Batman, or Bat-Man, or The Dark Knight, or Not-Rorschach has been around since the tail-end of the Dirty ’30s. By this point, everyone has an opinion on Batman. He’s either your favorite superhero of all time and you’ve got a pretty good Christian Bale impression that you can pull whenever you’ve invited out, which isn’t often. Or you’re more of a Marvel guy who thinks Superman’s just a little too boyscout but, hey, Batman’s alright. The point is that beyond the cliches and the brooding, there’s something just a little bit awesome about Batman. Even though it’s simmered down since the Nolan days, Bat-mania is still burning pretty steadily, with a fifteen-hour Robert Pattinson movie on the way at the time of this writing. But back in 2009, at the peak of his recent fame, Batman found himself the subject of a pretty ambitious little game from a studio that was a relative newcomer to the industry: Rocksteady. But whereas past games sought to tie into a movie or the TV show, Rocksteady had a different idea. This time, Batman was going to Arkham.
We’re All Mad Here
Arkham Asylum launches with a story already in progress. Enforcing jay-walking law, we join Batman after having picked up the Joker. The two of them are driving over to Arkham Asylum to check Joker into his usual haunt. Not liking the ease with which he caught Joker, Batman tags along just long enough for Joker to spring his trap: he wanted to be caught the entire time! Joker takes over Arkham and gets to work releasing a whole load of goons and supergoons loose through the funny house. Already stuck in the Asylum, Batman gets to work locking up all the criminals and taking back control of Arkham.
Arkham Asylum doesn’t really really push the story-telling boundary for videogames but it does tell its story competently. Scenes are presented well and character interactions are snappy, with very little downtime for any beat to become stale. However, it did normalize a trend that we’re still feeling today: walking slowly while talking to people. Although there are cutscenes, the game primarily focuses on giving you plot exposition while in-game. This involves walking with characters who chat about the story, watching monitors set up through Arkham, stuff like that. Your mileage may vary when it comes to whether or not this adds to the experience. I feel like some scenes are done pretty well and are compelling enough but honestly, there’s no reason for Batman to have to stay in one room touching his ear, while I’m mashing on the “Open Door” button, trying to manifest a Batman who can talk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Overall though, I do like the simple structure of the story and it’s presented in a beautiful package. You can find additional hidden logs to flesh out lore and backstory to characters and it’s all just very endearing, especially if you enjoy these characters. And while it doesn’t break new ground in the story regard, the gameplay is a completely different story.
Guiding Batman around Arkham should feel pretty comfortable even for someone who didn’t grow up with the title. As a cinematic third-person adventure/brawler, this game is top of the line. Arkham Asylum has been described as a Metroidvania in the past, and honestly, whoever said that was right on the money. You make your way throughout the asylum, exploring each wing until you eventually get another set of bread crumbs that take you someplace else. And along the way, you’ll constantly be getting new upgrades which then allow you to explore just a little bit more of Arkham and discover just a few more secrets. The pacing of the game feels really tight, constantly introducing new villains and set-pieces just as you’re starting to get too comfortable. Moments like delving into Killer Croc’s den stick out as a complete subversion of gameplay and a tense and pivotal moment. And Scarecrow’s segments have been heralded as some of the most memorable sequences of the seventh generation. Creating liminal spaces and even getting meta with its horror, every time Scarecrow shows up, it’s generally a good time. And that’s the long and short of it. Save a few exceptions, like needing to trek across the entire asylum just to have a scowl-off with prison guard Cash, Arkham Asylum is paced extremely well. But every so often, you’ll bump into a goon or two or twenty. Thankfully, you have plenty of options when it comes to dealing with them.
A Cowardly And Supersticious Lot
There’s a certain rhythm to combat, a sort of dance between opponent faces and Bat fists. Combat usually takes place with a group of enemies, forcing you to bounce in and out of striking range, punching and countering whenever you’re prompted. You can’t get very far by just button-mashing through this adventure, lead pipes end up finding their way to the back of your head and all. Later on in the title, the game throws a few more variants out at you, like knife-wielders that you need to stun or electric-baton users that need to be lept over first, but this same rhythm of punch-punch-counter persists through the entire game. And it’s a good system, it feels sufficiently weighty and with very few exceptions, it works without a hitch. There are the occasional times where you see the prompt for countering but you’re just out of range, canceling your combo and oftentimes leading to a lot of damage being thrown your way. But with the amount of fighting that you need to do through Arkham, most of it is seamless. The gadgets that you pick up around the asylum are useful in combat too. Extending a combo with a Batarang or pulling them closer with your hookshot is pretty much the extent of it but they add a little bit more flavor to the gameplay if you find yourself needing to shake things up. That being said, if battles with mooks are the cream of the crop, boss battles are definitely the low point of Arkham Asylum. Essentially every encounter turns into a few seconds of boss, then you have to take care of the minions that are summoned in, with very few exceptions. I chalk this up to first-time jitters for the team and perhaps a bit of time crunch since the sequels elevate the boss battles to much higher levels of quality. Overall, even with the lacking boss encounters and the sometimes wonky collision detection, Arkham has an amazing combat system behind it and ended up inspiring a whole swathe of games to follow in its footsteps.
But Batman’s whole shtick is about stealth, right? Creeping in the shadows? Gravely voice from the dark? Where’s Rachael? So it tracks that not every encounter that you find is going to be head-on. Arkham Asylum also has plenty of opportunities for you to track and stalk big groups of enemies through arena-style rooms, with each environment providing a new twist to gameplay. Oftentimes, you’ll be sculking under floor grates, or rappeling from gargoyle heads up high, waiting for your chance to strike out and pick off stragglers from the group, one by one. The game will eventually try to switch it up for you, restricting your use of perches or giving you little in the way of escape routes, but these segments, though sometimes tense, usually play out the same way every time. And further deflating the tension is Detective Mode. With the press of a button, you can see where every person is, if they’re carrying a weapon, and also how spooked they are. Being able to see everyone along with what direction they’re going, it ends up turning these segments into thug whack-a-mole with little in the way of opposition. Arenas are also not as varied as later games in the series, so the entire experience ends up feeling pretty basic as a result. But as a first step, this is not a bad one. The concept of emerging from the shadows is super fun. Swooping down right behind a guard to take him out silently, leaving a glob of explosive gel, and taking out the guards that come to investigate is satisfying. Overall, this system works at its best when you’re engaging with it like a sort of high-stakes game of Mouse Trap. It adds to the power and presence of your playable hero and it gives the game a lot of soul.
No Earthly Way of Knowing, Which Direction They Are Going
The titular asylum in Arkham is gorgeous. Once the grounds open up to you proper, you’re essentially free to roam wherever you can actually access. The grounds, though not used for much actual gameplay, are painstakingly detailed. And the different wings of the Asylum are all themed differently and generally emphasize the use of a certain piece of kit, sort of like a lite-Zelda dungeon. This ends up giving each wing of the Asylum a different personality and that’s the main operative word here: personality. Arkham Asylum is oozing with the stuff. Each crook and cranny you can imagine has a little something tucked away in it, whether it’s just an excellent piece of environmental detail or a Riddler trophy. Yes, Batman’s most annoying villain is here, and fully aware of how much you hate him. But in a brilliant move from Rocksteady, he’s not actually part of the main cast that you fight. His role is to leave little collectible goodies here and there to collect, often requiring you to come back to a certain area with a new gadget to acquire them. But the real fun comes from the riddles he gives you, that require you to actively scour the environment and scan objects to solve them. Besides being a fun bit of trivia and nods to Batman’s comics past, these are just really addictive and show some real love for the source material. Oftentimes, the longer Riddler hunts would lead me to take in all the beautiful touches of detail in the world. I don’t think that the Riddler system would work in a game that wasn’t so lovingly crafted and Rocksteady deserves praise for that.
Arkham Asylum really stood out from the pack when it came to presentation and a large part of that had to do with the voice talent on display here. Rocksteady pulled Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy, and Arleen Sorkin from the animated Batman cartoon to reprise their roles. Sorkin chews up the scenery with the best of them as Harley Quinn, Conroy brings his stoic gravel to the titular caped crusader, and Hamill brings his acrobatic range and menacing low end to the Joker. Hamill and Conroy have always had excellent chemistry in their roles and that relationship is on full display here. Joker being portrayed as someone who can go from manic to cold all in the same sentence bounces wonderfully off Batman’s steadfast patience and determination. Sometimes, that patience gets a little played out and the script is a little predictable, but hey, the sequels got to work cracking Batman’s psyche down. Supporting those three are industry legends like Tom Kane and Steve Blum, pulling grunt work as dutifully as only they can. Honestly, the voice acting and direction choices in this title are on-point and are only slightly let down by the lacking facial movements and lip flaps. But the voice acting is directed wonderfully and there aren’t any really out-of-place performances from the batch that’s assembled here. It all comes together beautifully and adds yet another token of authenticity to Arkham.
“Yeah, But the Book’s Better…”
So, hey, did you know this was based on a comic? Big surprise, that a Batman property was based on a comic, but hold onto your hats, because it’s true. The comic has much different aspirations from the game though. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth has the same basic concept as the videogame, with Joker and the other inmates taking over the asylum and Batman having to make his way through. Where the comic differs however is with its tone and its theme. Whereas Arkham the game is interested in telling a story of Batman bam-whap-smashing his way through his rogue’s gallery, with only a little psychological introspection in the form of Scarecrow’s sections, the comic goes for the complete inverse. There are hardly any physical conflicts in the comic, with most of the trials going on inside Batman’s head. Batman mostly just talks with his adversaries, ruminating on what his role is in this grand play and how sane it is for him to go around dressed in such a ridiculous costume, even for the “right” reasons. Heavily leaning on Eastern European storytelling stylings, Grant Morrison tells a story that is very grey and even by the end of it, there is no clear answer or resolution for anyone to be “the winner.” And with incredible mixed-media art from Dave McKean that interprets established characters with surreal implosions of pure vibe, the experience just lends itself to be a much more intimate and introspective work than your run-of-the-mill comic.
So in the sense of being an adaptation, I think that Arkham Asylum the videogame fails. But obviously, a straight adaptation was never Rocksteady’s goal in the first place. The game has many more similarities with Batman’s early days of a monster-of-the-week pulp adventure. But drawing from the setting and the atmosphere of the comic was an inspired touch, giving the game an eery, off-kilter vibe even while you’re punching giant roided-up clowns in the face. The comic’s inspiration is never far away, and in later games in the series, Batman’s convictions and his purpose are heavily questioned and put to task, showing that the team at Rocksteady absolutely didn’t miss the point of the comic. I imagine that launching a first game that was in no way a guaranteed success was stressful enough without also thinking about how to accurately translate the psychology of the comic. So while Arkham Asylum the game isn’t a very good adaptation, I think that it is an excellent companion piece, able to sit beside the comic, both being recognized as art.
Knightfall
Arkham Asylum, just like its comic book inspiration, was ground-breaking. Up until this point, comic book videogames were beat-em-up shlock that didn’t attempt to elevate itself above the bargain bin, nevermind try to elevate the entire genre. But Arkham Asylum came out and showed what was possible with the right amount of presentation and rock-solid attention to detail. The way that Askham Asylum opens up and paces itself feels like a cohesive, interactive movie rather than going through a level, completing it, and then moving on to the next. And its impact is still felt today, everywhere from Last of Us to the God of War reboot. The reach of this game was vast and it really can’t be understated just how much it influenced the direction of single-player games to come. From its characters, to its gameplay, to its level design, this title showed a team that, while still being relatively new, was operating on an absolutely inspired level of creativity. Batman was finally given his definitive videogame. And thus was he cemented as DC’s greatest hero, totally creaming Superman, the dumb nerd. And firmly burying Green Arrow, six feet under an unmarked grave.
If you want to punch Killer Croc in the face, first off, don’t. But also, you can grab this game for the good old Xbox 360 and the PS3, which has some exclusive Joker missions where you get to play as the Clown Prince of Crime himself. Or you could just grab the updated remasters for PS4/Xbox One, which modernizes the graphics and includes the Joker content as well. There’s a little bit of jank from time to time with graphical issues and face syncing, but overall, the remasters aren’t a bad way to play it at all.