Article : Why Batman Arkham Asylum OUTDOES the Movies!! (agree or disagree)

[Reasonable]

Khuutra said:

Reasonable said:
Disagree. I think AA is a great game, and clearly it does a good job of putting you into the shoes of Batman, but it's narrative and depth is of course shallow next to what films and print have achieved.

Mark Hamil did knock the Joker out of the park, though - fantastic voice work. I gather Batman's voice is from TV show too, but I found it lacking in expression - too one note.

Narrative and depth may be lacking, but it is considerably more fun than Dark Knight or Batman Begins was, and much more steeped in Batman lore.

Quick, run in that burning house full of people...

It was fun - more fun is debatable as that's subjective.  I really like games and I love movies - so I prefer Batman Begins and Dark Knight.  I also prefer their depth to the general Batman comics - although I'd note that a lot of Arkham Asylum (despite the many well done nods to the 'lore' seemed based on the rather good Arkham Asylum graphic novel, although it doesn't quite hit as dark a tone as that work.

I guess in truth I take the view that comics have delivered great modern icons, but that for me the traditional lore is often weak or rather silly.

Still a great game, though.  I would have preferred some more narrative risks, though, and perhaps more 'real' detective work - i.e. it takes more than a prompted 2 second search to find the next trail to follow.

I loved the Riddler challenges, that really made the rather annoying 'hunt the time extending maguffin' element of the game rather compelling.  The good voice work for the Riddler really made me want to find every one - and I'm glad that there was a really fun payoff as a reward when I did.

AA showed just how good a game can be when its polished and made with genuine affection and concern for it's subject matter - but as I've said before many times on this thread, it is pointless to leap to 'better than other mediums' etc. unless you are talking about solely interactive immersion and gameplay.

EDIT : I just have to mention Mark Hamil's voice work again.  Just fantastic.  I love his lines - particularly the 'don't let him fool you boys...'.  A really sweet unlock would have been access to play his quips at your lesiure.