Programming My Life

I recently finished Batman: Arkham Asylum on PC and enjoyed it.   The gameplay was fun and the mix of puzzles, combat, and stealth made the game rarely feel repetitious.  What really makes Arkham Asylum interesting, though, is the storytelling.   There are many games known for their story (for better or for worse) that tell the large majority of the story, especially the major plot points, in the form of lengthy cutscenes.   I have enjoyed a number of stories told this way but, it is not the best use of the medium of video games for storytelling.  Arkham Asylum forgoes the lengthy cutscenes and tells the story through sections of gameplay and short cutscenes that mostly flow with the action.  This made me feel as though I was a part of the story rather than driving through a game to unlock the story.

NB:  There will be spoilers in the following sections for the story of the game.

Instead of beginning with a cutscene, you begin in control of Batman walking Joker (surrounded by guards) into Arkham.  While you can’t do much at this point other than walk, it sets the tone for feeling as though you are part of the action rather than just watching it.  There are several other story moments where simply walking around tells the story better than a cutscene.  For example, rain begins falling in the halls of Arkham Mansion.  As Batman advances down the corridor, the mansion walls are replaced by one of the most famous scenes from Batman.   After walking through the scene, Batman opens a door to reveal that the hallucination was caused by Scarecrow.

It would have been simple to make a cutscene showing Batman under Scarecrow’s ‘spell’ similar to what was done in the movie Batman Begins, but changing the scenery while the player is still in control makes it significantly more visceral; it is as though the player is being influenced by Scarecrow as well.  This occurs on more than one occasion and each time is done in such a way to make the player experience it rather than just watch it.

Interactions with The Joker, the game’s primary villain, are also handled primarily while the player is in control; he toys with Batman during the game on the TVs scattered throughout the Asylum.  The backstory for many of the villains is handled in a similar way.  Instead of TVs in the game telling the stories, the player collects disks containing audio recordings of therapy sessions with the inmates/villains, which can be listened to as the player explores Arkham.

Although it deepens the experience, the implementation of the audio tapes breaks up the flow of the game occasionally.  By default, the recordings start up when the player picks up a disk, which sends the player out of the gameplay and into a menu.  The extra information in the menus is interesting, but the experience would be smoother if the audio started up still allowing the player to be in control.  This option is clearly available as there is an option to exit the menu and continue playing while the audio finishes up.

Batman: Arkham Asylum has its share of problems and poor design decisions; it’s not perfect.  However, the developers surprised me with their effective use of the medium of video games to tell an interactive story.  This certainly isn’t the first game to adopt this style, but I was surprised to see it so well implemented in a game that could have easily sold well (thanks to a powerful license in Batman) with much less care taken in the design.  Hopefully, more developers come up with ways to let players experience stories rather than watch them.