Game #962: Batman Begins

  ...but when does it end? Whennnnn does it eeeeend?!

 I know I'm not the only one that enjoyed Batman Begins way back when, but I think the movie came out during the period I was phasing out of gaming since I'd only learn about the videogame years later. It's no Batman Arkham I'll tell you that, but maybe there's nothing to be scared of.

 It seems I can't escape from stealth games, because Batman Begins is equals part stealth and beat'em up. It follows the plot from the movie, and we get a sparse few scenes between levels, they are very short, but hey, they are better than nothing. I usually avoid writing about graphics, but for a licensed game this one looks like a first party title. Character models are fair representations of the actors, while random mook npcs look way more detailed than they should! On the other hand, animations are very exaggerated, so it might look a bit weird, and some of the attack animations are spotty to say the least. Heck, the first time I saw Batman climbing stairs I actually laughed 'cause of how silly his flailing arms looked. Speaking of jarring, beating the game unlocks three costumes, the modern black and grey and two versions of the classic grey and blue, but they look a bit out of place in this gritty reimagining of Batman.

 Armed enemies can end you in a few seconds, something that Batman Arkham would replicate years later, and since they are dangerous they are marked in red on your radar, so that you know who to take out first. In order to safely take out armed enemies you'll usually have to partake in simple stealth, platforming and very basic puzzle solving that involves throwing batarangs at any highlighted object. There's a 'fear' mechanic, but all it involves is, well, hitting specific objects with the batarangs to scare enemies, because once they get scared they just throw their guns away and NEVER think about picking them up again. It's dumb, it really is, but hey, it's the game's puzzle element and it's not too bad a reason to have you, the Batman, skulking in shadows. On the other hand, other times you'll just have to sneak behind them and slowly take them out stealthily.

 So, armed enemies are now disarmed but they spotted you, so in comes the combat element and... it's passable. You have a punch, a kick and circle that performs context sensitive actions, such as a 'defense breaker' gut punch that has a lot of wind up so that other enemies can hit you as you prepare it. And you can't cancel out of it. Enemies love to block a lot, you can't really pick who batman will target and landing hits doesn't feel particularly crunchy... but, y'know, it gets the job done. Super basic, kinda clunky, but passable.

 There are two Batmobile sequences and they were actually rather fun. Checkpoints don't restore the batmobile's armor so you cold find yourself in tough spots, like when I had to take down 12 police cars but my health was almost gone so I had to be extra careful and couldn't just ram them from behind. That aside, they play well, the controls work and they are exciting.

 If the game has any major issues is that it can be kinda boring at times. Combat is unexciting and stealth is slow paced, and if you die you'll sometimes have to sit through scripted sequences you absolutely must wait out in order to stealthily take out your enemies. There are too many dull 'interrogations' in which Bats grabs and enemies and then... you press square, wait for Batman to say something threatening and the victim says nothing of use and then... you rinse and repeat until they say something useful and you can finally press circle to end the sequence.

 Batman Begins is, unlike the movie, nothing to write home about, but at least it's decent, y'know? So much so that I'm kinda disappointed that the much superior The Dark Knight didn't get its own videogame! So yeah, I think fans of the movie and fans of Batman could get a few kicks out of this one, it's definitely above most movie licensed games of its era.

 6.0