Hands-on at E3 / Batman: Arkham Asylum

It happens in almost every movie, and I wouldn’t know nor would want to count how many times in the comics. A gang of four or so criminals are in a boiler room, sewer, tunnel, or really dark play pen… They’re carrying sacks of cash they just stole, and they’re pointing their flashlights around in search of “The Bat Man.” Initially, they’re cocksure that they’re going to find him, and gun him down. And why wouldn’t they? Four guys with guns against one crazed gunless vigilante who galavants about the city in a bat suit? It’d be absurd to think otherwise. But sure enough, The Bat Man swoops in and takes them out. One by one they go, and as each takes their turn meeting the unfortunately fated large Bat Fist to the Face, their confidence wanes. When it’s down to that last sorry sap, he is struggling to keep from peeing his pants. He flails the flashlight more erratically, and any little sound will set him off, causing him to fire aimlessly in what may not even be the general direction of the sound. It’s inevitable, he’ll be taken out, too. In the movies, it’s when this last guy gets it that the audience gets to see Batman’s face, right before he brutally renders the would-be fugitive unconscious. In Batman: Arkham Asylum, rather than following those criminals, you watch Batman do this the whole time. Not only do you watch, you are Batman. You get to swoop around, you dive in for a vicious stomp, and then disappear again, and you’re the one watching them as their fear grows and grows.

Is this a cool game? Yes.

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