Carl almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the scream. Loud, shrill and cut short before he could hear exactly where it came from. He almost wondered whether he had really heard it or if it had simply occurred inside his head.
One night, that was what the clown had told him. One night to take over this nut house and he would walk away rich and free. All he had to do was make sure none of their prisoners escaped and he’d never have to work again.
Why was it never that easy? Carl noticed Johnny beckoning him over.
“You hear that? I think it came from over there.” He said, gesturing to the north corner. “You take point and I’ll cover you!”
Carl was secretly relieved, if there were two of them they should be safe. He edged round the corner, his gun shaking in his hands. And found Tony out cold, hanging upside down from a gargoyle six feet off the ground.”
“Oh Jesus! It’s the Bat-Man Johnny! Johnny?”
Carl turned around, Johnny lay unconscious on the cold, hard concrete beneath him. Carl span round, trying to find where the monster was in the darkness of the Library they had been assigned to protect.
When out of the shadows, a glint of blackened metal caught Carl’s eye, curving majestically around one of the bookshelves before cutting Tonys’ limp body free of the gargoyle. The body landed directly on top of Carl, pinning him to the ground.
“Oh God! Oh God! Somebody help me! Anyone! Please!”
All Carl saw were a pair of white eyes almost glowing from inside the pitch black bat cowl. The Bat-Man leaned down close to the shaking Carl.
“There’s no-one. It’s just you and me.”
And with one punch, it was all over.
Well this is a pleasant surprise. A Batman game that isn’t just good. A Batman game that’s actually great. Today is a good day to be a nerd!
Imagine taking the Christopher Nolan films and surgically removing all the bad bits like Christian Bale and Glasgow-grin joker. Now slather the gritty slime left over on to the original animated series with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. And you will be left with something beautiful.
The story goes that Batman has captured the Joker once again and has just put him in Arkham asylum, unfortunately the asylum staff haven’t heard the golden rule of never letting the Joker out of Batman’s sight, and he inevitably escapes and takes over Arkham. It’s up to you as Batman to liberate the place one room at a time.
The voice acting is superb, with Conroy and Hamil playing their parts pitch-perfectly, and everyone else being at least tolerable with the possible exception of Harley Quinn, but she’s always been like that.
The story is delivered at a fast pace and you never feel like the game is being padded out or stretched. There is always something to do, even if it’s just solving the Riddler’s puzzles that he’s left around for you to find. However what you’re going to be doing most are beating the crap out of unarmed thugs, and picking gun toting ones off stealthily.
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