Batman Begins

"Something exciting has happened. A GREAT BATMAN GAME HAS FINALLY BEEN MADE!!!!"

There have been a ton of Batman games released over the years, but none of them have been outstanding and most have been just god awful. Now we have the game Batman Begins, which was released one day before the movie (how's that supposed to work?). This game follows the movie to a T. And now, the general verdict for those of you who didn't read the tagline.
THIS GAME IS GREAT!!!!!

GRAPHICS:
This review is for the PS2 version, keep that in mind. The graphics are incredible. The characters look very close to their real-life counter parts. Batman looks like Christian Bale (ya know, the guy who plays him), and the Scarecrow looks like whoever plays the Scarecrow in the movie (oops, I might have spoiled something). The environments are all very dark, which is good because it plays on the whole "fear" element in the game-play, more on that later. There are also times in the game where you finish a guy off and it zooms into a more cinematic flashy angle where there's sort of fading and slower fighting. The animations look kinda robotic during this, but otherwise look pretty fluid outside of it. The areas you fight in all also look very realistic and are pretty varied compared to other games. You can be in a warehouse one level, the sewers the next, and then in the Himalayas. They all also look great, even though you might not be able to pay attention to them sometimes. There are some cut-scenes that show actual footage from the movie as well. The only problem is that you gotta have a bright TV to play this, because it's very hard to see where to go while you're playing on standard adjustments. All in all, the graphics are very very well done, considering this is on the PS2, but it's kinda dark for my tastes. Still great though.
GRAPHICS SCORE-> 8/10

SOUND:
The sound effects play a big part in this game, and thankfully they are all pretty close to real life. They're hard to figure out at first though. The music is very good at setting up the mood for scaring your bad guys, but there isn't much variety in it. They got the voice-overs from the actual actors and actresses from the movie, like Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, and Morgan Freeman. They actually act out the sequences that are in the game only like it's the movie, so that's a plus. If it weren't for the fact that the music isn't that mixed up, this would have been better.
SOUND SCORE-> 7/10

MULTI-PLAYER/REPLAY-ABILITY:
Well the game is kinda short to run through the story with. There is no multi-player either, so this is really not long enough to fully secure the buy.
MULTI-PLAYER SCORE -> N/A

GAME-PLAY:
This game has a very good mix of game-play elements, including a new one a game has never before let you manipulate. You can basically fight like normal. Kick, punch, and do special moves with one button each. It's pretty easy to learn, but some of the special actions can be difficult to pull off. There are also parts where you have to be stealthy. These parts are a pretty close rip-off of Splinter Cell. OK it's a big rip-off. You can walk slowly and take out enemies from behind, and you can look through doors before going into them. Seen it before, even though it's still kinda cool. The driving in this game, although there isn't much of it, plays a lot like Burnout, but you can't get away with ramming everything you could do in Burnout. Still fun though. The thing that makes this game really stand out is the "fear" mechanism. You can just go in and take out enemies like normal, or you can scare them. Scaring them makes them easier to kill, which is good because fighting groups can get to be a pain. You can do this in a bunch of different ways, like stealthily taking out the guy holding the weapon in a group or interacting with the environment to make things happen. Basically, if you make them wet themselves, they die easier. Being able to use fear as a weapon has never been done before. Heck half the time you're the one getting scared (Doom 3 made me cry!). That alone can make this really rewarding. It also makes it fun. In review, this game implies some new and old elements to make a fun and rewarding game, which is a surprise since it's Batman.
GAME-PLAY SCORE -> 9/10

FINAL SCORE: 8/10
There are a few letdowns, but all in all, this one is definitely worth the money. If you're still skeptical and you do a rental, then don't buy it, since you'll more than likely do anything the game can offer.

RECAP OF THINGS:
PROS:
+Great visuals
+Fluid animations
+Characters look dang close to real-life counterparts
+Sound effects pretty realistic
+Music does good job setting up fear mood
+Movie footage
+Voice-overs are excellent
+You get to make bad guys pee their pants
+Very fun and rewarding
CONS:
-Music isn't very mixed
-Not much to do after finishing one-player story
-No multi-player
-The melee fighting and stealth elements are ripped off
-Might not be long enough for some to warrant a buy
-Driving not as good as Burnout

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/05