{"id":3043,"date":"2009-08-28T11:40:06","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T17:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2009-08-28T11:40:06","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T17:40:06","slug":"batman-arkham-asylum-is-rated-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/28\/batman-arkham-asylum-is-rated-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Batman Arkham Asylum is Rated T?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"batman\"The new Batman game is brutal, violent, terrifying, brave, bold, outrageous “… so serious”, and very adult. It features bone-crunching violence, the constant threat of brutal murder and worse. It’s about as “extreme” a game as I’ve ever played and I actually spent a good 25% of the game actively trying to figure out why the ESRB – in all its wisdom – would give this game a T-Teen. Was it just because the game is based on a comic book? Because the famously brutal recent films are rated PG-13? Then, wham, bam, like a batarang to the kisser I figured it out . . .<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s because Batman doesn’t kill people, he makes them unconscious and because all the people who are dead are dead either offscreen at the hands of bad guys or long before the Dark Knight arrives in all his becaped glory.<\/p>\n

Ever since I took my first pawn from my dad in chess and called it “dead” (“captured” my dad would insist) its been generally assumed that when a bad guy goes down – he’s dead. This game goes out of its way to remind you, over and over, that your Bat-victims aren’t bat-dead, they’re bat-sleeping. Detective Mode (one of the more ingenious ideas in an already ingenious game) reminds you of this – constantly – whenever you so much as glance at a fallen foe. Despite the Joker’s near continuous threats of murder, few compu-characters are killed. Satisfyingly, this is nothing like the old “Cobra guy jumps out of exploding helicopter” non-death, it’s much more comic-booky and less movie-like.<\/p>\n

Frankly the game is a slice of genius and the people behind most of the other best (Red Faction) and worst (Wolfenstein) games out this year (and most other years) ought to hang their heads in shame. This is an instant classic. The gameplay satisfies – lots of cool stealth, even more cool free-flowing combat marred only by way-too-easy SuperVillain battles and laughably simplistic puzzles (the game literally holds your hand and guides you along every chance it gets) the story sings. This story beats most Batman comics in terms of complexity and even the Batman movies (in my opinion). Using The Animated Series regulars (Kevin Conroy, the lady who does Harley Quinn (a character invented for the cartoon incidentally) and the amazingly exhuberant Mark Hamill as the Joker) was a stroke of genius. These people know the characters and are quite comfortable delivering their lines in a manner than puts most video games to shame.\u00a0 The writing is top notch, the story actually has some twists and turns, and the characters are lovingly (loathsomely) fleshed with psychiatric recordings or side jaunts (Riddler, Scarecrow) that show that the people behind this game love these characters.<\/p>\n

Should it be rated Teen though?\u00a0 Despite the litany of ESRB descriptors – Violence, Suggestive Themes, Mild Language, Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Blood – it’s surprising to me that the ESRB thinks so. Wolfenstein is rated M and the blood is only a hair bloodier – It’s got to be the lame difference between “kilt” and “unconscious.” Kinda weak, huh? I mean, the insane people (who gibber and jump you at the worst possible time) and um… Saz? Zsaz? whatever… are far more terrifying and adult than the silly little Nazis, or anything in Halo. And Poison Ivy and Harly Quinn are far more … adolescent fantasy … than any M-rated “suggestively themed” game I can think of (except maybe Grand Theft Auto’s strippers).<\/p>\n

Still, I’d rate it Teen myself.\u00a0 I would. If only because it’s so much tamer than the movie Batman: Heath Ledger is Terrifying. A movie I think really shouldn’t have been rated PG-13. Turn on Detective Mode and go figure, but also enjoy this game. It’s right up there with the best of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new Batman game is brutal, violent, terrifying, brave, bold, outrageous “… so serious”, and very adult. It features bone-crunching violence, the constant threat of brutal murder and worse. It’s about as “extreme” a game as I’ve ever played and I actually spent a good 25% of the game actively trying to figure out why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}