There were guys with guns, guys with knives, big guys that could block, and all sorts of skews to take on across the game. It was simple and empowering enough to fit the character whatever your skill level, but scalable enough to actually provide some variety encounter-to-encounter. Obviously, Batman didn’t invent third-person brawling, but similarly to how almost every FPS has come to use Modern Warfare 2’s controller layout as the default, it defined the mainstream blueprint to such an extent that people would talk about “Batman-style” combat for years afterwards. This immediately grounds you in a deeper role play than you might be expecting, establishing the idea that you’re experiencing, making deductions and reacting to the same things as the character, figuring them out at the same time and driving their response, rather than watching a superhero story and feeling disconnected from their actions.Īs things inevitably kick off, you’re smacked in the face by one of Arkham Asylum’s most lasting legacies, the third-person combat, where you flit between crowds of bad guys tapping out combos, timing dodges and reversals, and building towards special finishing moves that zoom in the camera and slow everything down so you can hear every crunch. A pair of great performances that perfectly nail the vibe of these versions of the two characters.īut what it also does is place you in the cape and cowl of Batman in a quieter moment where you’re both thinking the same thing: “something’s not right, what is Joker up to?” Ironically, it then moves into an early example of exactly the kind of on-rails exposition I’m complaining about, where you trudge solemnly alongside NPCs whose stride and speed you can never quite match, that had started to become really trendy in blockbuster games at the time.īut that walk - as unsettling strings swell in the background - does a couple of key things that set the tone for the rest of the game.įirst, it introduces you to the dream duo of Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill - yes, that one - as Joker. So there’s no better time than now to mull over what made it great.īatman: Arkham Asylum starts in typically foreboding fashion on the wet and chilly streets of Gotham City with the kind of cutscene that would be played on rails these days, as the Batmobile thunders through the gates of Arkham with a pouty Batman at the wheel and a raving Joker in the back. One of my favourites, Batman: Arkham Asylum, has just hit its teenage years - making it about the same age as Batman’s ward, Robin.
Wallpaper batman arkham asylum ps3#
That we’re now nearly as far away from the original North American release of the PS3 as the PS3 was from the first Gameboy is a terrifying enough concept, but at least it also means we can look back with rose-tinted glasses at the plethora of brilliant games that appeared on that awesome console as the stone-cold and highly influential classics they are. I saved up for literally years to buy it at launch when I was barely a teenager and played one pretty much every day until I’d finished university. And 27 years before the N64 came out, the Moon landing happened (or did it…). Next year it will be 27 years since it first came out in 1996. If ‘your console’ was the Nintendo 64, I have some bad news for you. Then, take that number and look for a world event that happened the same distance away from what you remember. If you ever fancy scaring yourself with the relentless march of time, think back to the release of ‘your’ console - it might be the first one you bought with your own money, the one you spent the most time with as a kid or just the one you knew inside-and-out - and work out how long ago it came out. It was a game that I’d bought, completed and enjoyed in high school, and now it was sat alongside Space Invaders and other stone-age creations. You see, Arkham Asylum wasn’t a game that I’d read about in magazines, had handed down from my Dad in the ‘90s or stupidly bought a rereleased ROM of just to be able to say I’d played.
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