Batman Begins

Count on your hand how many great Batman games have been released?  I bet you didn’t have many, did you?  Well EA is trying to change this with the pending release of Batman Begins for Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube.  At E3 2005 the game was playable so jaded comic book fans (like myself) could put the game through the ringer. So far the game is shaping up to be a solid title that just might not suck.  That’s a strong word but let’s face it, how many good Batman games did you count?

The game on display at E3 allowed you to try out a few levels but being the comic book fan I wanted to try Arkum Asylum.  The game starts out with Batman standing at the top of the gates to the Asylum.  The point of the level was not to get inside of the Asylum but to let you the gamer decide how to do this.  If you want you can jump down and try to take out the thugs hanging around outside or sneak around to find another entrance.  The person from EA working the Xbox booth even mentioned to me “Just what would Batman do, remember he doesn’t have any bullets.”   This means the game won’t be a standard action/fighting game like some of the earlier Batman games.  Think Metal Gear or Splinter Cell meets Batman. 

I looked around and found a ledge where I could use the grapple hook.   Once I found a spot to use the hook the game indicated to just press one button to activate the hook.  Once the hook was attached I swung across to the ledge to a window that was open.  I crawled inside the window and was inside of what appeared to be a library.  In front of me was a thug that just happened to not hear me crawl through the window.  I guess maybe the AI just isn’t quite ready yet or the thugs won’t be moving around too much in the game.  I then slowly moved up behind him and then a screen indicated to press a button to activate a stealth command.  The stealth command had Batman subdue the thug in a very quiet but at the same time, violent beat down.   But there was another thug near the one I took out but he didn’t react to the beating that Batman gave him which again concerns me about the AI.  There is more to the game then just stealth since you can attack thugs with hand to hand combat.  The combat was ok but it will remind players of beat’em up games from years ago.

The graphics of the game looked great with Batman looking like Batman from the new movie.  The costume even has the same rubbery look that the Batman suit does in the new movie.  His cap would flow and bend as I moved around and would react to his movements great.  The levels looked great as well with some nice detail in the buildings and locations.  The thugs did share the same character models but they still looked good.  The movement of Batman was smooth and the animation wasn’t chunky. 

So far Batman is looking and playing good at this stage.  With the release in June the game won’t be too far away either.  The questionable AI is my only big concern right now since that might cause an issue with gameplay.  The graphics looked great and the game did a good job of capturing the Batman tone.

For All E3 2005 Previews