Even tho I'm constantly working on something, sometimes I can afford the luxury of spending an hour in the evening actually playing a game instead of developing one. And, as u probably know, I'm a Game Developer with an actual diploma, and my blog(wherever it exists) has always mostly been about programming and game dev.
So today: Batman: Arkham Asylum
I finishes game 2day, but I didn't do all the challenges, collect every trophy or unlock every upgrade.
But holy shit - this game is so good!
I’m not really a superhero guy, but as a kid I loved Batman. He was probably my favorite, cuz he felt somewhat human: trauma, a persona he hides behind, actual limitations and k, fine. I just want his superpower - Money..
As a teenager I became more of a Marvel person. Never really read comics, so most of my knowledge came from movies. Marvel was easier to get into, while DC's atmosphere wasn't really my thing.. And "Batman v Superman" is still boring as fuck. But as I got older, I started appreciating Batman's darker atmosphere much more. And AA absolutely nails it: the game pulls heavily from Batman comic lore, which I only know vaguely, but even without knowing much, every character is easy to understand. Everyone has their own personality, visual style and unique flavor of insanity, so if u know almost nothing about Batman, u instantly get who these people are.
The story also has great pacing. It constantly makes u think: "Okay, what happens next?" Then Joker does something stupid, half the asylum explodes and suddenly it’s 2 AM
The combat system might be my favorite part: It looks so beautiful: attacks, counters, takedowns and transitions between enemies make fights look almost choreographed. But it isn’t just button mashing. Different enemies force u to change tactics, prioritize targets and use different tools.
And for a 2009 game, the combat still feels ridiculously good.
The level design feels surprisingly Metroidvania-like: U constantly see places u can't reach yet, only to return later with a new gadget and stuck.. Except when I spent half an hour walking around the same room trying to figure out where to go.. Skill issue..
My main complaint is that some areas feel too corridor-like. Sometimes u can really feel the level designer saying: "No. Batman goes through THIS hallway"
Then there’s stealth, which fits Batman perfectly: hide on gargoyles, crawl through vents, isolate enemies and scare the shit out of them one by one. And the game often forces u to use it cuz if a room is full of armed enemies and u walk toward them like Superman.. Congrats.. U discovered bullets..
Collectibles mostly give XP, lore, bios and challenge content. So yeah, there’s a reason to hunt them down..
But if u see 35 question marks on a map and immediately develop a psychological disorder, u can just keep going with the story. Upgrades matter more. Many improve combat or gadgets, tho some I unlocked, used twice and forgot existed, looking at u Sonic Batarang and Remote Controlled Batarang..
And then there are the graphics: I played on Xbox 360. A 2009 game running on a 2005 console with 512 MB of unified memory, and it still looks great! Sometimes I look at old games like this, then at modern AAA releases, and wonder where all those extra gigabytes went. Batman's cape physics especially impressed me. His suit also gets visibly more damaged throughout the game tears, scratches, wounds, which makes the journey feel much more physical.
The PC Arkham games also went harder on physics with NVIDIA PhysX - back when "PhysX" was one of those magical words NVIDIA slapped onto trailers to convince u ur GPU was doing nuclear research. PhysX eventually became open source, btw..
Batman: Arkham Asylum is awesome!
Even if u don't care much about superheroes, it's worth playing just to see how well combat, stealth, atmosphere and level design work together. It's not a 120-hour open world. It doesn’t demand to become ur second job. U can play it for a couple evenings, finish the story, have a great time and move on..
And honestly? We need more games like that!