Batman: Arkham Asylum - First Look Preview

Imagine superheroes as phoney celebrities holidaying at a tropical island resort, sipping on pina coladas, and discussing their various profit making enterprises for the year: "Well, I've brought in $50 million in clothing revenues alone for the first fiscal quarter," says Peter Parker, who's swapped his Spidey suit for a dazzling Hawaiian shirt. "We've seen our action figure market triple since our movie contracts have picked up," butts in Scott Summers of the X-Men, before Bruce Wayne bellows, "It's all in videogames, guys. That's where you'll find the big money these days."

All joking aside, superhero licensed videogames are big business. A simple list of X-men videogames on wiki displays a record of over 30 games that have featured the oppressed mutants in one way or another since the late 80s, making for a ratio of 1.5 X-Men games per year. The other big money superheroes such as Superman, Spider-Man and, of course, the Bat all post similar figures (The Hulk has also had a handful of games, what with his massive frame and penchant for destruction fitting the gaming mould perfectly).

Just Like In The Movies

Just like film licensed titles though, superhero games have had a tendency to be a bit on the dire side in the past, which is a pitfall that Eidos is treading very carefully to avoid with Arkham Asylum. Built using the Unreal Engine 3 and based on the larger Batman universe outside of a specific movie storyline, one thing that it has certainly nailed is the mood of a more mature Batman experience. The game's script, written by Paul Dini (of Lost fame), is in no way on a par with Frank Miller's scribbles by any means, but the grimy depths of this penitentiary are brimming with atmosphere, casting suspense that's sharp as a knife.

We won't go making any limp-wristed comparisons to the darker themes set out in The Dark Knight by any means - the Joker certainly isn't supposed to mimic Heath Ledger's depiction and Jim Gordon looks like a burly character straight out of a comic book, not like Gary Oldman's slightly withdrawn interpretation. With Kevin Conway providing the voice for Batman and the distinctly English sounding Joker being voiced by Mark Hamill, the more obvious comparison would be to Batman: The Animated Series (where both actors originally voiced these iconic characters). However, other super-villains that we saw during the demonstration such as Harlequin (who has mildly burlesque overtones), take Arkham Asylum farther down the adult road than the 90s series ever did or even could have done given the audience.

Eidos were quick to draw comparisons with The Chronicles of Riddick and Half-Life during the game's intro sequence, where Batman has captured the Joker and is bringing him into Arkham. The opening credits and intro sequence play-out as the Joker gets strapped down on a restraining gurney and Batman follows him in tow, with the player being allowed minimal control of Batman at this stage (that explains the Half-Life reference, with the similarity to Gordon Freeman's shuttle journey into the Black Mesa facility). The Chronicles of Riddick allusion is explained by the dark and dingy surroundings of Arkham, which are a parallel to Butcher Bay. We can certainly see why Eidos has drawn these comparisons and the publisher isn't completely off the mark in doing so. Arkham Asylum may not reach the lofty heights of these games (particularly Valve's masterpiece), but it's certainly good to see this sort of attention to detail being injected into a superhero game.

At the same time that the Joker was being taken to Arkham, a fire at another jail in Gotham broke out. As the Joker is being strapped down, we see inmates from that jail being transferred into the facility. Batman senses that something isn't right: why did the Joker give himself up so easily and surely the fire was more than a mere coincidence? (He's a sharp one, that Batman). Of course, the Joker soon breaks free (with Harlequin's help from Arkham's central computer terminal), and the transferred inmates then double-up as hired goons for the Joker once he's taken control of the asylum, which is where the gameplay kicks in.

Having taken up a hiding place in the facility, the Joker then lures Batman through Arkham into increasingly more dangerous encounters (throwing in hired goons aplenty to slow him down). It's here that we got our first chance to get a look at the game's primary gameplay dynamics, which are drawn through combat and stealth. The intricacies of a combat system are always very difficult to assess without any hands on, but what we saw certainly pointed towards a minimalist set of combos that emphasise intuitive and accessible play over a wide range of moves and attacks.

Commands are relatively straight forward having been broken down into 'Strike' (using the X button), 'Counter' (Y button), and 'Stun' (e.g. knocking out enemies using the Batarang). These basic commands appear to have a fair degree of variation in terms of moves and animation, although coupling them with other commands opens up more varied routines. For example, holding down the right trigger and Y button together will perform a floor takedown (if you've already subdued the enemy), while sneaking up behind an oblivious goon and pressing Y instigates a silent takedown. Alternatively, you can open up Batman's cape and perform a gliding kick.

Eidos informed us that there won't be any of the complicated 'X, X, Y, B' style combos seen in other games such as Star Wars: the Force Unleashed, which are becoming a bit passé these days anyway and seem more like a strain on a player's memory than they do enjoyable gameplay. Instead, the combos in Arkham Asylum are set out as fairly rudimentary multipliers on the HUD, with each successive hit on an enemy being denoted as X1, X2, X3 etc. Ratcheting up the multiplier then provides you with more XP, which can be used to upgrade Batman's gadgets and abilities (e.g  Batman's grappling hook, bat claw, batarang, and cowl). You can also obtain XP by saving the lives of guards and inmates at scripted opportunities during the game.

Blind To The Bat

It looks like the stealth system in Arkham Asylum will provide the most appeal in the gameplay. As far as we could tell from what we saw of the game's first level, the stealth opportunities seemed to be more rigid and less organic in form than the pure stealth experience of the MGS series, for example. This may be simply because we saw the early tutorial sections of the game and the chances for stealth will become more open ended as the difficulty increases, but in either case a rigid system isn't necessarily a bad thing. Hardened stealth enthusiasts might scoff at it, but then again they aren't the sort of gamers who are likely to pick up Arkham Asylum.

The main stealth section we saw gave us a good look at Batman's Detective Mode, which is essential for your use of covert tactics. When it's turned on the mode applies a dark blue, fish-eye style filter over the visuals and displays enemy NPCs as if seen through X-ray vision, showing their skeletons in a way that's a bit more Superman than Batman, but we're more than willing to role with it. While these enemies show up with a red heat signature, you'll also notice points of interest highlighted in orange, which are usually objects that can be used for stealth or to aid Batman's escape.

In terms of escape, the mode highlights exits such as air vents that can be jimmied open for Batman to crawl through. In terms of stealth, it highlights objects that the Bat can swing between in the shadows using his grappling hook. One area that our demonstrator played through had mounted gargoyle statues lining the ceiling so, as the room filled with goons, Batman was able to swing between these gargoyles to get behind the enemies and perform silent hanging takedowns, where he dangles down from his grappling hook bat-style (i.e. upside down) before hanging up the enemy on the suspended cord. Our demonstration then showed how other henchmen would then become nervous, coming to inspect the hung-up man or staying in packs to make stealth attacks more difficult, which showed some moderately competent AI.

It'll be interesting to see exactly how many other super-villains turn up as the story progresses in Arkham Asylum and exactly what their roles will be when they do. Eidos was keeping schtum during our demo when asked whether boss battles would be a feature in the game, although we already saw Harlequin, Zsasz, a particularly large Killer Croc and, of course, the Joker in our hands on so we know they'll play a part in some way or another. As far as we're concerned, the more they are implemented in the rest of Arkham Asylum and the harder they are to take down the better, because it would be a shame for the game to get bogged down in too much idle combat with goons.

Batman: Arkham Asylum looks set to become a well produced and polished game when it's released later this year. We do have some reservations about an overly rigid stealth system and combat that could be a touch simplistic, but only a significant portion of hands on time with the game will allow us to pass a sturdy verdict on this. Right now our thumbs are three quarters of the way up.