arkham asylum

Last month at the Spike VGAs, one of the trailers premiered was for a sequel to the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum. The trailer is more of a teaser, actually, and shows off chaos on the streets of Gotham, ending on an beaten Joker, laughing of course. The tag shown as the scene fades is “Arkham has moved.”

In a recent interview with Paul Denning, senior gameplay programmer for the game, he made it clear that the Arkham setting had “run its course.” This is true, considering you explore the entire Arkham island through the course of the first game. He also describes Gotham as a “fantastically realized fictional city” with many places ideal for gameplay and exploration, but says not to expect a Gotham sandbox. Apparently, they don’t believe the game will lend itself easily to an open-world, so they’re avoiding the concept altogether. Without that, however, incorporating the kind of explorative nature that made the first game so immersive will be challenging. Islands lend themselves well to isolation, after all, and you never question the fact that you can’t leave this area.

Back when this site was run in Wordpress, I posted about the Arkham Asylum demo, stating how it had essentially convinced me to buy the game. I didn’t actually manage to get it until Christmas, and have only had the opportunity to play it just these past few days. I completed everything within the game except challenge maps (they’re hard!), in what feels like 20-25 hours. A lot of the time I was laughing maniacally at what I could do in the game. The game is possibly the first stealth-action game to get the genre completely right. MGS is great and all, but stealth is often a chore that can be unforgiving at times. Arkham Asylum takes the concept and introduces this badass combination of Bat-skills and a reasonable safety net that allows you to essentially try anything within the stealth sections of the game. This, plus an extremely satisfying and well-realized combat system makes you feel as badass as you look, taking on groups of 10 men.

In short, the game is badass, and basically everyone should play it. When I think of games of a similar caliber, Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid come to mind. While neither game is much like Arkham Asylum, they each define their own brand of storytelling that complements the gameplay, keeping you wanting more. Any sequel that can achieve a similar compulsion will undoubtedly be a great game. And, given a developer who realizes their own limitations with the content of their game, there’s a lot to hope for.

Before I start, i need to say that I’m not actually a very avid gamer, and I can’t always afford to get the most current games. This article is about the games I enjoyed most in 2009, and some of them may be from 2008, but that’s just how I roll. I won’t be declaring any “best of 2009’s” because I haven’t played enough of the good games this year to make that decision.

If you look at some other gaming sites, you’ll notice that most of their “best of 2009” games were released in the past few months. It makes sense, since there really are a lot of good games that just came out, but this might also be evidence that these recent games are simply still on peoples’ minds. As far as I can tell, though, the best game this year that I haven’t played is certainly Uncharted 2. I’ll have to get on that. I don’t have much love for any sorts of online multiplayer games, so things like Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 can only hold my interest so far. I will give L4D2 a shot someday, but it’s not a priority. Assassin’s Creed 2 probably doesn’t have the kind of content that would keep me playing to the end. And what did I play, of the general “top picks” of this year?