The Arkhamverse

    This entry is likely going to prove something of a rarity on this blog, as it deals with a topic that I am generally woefully ill-equipped to discuss: video games.  That's not to say I dislike video games; far from it.  It's just that, well, how do I put this?

    I suck at them.

    I wasn't really allowed video games as a child - I had a few for my Commodore 64 (not that I'm dating myself, or anything like that), but the only ones I ever displayed any real aptitude for were the Carmen Sandiego games.  And while I did have an early-edition Game Boy in junior high, I didn't actually own my first video game system until well into college, when I picked up an SNES system on clearance.  It still works, by the way - I keep it active for those afternoons when I want to kill 45 minutes with Turtles in Time.   Long story short, I never quite developed the abilities most of my classmates did.  So while we do have an Xbox (and have, more recently, acquired a PS4 which is primarily used for Netflix), a safe assessment of my gaming abilities is: If it doesn't have the word "Lego" somewhere in its title, odds are I'm going to be pretty awful.

   Most of the time.  I mention all this because the subject of this blog is the Arkhamverse - the series of Batman video games put out by Rocksteady Studios (and WB Games) that have proven to be some of the most popular games of the past decade.  You should know, then, that this is coming from the perspective of a Batman fan, and not that of a gamer.  If you want an assessment of the merits of the series from a gaming perspective from someone who actually knows their stuff, you may need to try IGN, Wired, etc.

The cover image to the first game, Arkham Asylum.

    That said, as a Batman fan, over the years I gave most of the various Bat-themed video game offerings a try.  Many of them were forgettable, and most rather devoid of any kind of significantly fun components.  I've come to understand that while part of this feeling is due to my own regrettable lack of skills, a lot of it is due to these games being pretty lousy overall - even to real gamers.    There simply wasn't much in the way of quality in Batman video games.

    Following the success of the Dark Knight, though, a new game was announced by the relatively obscure Rocksteady studios.  I say 'relatively obscure' based on what people who know about the gaming industry told me; I'd never heard of them - as far as I was concerned, 'Rocksteady' was either an '80s R&B song or, more honestly, a mutant rhinoceros.  Entitled "Batman: Arkham Asylum", the game was released with a fair amount of hype in the summer of 2009.  I was given the game as a birthday present.

   And no one saw me for about a week.

"Who's doing what now?"

  I was completely in love.  The premise was fairly straightforward - you play as Batman, trapped for one night on the creepy island which houses the facility which serves as home for the Dark Knight's many foes.  The style was incredible - crumbling Victorian architecture, flickering lights, labyrinthine corridors, overgrown grounds populated by every kind of maniac and thug imaginable, and possessing an oppressive, haunted atmosphere.  The player is required to master all of Batman's skills, not only combat and escape but detective work and tracking, in an environment practically dripping with details.  One of my favorite elements was solving the Riddler challenges - dozens upon dozens of hidden references, puzzles and trophies, which required the player to investigate every nook and cranny of the island.

   The game was written by Paul Dini, one of the major forces behind 'Batman: The Animated Series', and had a solid cast headlined by Kevin Conroy.   As a story, it delved into just how disturbed the characters of Gotham are, but did so in a way that the game could stand alongside that of the comics; its plot was such that it felt like another adventure, albeit a superlative one.

   Best of all, it was remarkably straightforward to use; the game walked you through each new ability, gadget, enemy, etc. easily enough.  Granted, people with more dexterity than I can achieve better scores in the various challenges in the game, but it was user-friendly enough that I could play it without getting overly frustrated.  It never stopped being fun.

  I must have played through the game three or four times over the next few months, and eagerly awaited a sequel.  So, when "Batman: Arkham City" debuted in 2011, once again, I became a temporary video game junkie.   

Batman, with Arkham City spread out behind him.

   This time, you were in a walled-off section of Gotham, an open-air prison where everyone from the Asylum and then some were tossed to rot - or to start a minor civil war, whichever came first.  Reminiscent of the famous Batman storyline 'No Man's Land', the player takes the Dark Knight into this militarized city-with-a-city, which was several times larger as Asylum.  It was just as detail-rich, though, and fully populated with characters, most of whom were quite eager to kill you.  You had more gadgets to play with, though, and there were even sections of the game where you could play as Catwoman or Robin, if you got all of the additional DLC. 

   The story began to take on a life of its own, though - diverging from the comics in several major ways, establishing itself as its own 'universe', which has come to be known as the Arkhamverse.   It's quite a dark universe - grim, decaying, and corrupt - and the assorted collection of villains are more twisted than ever.   The plot went in bold directions, killing off major characters, with every bit of the impact you'd expect...more so, actually, given how casually most comic book entities can laugh off death.

    The weekend following the game's release, I started and playing, and didn't stop until I'd beaten the game, which, as it happened, was dawn of the next day.  It was just that good, that engaging, that fun, that I simply couldn't stop.  It certainly didn't hurt that I was actually *capable* of handling the controls.   To date, it remains my favorite video game - I couldn't tell you how many times I've gone back through it, but it must be at least half a dozen over the past four years.  It's such an incredible game, and does such wonderful service to the character; both games make me proud to be a Batman fan. 

     While another game was assumed, it was some time before we got any news (unlike following the first game, which clued fans in that more was forthcoming fairly quickly).  There was a good deal of surprise when "Batman: Arkham Origins" was announced in the Spring of 2013, then, as it was being produced not by Rocksteady, but by WB Montreal, and would serve as a prequel to the existing games.   WB did their best to allay people's concerns, but ultimately the game did not hold up as well as the first two in the series.

   For one thing, though the game doubled Arkham City's size, there was about half as much to do, and whole chunks of the city were devoid of content.  It had a plot which strained credulity: boiled down, it involved a rookie Batman meeting a large number of his major foes over the course of one Christmas Eve.  What's worse, the plot turned derivative, as we learned that the Joker was once again the main villain, a misdirect which was frustrating as we'd been led to believe there'd be a greater focus on other foes, not to mention the fact that Joker had already dominated the first two games of the series.  It was an unremarkable story, and devoid of all of the atmosphere that made the first two games so rich.  Most damning of all, the game was positively glitch-ridden, with critical errors all over the place.  After playing on and off for three days, my file became inexplicably corrupted, which destroyed my saved game and necessitated starting from scratch.  WB Montreal did eventually issue some patches, but that still left a number of problems, many of which were never solved, especially after the developers basically threw their hands up.

The poster for Origins.  It's about as exciting as the game.

   It was a huge come-down following City, but fortunately, not long after Origins' rather dismal reception, Kevin Conroy accidentally let slip there was a new game coming.  Sure enough, in the Spring of 2014, Rocksteady announced "Batman: Arkham Knight", a follow-up to City which was to be available only on next-gen consoles, and complete what they viewed as their trilogy.  We later learned that Origins was merely filler - WB didn't want to go four years without a game, so they let WB Montreal develop the prequel story. 

   Which brings me to today.  Arkham Knight is scheduled to be released at midnight tonight, following several delays (the game was originally due out last October.)   This game was the final motivation for our decision to get a PS4...it was inevitable we'd need a new system eventually, more for streaming than anything else, but this game was the deciding factor.  I've been looking forward to this for four years now, so I'm sure you can guess what my plans are for the upcoming weekend.  The game is reportedly five times the size of Arkham City, filled with countless enemies and allies and with more detail than the first two games combine - or so they say.  With a plot that's sure to be even more dark and twisted than its predecessors, the game will no doubt keep me occupied for quite a while.

   There will probably be a post at some point in the near future with my thoughts on the new game, but I wanted to leave myself a bit of a bookmark.  This may be the last time I get to anticipate a game like this; I certainly can't imagine any other kind of game for which I'd have this level of enthusiasm.  As I mentioned earlier, I don't generally have much involvement with the video game medium outside of bi-annual Lego games, so these offerings, much like Batman movies, are something of an event for me.

   Hopefully Knight is every bit as exciting and fun as I want it to be.  I confess to a certain amount of apprehension, as this new game will apparently involve extensive use of the Batmobile, and when it comes to video games, I'm a positively atrocious driver.  It's entirely possible I may find myself apoplectic after crashing into too many walls, we'll have to see.   I remain optimistic, however.  If nothing else, it's one more (and final?) turn to Be the Batman.