1) Batman: Arkham Asylum (6/30/2011) - Xbox 360/Playstation 3 (Highly rated video game)
Positives:
- Graphical User Interface not cluttered, extremely easy to navigate. This includes choosing Batman’s special devices, including Batarang, Cryptographic Decoder, etc.
- “Detective Mode”, which allows Batman to essentially see through walls and spot enemies/items/environmental interactions, is a great way to let the player feel as if they have Become Batman. It also allows a greater ease when searching for clues that point to the next destination, as well as alternate routes for stealthily taking down enemies.
- The player is rewarded for almost everything that she does correctly with a certain amount of experience points that can be used to buy upgrades for Batman. This includes solving The Riddler’s riddle challenges, defeating enemies, successfully hacking door nodes, acquiring/unlocking character profiles, etc.
- New abilities that Batman acquires add in different ways to take out enemies, allowing for more thoughtful approaches to combat rather than just running in and spamming the punch button. Notably: Inverted Takedown – Batman can hang from gargoyles, lying in wait for an enemy to pass below, and then drop down and tie them from said gargoyle. Great fun, and rewards player with stealthy takedown (most of the time).
Negatives:
- While combat is nicely designed around context-sensitive button pressing, and successfully creates superhero quality combat, it can get a little tiresome. However, there are enough upgrades and different weapon tactics that player can use to spice things up (after upgrades are purchased).
- At first, it is hard to understand how Batman’s health is gauged. The HUD doesn’t really clearly mark it out, and I couldn’t figure out how health was being regained until I actively watched as the health meter was refilled after gaining experience.
- There really isn’t a tutorial system in the beginning to teach players what everything means, and how to perform certain actions. Everything is prompted to the player by on-screen pictures of when to press certain buttons, but being left to figure these things out is a little confusing at first. For example, I didn’t know how to use the Batarang to catapult myself up to higher ledges at first, until I swung the camera around every which way. Easily fixed, but a quick annoyance.
- Using certain items is, again, not explained very well in tutorial form. For example, the Cryptographic Sequencer was a little difficult to figure out at first. The game tells you to manipulate the analog sticks, but not how or to what end. Again, it teaches by doing, but a quick annoyance.
Thoughts:
- While I enjoyed the game, until Batman starts gaining new abilities and all the moves are figured out (on my own), gameplay is a little slow and sometimes frustrating to manage.
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- The experience system is set up in such a way that you can only ever really buy one upgrade at a time, as it takes quite a bit of experience to fill up the upgrade gauge. I understand this is a level cap of sorts, but it would be nice if there were easier ways to gain BIGGER amounts of experience (I mentioned before that XP is gained for almost anything, but not big amounts)
- Batman pretty much has three modes of speed: really slow walk, walk, and all out run. While usually this is fine for most games, running is especially hard to navigate at first because of the small hallways of Arkham Asylum. Often getting caught on edges, corners and walls, especially when getting used to the controls. Collision detection is especially good, however, so there aren’t any serious glitches or graphical faults when this happens.
- Detective Mode is so useful, in fact, that sometimes I find myself keeping it on much more than the regular view type. Regular viewing almost becomes pointless for long periods of time.
Would Likes:
- Easier handling while running, maybe varying run speeds
- Easier ways to net large amounts of XP
- Lower cost to certain upgrades, or just more upgrades in general
- This is a great game, and there’s not a lot to comment on besides what I’ve already mentioned. However, I would perhaps like more power in using certain weapons during combat, like the Batarang. Also, some enemies seem to never give up. This makes for interesting and balanced combat at times, but given the low amount of button presses required for getting through battles barebones, this could be tweaked.
Next Week's Analysis: FINAL FANTASY XIII
