O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve revisited Batman: Arkham Asylum. A really curious mix of a beat ’em up and stealthy action adventuring inside a metroidvania-ish map it instantly became one of my favorite games and even though I’ve admired the later entries in the series as well, none of them came close to being as fun as this first one. I’m happy to say that almost 12 years later it remains wonderful.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Batman: Arkham series, and it’s been half a decade since the last entry, it’s a series of licensed Batman games set in its own continuity that attempts to capture the more stealth and action elements of the character, while also keeping some of the detective stuff in. The main focus of the games has always been on the mix of stealth and action, with the stealth also involving smart usage of locations and traversal (but being mostly focused on line of sight), while the action bits working as a brawler that focuses on rhythm, rather than complex combinations of moves. This combat system was somewhat based on what was already attempted in the first few Assassin’s Creed titles – you have an attack button and pressing it as attacks connect deals more damage (with an upgrade), you have a parry move that only works if the enemy is attacking you (and you see a special icon on them), you have a dodge/jump over button, you have a cape stun button and you have gadgets. And the further the series progressed, the more focus on a smart usage of gadgets in combat it got, but in this very first game it’s pretty simple and focusing more on just punching people. While the flow of the combat and how you directed Batman as he was flowing from enemy to enemy was somewhat reminiscent of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, but even more fluid.
Since Arkham Asylum is situated on an island separated from the rest of Gotham City, the entire location works like a metroid map: you have several divided outdoor sections and you have several indoor building sections. As the story progresses, you unlock new gadgets that give you new traversal (and stealth and combat) abilities, get into new locations occasionally revisit the ones you’ve already been to and learn more about what’s going on. The story, by the way, is surprisingly good and well told (and voiced) as for what it is, although the ending part has been criticized for being somewhat underwhelming. Either way, the progression through the game is really well paced with only a few bits sticking out as weird backtracking moments, when you don’t seem to really do or learn anything useful for the effort it takes. Otherwise, you’d usually backtrack for the Riddler challenges and secrets, since those also work as mini-stories, telling more about this take on the Batman universe and the events of the game. Also this gives you experience points to unlock upgrades, since the game did have a simple but fun level up system.
And it’s weird talking about the basics of this gameplay, since the game influenced so many titles since then and lots of elements of Batman: Arkham Asylum (and City) became the norm of modern action adventures. Yet this game, unlike its sequels and many titles influenced by it, is far more compact, far more focused on delivering a fun, well paced and directed experience with a definitive ending and I love it so much more for this. It’s not a title that you play until you get bored, rather you go through it, have fun and later decide to replay it again, because it was so fun the previous time.
It is also worth mentioning that while some of the visual elements of the game our outdated by modern standards, like colour filters for simulating global illumination, it still manages to look good, mainly thanks to its visual style, memorable locations and fluid animations. Oh and the soundtrack, even if not something I would listen to outside of the game, fits the gameplay so well, while being extremely memorable and instantly recognizable.
The PC version of the game as it is now is very good, but has some flaws. Unlike the original release that was tied to that horrid GFWL system from Microsoft, the current GOTY release of the game works just fine on modern systems. It still looks very good as well, especially if you enable the hardware accelerated PhysX effects, though, unfortunately, those still being proprietary and also designed on one of the earlier iterations of the SDK, it can be somewhat unoptimized and will work very poorly on non nVidia systems. It was also more showoff-like with some of the elements to the point where even on my rather powerful PC one sequence turned into a slide-show due to the amount of the PhysX debris simulated on screen. It could be fun to see a remaster of the game, which could also update the very low-res prerendered cutscenes to real-time or at least higher resolution ones, yet the last time it was attempted for consoles with the Return to Arkham collection it didn’t go smoothly.
Is Batman: Arkham Asylum worth revisiting today? Absolutely. If you’ve never played the series before and you don’t need a big open world to enjoy games, definitely give this game a go, either with the PC version if you want for the best “as intended” look of the game, or with the Return to Arkham remaster, if you don’t have a PC to play games on and don’t mind that lighting and effects would look off. If you have played it before, maybe it’s time to revisit the game again, you’d be surprised how well it plays and feels, even if some of the improvements from the later games are missing. I loved giving it another go and will definitely do it again someday.