cloudswift's Profile

Welcome to Arkham Asylum, home of the mentally ill and criminally insane. First off the bat (snap!), to adequately review a game I think it helps to break it down into nice bitesize chunks. So..

Developers
BAA is made by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos and Warner Bros. Rocksteady studios is a an indie British-based developer and have only one prior release, Urban Chaos, which received good ratings from both Official Xbox and PS2 magazines (8/10). So one might be guilty of thinking that BAA is going to be a game small in stature and function, but far from it.

Plot
There are many twists and turns with the plot, and to be honest Joker would have to be a Mensa chairman to have thought of all the side plots, distractions, and to be that organised with his mentally insane henchmen stretches what shallow reality the Batman world offers. But the basic plot begins with you (Batman) escorting a subdued Joker back to Arkham Asylum, a maximum security unit for the criminally insane. Joker is freed, and the adventure begins to re-capture and incapacitate Joker and his colleagues. There are important plot points but I don't want to give spoilers so I won't mention them.
The character casting is brilliant. Joker's casting is sublime and harks back to the style portrayed by Nicholson; like a half drunk, half camp New Yorker with too much ambition and not enough time to accomplish it. Ivy and Harley Quinn are are portrayed as faulted yet well-rounded and entertaining characters. Batman is probably the worst character of the game; an emotionally closed strategist always thinking of the mission and STILL hung up on his parents death. This calls into question which part of the Batman time-line this occurs, because it seems Batman resolves his emotional issues and learns to love in every film he's appeared in.

Gameplay
BAA is 3rd person, and there are two types of gameplay; Stealth and fighting. The stealth aspect is reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid, where you run around and take out each henchman either by silent takedowns or straight-up brawling. Stealth has always been a grey area in video games, because while most SGs require the player to sneak around undetected, true stealth doesn't come from killing every target one engages. BAA endorses the "wipe'em out" philosophy including sections that require you to eliminate all enemies before proceeding.
The fighting mechanics have been praised by many. I hated them. I played the game on hard, and at times I thought I was being punished for not counter attacking constantly. The fighting set-pieces mostly come down to 5-16 on 1 fights, but become repetitive when the only way to survive is *counter, batwing, single attack - rinse and repeat*.
On hard, Batman is a pussy. So-much-so that I'm sure, even with the lv. 4 armour upgrade, the average thug has more health and stronger basic attacks then Batman which is not only frustrating, but also breaks immersion. Bosses also suffer from the "You can't hurt me normally but when i'm dizzy (etc) then i'm vulnerable".
Other gameplay jewels are upgradeable inventions that help Batman whiz around, and the challenge modes where one can engage in various challenges for achievements and kudos.
There are collectibles (Riddler's Riddles and Arkham's memoires) which appear in the form of half-cryptic riddles; while more entertaining then collecting flags, some collectibles offer incites into select characters from the Batman universe, some are interview tapes from the psychiatrists of AA, and some are boring statues.

Graphics
It's on a next-gen console, so of course it's going to look amazing in HD. BAA uses the Unreal 3 Engine and it can be seen particularly with the character model texturing similar to Bioshock. The levels are brilliantly rendered and atmospheric, and it's almost a shame that detection mode favours the player (a blue visor that highlights enemies and environmental operants), making the game easier interms of fighting and stealth set-pieces and the cost of the textures.

Conclusion
It's a great game interms of plot development, characterisation (especially after failing a mission or dieing) , graphics, and overall gameplay. My personal niggles are with regards to the repetitive and uneven fighting mechanics, linear *stealth* set pieces, the homoerotic overtones (even the "crazy" Henchmen have six-packs -do they pump out sit ups in lockdown?) and Batman, portrayed yet again as an isolated blunt anti-hero that still doesn't kill the evillest of criminals. This game is definitely a rent, and the challenges and collectibles will pull out those last few hours of gameplay for any buyer.