Of all DC’s line-up of superheroes, none has more video game adaptations than the Dark Knight himself. Starting with 1986’sBatmanonthe Amstrad and ZX Spectrum, the Caped Crusader has had more than his fair share of video game titles, with one cropping up every few years or so. But despite the sheer quantity of Batman games, very few are highly regarded today. Rocksteady’s excellentArkhamseries is often pointed out as the definitive Batman video game experience, but theBatman Beginstie-in game actually laid quite a bit of groundwork for the future series.
Releasing in 2005 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube,Batman Beginsclosely follows the story of its cinematic counterpart, putting the player directly in the boots of a newly trained Batman. Though the game is quite short, coming in at just under five hours, the gameplay mechanics and overall presentation of the game have stuck with many who have played it over the years. To fans of theArkhamseries, a few core elements may seem a little familiar.
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Batman Begins Has Surprisingly High-Quality Presentation
Though it may only feel like yesterday for some, 2005 was almost two decades ago, and many games from that era are really starting to show their age. While games that took a more stylistic approach to art direction still look fairly decent today, such as the originalPsychonautsandTimeSplitters: Future Perfect, games that chose a more realistic art style tend to look much rougher. WhileSplinter CellandCall of Duty 2pushed boundaries back in the day, revisiting them now only serves to highlight how far realistic graphics have come since.
That being said,Batman Beginsis a surprisingly good-looking game, even when held up to today’s standards. Despite some clunky and awkward character animations,Batman Beginsmanages to capture the atmosphere of its source material very well. Lighting is used very effectively throughout the game to give each environment thatnow-iconic Nolan Batman look, with windows emitting an eery orange glow, and the night sky showcasing a gigantic moon.
While theArkhamseries goes for a more comic-based visual design, the more realistic aspects of the series' visuals appear quite similar toBatman Begins, with similar-looking sky-boxes and architecture. This is especially apparent inBatman Begins' driving stages, where players are zipping under archways that aredistinctly Gotham-esque, just as players do inArkham Knight.
The Arkham Asylum stages also hold quite a similar visual design to the interior environments inArkham Asylum, with similar wall textures and layouts. This comparison feels even more apt when players spend most of the stage sneaking through the Asylum’s vents, something thatArkhamfans are all too familiar with.
The character models inBatman Beginsare also surprisingly well-polished, with the actors' likenesses being used for all the main cast of characters. The vast majority ofBatman Begins' castalso lend their voices to the game, which adds a whole new level of authenticity and polish to the experience.Batman Beginsalso has some impressive cape physics, which would go on to be a lauded aspect ofArkham Asylum.
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Laying The Gameplay Groundwork For Arkham
While much ofBatman Begins' visual and audio presentation could be theorized as laying the groundwork for theArkhamgames, it’s the game’s core mechanics that are more likely to have inspiredRocksteady’s stellar series. In particular, the game’s stealth and combat mechanics share some interesting similarities with theArkhamfranchise.
Quite a bit ofBatman Begins' gameplayrevolves around light stealth mechanicsthat task the player with sneaking around an environment, picking off goons one-by-one, usually from above. In a stroke very similar toArkham, players can even use a vertical takedown to grab an enemy below them.
Batman Beginsalso uses its stealth mechanics to fuel a Fear system, whereby the more enemies taken down by Batman, the more scared they become, indicated by a heart rate monitor on the top left of the HUD. Once enough enemies have been taken out, and the Fear gauge reaches maximum, any remaining enemies are left completely vulnerable toBatman’s hand-to-hand attacks. Maxing out the Fear gauge will also allow the player to interrogate the last remaining enemy, which is another element found in theArkhamgames.
AlthoughBatman Beginsdoesn’t useArkham’s ingenious freeflow combat, it does share a few similarities with the successor. Using theMortal Kombat 4engine,Batman Begins' combat is comparable to a brawler, with an emphasis on linking together punches and kicks to create a combo, and guarding the occasional hit from an opponent. The real point of similarity betweenArkhamandBegins' combat is the addition of fighting multiple enemies at once.
While the player can’t counter their opponents inBatman Begins, they can lock-on to one target, while using multi-attacks to damage all the foes surrounding them. It lacks the fluidity ofArkham’s freeflow mechanics, and the camera can get trapped quite easily, but the ability to take on multiple foes at once was a fairly novel concept for a Batman game at the time.
A few classic Batman video game elements are on full display throughoutBatman Begins, with a glide ability being present from the get-go, along with a selection of gadgets that aid in combat as well as environmental puzzles. The driving missions inBatman Beginsmight also conjure up similar images ofArkham Knight, as the Tumbler’s boost mechanics are reminiscent of the Batmobile’s functionality.
It’s unclear whether or not theArkhamseries was directly influenced by theBatman Beginstie-in game, but it’s easy to draw several key comparisons between the two. It’s interesting to see just how far Batman games have come, in a relatively short amount of time as well.
Batman Beginsis available on GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.
