That is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who labored at Official Xbox Journal from 2002-2012 throughout the authentic Xbox and Xbox 360 period earlier than becoming a member of IGN, the place he stays “the Xbox man.” In the run-up to Xbox’s twenty fifth anniversary, he’ll be sharing his reminiscences from the platform’s first quarter-century.
Not each band hits it huge with their first document. Typically it takes an additional album or two for the proper storm of creativity to create lightning in a bottle. So too is that this the case with online game growth studios. Treyarch is one notable instance: it was greatest recognized for making principally mediocre licensed superhero video games (ironic, given the subject material of this column) earlier than it broke out huge as Infinity Ward’s associate on Name of Responsibility.
One other is UK-based Rocksteady, which didn’t actually have any huge hits to its identify earlier than its Batman: Arkham trilogy turned it right into a sport growth celebrity. Previous to its work with the bat, the studio made a reasonably mediocre first-person motion sport in 2006 known as City Chaos: Riot Response. You performed as a riot-control group member, tasked with saving civilians in a metropolis overrun by a gang.
I keep in mind enjoying it again at Official Xbox Journal. First-person shooters have lengthy been my favourite style, so throughout my days at the OXM workplace I’d give something that used the first-person perspective a attempt. That led me to every kind of unimaginable video games I’d’ve in any other case ignored, comparable to Breakdown for the authentic Xbox. However City Chaos wasn’t Breakdown. Nor was it good. OXM gave it a 5 out of 10. (IGN was kinder, awarding it a 7.9.)
Fairly how Rocksteady went from the mediocre City Chaos to the best licensed superhero sport anybody had seen – by a rustic mile – is one thing of a thriller. What occurred behind the scenes that noticed its workers graduate to such artistic heights? No matter the purpose, that group – led by director Sefton Hill – went on to show that Akham Asylum was something however their one hit marvel. Whereas the sequence would ultimately stumble just a bit bit with that rattling drawn-out Batmobile part close to the finish of Arkham Knight, you received’t discover anybody with an unkind phrase to say about both Arkham Asylum or its chic sequel, Arkham Metropolis.
In actual fact, each are so good that, two generations later, a continuing debate stays concerning which of Rocksteady’s first two Batman video games is the pinnacle of the sequence. Some say Asylum is the greatest, others cite Metropolis. Each are proper. (I’m in the Metropolis camp, for what it’s value, as I want its bigger open-world and I believe its extraordinarily darkish story is even higher than the stellar plot we acquired in Asylum).
However we’re right here to speak about Rocksteady’s first sport and the floor it broke. Regardless of whether or not you performed it on an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, you bought a fully beautiful sport in the graphics division. It utilized Unreal Engine 3, and matched the engine’s graphical grunt with phenomenal artwork path to create a sport that felt like a grittier, extra grown-up model of Batman: The Animated Sequence.
Talking of which, casting Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill completely took Rocksteady’s good sport to the subsequent stage. In a way, it legitimized it. Right here have been the two legendary Batman and Joker voice actors we’d grown up with on The Animated Sequence, now in an unimaginable Batman journey we might play. And never only one we might play, however a a lot darker Batman universe than what was in the cartoon – age acceptable for the now-adult followers.
However as good as the voice casting was, and as attractive as the graphics have been, Batman: Arkham Asylum rewrote the comic-book-game guidelines as a result of it solved the gameplay puzzle. Whether or not you have been leaning on the investigative facet of the Darkish Knight – perched atop gargoyles, scanning rooms with Detective Mode, and dropping all the way down to seize unsuspecting foes earlier than leaving them strung up for the Gotham Metropolis Police Division to gather later – or pulverizing packs of criminals with the combo-driven parry/hit/end/chain-to-the-next-guy fight system, Arkham Asylum delivered on placing you inside Batman’s cowl in a manner that no different online game had ever carried out earlier than. And for these of you of a sure age, like me, you understand that there had been many makes an attempt over the years, previous to Rocksteady cracking the code.
In brief, Batman: Arkham Asylum was each a breath of recent air and a revelation. It deserved each accolade it acquired at the time. With out it, we’d have by no means had the thrills of the wider Arkham sequence, and possibly would by no means have gotten Insomniac’s Spider-Man. And whereas they’re inching nearer to being thought-about “retro”, you’ll be able to fireplace up any of the Arkham video games at this time – sure, even the very first one I’m speaking about right here – and so they nonetheless maintain up in each gameplay and story. Solely the graphics may allow you to down in 2026, a full 17 years after it first launched. That’s uncommon for any sport to have the ability to declare with any legitimacy, however Arkham Asylum earns it.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Subsequent-Gen Console Watch. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.