With years of mediocre titles under his belt, Batman can only watch as his titular franchise was being run into the ground with each passing game.  The last Batman game to grace consoles, EA’s movie tie-in Batman Begins, was a shallow, repetitive brawler that lacked substance, flair and surprisingly a balanced story.  Eidos is set to fix those noted problems with a new take on the Batman franchise, one that will push the series into a bold new direction for future titles to come.  We recently got to try out the latest adventure in the Batman saga; and just how The Dark Knight re-imagined the movies, Arkham Asylum is set to make all past Batman games look pale in comparison.

Arkham Asylum begins with Batman wheeling a captured Joker into the main hall of the Asylum readying him for processing and booking.  But as Batman states, “things seemed too easy” when capturing The Joker, leading to him breaking out and running away inside the confines of the massive prison.  The game picks up almost immediately with Batman giving chase as he tries to capture The Joker once again.  As soon as Batman reaches the first corridor, however, The Joker enlists the help of his psychotic lover, Harley Quinn, to open up the doors and trap Batman amongst the now freed prisoners.

Combat works quite well in Arkham Asylum, mainly for the fact that it is not overly complicated and that quick, intuitive commands issued on screen let you know when to perform specific attacks.  Quick, short punches and kicks are issued by pressing the X button on the 360 controller (square on the PS3) and then basically mashing away until your enemy is either dazed or knocked down.  Counter attacks can be used as well when enemies surround you which force Batman to block punches or deliver an even faster kick of his own.  The demo showed messages on screen when to use the counter attacks, but hopefully there can be an option later on in the game that allows players to turn this feature off, allowing for a much more streamlined combat system.

As you wander through the broken halls that have been terrorized by The Joker, you soon come across a room where a guard has been captured by a deranged inmate who screams warnings of killings and brutality if he sees anyone resembling a bat.  Of course, running straight through the door is not an option, so Batman can now take to the skies and equip his grappling hook to swing onto objects anchored to the ceiling and sneak up on the inmate from behind.  Using detective mode (used by pressing LB and L2 on the respective controllers), Batman can get a view of the room that allows him to see objects that can be interacted, hostile enemies or any other points of interest.  By using detective mode, we simply swung across gargoyle statues till we got around to the inmate’s back and used the glide kick technique to take him down.  Once on the ground, the inmate was dazed but not out, so we performed a takedown maneuver, used by holding R1+Y, which lets Batman finish off the inmate for good.

The controls felt very fluid in this instance and since running, attacking, and gliding to all the various objects are separate buttons, you never have to worry about mistaking a button for one command over the other.  The scenarios happen to get much more interesting as you venture through Arkham Asylum in search of The Joker and you enter a large room filled with four gun-toting baddies.  Because Batman never kills anyone, using their fallen weapons is out of the picture, but it is a lot more fun to simply scare your enemies into submission.  Once we entered the large room by entering through the vents, we quickly climbed on top of a gargoyle out of the enemy’s vision.  Once there we began getting their attention without them seeing us, whether it is flinging our batarang at glass to watch it shatter or simply knocking a guy out undetected and wait till the other enemies become suspicious to see his fallen body.  The many ways in which you can tackle the enemies is astounding and after playing this specific part numerous times, every time we approached the situation a different outcome always ensued.

One play through we waited till one enemy was alone and performed an inverted takedown, which happens when Batman is directly over an enemy and swings down to pick him up and then drops him from up high as he dangles precariously from a single rope.  As the other enemies approach to realize what happened, we took out our Batarang and sliced the rope holding up the enemy and watched as he fell on top of his hapless friends.  The other enemies soon became very frazzled and starting shooting at random dark corners thinking Batman was there or getting spooked by steam coming out of the vents.  It really is a fun and fulfilling experience to become a predator against four heavily armed enemies and taking them down one by one without them ever seeing you.  The level than extended into the next room with The Joker spouting malicious remarks and then unleashing Killer Croc upon you in which case the demo abruptly ends.  We would have liked a chance to tackle this monstrous foe, but from what we have already played, there is plenty to enjoy.

From a technical standpoint Arkham Asylum delivers the goods.  The visuals look very impressive, with walls sporting cracks and charred scars, characters that all resemble the looks and designs from the animated series and comics and the environments that feel fully alive as you venture through them.  Besides computers that beep occasionally, we saw chattering teeth roaming the vacant halls laughing at us (no doubt placed by The Joker) and we even caught a glimpse of a hidden Riddler riddle, perhaps leading way to secrets that can be found and obtained in the final game.  The voice actors are probably the best aspects of the game, and since they have had practice doing so on the animated series, Mark Hamill (as The Joker) and Kevin Conroy (Batman) masterfully perform their roles well.  Of course there is much more to be seen and heard, but the very little we witnessed was well executed.

With only a few weeks away from release, Arkham Asylum is shaping up to be a truly enjoyable game and quite possible the best Batman game to date.  With fluid combat, a dynamic detective system and polished visuals and voice acting, Batman: Arkham Asylum is proving that even superheroes can have enjoyable games.

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About This Author: Josh Schwartzman

Been into gaming for as long as I can remember and have enjoyed every minute of it. I enjoy playing with everyone and anyone online and I am an avid PS3 and Xbox 360 player.

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