Arkham Asylum

Last night I played through Batman: Arkham Asylum in one sitting. That is a feat I have never accomplished before, even with my most beloved games. The reasons why B:AA kept my attention so steadfast for 12 hours (!) are many. Very many.

I had looked forward to this game since I first heard of it's development a few months ago. The developers were making all the right noises about treating the license with respect and making the player actually feel like Batman. They spoke about how to be Batman you would have to feel powerful and fearsome from the outset, but that one well placed blow could do serious damage. They have achieved this goal with aplomb, and it's only a tiny part of the game.

The game opens with you escorting Joker to Arkham Island, only to find that he has been caught on purpose and that him and his gang have a dastardly plan. They soon take over the island and turn loose a fairly large section of Batman's rogues gallery against the Dark Knight. From this premise, a beautiful game unfolds. Initially, you are taken on a few objectives in a fairly linear fashion to show the player the different skills in Batman's locker that you can use to defeat enemies.

This brings me to the combat. The hand to hand combat is the most fluid and enjoyable combat I have ever encountered in a game, and despite being essentially comprised of two buttons, there is a great deal of skill involved in chaining hits to increase your experience points. Hand to Hand combat is largely used when approaching a gang of unarmed thugs. When entering a room full of the Joker's men with guns however, the action flips to a different style. Using Batman's Grapnel Gun, you can swing from gargoyle to ledge to gargoyle silently above the unsuspecting victims. You can trace their movements by switching Bats' Cowl to detective mode and wait until there is one isolated enemy, and swoop. The most joyous part about these parts is that once a body is found, the other guards heart rates start to increase and they start to mutter things to each other about their previous encounters with Batman. They start to sound genuinely scared and you start to feel genuinely hard.

So, combat is excellent. There is another major component of the game that is equally as excellent - detective mode. You can flip your cowl to detective mode at any time, which brings up a kind of wireframe interpretation of the environment around you, and it gives you stats and the whereabouts of any enemies in your vicinity. In addition to this, at certain points of the game you will need to set up a crime scene to look for clues as to how to proceed. This requires you to search the scene for a personal effect of the person you are looking for. I can't really say much more without giving away spoilers, but it's pretty cool.

The graphics are uniformly lush throughout the game, from grim hospital scenes to the flowery environs of the botanical gardens. The voice acting too, stands out as better than almost any game released this year. Most of the cast of the Animated Series reprise their role, including Mark Hammill's amazing Joker.

So there you have it. Arkham Asylum. PLAY IT!.

Bad Company

With the release of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the horizon, I thought I would give the original a spin, as I had somewhat neglected it on release. Having never played any of the Battlefield games before, I was unsure what to expect. This was, after all, the first in the series to include a singleplayer mode with a plot.

First off, the characters, although somewhat caricatured, are at least disctinctive, and the voice acting is above par for first-person-shooters. The premise of the game is that you and your three squadmates comprise the eponymous "Bad Company", a frontline division for the delinquents in the army. As such, you are sent further and further into enemy territory, on the most dangerous missions because you are deemed expendable. The twist however, comes two or three levels in, where you discover mercenaries who are paid in gold bullion. Thus a quest unfolds to abandon your orders and try and grab as much gold as possible.

In terms of gameplay, B:BC doesn't offer a great deal of new features to the genre. That being said, the vehicular combat is implemented pretty well, this having been Battlefield's staple since it's inception. The health system is also a twist on the Call of Duty style "run away a bit until your are better" in that you have an injector which will pull you back to full health but it takes 5 second to reload.

All in all, B:BC is an enjoyable romp through a few FPS conventions. The characters and the dialogue make it interesting enough to stick with it until the end.