The Batman: Arkham Asylum demo came out yesterday for the 360 and the day before for the PS3, so I downloaded it to try it out. I’m a big Batman fan, and I loved the original WB animated series so this seemed right up my alley. It was a small demo, very short, but it gave me a good idea of what to look forward to.

Let me start out by saying how happy I am that they went with Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamil (Joker) for the voice acting. I really think there’s only one man who can play the animated Joker, and he happens to be a jedi. In general, the voice actors chosen are fantastic, as many of them are reprising their roles from the early 90s animated series. I do like the overall look of the game, it’s quite shiny, and I will most likely get it.

That said, there are a few things that really got to me in the short time I played Mr. Dark Knight himself. The biggest issue being that while the voice acting is brilliant, the physical movement of the character’s faces is too stiff.

Here’s a pretty good video from the demo that shows the character’s speaking. Watch it in HD if you can, the graphics really are too lovely not to.

Watching that demo video shows what I’m talking about, the characters felt like puppets to me, with video of their mouths moving slightly placed on top. The voices contain so much emotion, but it just doesn’t match up perfectly with the character’s physical movements that it’s hard to become immersed in the game. I understand the reasoning behind Batman, he’s a stoic, flat figure. Staying calm to make other feel better about their situation but with a hint of world weariness that shows how much he just wants to go home, take off the cowl and put on some nice fluffy batslippers and relax. That’s what Kevin Conroy describes with his version of Batman, and if the game were animated like the WB show, I don’t think I would mind that he really doesn’t move. But this is 3D, this is engaging theatre, where characters are exaggerated to add dynamism to the total experience, and the physical acting of the characters just don’t fully do that.

Perhaps we should look at the most exaggerated villain the demo has to offer, The Joker:

Unfortunately, the trailer cuts away very quickly so you only see a few seconds of him speaking at a time, but if you watch the first 10 seconds of the demo video again you can see him speaking uncut. His cheeks are two apples, always prominent with his permanent smile, and his mouth never seems to close all the way. It’s stretched, as it should be, but at the same time, not stretched enough. Listening to Mark Hamil’s performance without video brings a more dynamic image to mind, but his face doesn’t change too much in the game. Watching it again, I think this is due to the fact that his lips move a basic up and down, and don’t form the words like they should. Try saying, “Welcome to the madhouse, Batman! I set a trap, and you sprang it gloriously!”, even while smiling you can feel your lips forming the shapes of the words, and even exaggerating it in a mirror makes you look crazier than the Joker does in this game.

His physical movements hurt his character a bit too, I think he’s far too flaily, he has as much physical expression as a lollipop. Part of the attraction of the Joker is how smooth he is, fluid expression comes naturally even as he screams gibberish. Here, he’s a puppet. All they need to do is attach some strings to him and it’ll be perfect.

Which brings me to my next point, the character designs. Oh, the character designs…

Was there a need to redesign Harley Quinn’s outfit? She’s as well known for her skintight-lycra bodysuit as Joker is for his purple suits, and we all love her for it. The only reason the developers decided to change her outfit was probably this:

Seriously, it’s got to be because she doesn’t show enough skin, nevermind that the bloody thing is SKINTIGHT. I’m not sure why this bothers me so much, that they decided to sex her up, probably because it’s completely unnessicary and even the Character Bio screen that you unlock in the game shows her in her onepiece. I know the onepiece suit has been redesigned too, but the changes are small and flattering, not oversexualized. Harley isn’t supposed to be a sex kitten as much as she is bumbling and stupid, Poison Ivy, on the hand…

Is still over sexualized and wearing nothing, but at least it fits her character more.

There’s the matter of Killer Croc. His character design evolved since the first concept art pieces surfaced:

Perhaps he took more steroids? This ridiculous made-up muscle creature they turned him into is one of my pet peeves. I see it all the time in comics, meaty characters who have muscle on top of muscle on top of muscle when it’s just kind of placed there because it looks cool. It looks bloody stupid, and like the character designer didn’t bother to consider humanoid anatomy. They did this for Bane too, and it looks just as gross. In fact, now that I put that body builder photo next to the Killer Croc concept…I think the artist just used him as their model. I wonder if they stumbled upon that photo the same way I did, Googling “gross body builder.”

I much prefer the original design, frankly. But in the end, Killer Croc is just a Locust with a dental problem.

Even though I nitpick these problems with the characters, the actual gameplay is quite fun. I’m generally more of a run-in-guns-blazin’ kind of gal, so I’ll need to get used to being quiet and calculating now with Batman. Hopefully, the fact that combat is pretty free-flowing and you trying to avoid physical contact will appeal to people who can’t grasp first-person shooters.

The run and walk combination will also take some getting used to for me, since when I run I tend to have a hard time changing direction. Oh well, that’s not an issue most people will have I think. Fighting is very easy to get used to. You can button mash or calculate combos with ease. I never felt overwhelmed once.

The health system is still foreign to me, the demo didn’t show how you heal and it seemed like Batman had very little health for being so bulky. The full games looks like it’s going to offer a LOTof fun elements, but the demo was a nice, albeit short, taste. Oh Dark Knight, I can’t wait to fall under your stoic, unmoving spell.

Tags: gaming