Blank Frame is a “COVID Era isolation” walking simulator horror game developed by Through Tunnel (aka Riku Lempiäinen), a solo developer who according to a Steam review by Sebas-Chan recruited a bunch of his friends to create this singular game as their first title. That’s all I’ve been able to really find persay without doing a fifteen hour super deep dive through their Discord server. However, I can at least tell you how I was able to find the game, and that was mainly through something simple: a friend of mine wishlisted the game and I took a look at it and said “Wow, a short indie atmospheric horror game? Sign me up!”. A little while later, they funnily enough bought me the game, and then eventually I sat down and streamed it for a friend of mine.

The plot takes obvious inspiration from Silent Hill 4, waking up as a man named Henri trapped in his own apartment in the town of Dim River. Going out to his hallway after a loud bang reveals a giant, rusty cabinet blocking both his front door and his bathroom. Exasperated and confused, Henri goes about exploring for ways to escape his apartment when he strikes up a friendship and eventually a flirtatious back and forth with his neighbor Aava. The game’s premise is simple and mostly just revolves around ways to escape the apartment during one really long night, it’s moreso the lore around the game and the symbolism behind it that’s really interesting. Lore reveals graffiti that teases the monsters surrounding Dim River, created by a group called the Lincoln Street Junkies who seem to be a cult that surrounds the town and engage in numerous crimes while worshiping these entities. Henri himself is a depressed loner, and symbolically the game felt like an obvious metaphor for loneliness, from the empty picture frame the guy has to his awkward demeanor talking about his hobbies walking through the woods. It’s a simple premise with decent character building between Aava and Henri about reaching out in hard times and it was enjoyable. There are two endings of course, the good ending (“Euneirophrenia”, aka the peaceful state of mind after a pleasant dream according to Google) and the bad ending (“Valveilla, apparently a translation for Up) which depends on whether or not you open a window for a creature and either leave or not open the window/open the window but slam a dresser on it’s hands. The good ending has you meet up with Aava in person and go out on a date while the other one has a bit of confusing lore but ends abruptly with body pain. Overall, it’s a simplistic plot but one which I enjoyed for the creepy atmosphere and the themes.

I’m sure you could sit down and say that the game is partially a walking simulator, I mean for the most part you just interact with your limited environment and combine certain items together to solve puzzles to move the plot forward. There isn’t really much in the way of “combat” aside from perhaps the final fight in the Good Ending where you have to take photos of creatures in a limited amount of time. I think if anything, I’ll probably have to criticize it a bit for just how confusing it can be sometimes to navigate to certain things? For example, if I hadn’t looked at the guide below I wouldn’t have figured out the code to the television puzzle as I thought you just had to click through the channels to find something. However, it turns out that you have to literally press the channel numbers in the correct order (062 I think?) and the only way you would’ve found that out is by looking it up, brute forcing it, luck or thinking way outside the box (like finding the numbers in your environment). Aside from that and waiting around in certain instances, it’s honestly just a game of exploration and trying to figure stuff out. The only other things I could think of are the fact that getting one of the two endings depends on whether you open a window or not, with some slight variation; also there’s only two places I believe you could die, at this window or the final boss of the game. Otherwise there aren’t any “cheap deaths”, though it is annoying to have to restart EVERYTHING without an autosave.

The steam page for the game advertises this as early 2000s PC/PS2 graphics; an advertisement that truthfully I’m not totally sure about. It feels a lot more in line personally for the Playstation 1 feeling but honestly I’m a sucker for nostalgia anyways so I wasn’t particularly bothered by it, overall I love the old crunchy looking models. However, that’s not what makes this game’s atmosphere interesting. It’s the art design and the color palettes, the atmospheric direction so to speak and what I can say on this end is that this game’s atmosphere is pretty unnerving. For the most part you will only see darker colors, and I don’t mean the fact the game takes place late night/early morning; see you’ll be seeing a lot of darker shades of neon, dim and flickering lights; a sort of feeling that you could see in a sort of Youtube lofi and chill thumbnail that makes it both feel comfy but mixed in with this disheveled and rusty design around you from the rusty cabinet blocking the door or the shady alleyway with the p o r n buildings nearby. If I could assign this game a color then it would definitely be whatever is between purple and black, and it looks great! The actual monster designs are pretty freaky too whenever you see them (which is sort of rare), and mixed with the lower graphical fidelity made me wonder when they would pop out of the shadows surrounding the building. Most of them made me feel uncomfortable except the last monster, which looked like the wooden frame that holds up a canvas but with legs which I guess evokes the Blank Frame symbolism but it’s kinda goofy if anything. Everything else however? It feels like it could come straight out of a Gothcore music video with elongated pointy boots or nose and some straight up monster kaiju designs that feel like it could come from Siren of all things. They’re pretty uncomfortable yet effective and I was always trying to be aware of my surroundings in case they could trigger one of the “kill states” that was advertised.

The soundtrack, composed by Robbert van Bruggen & Johann Hackl (aka Glazers), feels like it could take its influence from the pinnacle survival horror series: Silent Hill. It sounds verbatim to a lot of games that I’ve played in the indie PS1 graphics horror genre but truthfully I don’t see what else this could feel like. Some tracks like Self Condemned Part 1 sound like a straight up panic attack, slowly building as the track’s heart beats faster and faster before fading into this slow-synth sounding string section. Self Condemned Part 2 evokes imagery of solemnly looking into the distance of an alien landscape, wondering if everything was worth it in the end yet glad that the nightmare is finally over. A Theme of Dreams basically evokes the feeling of the title, feeling like you’re stuck in a happier part of a dream while Essence of Death evokes safety and belonging. The game switches between these sort of moods with ease and blends it in easily with the silence as you roam your apartment, making it a sort of mood booster when you do hear something. The sound design in general basically consists of silence, the noise that taps as you scroll through dialogue and random bits and bobs around the environment like doors opening, picture frames smashing and the like. It feels familiar, comfortable yet uneasy and evokes a sort of slow burn horror that I vibe with when I see it, enhancing the environment around you as the tension creeps in. How about voice acting? There is none really, and in those cases I always felt it enhanced the immersion for me anyways so overall, the vibe check with the sound design like the graphics and art design is pretty damn good.

My feeling on Blank Frame going through it was that it was a pretty solid first game for a group of indie developers who never created before. The art direction was creepy and sad if not disturbing and confusing at the same time, mixed with that low poly graphical style that I simply can’t help but utterly simp for. The Sound Design is solid as hell in this territory too with it’s minimalist atmosphere while the soundtrack has this haunting dreamscape quality that sounds comforting sometimes yet utterly unnerving in other times; the only way I could describe it is beautiful. However, when you go into the game you have to be aware that this is a “sit down and play in one sitting” kind of game, with a couple of confusing gameplay sections that I ended up needing a guide and the metaphoric allegorical horror plot that left me scratching my head and trying to interpret its themes. Overall, it’s a solid time and I would think it’s definitely worth the five dollars or so though I didn’t buy it, so shout out to the homie Elephantmonstermcgee for the game! The developers are also seeming to keep at it, with their next game called “A Path That Lingers” being teased a bit on their Discord server.

Links:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2738565131 (Guide)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgoRZkZUAWw&list=OLAK5uy_lGWcTQzgjFuk_sRvn68aIeSYuFEHUK1jA&index=1&ab_channel=Gazers-Topic (Soundtrack)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2So1CCZaeM&ab_channel=TheGameArchivist (Playthrough)

https://throughtunnel.itch.io/blank-frame#:~:text=The%20game%20is%20about%20an,The%20game%20contains%20two%20endings (Itch link)

https://twitter.com/ThruTunl

Truberbrook is a point and click adventure game developed by btf games for the Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch and for PC Launcher releases. It originally started as a Kickstarter campaign around Late 2017 I believe, with the tagline “A Nerd Saves the World”; and was formed by a collective of art students from both Cologne and Berlin, Germany who had apparently dabbled in German TV Shows like “How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)” which sounds like my kind of watching or “Neo Magazin Royale” and before creating the Kickstarter got initial funding from (verbatim) “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as part of the “programme for the development and production of innovative audio-visual content”. The Kickstarter went off with a resounding success, making twice the amount of their 80,000 dollar (or Euro?) goal and a little bit more. Some of the rewards included stuff like having your name added in the credits, the hotel’s guest book, and portraits as well as releasing digital brochures with the base game as advertisement. It was released to mixed-to-positive reviews, with a lot of criticism towards the gameplay and the story but positive stuff towards the atmospheric stuff like soundtrack and art design. I had seen this game personally on some friend’s wishlists on Steam for a while, before finally picking it up on GOG as it was free for a limited time and trying to do the “beat one game per console” goal, I had decided upon this as my GOG game of the year and had streamed it for a friend.

The plot to Truberbrook is one that I can’t really tell you much about other than a brief outline/synopsis. The introduction has you playing a woman named Gretchen, stopping at a nearby gas station to fill up the tank to her motorcycle before you’re transferred into the role of Tannhauser, a physics student who has apparently won an all expenses paid trip to the small town of Truberbrook. He didn’t get into any competitions but it’s whatever, and once he ends up there his quantum physics thesis paper gets stolen by a green ghost, and from there you try to figure out who stole it and why. There’s this overarching backstory about Truberbrook’s past involving a corporation named Millenium, who bought out the local mine and took it over under the veil of secrecy, along with sci-fi alternate dimension plots and such. My problem with the story is that while it’s a relatively simple premise, I always felt that it was kind of confusing and convoluted and I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it. Keep in mind, I love it when a plot engages me while also throwing me for a loop like Twin Peaks, but there’s something about this that doesn’t really do it for me. The plot screams urgency but it doesn’t feel urgent and overall I kinda just came out of it…confused? I didn’t hate it, mind you, but I only don’t do plot recaps if the game’s story is kinda meh, it doesn’t matter or if it’s just not entertaining and the truth be told it just doesn’t do it for me. The characters are interesting to an extent, like robot Barbossa whose loneliness of being locked up in a science bunker for god knows how long is sad and relatable. One review said that they didn’t understand if it was the writing or if it was just them in terms of why they didn’t relate to the story but truth be told, I don’t think it’s the writing (or at least the dialogue). The dialogue is often interesting and helps flesh out the characters. I just never felt like the plotting itself really struck out as something interesting and unfortunately the strength of the dialogue never really saved it for me. A positive I will give is that out of context, the introduction is actually the post credits sequence flipped around for those who went in blind like I did. Overall, I kinda feel a bit sad because I wish I had more to say but I really don’t other than a shoulder shrug.

The gameplay for Truberbrook was honestly something that I don’t really feel I can comment on much. Yeah it’s a point and click adventure game, you mostly go and click around on things to pick things up, use them on puzzles, talk to people, etc. Truberbrook doesn’t do anything really crazy with the formula, nor does it need to to be honest. My first critique with the gameplay are the controls: it’s between using the controller or the mouse/keyboard combination. I went with the controller, though this time it’s not because I’m a controller dweeb who sucks at using PC controls (even though I technically am). It’s because on the GOG version, it felt legitimately better to use, more intuitive. Everytime I tried using the mouse and keyboard for some reason it would fly all over the place, though I suspect it’s because I had weird keyboard settings or something. The controller for the most part felt better, touched up and modernized a bit with a couple of wobbles here and there, like clicking one of the four buttons (A,B,X,Y) to examine, talk to, use and take or using one of the Trigger Buttons to do a fast walk. Going through most of the environments felt fine, though walking down the stairs at the Guest Room basement felt like an actual slog that I was fighting against and my advice when traveling down those stairs is to fast walk because at least you can feel like you’re not fighting against invisible walls. Keep in mind, the controls weren’t awful at all, I guess I just struggled a bit and if there was a steady mouse/keyboard thing I couldn’t get a grasp. Besides, the only true difference between the two were how you move: controllers you can move independently of your cursor that you use to click on objects, while the mouse is just you click on a spot and the dude moves to it.

How about the puzzles? Are they okay? I’ll be honest, I used a guide through it so I can’t say anything about this section other than the guide is down there, but I will say that some of the complaints I had heard were: “You don't have an inventory, you do pick up things but there is no way to see what you have”. This is true yet untrue at the same time. There is an inventory, in which you can press Tab on your keyboard to see what it is, it’s just you have no clue how to identify it and it’s kind of annoying. “The puzzles are so obtuse that moon logic is not even enough to describe them sometimes.” Honestly? If I hadn’t had a guide, I probably wouldn’t have figured some things out anyways. Would I have been able to figure out how to use the trophy to scoop up the moon rock on my own? Probably not, but sometimes the inventory puzzles straight up give you the answer, only showing what items would work in that certain situation anyways. So either it feels like it could be kind of confusing or it would hold your hand, but again I used a guide so it’s kind of just whatever in this case. That being said, they’re often fine for the most part, sometimes confusing and baffling but otherwise straightforward. I don’t know, I was more focused on the controls felt at times but that was just my take on the whole thing. The only other things I can really note is that the longest chapter is Chapter 4, in which you’re kind of released back into the world and are given a Postcard in which you can fast travel to previous places that you’ve been, though you won’t need to visit most of them I don’t think. There’s also Chapter 5, which has a boss battle at the end with strange mechanics involving shooting your Quantum gun and teleporting into stuff that kind of felt out of place for a point and click game but it is what it is I suppose.

However, Truberbrook’s art design is what I personally feel is the most unique portion of this game period end of discussion. While the character models were obviously created on a computer (though at time does straight up look like a handmade model), the environments around them are astounding and feel like a strange combination out of a Wallace & Gromit mixed in with Wes Anderson (or at least, what I’ve seen on TV Commercials) style that truth be told feels like it could be this clashing yet connective element of isolation and feeling like I’m at home mixed together. Granted my home isn’t rural Germany, but even when the location takes place in late 1960s post Cold War, it never really felt like it was stuck. It feels whimsical, trapped in a time period yet timeless at the same time, filled with comfortable greens, nature with rocky mountains and soil covered hiking trails and woodlands, warm though I don’t know if I would stay there for an extended period of time. If I could compare this to any sort of vibe whatsoever, think of this: have you ever had parents that talk all the time about retiring to any place that’s isolated, alone with nature but with a small knit community filled with quirky characters surrounding them that feels supportive? Maybe there isn’t bum fuck to do in this town, maybe there’s a little bit of business in the center of it, or maybe the nearest city is an hour in a certain direction. Truberbrook feels like it could be that, the sort of place where one would retire when they’re done with life, when they’re nearing their end game and just want to live out sidequests. It’s a nice place, a place that one wouldn’t want to go to while they're young due to the lack of opportunities one would have if one were to stay there.

This feeling is strong enough though that it doesn’t really feel like there’s a threat in terms of the plot; like yeah, I know that the world could end and all if Gretchen goes through the portal but like it doesn’t really feel like there’s any life-altering stakes. I don’t really know if that’s more of a plot thing, a cozy environment thing or both but at the same time it leads to the same thing: the atmosphere benefits while the plot is just kind of there. Some of the inspirations that it listed off were “Inspired by Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Stranger Things & Star Trek” on the Kickstarter page, but the truth of the matter is that it feels so much like it’s own unique thing that I could barely see most of them in there EXCEPT maybe Star Trek with it’s sci-fi portal stuff later in the game. The environments (along with the lighting) were handmade according to the Kickstarter page, before later being digitized using big words like “photogrammetry” and “retopologized”, which is their way of saying they made it appear in game and with a huge amount of polygons that make it feel seamless with the character models made digitally. I can’t say much about this sort of style except I love it, it definitely feels like the most effort went into making all of the models work and it’s a beautiful game for it, plus I’m a sucker for unique/old retro styles and this stuff harkens back to my old nostalgia days.

To be honest, I’ll have to take back the “not inspired by Twin Peaks much” thing because dear god does the soundtrack reek of something that could come from the town itself. The vibe that was set was deemed “Tranquil doom jazz” on Kickstarter (inspired by the likes of quote: “Tom Waits, Angelo Badalamenti, Mark Lanegan, Timber Timbre or Bohren & der Club of Gore), and it certainly feels jazzy though I’m not sure about doom. The main theme sounds like it could be from Luigi’s Mansion of all things, while tracks like Waldeslust or Paradiso could come from different points in the Twin Peaks universe, the former being in town and the latter being the Red Room. Honestly, I’m a sucker for this type of mysterious jazz feel and the vibe it carries, though mixed in with the plot I’m not sure it really fits the sci-fi stuff? Truberbrook Reprise feels like this sort of melancholy feel, like a piece of your life is missing but there’s hope that you’ll find what you need. The best track I feel the game has is when you’re in Chapter 4 however, when you’re at the concert and listening to a live band singing “Then I’ll Make You Mine” (link below) that just fits this sort of sadboy chill vibe that’s not sad enough to make you cry but sad enough to make you reflect, or at least that’s how I felt about it. Overall, the composers Sebastian Nagel & Albrecht Schrader did a great job with portraying this calm and serene yet sad vibe that fits with the cozy feels of Truberbrook as a town. The rest could be said of the sound design as well, which as always does a pretty good job falling into place and sounding pretty good though there isn’t anything that really pops out here except the voice acting, which is solid and contains performances from the likes of Nora Tschirner and other famous German voice actors and actresses. I don’t really know most of these guys, so I don’t really know what else they’ve been in but from what I can say is that they fit right at home and do a solid job at portraying one of the game’s many quirky characters.

My feelings on Truberbrook were as follows: it’s a decent game whose focus felt more like it was trying to deliver a sort of cozy point and click adventure game then it was an actual plot based title. It delivers in the atmospheric storytelling but I felt like the actual plot, while I could follow along kind of for the most part, felt a bit on the average side and a bit convoluted at that. I had picked up this game for free on GOG, though I’d seen it here and there on some of my friend’s Steam wishlist just sitting around and while I knew of its existence, I didn’t really feel enough to really push forward to try it out. It was definitely a once and done game for me, though I respect what it was trying to do as well as the talent behind it even if it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. I’ve seen the base price on Steam being around 30 dollars, and while I’m all for supporting creators wherever I can and generally being a bit iffy on “price equals how long/worthy the game is”, I don’t feel like most people should pick this up for thirty dollars? I could see between 5-10 dollars in all honesty, but thirty isn’t it so get it on sale. This game would be what I consider to be my GOG game to play for the year (though I might try others), as I had streamed this for a friend for the month. It wasn’t particularly long, only 4 hours or so and I probably would have completed it in one or two sittings if it wasn’t for the fact I had gotten distracted doing stuff all throughout the month. What happened after the release of Truberbrook? Honestly, I’m not sure. I haven’t really seen much from these guys other than a demo for a paint brushing metroidvania game named Constance, a “introduce your kids to Palentology” educational game and a first person “emotional narrative exploration game” about Berlin Apartments called…Berlin Apartments. Truberbrook may not be my jam, but I respect the “indie arts” vibes these guys have, and I hope to hear more from them and/or about them some time in the future.

Links:
https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Truberbrook/walkthrough/3#ChapterTwo

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/btf

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/btf/truberbrook-a-nerd-saves-the-world/description

https://soundcloud.com/truberbrook

https://www.reddit.com/r/humblebundles/comments/fzerly/we_are_the_developers_of_tr%C3%BCberbrook_ask_us/

http://trueberbrook.com/faq/

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a “IT’S THE BAT” simulator and “metroidvania” styled superhero game developed by Rocksteady, whose history before this was one that was in its infancy. Rocksteady was created by Sefton Hill (the director for AA) and a guy named Jamie Walker, whose previous studio (named Argonaut Games, creator of the original Star Fox on NES, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and it’s sequel, the first two Harry Potter games on PS1 AND the Catwoman game based on the box office bomb of the same name with similar results) had closed and was put up for sale in 2004 to recover from the lack of publishing deals. Many would hop over to Rocksteady, whose first game would be the only non-related DC title they’ve ever made: Urban Chaos: Riot Response. After average reviews and god knows how many sales their publisher, Eidos Interactive, would pop up with the rights to create a Batman game. Rocksteady had jumped at the chance, working on the concept that would become Arkham Asylum, written by DC Comics pen Paul Dini and taking inspiration from known Batman comics like Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison along with the likes of other authors such as Frank Miller (of course) and Neil Adams, at least according to Wikipedia though I haven’t read enough Batman comics to really get a grasp on everything (though I would love to one day). The development goal was to create a game that could be beaten in 8-10 hours, with a story written around the gameplay and game design centered around isolation: Arkham Asylum fit just this design. The release of Arkham Asylum would lead to critical acclaim and sales up the iz-a s s as well as redefining the entire superhero genre with its intricate gameplay, its high stakes story and true to the comics style atmosphere.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an experience to me personally that I don’t think I really remember where I first heard it from, or when I first played it. I remember specifically playing it and really enjoying the plot, though being disappointed at the lack of enemies to beat up post-game as well as dreading the “metroidvania” riddler trophy collect-a-thon, ESPECIALLY the cave systems underneath the Asylum man I dreaded playing that s h i t (though I played both the OG and the Game of the Year Edition on Xbox 360). However, I remember at least this being one of my first true exposures to the Batman mythos (along with Heath Ledger Joker impressions, Batman: Begins the game and the Tim Burton Batman film) and finally becoming engrossed and interested in this dark, gloomy superhero character. Imagining where the series would go next was a fascinating thing for me, I imagined a sort of open world Gotham City (which we would eventually sorta get with City/Origins and later fully with Knight) where you could fly into and beat up bad guys and have a fun time. Having last played Knight on the Xbox One, a buddy of mine DarkRaptor (shoutout to Dino AGAIN) sent me this game for Christmas and I’ve been itching to get back into the series. However, I had this hyper-fixation for Arkham Origins after getting belt fed youtube shorts and wanted to play that; however my buddy Steve (shoutout to SuperPunchGod) told me I should just start again with Asylum because mechanically it was in its infancy and so that’s what I did. How has Asylum held up to me personally compared to how it held up nigh a decade ago?
The plot starts straight after one of Joker’s schemes is foiled by Batman, one which apparently involves assaulting Gotham City Hall along with the Mayor. Having recently broken out of Arkham Asylum to do this, the Bat captures him and brings him back to their special place in the middle of a giant rainstorm while the Jonkler cackles in the backseat. Bringing him inside, Warden Quincy Sharp is waiting for him along with Officer Frank Boles, who seems to want to beat him up. They strap him to a gurney thing and walk him along, with Batman joining due to a strange feeling going on with the Goober. Along the way you’ll meet other characters like Dr. Penelope Young (Warden Sharp’s protege with a personal stake in curing the asylum’s inmates), Aaron Cash (a no-nonsense security guard with a family and a stub for a hand due to inmate Killer Croc), and finally Killer Croc (a man with a life altering disease that gives him scales, who also ate Cash’s hand). Meeting up with Jim Gordon downstairs, the guards lead Joker the rest of the way while Bats and Gordon talk about whenever it's clear that Batman’s suspicions of ulterior motives prove to be correct. Joker strangles a guard and breaks out, with Harley Quinn helping them in the breakout attempt, putting one of the force fields up as Batman jumps through a window. It’s here where the first combat section goes off, and Batman pummels a bunch of Joker’s goons who were transferred to Arkham Asylum from Blackgate Correctional Facility due to a “mysterious” fire.

Chasing after the Joober, he gets sidetracked when serial killer Victor Zsasz holds a security guard hostage with the electric chair. Sneaking into the room and knocking him out, he saves the guard but learns that Harley has kidnapped Warden Sharp. The security system goes offline, and the Joker threatens to bomb the city if anyone attempts to penetrate the Asylum. Forced to work alone, Batman follows a trail to the processing corridor where he sees the Joobler all alone on top of a suspended cell. Throwing a batarang at him for…some reason, Joker gets cocky and releases a giant behemoth of a monster who proceeds to charge though gets knocked out even with difficulty. Joker decides to give Batman a shot to end it all there, to kill him though Batman doesn’t take him up on his offer with the whole “no kill” code thing. Saving a nearby guard from being trapped, the Joker contacts Batman and shows a backup plan: Officer Balls is actually under Jonkler’s payroll, and knocks out Jim Gordon as a part of a kidnapping plan. If Batman follows him, Gordon dies though we all know that he’s going to follow them anyways. Following the trail back from the area where Joker escaped, Batman follows Officer Ball’s trail (filled with pure unbridled alcoholism) and traces him to the exit of Intensive Treatment, where of course he ends up a LITERAL dead end for being a backstabbing piece of shit.

Escaping to the outside, Joker gloats about the location of the Batmobile, being outside of the front gates. Heading back to the car and beating the shit out of all of Joker’s goons kicking it in, he pulls out the Explosive Gel he has hidden in the trunk and follows a tobacco trail left by Gordon which leads him to the Medical Facility. Entering inside, he finds only Harley kicking her feet up behind a security gate and talking to Joker on a TV with Gordon held nearby. Batman sneaks in a different way, and after going through numerous goons rescues Dr. Young, who warns him that Joker has kidnapped a bunch of doctors. Going to every one of them and saving them, they rendezvous in the center where Dr. Young flees to Arkham Mansion to snatch away some research notes in case Joker decides to steal them, with Aaron Cash following behind her as protection. Following the tobacco trail after knocking out a bunch of armed goons coming to storm the facility, he ends up in the basement where he’s hit with Scarecrow’s fear gas and hallucinates Gordon to be dead. Attempting to call Oracle (Barbara Gordon) fails, so chasing the killer into the morgue reveals hallucination of Bruce Wayne’s dead parents begging him not to let them die. He proceeds to wake up in a hallucination, a floating world with bits and pieces of Arkham infrastructure as a giant, high-pitched Scarecrow patrols looking for Batman. Batman sneaks up to a giant light and shines it on him, waking up in the real world morgue.

Following further into the facility, Gordon is revealed to be alive and still held by Harley, who is watching over…something. She gets knocked the hell out by Batman, who saves Gordon and they both infiltrate the lab. The computer inside is revealed to be Dr. Young’s, who seems to have strapped Bane via multiple tubes to a nearby wall for strange experiments, involving draining the Venom from his blood. Joker activates the tubes again and turns Bane mad, who proceeds to grow super sized and throws Batman through a wall. Another boss battle (that plays like the big guy from earlier, throwing batarangs as they charge) plays out where Batman rips out the venom tubes on his back, and the entire infrastructure crumbles as Batman and Gordon escape outside. Bane breaks out and attempts to kill Batman once more, but Batman remote controls the Batmobile to crash Bane into the ocean where they both sink to the bottom. Batman brings Gordon to the nearby boat and tells them to go back to Gotham to calm the civilians with the bomb threats. Batman tells Oracle to find everything she can on Dr. Young, while he goes to the Batcave; yes it turns out Batman has a batcave ON Arkham Island as a backup plan in case. Batman climbs up to a cave near Intensive Treatment and glides down into the secret entrance of the Batcave. It’s here where he looks into the research Oracle sent, which involves Dr. Young experimented on patients with a modified version of Venom, nicknamed Titan and externally funded by a mysterious person. However, the formula is missing and that’s apparently the secret that Dr. Young is trying to hide. Batman theorizes that Joker’s endgame is to acquire an army in comparison to “a thousand Banes”. He leaves the Batcave to chase after Young when it’s learned that the mysterious funder is “Jack White”, one of the old aliases of Joker. Dr. Young blocked the payments so he proceeded to get captured by Batman just so he could get the formula back for himself, after of course sending email death threats involving dead babies.

Making his way to Arkham Mansion, Joker yells at his thugs to search the entire place while he’s interrogating Dr. Young for the location. Making his way to her office, he finds the safe empty and follows her trace to the library, where Joker has taken two doctors hostage. He ends up cracking a chandelier and has it crash to the bottom, saving the doctors who confirm Batman’s suspicions that Dr. Young ran in before being captured. It’s probably reversed but either way, Batman finds the formula in the library and burns it before Joker can obtain it. Joker reveals a new backup plan: Dr. Young has been captured by Zsasz again. He gets hit by some gas as he exits the library and ends up in ANOTHER Scarecrow hallucination, this time re-enacting his parents murder in Crime Alley, all while experiencing it as a child again. Ending up in another game of hide and seek with Scarecrow, he AGAIN gets the spotlight and shines it on him before waking up in the clock tower. Batman throws one of his ‘rangs at it, with the giant crash below opening up a new way to get to Zsasz and Dr. Young in the Warden’s Office. The Bat manages to get her safe by throwing a batarang straight at the dude’s forehead, knocking him out cold. Young freaks out at him before crying to Batman that she tried to give him his money back before warning him about a lab hidden in the Gardens, the codes being in the warden’s safe. However, the safe is booby trapped and Dr. Young is now mucho deado. For some reason, Harley appears with the kidnapped Warden who is beaten up and leaves an easily followed trail and a bunch of goons as cannon fodder to get beaten up.

Batman follows the trail easily left by Harley and the Warden to the Penitentiary, where Poison Ivy begs to be let out. This of course is denied by Batman, who instead continues to follow the trail and finds the Warden, watching a tv feed of Harley letting Poison Ivy free to roam. Joker of course frees all of the “looneys” and the Warden gives Batman the sequencer to hack into the systems. Warden hangs back for safety reasons, and Batman chases Harley Quinn while beating up multiple goons to Extreme Incarceration, where a giant fist fight ends in Harley being defeated. Joker gives her “encouragement” by removing her from the “party list” (revealing names from Selina Kyle to Rocksteady contest winner Luke Oliver, though none of it really matters). Harley attempts a sucker punch but gets flipped over and her fingerprints scanned before being thrown into this cell and Batman makes his way over to the lab in the botanical gardens. He confronts Joker, who responds by throwing the guard into an electrified pool of water. Chasing him to the Aviary, he knocks out the patrols holding hostages before opening up the secret lab with Joker and two of his guards inside. He shoots his goons with the Titan formula, who transform body horror style and prepare for combat. The fight ends with the goons knocked out and the Titan Production Facility destroyed, though with Joker escaping with a whole bunch.

Batman narrows it down to a Venom Hybrid plant, and tracks Poison Ivy’s pheromone sample nearby to ask for her help. After some “tough persuasion”, she reveals that there’s a plant that can counteract this Titan…located inside of Killer Croc’s lair. He makes his way out, but it’s learned that Joker injected Ivy with Titan, which causes freaky plants to grow all around the island. Now there’s a time limit before the entirety of Arkham Island is overrun, and Batman races to the mansion to talk to Aaron Cash about a way into Killer Croc’s cell. Batman makes his way to Intensive Treatment once again for the most memorable section in the game: Scarecrow’s last hallucination. First it hits you with a glitch of sorts, making you think that the game’s seemingly crashed. Then it hits you with a reversal of the opening cutscene, Joker as Batman and Batman as Joker. Batman is brought to Arkham Asylum and strapped to a gurney, pushed along as he screams for help. Scarecrow and Zsasz inspect him before Joker pulls out a gun and shoots him, leading to an unavoidable game over screen where he’s told to “wiggle the mouse to dodge his bullets”. Waking up out of Bruce Wayne’s grave, he finds himself in one last Scarecrow hallucination involving Batmen eating dead rats and a giant searchlight being shined on Scarecrow. Waking up in the real world with Scarecrow’s neck wrapped around Batman’s hand, he attempts to jab him with more fear toxin which pits Batman against skeletal enemies. However, this backfires as Batman gains clarity once more, having “ingested enough toxins to drive 10 men insane” and he escapes, planning to flood the water in Croc’s lair with enough fear toxin to drive everyone insane. Chasing him down there, this fails as Scarecrow is grabbed by Killer Croc for lunch before a batarang/shock collar combo brings them both into the waters nearby.

With Scarecrow’s plans now failed, Batman enters Croc’s lair to find all of these plant spores meant to build the counteracting chemicals. This game of cat and mouse has Batman slow walking, quickly reacting with more shock collar/batarang combos and a whole lot of running, which ends in Croc having a floor blown out from under him and into the abyss below. Making his way to the Batcave, where he creates an antidote to reverse engineer Ivy, planning on giving her the cure while the computer creates more. In the meanwhile, plants raid the entire lair and Batman barely gets away, making his way back to the asylum. Climbing up through the sewers, Oracle reveals that Joker is polluting Gotham river with Titan waste and Batman proceeds to shut down all of the control rooms. Batman then makes his way back to Ivy, who overrun the ENTIRE Botanical building with plants and red mist. Attempting to inject the plant results in Ivy going berserk, and a boss battle ensues with a giant plant. Of course, Batman manages to crack through the shell with explosive gel before the entirety of the greenhouse collapses. Batman glides out as fireworks engage, and Joker’s “party” is finally announced as Batman makes his way over.

If you’ve been going to the Visitor’s Room throughout the game, you’ll notice a mannequin with a TV strapped to its head as Joker’s voice taunts Batman about a variety of subjects and changing positions. Going back here now, it’s revealed that it’s NOT actually a mannequin but actually the Joker himself…sticking his head through a TV? How this works I’m not totally sure, but it’s cool nonetheless! Batman follows the Joker after the TV blows up to reveal a giant lair covered in barbed wire, the Joker sitting atop a throne with Scarface the doll on his hand and two giant titan goons chained to the wall. One last fight in this throne room leads to Gordon AGAIN having revealed to have been kidnapped, though how this time is unknown. Joker attempts to shoot Gordon with Titan, only for Batman to jump in and take the hit. However, Batman resists the Titan formula as the Joker attempts to tickle him with a feather, going on a rant about wanting to bring down Batman’s facade of the world. He then shoots himself with the Titan as the news helicopters surround the entire island, with Jack Ryder having been sent a news message to look upon the rooftops. Titan Joker appears, throwing Batman into an arena as Gordon is strapped in a nearby electric chair. Batman injects himself with the antidote, and defeats the Titan Joker and his goon squad, which ends in Titan Joker getting pulled down into a floor and electrified. The fight ends with a Mike Tyson punch-out as Batman puts explosive gel on his fist, punching Jonkler in the face and knocking them both back. Probably dislocating his arm and messing up a couple of fingers, the night is saved as the GCPD takes control and criminals are brought back to their cells. Everyone who was injected with Titan transforms back to normal, even if the process is painful. If one were to wrap up the Riddler trophies before then, Batman also sent the location of the Riddler to GCPD, where he’s arrested in an apartment building. The game ends with Batman racing off in the Batwing to take down Two-Face, who's robbing a bank and the final post credits shot concludes with a box of Titan formula floating outside of Arkham Asylum, with one of three hands popping up for a grab: Scarecrow, Killer Croc or Bane.

The plot to Arkham Asylum, while it’s not my favorite of the series, is still a lot of fun. It feels like a classic Batman plot, a Joker scheme where he sends you out on a wild goose chase to stop a bunch of plans before the reveal of “the party” which has been built up all night. The whole Titan monster plot feels a bit weird sometimes of course, like a bit out of tone for the rest of the Arkham franchise but considering that this was the first game in the series it’s not a surprise that over time the tone would change into something more dark and a bit less fantastical then “super soldier enemies”. I appreciate all the little details, the plot twists, and honestly let’s just be real about the VIP here: the Scarecrow hallucinations. I knew it was coming this time, but both of the previous times I played this game on the Xbox 360, it really shook me up and wigged me out, making me panic that the game actually crashed. The whole meta thing of that made for a pretty damn good Scarecrow moment, and followed up by the tense Killer Croc sewer segments made these to be the two best moments in the game for me. I love the lore that Rocksteady managed to put in here between the Riddler trophies or even things that aren’t related to that but reference other DC and Batman media as little easter eggs. I sometimes think that the game has a couple of strange plot twists (mainly how did Commissioner Gordon get kidnapped AGAIN after being sent out via police boat, why does Hush appear as an entry here when he only later shows up for the first time in City or how did Riddler get all of his trophies around the asylum) but overall, a solid plot. I was reading up on TVTropes (as always my go-to site) trying to learn new things about the game and apparently, the game had featured the Mad Hatter inside of a botanical garden maze which would’ve been interesting as well as a Mr. Freeze section. These were either cut for pacing purposes or because in Freeze’s case, the motives don’t line up really well. I also appreciate the brisk pace that the game goes in, with me beating the game in around 10-11 hours or so and it never felt like it overstayed its welcome with how small and honestly claustrophobic the Asylum is.

So what’s the gameplay like for Batman: Arkham Asylum? It’s a sort of “Metroidvania” style game, where you explore different areas of the asylum, later backtracking to follow different story objectives with new gadgets or collecting “Riddler Trophies”. The Riddler collectibles consist of actual hidden trophies, riddles which require either painfully obvious answers or semi-confusing puzzles (almost always consisting of scanning/holding down the detective vision button) that gives greater context to DC lore or gets you THIS much closer to taking down Riddler himself. While I loved getting a bit of background lore to the world, the Riddler trophies are always going to be the Arkham game’s biggest pain in the a s s, with the thing I honestly dreaded most replaying the game. The gadgets (which consist of things like Remote Controlled Batarangs, Explosive Gel, Grapple Hooks and other stuff) were also apparently influenced by Metroid and even The Legend of Zelda for their out of the box environmental puzzle solving. For the most part this works, there’s definitely a bit of puzzle solving that once you figure it out can make you feel pretty smart. That being said, if one decides to just use a guide I wouldn’t blame you considering how frustrating finding some of these guys are.

What else do you do in the open world? Other than grapple to certain spots (which change over time due to story events), you can engage in combat (or stealth knock out some goons). The stealth combat is pretty simple, you can either literally sneak around (in which case the field of vision/retention meter is pretty solid) or grapple between gargoyles as you try to make your way around the arena to knock out Joker goons. This can be done in many ways, between capturing goons and strapping them to the gargoyles, to corner takedowns, grate takedowns, explosive gel takedowns, grapple hooking people off of ledges; the list while not the most expansive goes on a bit and makes you feel pretty great when taking down goons. That being said, the AI reacts pretty decently to this too and adapts accordingly, like looking through nearby grates if a goon was taken down near one or even later on placing bombs on gargoyles to give you less advantage. Best part is, unlike later games, henchmen don’t try to wake each other up either so you’re given a lot more breathing room to interact, wait and plan how you want to.

So what’s combat like? For the most part seamless! Originally the game was planned to be sort of a rhythm game and you could tell just due to how rhythm based the combat is set up to be. Obviously you can punch people, and punching enough people builds up a combo; the higher the combo, the more powerful and the faster you get and such. Along the way you have to be careful to counter certain goons (marked with blue lightning above a goon’s head) or dodge them entirely (red lights above a goon’s head), and certain goons have a certain way of being fought. Electric prod ones you need to jump over their heads before punching them in the back while the big knife guys you have to stun with your cape before beating them up. Titan guys you have to wait till they charge before quickly throwing a batarang and dodging, which allows you to punch them a bit before riding their back and forcing them to knock out other goons. Again while there isn’t as much variation as the later games would have, it’s a pretty solid system that works pretty well and feels powerful. That being said, it can be a bit touchy and one accidental press of the counter button (Y on the Xbox controller) will mess up your whole combo so you need to pay attention to your surroundings but be quick enough to actually dodge everything. It’s a system that while in it’s infancy stage, really blossomed into something that later games would take influence from and use for their own games which is awesome. And another thing, the more Riddler trophies you get through the entire game, the more combat maps/takedown maps you’ll unlock in the main menu. Luckily, if you don’t want to do that, the PC version has all of the DLC maps (like the Scarecrow one) for free which is nice! The only thing it doesn’t have though is the Joker maps, exclusive to PS3 and the Linux apparently? However, there are guides to actually mod that in (one of which I posted in the links below), so if you want a bit more Arkham Asylum feel free to go through that.

Built on Unreal Engine 3, the amount of graphical fidelity that this game has is honestly pretty astounding. It has this sort of detail in the environmental and character modeling that the truth is sometimes the other games don’t really match up with. Don’t get me wrong, the other games don’t look bad in the slightest. However, there’s something about Asylum that just has more of a strike to it, though this could be due to the bigger scope of the latter three games leading to it being taken down a notch. If the devil is in the details then this game definitely leads a satanic cult because this game is packed full of them. Over the course of the game the Batsuit will experience damage due to story events and his beard stubble will grow over time as you go through the set pieces. If one were to compare the Return to Arkham Ports with the current PC port you’ll notice a bit of a difference graphically: number one is that the older ports will always have this greenish hue of sorts that makes it feel surprisingly…dead almost? Apparently the game was supposed to include rain (later added to the Xbox One/PS4 ports) though was cut from the original releases due to technical limitations, but in a strange sense it actually enhances the dread for me even more? With the graphics mixing into the atmosphere section now, how's the atmospheres? It’s this mixture of this gothic seriousness thrown into a blender and shaken up a bit with a little goofiness here and there. Another thing, the detective mode that you get in this game is actually pretty cool looking, so much in fact that players would go through the entire game just using that mode as a sort of filter (enough so that the developers would nerf it for Arkham City and beyond).

Understandably, the idea of superheroes and villains as a concept are goofy; that’s a lot of the reason why something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit as hard as it did because it didn’t take itself too seriously. This game is what I would consider to be the closest to that in the Arkham franchise I would say, but that’s for later on. Arkham Asylum as a location is gloomy and oppressive, secluded on its own island in a sort of vibe where it looks like it could fall apart at any moment, only to reveal something airtight and state of the art underneath and while it’s not art deco, apparently a lot of this boils down to apparent “Bioshock” influence that game had on developers. This only gets worse and more oppressive as the night goes on, between the destruction wrought on by Joker and his goon squad and Poison Ivy’s giant plant vines literally inserting itself into every little facet of Arkham Asylum’s architecture. The empty rooms with flipped tables and leftover paperwork, especially after you’ve beaten the game (or right before) and are just wrapping up Riddler trophies could feel like it’s this bizarre, maze-like liminal space that’s hostile and instantly uncomfortable. Honestly it was so effective (along with the Metroidvania styled collectible stuff) that it was a huge part of the reason why I didn’t want to come back and play this game for a long time. The Medical Wing is I think one of the biggest offenders, with the path going to the basement becoming kind of confusing, and the paths have details ranging from liquid-filled jars with severed heads to the cell that USED to hold Killer Croc. It looks like something honestly out of an 80s horror movie, like Herbert West’s Re-Animator or something (though I never watched that movie sadly). Don’t even get me started about the Scarecrow hallucinations, usually marked with dutch camera angles, glitches or long hallways that even though doesn’t hit rated-R levels of creep factor does a really good job messing with Batman in a seamless manner.

The sound design in terms of the noises, how things sound reminds me in a strange way of a filing cabinet. That slick papery sound as you pass through page after page, it’s especially prevalent in the biography pages when you earn entries through Riddler trophies or interview tapes. This smooth sound of paper being flicked back and forth just fills this weird ASMR brain thing in my head, along with the audio tapes being activated. Gliding using the cape also elicits the paper ASMR in a similar sense from earlier, and while not as strong certainly sounds appealing as hell. Punching and kicking people, while not as striking or appealing as the later games, still have this oomph to it that just feels satisfying kicking the s h i t out of everyone and everything you see. The noises and little jingles that go off as either the Joker or a pre-recorded message from the Asylum itself goes off and recites statistical facts or vague threats feel right at home. There are so many noises and sounds that just fit the feeling of what Arkham Asylum IS, I honestly can’t think of a single sound that doesn’t fit at home here or isn’t perfect. How about the soundtrack, does it have a unique flare to it or tracks I could listen to away from the game? The composers for the score here consist of Nick Arundel and Ron Fish, who manage to make this mysterious sound as if it comes straight out of a noir film. Another track they did, Enter the Asylum, is probably what I would say their “main track” is, which while repeated and altered in other locations kind of reminds me of how Halo would pull off their compositions. Other tracks consist of a lot of choir chanting, which I’m always a bit of a sucker for. Like the case for most other soundtracks, it really works within the game’s environment even if there’s no memorable tracks that I would say “slaps in the whip” so that’s all I really have to say here. It’s perfect, fits the atmosphere, no honest complaints.

Voice acting across the board is pretty fantastic, bringing in a lot of the talent from the Batman: The Animated Series cast like Kevin Conroy as Batman (Rest in Peace to THE definitive Batman), Mark Hamill as The Joker, Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn like other than the movie adaptations of these characters I don’t really see anything to change. It’s almost effortless how they knock it out of the park, even with the producers having told Kevin Conroy to use his general speaking voice it just feels like I’m hearing Bruce Wayne speak. I think the main things to point out honestly would come from the other members of the cast: Tom Kane (Takeo from Call of Duty: Zombies fame, Dr. Loomis impersonator from Halloween H20, etc.) has such a magnificent boomy voice performance it feels like he should be involved in public speaking of sorts, and plays both Commissioner Gordon as well as Warden Quincy Sharp and while they both sound similar they’re both different enough to be unique. While Steven Blum mainly plays Killer Croc with this vicious snarl, talking as if he’s drowning in water, he also plays other characters (like a doctor at the beginning) in his regular voice that always sounds iconic. Wally Wingert plays The Riddler and others and by god does his Riddler voice sound like such a narcissistic pompous ass that honestly feels perfect. I also recognize Cree Summer as Dr. Penelope Young, a performance that while sounding like Cree Summer, she always sounds recognizable in everything which in this case is a good trait. These are only a couple of examples, these guys exemplify the characters in-game and it’s honestly hard to see them as anything else (except maybe Steven Blum I can always pick that dude out of a crowd to be honest).

Having replayed Arkham Asylum, I had found a lot of my old frustrations that built up in my mind to honestly be unfounded. I dreaded replaying this game, doing all those damn Riddler trophies and coping with fighting mechanics that was stuck in its infancy compared to the upgraded arsenal and fluidity that we would later have in City and Knight. But honestly? Replaying this game gave me a sort of newfound respect for the game, as truth be told the title is to me an inherent classic with its influence on future games. Other games (mostly superhero) would attempt to ape the freeflow combat style from Spider-Man games to Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor/War, Sleeping Dogs to Mad Max to even the likes of the awful game Ride to Hell: Retribution. However, what really holds this game up for me other than the combat system is just genuinely it’s delivery, it’s atmosphere, it’s reverence for the DC history. Riddler Trophies or without, the amount of details they put into this game is just so astounding that even to this day I’m still learning new details about this game (like the beard stubble), and it’s genuine foreshadowing on Arkham City with the secret room, or even obscure stuff that I wouldn’t have even recognized without doing deep dive stuff. Rocksteady cared about this product and it truly shows with the popular reception this game gave, that even now people will still list this as their favorite game even if it doesn’t deliver as hard compared to the rest of them. I’ll still always prefer Knight mechanically or Origins/City for their plots but the game has my deep respect and admiration and honestly deserves it as one of the greatest games of all time, a forerunner in the superhero genre that showed making these games CAN be good, that it’s not all a one time fluke or having to be tie-ins to movies or cartoons. Releasing to the aforementioned critical acclaim, the developers must’ve known how good they had it because they pulled off a bit of a risky gamble: staging hints of a sequel in the base game. Going into the Warden’s Office area and blowing up a wall with the max amount of explosive jail would reveal the Warden’s secret plans for a special prison, sectioning off a piece of Gotham. Going back to the Morgue where Ra’s Al Ghul’s corpse was for the riddle would later reveal that it disappeared, also setting up the sequel. This sequel would become Arkham City, and with the sequel in development along with the success of Asylum, Rocksteady would be purchased in 2010 by Warner Bros. There’s not much else historically wise that I know of that I wouldn’t cover in the next game’s review other than the fact Arkham Asylum was later re-released as Game of the Year along with being remastered for Xbox One/PS4 and ported to Switch, but the impact Asylum had is not to be understated in the slightest. It may not be my favorite superhero game, but it helped influence the industry and cemented its influence as a classic game.



Links:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120712005612/http://www.arkhamcare.com/prices/

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/BatmanArkhamAsylum

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nRBWe14tYdo (Easter Eggs)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6126146/Batman-Arkham-Asylum-interview-with-Paul-Dini.html

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3179787276 (Joker install guide)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Th1-HHfLAk (Officer Balls)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuuHMPqrXy8&list=OLAK5uy_k0DH8cZzBb9Uq-1L6M2H7c2lGKJZK7mvI&index=1 (Soundtrack)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1282022/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcveNqT6Lfg&ab_channel=Gamer%27sLittlePlayground (Cutscenes)

From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/