The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

In stark contrast to Scribblenauts, we have Batman: Arkham Asylum. This is another game that came in from Gamefly, and I was excited to play it! So excited that I immediately lost an entire weekend playing through it from start to finish in like… 3 long sessions. It was that good.

The developers made so many good decisions in this game. Putting it in one small area instead of all over Gotham makes the whole world seem much more alive and much more full-featured. They got great voice actors for everyone, mostly people from the Animated Series, which was a great choice. They figured out pacing perfectly, and though the game is basically made up of small “minigame” sections (Hand-To-Hand combat, Stealth Takedowns, Detectiving, Scarecrow sequences, etc) they switch up so fast and so often that they never feel old. Seriously, the brawling combat is the best example of this. If you look at it, like seriously take a look at it? It’s not really that fun. It’s very button-mashy. It’s not deep. But you don’t do it enough in a row to feel that. They keep it from you so that you don’t realize it’s not all there. This goes for the rest of the “minigames” too. Very long sequences of any of them would be really annoying, but the game keeps you from having to do them. Even when you have a one time minigame, such as a sequence where you are trying to evade Killer Croc, it still changes up what it is doing throughout the sequence to keep you from getting bored. It knows its weaknesses, and has designed the game around them. It’s just really intelligent that way.

The plot is… the plot. It’s not the best Batman story ever? But it’s fairly solid, and again, having competent voice acting in there really makes a difference. I was never really drawn forward by the plot though. It was more the spectacle of the whole thing. The game is just constantly holding carrots out in front of you. You know another of sequence X is going to come up, or you’re going to meet a new Batman villain soon, because it’s alluding to it, and you have to keep going to see it. Even deaths keep you going, because there are so, so many unique death messages. Whatever villain you’re fighting at the time comes up on a black screen and taunts you for your failure. It’s great.

There are some things that bother me, but they’re really nitpicks, places where the game trips slightly, but doesn’t really fail. For example, you’re constantly getting new Bat-gadgets to deal with things. You have this explosive gel to blow up weak walls, but you can only blow up walls you can reach. What if you want to blow up a far-away wall? Well, then you get a three-part grappling hook and pull the wall down… what? It makes no sense. The first time I saw a far away wall, I said “Well, I’ll just cover a Batarang with explosive gel and throw it at the wall.” If I could think of that solution, Batman could, because he’s the fucking Batman, and why would he be tiring himself out by pulling down a wall, anyway? It’s just kind of stupid.
There are a few other things like that. But it’s nothing that would stop you. It’s just a really odd decision someone didn’t think all the way through.

Anyway, I can’t recommend Arkham Asylum enough. I mean, it’s not a super-long game, and I really think the “challenge” modes offer absolutely no appeal, so you’d probably be safe renting it. But it’s such a perfectly crafted game you at least have to play it. The fact that it’s a licensed game just makes it even more crazy that it’s so good from beginning to end, because it is. It is clearly one of the best games of the year.