jasoncross.org

While updating my notebook to Windows 7 today, I wiled away the progress bars by playing the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo on Xbox 360 (also available for PS3). It might have been really short, or it might have been so good that it just seemed really short. Either way, I immediately fired up the ‘ol browser and put in my overnight delivery preorder at Amazon. Standard edition, thanks… a batarang is cool and all that, I don’t need more collector’s edition trinkets collecting dust on a shelf.

The graphics look great from a technical perspective, but it’s the the visual design of the old battered Asylum really stands out. I’m not totally enamored of the character design, which seems a little too “sculpted action figure” to me. The real problem is the facial animation. It’s perfectly average by modern game terms, but the voice acting is fantastic, and when the two are together you get the impression that there’s a lot more “acting” in the audio than the video. The result is that wooden marionette syndrome in cut scenes we see in far too many games. Major voices from the excellent Batman animated series are all here, including Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker and Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn.

But it’s the gameplay I’m so taken with. Combat is dead simple, but there’s obvious depth there. Much like Fable 2, maybe moreso, you use a few simple button presses to string together a fluid series of attacks and counters that make you really feel like a Batman should. It’s like “press X to kick this guy’s ass, then press Y to make that other guy wish he never would have swung his stupid fist at the goddamn Batman.” But you’re not invincible, and when you see guys with guns you need to drop out of the shadows to pick them off one at a time. This only serves to terrify the remaining enemies, which is hilarious. Tap a shoulder button to engage the “detective mode” cowl vision, which is way more useful and less cheesy than I thought. The dialog is good, with the story written by Paul Dini, who did lots of great stuff on the animated series.

There’s some contention about the who RPG-like stats upgrading system. As you fight guys and build up combos and discover secrets in detective mode and so on, you fill up an experience bar. This will be used to upgrade your skills and abilities. If you read game forums, there are some action-only gamers that can’t wait to call you a faggot in Halo 3 who are all pissed off about this, but as far as I’m concerned, they just put peanut butter in my chocolate.

Y’know what? I’m going to go play through the demo again.