If you haven't already guessed, I'm a hard-core Dark Knight fan, and each and every one of the Batman movies has been disappointing. However, I kept an opened mind about the game. As I got down to playing through it, I found that it is one truly mixed bag. I'm pleasantly surprised at some aspects but terribly disappointed by the game's execution.
Batman and Robin starts off in Gotham City, where you play as one of three characters: Batman, Robin, or Batgirl. Each performs just slightly different moves, and while they seem to be based on the same model, each feels subtly different. Players must perform a number of tasks in this action-adventure game woven with detective puzzle components. There is plenty to do: gamers drive lots of vehicles (Batmobile, Robin's cycle, Batman's batsled, etc.), you can hover, or glide, using your cape, swim, jump, fight, and use all sorts of killer weapons (mostly variations of the Batarang). Toggling with the L2 button enables you to perform dozens of moves, from activating switches to combination uppercuts to crawling through tight spots.
The organization of the game is slightly different than most. It is divided into days, with minor missions contained in each day, so you save progress (after or before each next mission) on your Mem Pak on whichever day you've played to. The object is to keep Mr. Freeze and his ice-cream-cone-head droogs from killing off innocent citizens and turning the entire city into a winter wonderland -- and of course, to get the museum gem back.
So, there is an amazing amount of things you can do, see, and there really is a lot of game here to get through. But you just won't have that much fun getting there. That's because the control is absolutely wonky. It's frustrating, slow, and annoying as hell.
Let's take the Batmobile as an example. Acclaim created an amazingly cool-looking Batmobile that's totally detailed and sounds just like the Batmobile (the fire blasts from the exhaust and the sonic sound from the original are awesome). The car and physics feel good at first. Your car skids out while taking fast turns, speeds up, and is generally responsive. Then it hits you. You want to turn around. Strangely enough, you car is just too big for most streets, alleys, and even major intersections. Adding salt to the wound, the streets are narrow. Every time you smack into anything, a horrific bang sounds off over and over and over again. It's stupid. Why aren't the streets a little wider? Why in the end is it so difficult to drive the Batmobile when it really should be a lot of fun?
OK, so I'm cranky about the Batmobile. It's not perfect. Let's take another example that shows why the game's control prevents people from wanting to play beyond the first two levels, or worse, even buy the game. Let's look at the character control. Everyone who's played Tomb Raider knows that it's meant to be an adventure first, with annoying little action bits in between. That game is fun, mighty fun, but as an action title it blows. So now comes Batman and Robin and it provides you with three characters, each with their own abilities, and the character movement is just as slow, maybe even slower than Tomb Raider (1 or 2). And clunkier. Your stiff-backed Batman (I swear this game mimicked the straight-back of Batman perfectly from the movie) is loaded with moves, but they aren't pulled off with speed, stealth, or responsiveness. They're like a raging snail boxing match. Your abilities seem less interesting when you start to use them all, too. It took me five minutes to get out of a vent shaft, doing exactly what the manual said to do. I got out but it didn't propel me to ever get into any more damn vent shafts.
So, like I was saying, Batman and Robin is a mixed bag.
Graphically, the game is nearly brilliant. The dark environments suit the game fine (but take stinky screen-shots), the characters themselves are detailed in loads of textures, and every graphic has been gone over with a fine-toothed comb. The character animations are also excellent, particularly in the cape department. Acclaim has shown that the capeless Spawn debacle is now truly a mute point. And the cut-scenes create moods that are perfect, dark, ominous, and intense.
One of the game's finer points is the music, which is clearly inspired by the movie. It's more like Batman-mood music, and lends itself more to a giant instrumental orchestra, but coupled with great sound effects, this area is impressive.
Overall, Batman and Robin is peppered with little details that normally push most games over the top. Because, in the end, attention to details is what makes most games great. Attention to great gameplay also makes games great, and that seems to have taken a second place to great graphics in Acclaim's new movie-licensed game.
In the end, you'll buy this game only if you're a Batman fanatic, not because it's a good game.
Douglass Perry
