A Tale of Two Franchises- Batman: Arkham Asylum & X-men Origins: Wolverine

Unfair comparison or not these two comic book licensed games share so many things, lining them up against one another seems inevitable. Both games are based on pre-existing media characters that stem from comic books but have crossed over to virtually every form of mass entertainment most notably live-action films and animated television shows. They also share the same engine, Unreal 3, and the same high-level design philosophy of drawing and referencing all incarnations of the characters in order to populate the game world. One game was developed by a veteran developer of high caliber, Raven, the other from a relatively unknown young house with a single previous title released, Rocksteady and therein lays the difference.

Mining the past media appearances of both characters leads to memorable moments in the games, but Rocksteady’s freedom to create an amalgam that is familiar yet unique frees it from the shackles that tie Raven’s creation to the identically titled film. Quality aside, the Wolverine film explores, appropriately, his origin and clumsily explains how everything came to be, including how he got his signature jacket. Forced to reinterpret scenes from the movie and work them into the story of the game hinders the developers, as does the inclusion of Jackman’s voice and likeness. Unlike most licensed properties where the onscreen talent will demur to participate in the game, Jackman fully commits to the role, voicing it spectacularly. Unfortunately it creates a cognitive dissonance as the game explores material previously found only in comics and cartoons, and is far more fantastic in it enemies than the movie could even imagine. The game is expressly out of sync in tone with the film and this does the game a disservice.

Arkham is not tied to any specific property other than the characters than have populated the Batman universe for over 50 years. Seeking inspiration in all of the media that has come before, the game references the Christian Bale movies, the Tim Burton movies, all of the animated series and the comics themselves, weaving these details into a claustrophobic, atmospheric story.

Penned by animated series and comic creator Paul Dini, the pitfall found in Wolverine is avoided by casting voices from the animated series, namely Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker. As fully committed to the performances as Jackman, they create familiarity to fans of character without jeopardizing the verisimilitude of the presentation. Had Arkham been tied to Dark Knight, it may well suffer from some of the issues facing Wolverine.

The seemingly ubiquitous Unreal 3 engine makes a spectacular appearance in both games, rendering large colorful worlds that appear open but are quite limited in scope. Once again, the decision to set AA on an island and solely within the facility grounds serves the game well, motivating the linear aspect of play. The dichotomy of Wolverine referencing the live action movie locations is at odds with the game locations, especially in the mid to late game when the story shifts to a mountain-side robotics facility full of Sentinal prototypes. The epic scale of the design is striking (and a direct nod to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance) but totally at odds with the strangely limited set-pieces of the film. One of the issues many developers have seen in the past with Gears of War era Unreal tech is a limited ability to rendering massive non-linear streaming worlds, i.e. Mass Effect or Rise of the Argonauts. Both Wolverine and Batman are side-step these issues either through clever level design or updated engine code.

I found it amusing that expositional scenes revealed through off camera radio transmissions are in full force in both games, as apparently that is a feature built into the engine. The animations for these sequences are identical to the ones uses in Gears.

What I found most striking in the difference between these very similar games was the presentation of the main character and their interaction with the environment through gameplay. Batman uses his familiar bag of tricks from his utility belt, resulting in a cavalcade of gadgets and upgrades. Platforming is restricted to using a grapple gun and a glide ability, referencing both the movies and the animated shows. Puzzles are integrated into a detective mode as Challenges left by the Riddler. Wolverine succeeds using role-playing elements to upgrade his healing and attack abilities, but the limitations of the character make the limited puzzle moments feel like unnecessary filler. Platforming in Wolverine is a unmitigated disaster, rendering the sensation of a kitchen sink attitude to development, where all genre tropes are touched upon.

In the end, Wolverine should never ever double jump.

Combat is an integral part of the games, whereas Wolverine uses his claws to rip, shred, and tear through enemies, resulting in combo-kills that graphically separate enemies from their limbs or heads, in essence the game devolves into button mashing with some counters mixed in. The enemies quickly become repetitive as does the combos. Batman’s combat is a far more nuanced and cerebral experience, playing much like a real-time Bruce Lee movie. Counters are used to intercept attacks, allowing the player to chain together attacks and build up multipliers, which unleash finishing moves. Strategy must be employed and it is a far more satisfying experience.

Against the odds, junior developer Rocksteady created a tour-du-force experience in AA, while Raven managed what appeared to be impossible prior to AA’s release: create a good comic book game. Wolverine is a very entertaining game but it pales in comparison to the masterwork that is Arkham Asylum.