As the winners of our Batman competition will shortly be finding out, the Game Of The Year edition of Arkham Asylum is pretty special. I’m not here to re-iterate our full review of the normal version of the game, mind, I’m not actually Batty’s biggest fan and the whole superhero thing whizzes right over my head as I pass underneath all the silly suits and flying capes in a state of blissful ignorance.
In fact, the only superhero I’ve ever remotely identified with is Donnie Darko, and he’s far too subtle to appear in a videogame (hopefully) so I’m left with staring blankly through a cheap pair of coloured tints at a guy in black body armour and an unnerving ability to hang off bits of scenery. This, apparently, is perfectly normal behavior, except now I’m seeing said crime fighter in glorious 3D-o-vision.
I say glorious, but it’s not really. I mean, yes, it’s 3D, and yes, the careful colour selection means that after a few minutes you don’t seem to notice the muted hues and although you might need to tweak your TV’s colour settings a little bit there’s actually a rather convincing sense of depth offered by the rudimentary technology here. But there are problems with forcing 3D in this fashion, and I’ll tell you about them.
Firstly, you need to see both vertical edges of an object for the 3D effect to work – if one edge of something isn’t visible (like, for example, behind a character, or a pipe) your eyes struggle to place it on the z-axis, especially when the textures of said object aren’t distinct enough. Likewise, flooring seems to portray an odd ‘ramp’ effect when it should be perfectly level, and in the distance objects can be blurry and busy.
However, the character models look fabulous, and when Batman’s dishing out the pain and the camera’s dancing around the fisticuffs, Arkham Asylum is really quite impressive in 3D. In light areas, where the geometry is plain but peppered with lots of vertical scenery and characters, everything really snaps into place and you’ll be wishing more games offered this option. Yes, it’s gimmicky, but it’s rather fun too.
Elsewhere, the Game Of The Year edition contains a number of bonus maps – Scarecrow Nightmare Challenge, Crime Alley Challenge, Totally Insane Challenge and Nocturnal Hunter Challenge – not really essential, especially as there’s more than enough game with the extensive, sprawling and expertly crafted main story mode. No, this Game of the Year edition is really just about the new TrioViz 3D mode.
Would I recommend buying the game if you’re already the proud owner of the original version? I’m going to have to say no – the 3D is as good as it’s going to get from the standard colour filter technique but it’s not worth another £40, in my opinion. That said, however, if you’re still to experience one of the best games of 2009 (our 4th best game of the year, no less) then the choice is easy. Buy, and enjoy.
Video created by Peter Chapman, David Howard with music by Lewis Gaston.