Like I started with, technology has reached the point that a games graphics can be so good it can compare to a movie. Obviously the storyline has something to do with the games greatness, but nothing can really bring out the quality as much as these graphics. It just wouldn’t be the same game if this was made on the PS1, it wouldn’t have that last punch of quality necessary to make it a game worth of the franchise. When the entire franchise is based on the art form known as the comic book, and then also sided up next to a box office extraordinaire movie, you’ve got to make an amazing game, and technology is what let them do it.
Graphically the game is gorgeous. The environments are well crafted, the island is actually really large and as the game progresses the amount of terrain you’re able to cover just keeps expanding and expanding. The skyline of Gotham City from Arkham Asylum is beautiful. You can’t ever get there, but you wish you could. At some points the lighting changes are a bit too drastic, like when the entire screen gets saturated in pink and red. All of the characters are well crafted; you can even unlock little pictures of statues of them that you can analyze up close as you go through the game. It’s really unfortunate though that after how good the game looks, half of the game will be spent staring at a washed out screen in what is known as “Detective Mode”.
Detective Mode gives Batman X-Ray vision. Kind of silly when you stop to think about it, and I’m not sure what the excuse is that he can see enemies through up to 3 walls and rooms away. Other than just showing you enemies if the camera goes in that direction, it also pulls up a handy little box that literally tells you how many enemies there are in a location. Incredibly useful, but is a complete drag on how immersive the game is. Detective Mode is also the only way to tell if certain walls or grates can be moved, because it highlights them in a nice bright orange compared to the blue that it washes the screen out with. You have to spend many of the stealth sections of the game permanently in detective mode so you can keep tabs on the enemy the entire time. It literally saps all color and life from the game when you turn it on, and it could have been implemented so much better.
Back to the character models, Batman is a little stiff at times, especially when he’s walking, but it’s most likely intended since Bruce Wayne’s a stiff guy anyway, not to mention that tight leather outfit kind of restricts your movement. Does anyone else remember the old batman movies with Alicia Silverstone where we heard stories about how their leather outfits were so tight they constantly had to be repaired after simple things like bending over? They had to make room for their nipples in those things they were so tight. That’s how Batman looks when he’s walking around or running through corridors. When Batman starts to fight though… everything he does becomes incredibly fluid.
Watching Batman fight against thugs is like watching a good action movie. He’s able to juggle 20 enemies at once just coming at him; countering guys sneaking up on him with quick rapid knockdowns, punching, leaping, flying kicks, not to mention batarangs and other tools all useable on the bad guys. The combat system is well made for both the stealth situations and for the mass combat situations that Batman finds himself in. While fighting the game goes into automatic bullet time effects if you’re pulling off a particularly vicious move, which looks great.
If only the controls were just a little better. I played the game on the PC with a keyboard and mouse, and it’s obvious rather quickly that this is not how you should play the game. I can’t think of any way in which Rocksteady could have really fixed the issue for most of their game. It’s a 3d issue with having to use the mouse for movement, targeting, and countering. The problem is that when you play the game with a keyboard and mouse you only have 4 directional buttons, which leaves you with the end result of only 8 possible directions to move in at once. Enemies don’t come at you on a square grid they come at you from 360 degrees.
You’re supposed to make up for this lack of directions with the mouse I guess, but when you’re attempt to target enemies and jump over them and now instead of just pressing the gamepad in the direction of the guy you want to attack or counter you have to move the camera and then move Batman, and I don’t think there are many people who can actually do that in the amount of time you’re given. If you want to truly enjoy this game, plug in a gamepad, because it’s just not as good as it could be if you don’t.
Now I don’t know what possessed the guys over at Rocksteady to do this, but you go from a game that’s 100% 3D combat in the beginning, to a game that slowly turns itself into a fixed camera mode, some of the boss fights even use a fixed camera! It is horrible. There’s a reason bad games are made with fixed cameras, because the camera ruins the game. Again this wouldn’t be as much of an issue if you have a gamepad to play with, but a lot of the enjoyment disappears from the game when you aren’t fighting the bosses and instead you’re fighting the controls. I know I died countless times due to Batman only having 8 directions to move in. When you take the camera control away from the keyboard player, you took away any hope he has of doing anything successful. The last 15% of the game was almost pure frustration because of this. I know games bosses are supposed to be hard, but this isn’t how they’re supposed to be hard. Besides fighting the controls the bosses were actually complete jokes, so that’s another let down.
I think one of the major problems with the game is how you can extend any fight as long as you want by simply vaulting over the bad guys. Even the giant mega bad guys that are supposed to spell death when you get close to them can be vaulted over if you find yourself in a bad situation. Honestly that was my saving grace since I didn’t have a game pad, I couldn’t have even completed the game without this cheap vault move. It really all just comes back down to the controls, it’s what turned this game from a masterpiece into just a really, really good game.
Basically the game looks great but you don’t see it half the time because you have to use Detective Mode. The fighting looks awesome but blows without a gamepad, and fixed camera gaming blows for 3D fighters, hell it blows for 2D fighters where you can move up and down on the screen, we’ve known this for over 30 years! The boss fights are as simple as fighting the normal thugs you run across, find the twist and go, talk about bland. Which brings up another annoyance, when you die the game gives you a “hint”. The “hint” is actually exactly what you have to do to beat the boss, and you can’t Not see this unless I suppose you close your eyes and spam the start button until you hear the cut scene starting again. I’ve died before even getting to a point where I might need the hint, and having the entire boss fight ruined for you because of it is incredibly obnoxious.
10% Music Atmosphere: 8/10 – Nothing memorable, but it doesn’t have to be memorable, it has to set a mood, and AA definitely has a mood. This score probably isn’t fair since I was too engrossed in the game to notice the music, but it’s fair enough since it didn’t stand out.
10% Sound Effects Atmosphere: 7/10 - Sound effects were good, but at the same time completely pointless. This probably shouldn’t be worth 10%, but for now it is. I mean, you’re in a sneaking situation and you bust down a grate and then run all over it, making all sorts of loud noise, and the guy 3 feet from you doesn’t even notice.
50% Game play: 9/10 – This probably would have been a 10 if I had played it with a gamepad, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t get one.
15% In the Genre: 10/10 – For a comic/movie to video game… game, that is a 3D fighter/puzzler, this is the top.
15% Graphics: 10/10 – These graphics are amazing. The only awkward moment is when you walk through water and the camera gets all shimmery but Batman himself doesn’t get wet. His bat suit is just that awesome.
Final Score: 90 – Means Awesome, but it could’ve been better.
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