Licensed games usually suck, but Batman is amazingly good. The story hooks you in right from the start, when you suspect the Joker and waiting for him to spring his trap. You're walking to the next room where you keep expecting that this might be the one where Joker's true nature shines through. It ramps up pretty quickly with the rapid introductions of many of Batman's adversaries. You get to see another take on your favorite Batman villains. The final showdown/scene of Batman against Joker (because seriously, who else do you think the main antagonist is?) was fairly epic. However, Joker's master plan was disappointing. After the build up during the whole game, you would have thought it would be some cleverly crafted one with a huge revelation but there wasn't any plot twists there. Then again, the story does keep you going for the whole duration of the game which is great. Since the game is so story focused, it is actually quite linear with little variety in the sidequests. The biggest sidequest is the Riddler Challenges, most of which requires you to find Riddler Trophies scattered in the area. With a total of 240, it is a LOT of collectibles. Other than that, there are also interview tapes which plays back a 'recording' of a session with one of the game's antagonist. These provide an insight to those characters and flesh them out more. This is great and they are often entertaining to listen which makes them more rewarding than the Riddler trophies. Apart from those two things (both of which are basically collectibles), you've only got the story to go on with.
That said, you would be hard pressed to think up of some other more worthy sidequests that might build upon and complement that main story. As you play through the game, you'd notice that there is a lot of attention to detail put into the game world. For example, as the night/game goes on, Batman's suit starts to get worn down, with tears and holes appearing. It reflects perfectly what Batman has gone through. One of the standouts in this game is the voice acting, it is amazing. From Joker's voice to Batman's voice, they feel perfect with the amount of emotion put in. Joker sounds genuinely crazy and Batman heroic. That said, the facial animations of the characters sometimes cannot match or express the emotions that you hear in the voice to the same degree, which breaks the immersion. For all the attention put in, the graphics doesn't look as sharp nowadays and in environments where there is greenery, it can look a bit flat. Shrubbery looks jagged. One of the things you'd notice is that the game completely takes place in the night, and so the environment is all dark and washed out. It can seem dreary, lonely or depressing sometimes (although it suits the mood of the game). The animations are really slick and smooth, great to look it. The combat system is interesting, and while it seems simple at first, it is surprising to find out that it takes some more effort to master it.
Once you managed to become proficient, it's amazing to watch and very satisfying when you defeat a group of enemies in one combo. The fact that you progressively get extra gadgets and moves encourage you to keep going. You look forward to the next gadget Batman gets, and you look forward to unlocking that next upgrade after levelling up. The stealth sections are nice too and the level designs and mechanics great. While it can feel more of the same when each room has gargoyles for you to jump around, and it's mostly indoors with similar environments, there's enough variety for each one to be fun and intense. It's awesome being Batman and taking on your foes silently, eliminating them one by one. Honestly, these sections are so fun that it felt like there wasn't enough of these stealth sections and they get a little bit harder near the end of the game which is good. A spoiler but you should have already known this by now. Scarecrow makes an appearance in the game (fairly early on in fact), and your first encounter with him gives you the creeps, it was handled wonderfully. Subsequent encounters are equally good and the platforming aspects never become hard or frustrating (it actually leans towards the easy side). Boss battles are solid and feels familiar to games of old. A few of the boss battles are different to anything else you would encounter which makes them interesting and gives you a break from the combat or stealth.
If you're playing on Normal difficulty, they are fairly easy to work out and complete. The only boss battle/section that I felt dragged out was Killer Croc's section. I think they should have stayed with the magic number of three when asking you to perform the same action again and again. The last two boss battles (as well as the final parts of the game in general) push the difficulty up a little bit, which is a good move as by this time, you should be familiar enough with the combat system to fight these tougher enemies. The detective mode is extremely useful and you would be tempted to use it constantly since it gives you valuable information about the area. It fits in with Batman but if you decide to leave it on, then you would end up missing all the enjoyment that comes with seeing the environment the way it was meant to. The game comes with sixteen challenges (the GOTY with four extra) which extends the gameplay time by hours. They're optional (of course) and like their name suggests, some are quite challenging. It's satisfying when you get all three medals in a challenge because it shows that you're mastering the gameplay mechanics. It is an excellent addition. Overall, the game is fun, made all the more enjoyable if you have some knowledge of the Batman mythos. It is an impressive piece of software (that said, the sequel, Batman: Arkham City, makes massive improvements to this formula, so never play it back to front!).
-----------------------------
Other game reviews can be found on this page.
