hand is nothing like the flawed, occasionally unsure hero portrayed by Bale in TDK. He's confident and powerful - when a "sudden" power failure grips other guards in panic, Batman simply grips the Joker's throat. The most noticeable thing during this introductory sequence - the establishing lead-in, while the credits role - is the graphics. B:AA is almost identical when shifting from cut-scene to in-game - texture details increase a little, but this is basically all.
Well isn't that a kick in the teeth.
If you don't already know, B:AA follows Batman as he attempts to retake control of the mental asylum - initially it seems like a trap set for the "B" man by the Joker but eventually it appears there's something else afoot. The game seems pretty heavy on the story side of things - a lot of emphasis and attention is paid to the various characters of the Batman world, and everyone earns a deep, deep character background.
The Riddler definitely earned big points with his presence in the game - unsurprisingly he gives the player riddles to solve. The first one took me a good five minutes to crack - I knew the basics, but the details of the riddle were hidden in a character's name. And so the Riddler berated and insulted me every 30 seconds or so - giving me hints along the way. It seems like a great way to push the player to either find out other details about the characters or to get them to notice elements of the story they might miss usually.
The other helper element is Batman's "Detective mode". With the push of a button WayneTech industries investigative technology (how does he hide this stuff from prying eyes?) kicks in and our caped crusader can see and identify friend or foe, mark them as armed or armless (no more puns, I promise) and even find clues to track down villains. It also sends you extra information about your environment - details like people's names and rank, their health status and things like that. It helps connect you to the environment even when walls are transparent and the colour scheme is grey.
All the puns about the Joker are far too obvious.
The combat at this point is a little hit and miss - fighting goons is good with Batman showing off his physical prowess against masses of enemies - X (xbox controller here) is attack, Y is counter and B is stun (I thought it was a "block" animation, but Batman doesn't need to block anything). Combat mostly comes down to a combination of mashing X until your batty senses start tingling - then you counter someone and smash their face in. It's cinematic, it feels good and while it's a little easy it's executed well. It's similar to
The Bourne Conspiracy game from last year.
When you come across armed thugs things get a little more dangerous - Batman doesn't like bullets. Instead of running head first into these guys, the Bat takes a page from Solid Snake's book - stealth KOs (Batman never kills). Sneaking with the right trigger, he simply taps Y when behind an enemy to perform a Stealth KO and they're instantly out. Your opponents don't seem to have a lot in the way of peripheral vision, so you can typically knock a henchy out while he stands metres from his mates - ruining the illusion a little.
On the other hand, the other stealth method - the pounce in, KO, grapple away method - is very, very Batman. Using the grapple hook, you find somewhere with a good view of the surrounding area. You wait for an opponent to come near, leap from your perch, swoop in and KO him and then tap the grapple button to get away. You can even take out guys right in front of their mates if you time it properly - usually resulting in a lot of scared yelling as you grapple away as fast as you can.
Snake? SNAAAKE!
The grappling is also a bit hit and miss at this stage - I'd love to be able to grapple on to whatever I like in an aim and shoot style situation, but you can tell the kinds of quick KO's I described wouldn't be possible if the hook was manually aimed. They really only had two choices, and while part of me would prefer the other style for what it does the current grappling hook is intuitive and very easy to use.
Easy is actually my greatest concern for this game - I beat up the massive supervillain Croc by simply sitting on the other side of the room from him and throwing batarangs at him until he croaked, and it was barely 5 solid hits before the man who broke Batman's back (Bane) got broke back (I never said anything about terrible wordplay). Being that they're supposed to be boss characters I was somewhat disappointed with how easy they went down.
Looking at the scope of Batman: Arkham Asylum, it's difficult to not feel some anticipation for what's to come. From the Riddler's puzzles to the mostly awesome combat system, B:AA has a heap going for it. There are definitely some things I'd like to see done differently but I have to wonder if maybe these fears will allay themselves when I'm immersed in the world of Batman. What is certain is that this is definitely a labour of love for the team at Rocksteady Studios - it's apparent in the graphics, the casting of the cartoon's voices and the attention to detail in the characters (there's a killer encounter I'd love to relate - damn NDAs).
Screenshots coming soon...
