Arkham Asylum: First Impressions
So I picked up Arkham Asylum friday night. I still haven't encountered a true boss fight, if such a thing exists in there, but I definitely like it. You can either play smart and stalk your prey or jump into the middle of a gaggle of melee goons and lay the beat down. If they've got guns you're pretty much hosed from what I've seen so far, but if they have guns you also have terrain and different ways to either close the distance or pick the guys off one by one, usually freaking them out in the process. The bets description I can think of is Thief crossed with Devil May Cry, but without the frustrating parts of either one. Thief in that you can sneak up, Devil May Cry in that you can jump into goons and light them up. The main differences come from the following:
- Combat is cinematic. There's still a method to it, and you still want to mix up your options, but it's nowhere near as reliant on proper button combos as DMC was or artificially forcing you to change styles.
- Emergent gameplay. I hate that term, but the various set piece room fights let you deal with your targets however you see fit. Do you want to hang them from a gargoyle? Knock them out with a proximity bomb? Batarang them and then melee them? Plunge through a glass ceiling and slam their head into the floor?
- It has the voices from Batman: The Animated Series. I'm sure that's trivial for some people, but it just feels more batman with Kevin Conroy, Mark Hammil, and all the others coming out of your TV.
The detective portions are a little forced, but it's one of the original ways I've seen to display a path towards the next objective. I'll admit this might be the same as the Metroid Prime games. James would know better than I.
Anyway, it's definitely worth picking up if you enjoy beat 'em ups and stealth games. But you don't want to play if you hate the Riddler. He's easily the most irritating part but that's to be expected. Then again, he's teaching me Bat Logic, so that may not be a bad thing.
Now if they only had Question...
- Combat is cinematic. There's still a method to it, and you still want to mix up your options, but it's nowhere near as reliant on proper button combos as DMC was or artificially forcing you to change styles.
- Emergent gameplay. I hate that term, but the various set piece room fights let you deal with your targets however you see fit. Do you want to hang them from a gargoyle? Knock them out with a proximity bomb? Batarang them and then melee them? Plunge through a glass ceiling and slam their head into the floor?
- It has the voices from Batman: The Animated Series. I'm sure that's trivial for some people, but it just feels more batman with Kevin Conroy, Mark Hammil, and all the others coming out of your TV.
The detective portions are a little forced, but it's one of the original ways I've seen to display a path towards the next objective. I'll admit this might be the same as the Metroid Prime games. James would know better than I.
Anyway, it's definitely worth picking up if you enjoy beat 'em ups and stealth games. But you don't want to play if you hate the Riddler. He's easily the most irritating part but that's to be expected. Then again, he's teaching me Bat Logic, so that may not be a bad thing.
Now if they only had Question...