I enjoy it when great games get some love on next generation systems, or in this case current generation systems. I know there are a few games out there that certainly have a shaky time with the upgrades or simply don’t get the upgrade they deserve, but I’m pretty certain Batman fans will be pleased with what Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment offers up with Batman: Return to Arkham.
Back in the day, Rocksteady proved that it could make a Batman game well and reignite a DC video game universe that was floundering badly. Heck, I remember going to 2008 E3 and playing Batman: Arkham Asylum begrudgingly (at first) during a Warner Bros. appointment and thinking to myself the whole time, “Holy shit, Batman. This is going to be good.” As Steven McGehee’s review pointed out at during its release, it certainly lived up to the hype, as well as established itself in video game history as one of the best uses of a comic book character in a video game. The second game, reviewed by yours truly, merely expanded upon those positives.
There is no doubt that the quality of content in Asylum and City still holds up after 5-7 years in the world. Even if they were on an older system that was pushing 720p/30fps Rocksteady still did a great job of building an accurate and frightening world that everyone’s favorite Dark Knight existed in. While the original game, Arkham Asylum, was restricted in girth, more than likely Rocksteady was just trying to figure out the PlayStation 3 hardware, the second game, Arkham City, opened up Batman’s world and upped the ante of violence, immersive-ness and a deep storyline that follows the Joker’s final bit of comedy. The second game treated Batman’s world like a giant sandbox where the Dark Knight could play and it also included a bevy of familiar DC faces to help push things along. Long adventures for both titles that kept gamers wanting more and more.
One of the brighter spots of both games is the combat system, which still holds up well and was used in Arkham Knight and Shadows of Mordor (it made the game so much fun). Having the ability to move back and forth between attackers, while still maintaining a sense of place during a fight was beautifully done. They should never change that, even if they make a Superman game (c’mon, Rocksteady). The controls were so seamless, even if the enemies were brainless (they usually are in comics, though, right?). They were the best part of the game and made Batman a video game character reflection of his comic brethren.
Having said all this, while the original game content for both titles has transferred over spectacularly, even offering up all the DLC that came with the games, as well as having the ability to play as different Batman characters from all sorts of DC universes in Arkham City, there have been shortcomings in the graphics department.
The biggest of the bunch is that while the textures have certainly been upgraded by developer Virtuos (they helped co-develop Heavy Rain and Injustice: Gods Among Us), showing off some spectacular lighting effects, shadows and real beautiful textures on Batman’s suit and such (when you see Gotham in Arkham City you will be in awe), they have tripped themselves up a bit with frame rate and occasional stuttering.
Starting with stuttering, I experienced some bad stuttering in several places, especially where Batman was attacking someone in close quarters and the game couldn’t right itself with the camera for some reason. It didn’t take away from the experience, but it did look awkward. It also didn’t crash the game, so anyone worried about such a thing, PC Arkham Knight people, it’s not going to happen. Now, back to the stuttering, it didn’t happen all the time, but it did happen sometimes. These things didn’t occur in the original games, which is why they stood out in the remakes. Again, it doesn’t take away from the experience, but it’s not pretty either.
The second issue I have with these games is the frame rate, which still pushes around 30fps. While I understand that upgrading the visuals might force the frame rate to come down a bit, it was quite noticeable for games that were 5-7 years in age. Let me say this, I’m not a huge proponent of getting 60fps, only in VR am I demanding of such a thing, but I think, at least from a reviewer perspective, that 60fps might have been achievable with the hardware provided. Again, I don’t really care about the fps as much as others, but I think gamers, especially people who are PC fanatics, probably wanted that frame rate a bit higher than the original.
That said, the game still has a helluva pair of fully functioning Batman adventures in one place. For those who don’t own any Batman games the $49.99 price tag is a steal of a deal. You get all of the best parts of the games and you get some graphical upgrades that are for the most part good. For the rest of us who own these on the PlayStation 3, it might have been best priced at around $39.99. Regardless, the package deal is still more good than bad, as Virtuos does mostly good justice to the Rocksteady titles.
Definitely worth at least a look, especially if you popped into the Batman series around Arkham City. Nothing like completing a collection, right?
Onto the summary.
