Demo Impressions: Batman Arkham Asylum (PS3)

With the resurgence of Batman’s popularity brought on by the recent cinematic offerings it was somewhat inevitable that we’d see an interactive extension of the franchise. Taking place in and around the iconic institution, the game opens with The Joker escaping from his captors and taking control of Arkham with Harley Quinn’s assistance. It’s a familiar plot development for fans of the comic and an adequate if uninspired setup for the game. Batman sets about tracking down the Joker and enters in to yet another of the games of cat and mouse that have defined their relationship for decades. In an attempt to give the player a sense of what it means to be Batman, the game takes the form of a stealth-brawler. In the limited confines of the demo this translates to a handful of tutorials for Batman’s combat and detection abilities culminating in one large room where they can be tested out.

One thing that became apparent in the demo was that the brawling and sneaking mechanics rarely seemed to combine. It’s entirely possible that this was done just to showcase each style of play and I would expect the full game to offer a more seamless blend. Still, it was very clear to me when playing that I was being moved artificially between ‘don’t get seen’ and ‘kick some ass’. It also became readily apparent that the sneaking was by far the more interesting aspect of the game. I’ll get to it in a moment after taking this opportunity to express my unmitigated boredom throughout every second of hand-to-hand combat. The combat is based largely around tapping square to automatically generate a combination of attacks. Occasionally you’ll be expected to perform a counter by tapping triangle but I never really felt the need to. It’s very repetitive and creates no real sense of interactivity, it’s not quite a quick-time event but can feel pretty damn similar.

Thankfully the stealth sections were reassuringly satisfying to play through. There are two main styles of stealth gameplay that these titles can fall into. The first is a very organic, open-world style and the second is the more traditional style based around moving between safe-zones and picking off enemies in the correct order. Batman: Arkham Asylum looks set to structure itself around the latter of those design philosophies with designated perches from which batman can drop down to perform quick, stealthy takedowns. It gives the more open section at the end of the demo a puzzle feel. It’s worth noting that this is very much a matter of personal taste, I’m someone who actually misses the gameplay of the early Metal Gear Solid titles and Batman: Arkham Asylum certainly has that flavour to it.

If you’re looking for a more naturalistic type of stealth gameplay, Batman: Arkham Asylum will be quite disappointing. Much of the game is played in Batman’s ‘detective mode’, a vision filter that highlights enemies, labels which ones are armed and points out interactive parts of the scenery. It trades a more immersive environment for a clearer understanding of the mechanics at play, something which could put off a lot of players.

Depending on the structure of the full game, Batman: Arkham Asylum could either turn into a fun, challenging stealth game or a simplistic brawler with tacked-on stealth sections. It’s combat is by far it’s weakest aspect and I certainly hope the full game offers some greater depth in that area. I can’t say I’ve been entirely convinced of the game’s merits by the demo, for me it’s simply confirmed the game’s ‘rent rather than buy’ status.