Making a good game based on a comic book hero hinges on the design. Actually, making a good game of any type hinges on the design but with a character like Batman you have so much material to draw on for the art, characters and back story that the real challenge is to apply the right mechanics. How do you make the player feel like they are the Batman?
Developer Rocksteady Studios managed to come up with a deceptively simple combat system which allows you to chain together satisfying combos. They encourage stealth for many sections of the game because at the end of the day Batman is not superhuman. He is just a well trained, well equipped man and a room full of bad guys with guns will shoot him to death fairly quickly. They also implemented a clever detective mode which you can activate to find clues, scan ahead for bad guys and track people. This combination of mechanics seems to distill Batman’s character and abilities into an intuitive set of controls.
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The story unfolds beautifully via a mixture of cut scenes and in game dialogue. You’ll explore the facility from top to bottom before it’s all over and you’ll run into all of Batman’s worst enemies along the way. The tone is murderously dark and, while it doesn’t quite reach the depths of terrifying insanity explored by the graphic novel of the same name, it is satisfyingly gritty and scary.
You’ll spend most of your time sneaking from location to location rescuing people and chasing the bad guys. There are legions of thugs to beat up along the way, sneaky routes and secrets galore to uncover, and new abilities and equipment to unlock. The Riddler has planted 240 riddles for you to solve or discover, there are tapes and files which illuminate the twisted minds of Batman’s worst enemies and the story of Arkham itself is woven into the fabric of the game. Every so often you’ll face one of your big foes in a boss fight. The whole package offers a real blend and variety of gameplay and it is thoroughly engaging from start to finish.
