Late to the Party: Arkham Asylum

 

It's been a long time coming that I play this game.  I've been interested in it since the day of its release, mostly because I'd heard a lot of comparisons to Metroid Prime.  This thing really is the holy grail of Batman games, at least it is for my generation of Batman.  It plays very well both in combat and in stealth, truly representing what the character really is.  My only real complaint is in the marketing.  I had come to expect that every major enemy of Batman would be here.  Although they are all referenced, many of them are not present.  Still, a great game.  Hopefully this will serve as a good reminder for people on what they can expect.
The overall script is definitely strong.  It seems to take place in contemporary time, not following the Dark Knight as I had been led to believe.  As someone who followed the animated series of the 90s on and off, I'm familiar with most of the status here.  The only new thing to me is the Oracle character, better known to me as Batgirl, who apparently had her spine injured by the Joker.  I've got to say, it does feel nice to have someone back at base who can communicate with Batman.  The Riddler makes an unexpected role behind the standard collection aspect present in many adventure games.  The one character I really couldn't stand was Killer Croc.  Because you could easily use a single batarang to pacify him at any time and Croc would often appear despite my best efforts at stealth, there was never any real reason to attempt sneaking through his area.  All the other characters did quite well.

 

For most people, the appeal is probably the combat.  In this case, combat works quite well.  It's probably the best melee combat system I've ever seen, though I admit I haven't played as many adventure games as my friends have.  With the exception of your parry button, simply aiming the stick toward an enemy and pressing a button almost always gets the desired result.  Once you've got a few hits, you effectively are able to hit anything in the entire room.  It's unrealistic, sure, but it makes for a much more comfortable system.  There's also enough variety in techniques to make any combat interesting.  The Crime Alley DLC really isn't worth getting (just another scene for combat), but Dem Bones is a reasonable survival mode.  Due to just how flexible combat is, you fail immediately upon receiving damage.  It's a point system, but talented as I am, I find myself struggling just to get through a few rounds.

Of course, my main appeal is the stealth aspect, known here as "predator" challenges.  I'm told it's named that way because it bears a strong resemblance to how Predator works (I assume as in Alien Vs. Predator).  Now, I'm a very patient guy.  When I'm trying to be stealthy, I work on ensuring I achieve my goal and taking minimal risks.  Not surprisingly, tackling the predator challenges encourages you to succeed as quickly as possible.  Still, it's a very rewarding experience.  The only problem is in just how easy it is to be stealthy.  Gargoyles are placed all over the relevant rooms.  Even if you're noticed, just swinging to each different gargoyle will eventually make you disappear to them.  The enemies give up their search a little too easily and completely fail to notice you swinging in front of their faces with your grapple gun (though they'll notice once you're on something).  Stealth is a tricky thing for any game to accomplish.  My first real exposure was Thief: the Dark Project.  Later I found a strong system in Splinter Cell: Double Agent on the Wii.  This game is probably the strongest system I've yet seen, but it really fails to capture a realistic intelligence for your enemies.  That's the biggest hurdle for making any stealth system.  Regardless, the overall experience was definitely a good one, and I know exactly where to turn when I want to try a large variety of stealth techniques.

If you haven't already gotten this game, I highly recommend it.  It's different from Metroid, but has all the same appeal to me in a Batman format.  Additionally, the experiences you have outside are probably a good indicator of what we can expect from Arkham City, which I'm told is supposed to be a much larger world.  Batman: Arkham Asylum is available for $35 online, but $25 at any Gamestop if you can find it.  I searched 6 stores without success, only to find it in a 7th on a later day when I had already purchased it.