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"A great Batman title"

Batman, one of the world’s most renowned superhero, is now available on all next generation platforms with his latest installment, Batman Vengeance. Like the past few times, Canadian developer Ubi Soft, who is best known for their Rayman series, creates this episode.

All Batman gamers know that previous attempts at incorporating the huge franchise with a game that looks and feels good didn’t turn out very well. But is Ubi Soft successful at creating a Batman game that distinguishes itself from the rest? Well without giving too much of the review away at the beginning, this game is no doubt the best out of past endeavors to say the least.

In Batman Vengeance you take control of the Caped Crusader himself. Starting off the game hopping (or flying) around on Gotham City’s rooftops when our vigilant bat-friend finds a woman tied up and gagged beside a clock ticking down to what could be the final moments of her life, as it will set off a bomb when it hits zero. Batman [like usual] saves the woman in distress, Mary Fynn, only to find out a man with an evil sense of humor has kidnapped her son, Toby, and has asked for a 5 million dollar ransom. This man is none other then the clown-faced villain, The Joker. This is the story according to Mary anyway…

But little does Batman know at the time that this is all part of an elusive plan, a plan to make Gotham City go up in flames! Not only will he have to go up against The Joker, but also he’ll have to go up against other super criminals like Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy.

Graphics:
Looking at the graphical aspect of the game, it does show that Batman Vengeance was first released on the PS2, then ported to the GameCube and Xbox at a later date. But in a way it doesn’t really matter that much. The game is based off of the Batman animated TV series, so it is keeping the simplistic look of the series which gives the game its poor textures, dark look, and plain character models. Just don’t come into this game expecting it to look realistic.
The good thing about having cartoon like graphics, however, is this gives space for things like smooth animation and a fast frame rate, which you get just that here, especially the steady 60 FPS.

One of the things I found great in this game was at the beginning of the first level, you are given a “Brightness bar” in which by moving the joystick left or right you can set your default lighting of the game. If you like it better darker, then you can play it dark. If you want it lighter, well you can do that too…it’s totally up to you to customize it according to your liking. Which is quite nice because it gives you the feeling of having control.

The CG cinematics in the game look quite well with good lighting effects and the like. They definitely give the feel of the animated series and the sense of the characters in the game, if they are respectable or depraved.

Gameplay:
After taking a close look, I think it is safe to say Ubi Soft did a good job at contriving the control scheme. I played the game 50% of the time on my regular Xbox controller while the other half was with my Controller S (the smaller counterpart of the original), and the layout is great.

But while the layout is great, that doesn’t mean everything is errorless. I found that at times the responsiveness of the game has its problem. The main one is during the time you are in first person mode, while you are using a weapon. You look left, right, up and down with the right joystick, but it is very sensitive which makes it very pestiferous at times, especially when you are trying to nail an enemy in the distance with something from your artilleries. You have to be precise because of the fact that the thugs are so small, but it’s almost impossible to do so because if you just tap the joystick a tiny bit and it sends your crosshair flying.

Other then the responsiveness problem, the controls are [like I said previously] done well. After you play the training mode, which you have no choice in deciding to play or not, you will get the hang of the main controls. Then by the sixth or seventh level, you will get a full grasp of them and will have next to no problems.

Playability:
One of the most important questions someone could have about this game is “how does it play”? We know that the controls are done fairly well, as we just looked at in the previous category, but does the actual game play well?

While you are roaming around the levels you will (of course) encounter enemies, but it is hard to say how the AI of these thugs rate. While they notice the Dark Knight as he approaches, their difficulty level in battles are sometimes arduous. Especially when you get close to the final level. Even when you use special moves and are blocking their attacks, you will find yourself ending the fight overthrown.

In a few select areas in the game you will encounter hair pulling, wall punching, bang your head up against the TV screen problems in the game. For a while you will be accomplishing most objectives you come across, cruising along at 100 kilometers an hour (that’s 62 miles an hour for our American friends), but then it seems like you run into a brick wall. I found a couple of parts confusing, causing Batman to expire and making me have to restart quite a number of times. Luckily you have an unlimited amount of lives, so you can keep on trying until a solution is found.

But these problems are very scarce, as the linear levels are quite easy to follow for the majority of the time. It’s just when they do happen it gets quite frustrating, as they catch you when you least expect it.

Sound:
First off, I have to mention my favorite thing about the sound in this game…the voiceovers. As I have mentioned a number of times during this review, Batman Vengeance is based off of the animated TV series; this especially includes the characters. Because of this, all of the cast doing the voiceovers are the same people who do the characters in the TV series. So you don’t get some cheap wannabes here, you get the real deal.

While the voiceovers are my favorite, another nice aspect of the game’s sound would be the music. I noticed that when you attempt “dangerous” (if you will) moves, like jumping overtop of a vat full of lava to another platform, the music will be louder and more intense.

The rest of the sound is mediocre, but that’s is not articulating much as all that is really left is the sound effects.

Longevity:
While the game is a shade on the short side, you still have 19 stages to complete, which could take some time to finish if you don’t rush it.

As for coming back to the game after you have concluded all levels, there is no doubt you will. Especially considering the fact that once you have gone through it all, you know how to complete the spots where you were mired the first time around. So of course you will want to through it at least one more time, so you are able to grasp the great controls without worrying about not knowing what to do.

However, one thing that could have been included in the game that would have added to the longevity level, is some sort of multiplayer mode. Perhaps even a co-operative mode?

Overall:
If you haven’t guessed by now, I liked Batman Vengeance quite a bit. Sure it had some problems, which caused my overall score to drop a bit. But that doesn’t mean it ruined the whole game.

If you like Batman then there is no doubt you need to check this title out. Not only is it great to play (for the most part), but it also has some awe-inspiring voiceovers and fun to watch cutscenes.

- Josh McConnell

Graphics – 8.5
Great looking cut scenes and smooth animation. The in-game graphics could have used a bit more work though, but as previously mentioned it sort of keeps the feel of the animated TV series.

Gameplay – 8.5
Controls fit the game almost perfectly, however the occasional responsiveness problems caused points to be knocked off.

Playability – 7.5
For the most part this is a great category, but the frustrating moments in different levels and sometimes impossible AI keep it from perfection.

Sound – 8.0
Great voiceovers; bringing in the original cast from the animated series was a great touch. Having the music change according to the mood of the moment was also nice to hear. Sound effects are average though.

Longevity – 8.0
Only 19 levels to complete. But after going through the game once and discovering how to beat the difficult sections, you will want to go back and play again to comprehend the eminent game controls. Trying out some of the cheats that are on the internet is fun and could add to the length as well. However, no multiplayer?

Overall – 8.0
Holy great achievement Batman! Ubi Soft has created the best title of the major franchise to date!
One question though, where’s Robin?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/02, Updated 11/01/02