Review
Release Date: 10.17.2003
Platform:
XboxDeveloper:
Ubisoft MontrealPublisher:
Ubisoft EntertainmentReviewed by
Wade Monnig on 4.28.2003
"I'm Batman." That phrase has been uttered by a surprising number of actors over the past few decades. While the quality of the Batman Hollywood movies has sunk quicker than the Titanic, Paul Dini's and Bruce Timm's animated series has managed to uphold a high level of quality while keeping Batman true to his vigilante Dark Knight image. They accomplished this with excellent voice acting from Kevin Conroy doing the voice of Batman, Tara Reid voicing Batgirl and Mark Hamill as the Joker. They also stayed true to the threatening visuals, dubbed "Dark Deco" by the animated community, by a creating highly stylized look and an overall ominous view of Gotham.
Ubi Soft's Batman Vengeance is an extraordinarily precise re-creation of the animated TV series on both the visual and aural front. Just like the animated series, the backgrounds are sharp edged with flourishes of gothic detail. It's simple textures and dark colors are not pushing the Xbox anywhere near its limits, but it doesn't have to. Its goal was to re-create the animated series and this easily seen in backdrops and the character models. The city of Gotham looks volatile, complete with red skies and gloomy, flickering streetlights.
The audio portions of Batman Vengeance are easily its strongest point. Kevin Conroy, Tara Reid and the irrepressible Mark Hamill all have reprised their voice acting roles from the series. It is good to see that with releases such as this, Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto III that game companies are finally treating voice acting as forethought and not an afterthought. The background music in Vengeance is just as strong as the voice acting. Shawn Clement, renowned for his musical work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and recipient of ASCAP's 2000 Film and Television Award for most played underscore, does a brilliant job with this title. If you listen closely during the boss battles (well, assuming you have time to listen) you can hear his brilliance. For instance, when Batman and the Joker are fighting, if Batman is winning, his theme is interwoven more into the mix for that scene. However, if the Joker is dominating, his theme takes prominence over Batman's, reducing the caped crusaders theme to mere undertones. The music morphs seamlessly from moment to moment and creates an unspoiled soundtrack that heightens the entire game experience.
The game itself begins Hollywood style with credits rolling over Batman rescuing a damsel in distress from the explosive death trap of the Joker. Of course, this is only the beginning, Batman uses his detective skills to try to unravel this complicated tapestry that we can only assume his arch enemies are constantly knitting. Just like the animated series, the plot is exceptional and certainly not child’s play.
Most of Batman: Vengeance’s action takes place in the third person perspective with the noted exception of using Batman’s “Wonderful Toys”, which takes place in a first person view. The entire bat arsenal: Flashbombs, Batarangs, Electric Batarangs, Remote Electric Charges, a scope, Batgrapple, Nets, Bat launcher fired Stunners, and the Bat Launcher are present. Pressing the R Trigger, which instantly puts you behind the batmask in first person mode, activates them. This enables the player to execute precision shots. Unfortunately, this is the ONLY way to use these weapons. When you are going hand-to-hand with any number of thugs in third person mode, you can’t toss a batarang in-between the kicks and punches. Instead, you have to switch to first person, select a weapon, use it and switch back to third person mode. Cumbersome and virtually useless accurately describes trying to execute this maneuver. The Dark Knight can’t even execute any air-based maneuvers such as a simple jump kick. The bat may be the only mammal that can truly fly, but his fighting exploits are grounded here. Batman’s Wonderful Toys also turn out to be not so wonderful in this release. The Batgrappling hook can only attach to specific pre-determined targets in each level. So, while you may be able to see you objective glistening two foot above your head, you can’t simply shoot the Batgrappling to help you retrieve it or even simply walk over, jump and grasp the edge of the ledge where it resides. Come on, that’s not Batman, that’s ridiculous. The Dark Knight has the stealth and tools to be the Dark Ninja, instead he can only use these skills once or twice a level and spends the majority of his time going toe-to-toe with the bad guys. The only real exception to this is the Batcuffs, which allow you to bind enemies that have be incapacitated or, if you are good at some Tenchu moves, lock up some enemies before they even know you are present.
The entire city of Gotham isn’t really at your disposal; instead, it is broken up into levels with the player traveling a linear path to an inevitable show down. Locking up the thugs and completing “hidden” objectives will earn you points that are used to secure Super Moves. Using these along with the arsenal of charge moves and a barrage of quick fisticuffs keep the combat from becoming too stale. Melee fighting isn’t the only kind of challenge, a couple of levels that put you in control of the Batmobile and Batwing. However, they are so few and far between, they only serve to make you wish there were more. The overall length of this title is a bit short and a half dozen or so more bat vehicle levels would have really spiced it up.
Batman: Vengeance nails the audio and visual recreation of the animated series, but it comes up short when it comes to providing entertaining gameplay.
