Bob Kane’s seemingly eccentric idea of a billionaire dressing up in a bat-themed suit to scare villains and fight crime, actually turned out to be a comic book success, and as the story goes, the Batman became one of the most memorable and iconic superheroes ever.
On that note, we’ve pretty much seen the Dark Knight everywhere through a myriad of recreations and makeovers not only in the comic book world but also in television and film, while a portion of the leftover hype always manages to make its way into a video game.
If you consider yourself a hardcore gamer and a Batman fan, chances are you’ve already wondered why the same dark mood and gripping narratives that had you hooked to the comics in the first place never made its way into one of those games. It’s safe to declare that some games did come close (see 2005’s Batman Begins game). But, if a movie like The Dark Knight can do so much for cinema it’s time we see a video game title worthy of the Batman legacy.
The chances of The Dark Knight (movie) based game look slim while Eidos’s Batman: Arkham Asylum (developed by UK based Rocksteady Studios) has been hot in sneak previews, so we are going to combine whatever we know about the latter and what we would like to see.
1. Storyline:
The story behind the Arkham Asylum game is being written by Paul Dini (writer for the Batman animated series) and is about an outbreak in the Asylum, releasing all The Dark Knights greatest foes, a plan all intricately crafted by the Joker himself. The Dark Knight movie and Frank Miller’s take on The Batman has spoilt us. We are not going to accept anything less dark or watered down and the breath taking first screens of the game tell us we need not worry.
2. Villain Line up:
Let’s hope Batman: Arkham Asylum not only features what we’ve already seen of Gotham’s criminally insane but also adds the sidelined bunch to the story. Based on already expressed fan views and what’s revealed, the two lesser known criminals that should appear are the Killer Croc and the knife wielding psychopath Victor Zsaz.
And if these two make it then, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Riddler, Two-Face, Scarecrow and The Joker can’t be left out. But, we’ll cross our fingers for more as Eidos promises to be the Batman’s toughest challenge yet. Besides their Batman license includes all 70 years of comic fiction, so no excuses.
3. Allies:
It doesn’t look like Robin’s going to play sidekick in this one and even though the Dark Knight is fighting solo you’ve still got Commissioner Gordon of course and his daughter Barbara Gordon (a.k.a. Oracle for the ignorant), who’ll be your radio contact through it all.
4. Adaptation:
As I’ve mentioned earlier there’s so many different versions to the bat! Remember that old 1960 Batman series starring Adam West? That Batman looked like he could use a little gym time and the way he found convenient ways to get out of every situation was almost comical. The list of other memorable on screen Batman’s goes on from Tim Burton’s first version of The Batman for the big screen to Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece.
But that’s just limited to TV/film and I’d steer a little too far away from the point if I went onto the comic book alterations. In short, everyone’s got their favorite and it must have been hell trying to come up with the perfect caped crusader for this game. However, there are screens in this department as well and Batman seems to don his original black and grey attire but he’s no Sunday morning cartoon.
This guy’s pissed off. Still, let’s hope there’s a wide range of unlockable costumes in Batman: Arkham Asylum and the like to pacify the angry forumers and their never ending quest to get what they want.
5. Utility Belt:
Here’s one superhero that’s got a pretty lame deal when it comes to superpowers and by that I mean he has none. So how does The Batman get a one up on his laser shooting, sky soaring counterparts? Why with his fancy utility belt of course! While earlier versions of the belt were capable of a little too much for something confined to waist length, replacements were aimed at a more realistic approach without losing well… utility.
For the same reason, Batman: Arkham Asylum needs to definitely incorporate a customizable belt feature so we can make the best of it all by choosing an arsenal of gadgets specific to the task at hand and find ourselves frantically searching the belt for interesting ways to get out of situations.
6. Arkham Asylum
The fictional Gotham City, which had a much lighter tone in the 1950 stories steadily adopted a duller, much darker atmosphere, becoming a city saturated with crime and corruption. Now, Arkham Asylum is more like the trash can of Gotham and I didn’t mean to make it appear so miniscule because it’s actually set across a full island.
Its interior rooms, hallways and corridors are dingy, dull, and you could go on picking similar words beginning in D to explain it. Game developers could either work around that, using next-gen to their advantage to emulate that uncertainty and fear of an outbreak happening within those walls or use it as an excuse to make the levels look as drab as possible.
We are going to trust Rocksteady on this one because Arkham Asylum is using the Unreal 3 engine (reminiscent of Bioshock) so expect all that much detail. Something along the lines of the Manhunt experience and those creepy places where the lights never work right for some reason, and we are good to go.
7. Detective:
Let’s not forget the Batman is essentially a detective and he’s got that itch to investigate since his debut in Detective Comics #27. So that makes another important contribution to the mechanics of Batman: Arkham Asylum if we actually get a break between all the all the action to roam around freely, something that will be a first and with word going around, that the Arkham Asylum’s got the free roam GTA aspect, we are counting on it.
Also, incorporating in-depth features, like CIA worthy forensic analysis for example, would be a good move and here’s another reason to beef up that utility belt.
8. Gaming Experience
It’s just search and destroy for most but the Batman, he likes to instill fear in his enemies and strike when their guards down. Stealth? You bet. Remember that whole ‘hiding in the shadows and making sounds to scare enemies’ thing games like thief were famous for?
Well it’s the same for the batman and while the Batman Begins game had that in spades, there was no room for modification (in terms of ways you could scare and creep up on enemies) and it just got repetitive.
What about completely utilizing his cape and all those gadgets that camouflage him? Then there’s that question of enemies. While Gotham’s regular thugs and henchmen don’t look like they would last in a third grade spelling bee I’m sure it doesn’t take much to realize something coming right at you.
In other words the challenge factor should be stepped up a few notches to make taking care of Batman: Arkham Asylum’s brand of henchmen all the more interesting in a “choose how you want to get the job done” format.
And if you get spotted? Attacks, combos, finishers and you’ve got to know how that goes by now. So far as camera angles go, the game’s going to mainly have that over the shoulder perspective so you can get a front seat to all the ass kicking.
9. Rating
While a lot of the fans come under the below 17 category, it’s more than necessary that an over the top game gets an over the top rating. This is Arkham. This is as nasty and bloody as its going to get, so let’s hope the developers push limits and Batman: Arkham Asylum delivers.
10. The Joker
I know it’s unfair that the Joker’s got more attention than the rest of the villains but with all the Joker hype going on it’s a good idea not to argue. Now while a Heath Ledger inspired Joker would be awesome for a videogame, its still a letdown for longtime fans of the original, old school joker.
The solution is simple. Let’s give fans a Joker that’s got it all and this is not a speculation. Recent screens confirm the good ol’ brightly colored, green haired, purple suit wearing joker but, with the extended scar grin that Heath Ledger had in the movie. Gasp! Now we are greedy, and we hope we get to see his twisted accomplice/love interest Harley Quinn as well.
If you do a count of the most repeated word in this article, you’ll come up with ‘dark’ and that’s exactly what fans have been waiting for and exactly what were going to get. So hold that excitement until we get a clear preview of Batman: Arkham Asylum to make jaws drop.
- By Jash Singh Reen