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I’m Batman

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Continuing my trend of talking very late about games that everyone else has already finished thinking about…

I played through Batman: Arkham Asylum just before Christmas. Now, a lot has been written about that game recently, what with it coming high in numerous end of year polls. As it deserves to – it’s a fantastic game that has clearly had a lot of love and attention to detail lavished on it by the development team.

There are just two areas that I felt let it down:

Firstly, the boss fights. Now I’ve written about boss fights before, and I’m never much of a fan. They are usually just an annoying stumbling block to progression with an artificially inflated difficulty jump. And unfortunately Arkham falls into that trap. Repeating the same series of attacks, or fighting off waves of generic baddies, is not as much fun as stalking around the halls of the asylum.

The other let down to me was the detective mode. Not in theory, but in execution. The mode made the game ugly – replacing the detailed locations with a dull blue wash. Which wouldn’t have been so bad, except that it provided useful game information, while having no (non-cosmetic) downside to its use. So essentially players were conditioned to play the game in this ugly mode.

  • http://www.deathtotheflippers.com/ flipper01

    I agree, the Croc fight was terrible, and the detective mode became more and more vital to use as the game went on but always felt like a shame when you had to switch away from the great atmosphere the normal view mode give.

    I just want to mention how much I liked the way this game used punctured the forth wall every now and then with the Scare Crow sequences. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone that’s not played it but the way it plays with the game interface itself (you know the bit I’m talking about) was one of my favourite gaming ‘wow’ moments for some time. It reminded me of the first time I experienced the rumble of a joypad replicate a heart beat in silent Hill, which freaked me the hell out. Awesome.

  • http://www.deathtotheflippers.com flipper01

    I agree, the Croc fight was terrible, and the detective mode became more and more vital to use as the game went on but always felt like a shame when you had to switch away from the great atmosphere the normal view mode give.

    I just want to mention how much I liked the way this game used punctured the forth wall every now and then with the Scare Crow sequences. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone that’s not played it but the way it plays with the game interface itself (you know the bit I’m talking about) was one of my favourite gaming ‘wow’ moments for some time. It reminded me of the first time I experienced the rumble of a joypad replicate a heart beat in silent Hill, which freaked me the hell out. Awesome.

  • http://twitter.com/grimmy_efg Grimmy

    I completely agree with your views on the Detective mode…. I tried to play the game, only turning it on briefly when I needed to. I imagine the game would have been a lot easier if I’d had run around with it on all the time, but I didn’t feel that was how the game was intended to be played.

    Still, I loved the game overall, and it’s one of the first games in a long time I’ve been compelled to complete 100% instead of just doing the story (did get 100% on normal difficulty – haven’t managed to get platinum yet).

  • http://twitter.com/grimmy_efg Grimmy

    I completely agree with your views on the Detective mode…. I tried to play the game, only turning it on briefly when I needed to. I imagine the game would have been a lot easier if I’d had run around with it on all the time, but I didn’t feel that was how the game was intended to be played.

    Still, I loved the game overall, and it’s one of the first games in a long time I’ve been compelled to complete 100% instead of just doing the story (did get 100% on normal difficulty – haven’t managed to get platinum yet).

  • http://www.mainlyaboutgames.co.uk/ FreakyZoid

    Oh yeah, the Scarecrow effects were great. I wasn’t so keen on the levels themselves, but the lead ins to the later ones were great. The visual effect just before the last one is particularly terrifying if you’re playing on a 360 :)

  • http://www.mainlyaboutgames.co.uk FreakyZoid

    Oh yeah, the Scarecrow effects were great. I wasn’t so keen on the levels themselves, but the lead ins to the later ones were great. The visual effect just before the last one is particularly terrifying if you’re playing on a 360 :)