Why Does Arkham Asylum Work?
September 1st, 2009I’ve played Arkham Asylum, and it’s good. In fact, it’s so good that IGN has dubbed it the “greatest comic book game of all time.” I’m inclined to agree, but that begs the question: why does it work, when so many other licensed games have failed so miserably?
It’s not the gameplay. I don’t mean to disparage the game in any way by saying so, but the core gameplay of Arkham Asylum is a solid, professional stealth action game. It’s a strong entry into the genre, but it’s not breaking any new ground or adding anything that can’talready be found in similar games of that type. Rather, AA is unique in that the license is the key element in making it as good as it is.
The universe is at least part of it. Unlike Shadow Complex, which gained absolutely nothing from being situated in a specific fictional environment, Batman actually requires it. The fact that Arkham Asylum is a fully-realized location is great, but it’s helped by the fact that it’s the subject of considerable Batman lore. Similarly, because the world is already known, the developers can focus on adding little touches - the familiar guards, for example - that tie into the world but also act as miniature Easter Eggs, strengthening that connection and making players feel like a bigger part of it.
The characters are another key element. Unknown villains can be compelling characters, but throwing multiple new enemies at a player is a recipe for generic adversaries: it’s nearly impossible to craft a story interesting enough to familiarize players with many new people and then make them believe that they are, in fact, worthy of their attention. AA side-steps this by using a roster of existing Batman enemies - and even though a few of them are fairly obscure, the importance of the Joker, Killer Croc, the Scarecrow, and Poison Ivy are established enough that it doesn’t really matter.
As a result, the licensing allows the developers access to an existing stable of recognizable enemies. This isn’t sufficient by itself, of course - licensing recognizable characters is commonplace but often ineffective. The reason it works here is because, much like the world, the creators were able to focus on how to connect the player to the world by putting a twist on common videogame techniques that reinforced the connection with the characters. It’s much more important to have touches like the Riddler’s clues, or the Sandman’s nightmares, which much like the guards noted above are completely consonant with the Batman license and also make the player feel like a bona fide participant in that license.
Finally, the gameplay itself. While it isn’t anything new, it’s designed to again reinforce the player’s connection with the Batman universe. Jeff complained the game feels a little easy sometimes. It’s true, but that’s because the thrill of AA is not beating a difficult game - it’s feeling empowered as Batman himself, a game as wish fulfillment. The acrobatic combat, the grapnel, detective mode: all of these things are fairly easy to use (although they require some modicum skill to use effectively), but they’re supposed to give you the feel of stalking your criminal prey… not represent a feat of dexterity And the game does this very well.
Arkham Asylum executes its core game well, to be sure. But many other licenses do the same and yet fail to be compelling experiences. AA works well because the developers were careful not to use the license as window-dressing, but to integrate its world into the game. You feel like Batman, and that’s exactly what a license is supposed to offer.
Posted in Geoff, PS3, Xbox 360 |
September 1st, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I think you summed it up best in your last paragraph. If you were to remove the batman textures, this game would make almost no sense. They didn’t just take some open world game and slap Batman in the middle of it and rename the bosses to fit the world. But that’s exactly what a lot of licensed games feel like.
I’m not in love with the game just yet, but I certainly feel like they did a good job of translating the world and characters into a game.
September 1st, 2009 at 6:51 pm
I recently played it and would contend that it doesn’t work. It might have, in the hand sof more skilled developers. But the game never rose above mediocrity for me.
September 1st, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Really? Did you play the game or the demo? What “didn’t work” for you?
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:13 am
Wow, right away trying to assert i didn’t play the game. Classy.
I rented the game, and most things didn’t work.
The cartoon voices didn’t work with a game that was obviously not part of the continuity. The more adult tone didn’t work given the bloodless violence.
And that’s just from an asthetic point of view. 1 button combat gets old very quickly and there are nly so many bullet time flourishes you can see before mashing the square button gets boring.
The controls are horrid beyond belief. There’s no reason to have a dedicated run and sneak button. We have analog sticks for that. The fact that you can’t move with any speed unless jamming on the x button means that its hard to reorient the camera when moving, which makes combat and ambush scenarios needless prone to trial and error gameplay, as most times you simply cannot expect to react in time to an enemy you aren’t pointed directly at. The game all but requires you to spam cheap one hit takedown moves rather than actually engage enemies in an meaningful mannner.
The game punishes you for not doing everything flawlessly the first time, but doens’t give you the tools to accomplish everything flawlessly. I can’t count the number of times I knew exactly what I had to do, but the controls and mechanics of the game would not allow me to do it with the speed I required.
Batman AA suffers form many of the same problems that MGS4 suffered from. The game looks and directs you to play in one way, when it is far less frustrating to play in a very cheap way by exploiting flaws in the game’s construction. Running constantly form random thugs I can’t even see because the health system is fucked up doe snot make me feel like batman. Spamming explosive gel and triple batarangs doesn’t make me feel like batman. it just feels boring and cheap and since the entire premise of the game is to make you feel like batman, it all comes crashing to a halt everytime you don’t feel like him, which I often.
The ‘riddles’ and puzzles are even more laughable, as is the game includes a literal “solve puzzle” button. And said puzzles switch back and forth from painfully obvious to needlessly esoteric. Again i have often been in a situation where I know exactly what the riddle is trying to point me towards, but not what specific angle the games designers have abitrarily decided I need to look at it with.
And what nimrod thought it would be a swell idea to make a metroidvania game without a visible map. Nothing disrupts the flow of a game like having to pause every 5 seconds to make sure you are headed in the right direction.
Not to mention the annoyance of having to sit through joker’s taunting every time you die, which is alot. way to take your biggest selling point and make him an annoyance. When i die, i don’t want to watch a movie. i want to get back in the game as soon as possible.
So pretty much everything didn’t work for me. Don’t care for the design, don’t care for the combat. Think the puzzle mechanic was done better in about every other game on the planet and I think the game also is guilty of some of the most insultingly poor design choices I’ve come across.
That enough for you?
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 am
“Wow, right away trying to assert i didn’t play the game. Classy.”
I’m not asserting anything. Defensive much?
I ask, simply because MY experience was only with the demo, so I was curious if it was something other that what one can experience there. I’ve had a lot of discussions with people about the game and some people have played the full game and others the demo, so I think its REASONABLE to clarify this before one exchanges opinions.
“The cartoon voices didn’t work with a game that was obviously not part of the continuity. The more adult tone didn’t work given the bloodless violence.”
I actually thought the voice acting in the demo was really good. Can’t say about beyond that and I don’t know about the continuity as I’m not a big follower of batman. Also, I don’t recall batman being a bloody comic growing up, but it’s been a long time. I guess they wanted the Teen rating.
What combat I saw, seemed to work well, although it seemed simplistic. I assumed it got deeper as you went and a coworker who bought the game said it eventually introduces 2 more buttons.
I enjoyed the finishing moves after a gliding takedown and I liked the implimentation of the grappling mechanic.
My gripe with what I’ve seen so far was that it seems too smooth and execution was so easy, that it almost seemed sterile.
September 7th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Adult tone and bloodless violence? Well I’m fairly sure there’s no blood in Batman Begins, and very little in The Dark Knight (Most of it being on Harvey Dent’s face).
The combat of Arkham Asylum suffers from the same problem that the combat in Assassin’s Creed does, which is that it seems to imply you need to mash the attack button as much as possible when in fact it’s far more based on single presses and good timing, it’s far more akin to a rhythm action game than a straight brawler.
The idea is to counter, then as that move is finishing push the stick towards another enemy and attack, and then attack, and when that move is finishing attack again, and build up a pattern of leaping from one enemy to the next to take them all down without sustaining damage. When you pull that off you just feel like a total badass, like Batman.
The problem is this isn’t presented well, the feedback is poor in terms of whether you are pressing the attack button at the correct time or not, and it can feel like you should just be mashing the attack button. This is a problem throughout the game as the feedback of how to do things is lacking in some key areas.
I finished the game and ultimately really enjoyed it, but it helped that I’d spent a lot of time with similar combat systems in Assassin’s Creed and the latest Prince of Persia.
Metroidvania games without a visible map? Yeah that’s a fair problem. Personally I felt each area was visually unique enough, or at least had some landmark that I could associate with the area, so that I could work out where I was and where I wanted to go fairly quickly. However most of that is lost when in Detective Mode as everything looks very similar, and given that there was rarely any need to NOT be in Detective Mode it does risk getting confusing unless you are willing to turn it off when exploring.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I’d agree that the combat is a bit misleading… I find it harder than necessary to know when to counter. And if I ever play another Metroidvania game that doesn’t allow me to annotate the map, I’m going to scream.