Batman Begins

"Finally a great Batman game, based on a greater Batman movie."

Batman is an awesome super hero. The main reason is because he is actually a human. But he uses his brain, among an amazing arsenal of gadgets to defeat his foes. There have been many Batman games, few were good, just like there have been many Batman movies, few also were good. This game changes all that.

The story, if you follow batman from the beginning is simple. It shows how Bruce fell into darkness, studied martial arts, and decided to dawn a cape and fight crime as Batman. The main villains are the scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul. It doesn't tie in that much with the movie but it does a pretty good job.

First I must talk about the graphics of this game. They are simply amazing. Everything is beautiful in Gotham city. Textures are smooth, colors vibrant, the lighting effects are also good. The character models are the most impressive. In game they look incredibly good, especially Batman. Anther thing I liked was the fire. Towards the beginning there's a lot of fire and explosions, never is there any slowdown and the fire raging around you looks amazing. The cape is also awesome, it moves around freely and fluently, but sometimes can look awkward. This game did well in this category. For the cut-scenes most of them are movie footage.

I don't know what this falls into. But the way you climb ladders just looks weird. It's easy and fast, but the movement makes Batman look like a lizard or something.

The gameplay is different. Although there's nothing really wrong with it. It seems to flow perfectly together, it's easy to get used to, and the great gadgets are there. The only bad thing is the freedom and the way one is walked through the game. In most parts you are told exactly what to do all the time, even for simple things. Other than that it's good. The basic combat is there, punching and kicking, finishing moves, but the most interesting is fear attacks. When fighting some enemies you can use fear to your advantage and disable them quickly and awesomely. To add to this you get reputation. The more enemies defeated, the more reputation, and the more people fear you.

There's also some Batmobile levels. They're good to. If you've played Burnout this part will surely be fun. The speed and crashing is all there.

Sound is also good. Explosions, and other things are presented pretty well. The voice acting is on par with the movie, since most of the part were there is talking are clips from the movie. The gadgets have decent sound.

As for replayability, it's moderate. The game offers multiple difficulty levels, most are easy. There's a good amount of unlockables, but they are all unlocked upon completion of your first play through. The game is short. So every now and then I picture myself just going back and playing quickly through it. Other than that there's not much reasons to replay the game.

In the end this is a good game. Not excellent like the movie but good. Graphics are amazing, even if you don't like the game that's one thing you must agree on. Gameplay is easy fluent, but too damn easy. There's no real feel of freedom because you're told exactly what to do all the time. Sound is also good and even though the gameplay is a bit on the bland side the game is still fun.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/05