14 DAY TRIAL // If any comic book hero could be the starting point for a successful video game, then that could only be Batman. Or maybe Spawn, Spawn could definitely pull it off. He tried in the past and failed, but maybe he just didn't get his hands on a proper developer. But the man of the hour is Batman, and he did manage to put to good use all the money Bruce Wayne inherited. He managed to convince Rocksteady Studios to bring him to life and they did so wonderfully. Money may not buy happiness, but it can buy talent.
Rocksteady managed to put together a game that has stunning graphics, great gameplay and a story to rap up the deal. The game takes place in a perfect environment of creativity and complexity – a loony bin – and who else but the Mad King himself could lead the mice down the road, the infamous Joker. They managed to bring all the elements together so nicely that they even won a world record.Batman Arkham Asylum got the Guinness title of the "Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever."
The game was released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it's the PC version where it really shines. Really, it shines, and it's all thanks to Nvidia's PhysX. The volumetric lights, thick fog and perfectly shaped and textured objects and environment are truly a thing to behold. The twisted world that Scarecrow puts together inside Batman's head is a perfect example of PhysX making a jaw-dropping impression. Another excellent example would be Harley Quinn. But the PhysX have found an Arch enemy inside Arkham, and it's a terrible foe.
In Batman's arsenal there is no greater weapon than the Detective Mode. The alternative vision strips the environment to the bare minimum, allowing players to better assess their surroundings and plan ahead, increasing visibility an allowing hidden clues to be found more easily. It even allows them to spot distant enemies in a twisted mix of the Total Recall airport security scanner and wallhack. Whether you're tracking down Riddler's riddles, checking for ambushes set up by Joker's minions or following leads you will spend 90% of the game in Detective Mode.
And this is the destructive force behind PhysX. Both concepts are great, amazing even. But put together they don't kill each other only because Detective Mode wins by a land slide. When it strips down the environment, the alternative vision also strips any graphical detail from the world. All the shaders, the lighting and the crisp feeling the graphics gave just disappears. Everything is in shades of blue, dull and lifeless, still and tasteless. And with all the time spent in this azure environment, all the effort the developers put in the visual department is washed away like the unamused smile on the Joker's losing face.