GameTopius - The Geeks Paradise.

If I were a third party developer I'd be pissed at Rocksteady -- the developer of Batman: Arkham Asylum -- for raising gamer's expectations. Too many developers have received a free pass based on a faulty assumption that only a few developers can make a game as good as Zelda, Metroid Prime, or Bioshock, and to expect anything more out of the rest would be unfair. Rocksteady has shattered that assumption and anyone else currently making a videogame better take a good, long look at what they have done with Batman: Arkham Asylum.

If Rocksteady handed in a list of games that had the most influence on them I bet you'd be able to spot most of them in Arkham. Arkham Asylum in the game is basically a Zelda map, with the courtyard between buildings acting as Hyrule field. The progression is similar to a Zelda or Metroid Prime game as well. Every area contains a few obstacles that can't be overcome until Batman has acquired the correct gadget, which may not come until many hours into the game. Gadgets that include the batarang, a hook-shot type device, and a zip-line for getting across gaps. Jumping is also automated, like in Ocarina of Time. There are detective segments of the game which have Batman  scanning objects Metroid-Prime style, and that often leads to following scent trails like in Twilight Princess. A big daddy would feel at home here, as well, as the atmosphere is very Bioshock and the back story is told with collectible audio tapes that voice-over the game while you play. To cap things off there are forced walk-and-talks -- just like Gears of War -- where Batman walks with his finger in his ear.

None of that is a complaint. This game mixes and matches perfectly to create an incredibly well-paced experience. Overall Arkham is a Zelda style action-adventure game, but there is a ton of variety. Batman never gets bogged down in any one thing for too long. Every sequence is well thought out. Platforming to combat to stealth to detecting to tracking to a boss fight -- all of which are different from one another -- this game is as varied as Batman's skills themselves. This is Arkham's greatest strength, variety and pacing that never leads to boredom.


Taken as a whole all of these different mechanics are a blast. Individually platforming suffers from the games imprecise controls and camera. This is a manageable flaw and the most annoying thing about the game. Rarely is there any pressure to perform a jump immediately, so if players just take their time during these portions they won't even notice the problem. The auto-jump works as well as any Zelda game, but the grappling hook is Batman's main mode traversing platforms and it works great.

The combat and stealth are intertwined with one another and are probably the most surprisingly successful aspect of the game. The stealth is helped by the fact that the guards notice absolutely nothing -- like the 6'4'' dude prying open a grate 3 feet behind them -- but stupid enemies aside, it still works. The best example is a room about half way through the game full of armed enemies. If any more than two armed guards start firing at Batman he will be dead in an instant, so it is important to take out each enemy as stealthily as possible until only one or two remain. I hung upside down from a gargoyle until the enemies dispersed and left only one right below me and I did an "inverted takedown" and left him hanging by a rope from the gargoyle. I cut him down and one of the other guards noticed that one of their fellows was down and all of them came to check it out. That is when I detonated the explosives that I had left by the body of the first guy, knocking all of them out. I quickly pounced on top of one and then two taking them out while they were still on the ground. This left be with one who I took out by gliding down from a gargoyle and knocking him out. I imagine that I am the only person who did it exactly that way, the combinations are endless.

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