After apprehending and escorting The Joker to the titular facility for the criminally insane, little does Batman know that a trap has been set for him, facilitating The Joker’s escape who subsequently turns the asylum’s defences against The Dark Knight. Consequently, it’s up to Batman to recapture The Joker while brawling his way through violent inmates and twisted super villains. Sadly during our hands-on session with the game, we weren’t given a chance to play any of the narrative single-player mode, instead presented with two of the mini-games from the challenge mode demonstrating the stealth and combat elements separately. Opting to crack heads first of all, we grabbed a controller and delved into the combat challenge, which focuses on maintaining an unbroken chain of combos to rack up high scores. Divided into four rounds of steadily increasing difficulty, you’re beset on all sides by bulky, scar-faced reprobates with only one thing on their minds – pummelling Batman into burger.
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| The voice cast from the excellent animated series do the honours for the new game. | Batman isn’t afraid to get stuck in, but then neither are The Joker's thugs. |
It would take a truly inept gamer not to be able to exploit the repertoire of moves at your disposal, all of which are built around your ability to properly time your attacks and counters. Initially, the fighting calls to mind the momentum inherent in Assassin’s Creed, rewarding perfect timing with a crushing flurry of hits. Each time an enemy is about to attack, a spark lights up above his head giving Batman a window of opportunity to perform a counter by quickly pressing Y. The real test is maintaining the combo by utilising a sequence of attacks and counters using X and Y, while resisting the temptation to press B to block. Blocking or taking a hit will halt your combo, meaning you’ll lose your chain and drop a huge wedge of points into the bargain. Theoretically it’s possible to complete every round without once breaking the combo, earning you a perfect score. It’s amazing how addictive pursuing the perfect score can become, as it seems entirely achievable. Each time our combo was broken, we used every expletive under the sun, resetting the challenge and starting again, so compulsive was the intuitive fighting action.
Having played the combat challenge to death, we moved onto the stealth room where we got to test out an array of gadgets on Batman’s trademark utility belt, starting with the zip line. Running down a grimy corridor and into the dilapidated challenge area that’s been taken over by armed goons, the most sensible thing to do is immediately zip to the highest level possible where you can scope out your surroundings. Engaging ‘detective mode’ highlights the positions of the hostiles in yellow, their status and other opportunities that you can take advantage of using your environment. Perched safely upon a jutting gargoyle, we patiently wait for the first henchman to unwittingly walk into range before silently swooping in with a jaw-shattering kick before rendering him unconscious with a swift punch to the head. One down, four to go, we regain some height, grappling onto another gargoyle in a dark corner above a small room with no ceiling.
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| You can intimidate enemies and prey upon their fear. | Batman’s no slouch when it comes to a full on scrap. A well-timed counter will snap limbs, putting your foe out of commission. |
A quick tap of the A button and Batman lithely drops from the gargoyle into the room where we spray explosive gunk onto the wall in the shape of a bat-symbol (naturally) before returning to our vantage point above the gantry. As luck would have it one of the guys passes the outside wall we’ve just rigged, which we detonate sending the hapless meathead flying in a shower of concrete and bricks. Two down and we’ve alerted the remaining enemies sending them into a nervous state, prompting them to look around for you while shouting to each other for help. In doing this, we’ve wasted valuable seconds and scuppered any chances of achieving a high score, as we have to now wait for the activity to subside. Once things have calmed down, we take down the last three guys by hanging upside down, snatching them from above and trussing them up by their legs.
We have to say that we’re incredibly impressed with what we’ve played so far, with Batman’s predatory Sam Fisher-style guile and adept, agile fight moves perfectly translated for the game. Visually, the Unreal Engine 3 does a fantastic job of bringing Batman to life, his swirling cape impeccably animated (very important that) and every inch of Arkham’s dank, filth encrusted complex brought to life in rich detail and high-res textures. Playing the two core aspects of the main game as separate components makes it difficult to gauge how well they’ll work when fused together in the central narrative, but if Rocksteady can deliver the stealth and face-pounding as one seamless whole, Batman: Arkham Asylum simply cannot fail. As long as Robin doesn’t suddenly show up that is.
