A night out as the Caped Crusader

I do not know how I should start the PS2 review for Batman Begins, but all I know is that I came away from playing the game with a bad aftertaste in my mouth without even being able to paint the streets of Gotham town red.


An almost exact digital duplicate of Christian Bale as the menacing-looking Batman in the Batman Begins intro

Graphics-wise, I believe Eurocom did a very good job of portraying down to the minute details on how much the new Batman game looked like its movie counterpart, and even the actual faces of the actors playing their respective roles have been digitised to an almost identical double. And the fact that the whole original cast of the Batman Begins movie lent their voices for this game made it all a very nice package that ties down well with the movie. But maybe that's the flaw: the game follows the movie script too precisely until it doesn't even feel like a game but more like an interactive introduction to the movie itself. Okay, scratch that last statement; this game isn't THAT interactive at all. It's too heavily scripted, rendering players to follow a specific step-by-step 'guide' for a successful mission / infiltration. And if players were to be the very initiative type and would prefer to find their own way around to complete the stages other than the recommended one, you'd soon find yourself (or your Batman character) a target practice. And a dead one at that too. Oh well, so much for the Bat armour...


"Don't hit me--oof!" Batman gives a thug the ol' one-two


Glide through the air if you need to make a long-distance jump, or if you just feel like admiring the graphic details...

The other thing I noticed that seemed to be out of place is how Bruce Wayne / Batman climbs ladders: you would think the Dark Knight would have more grace as the 'most feared' crimefighter than that 'monkey stance'. At least the overall mood of the game seemed and felt gothic enough, suiting the theme of the vice-infested Gotham city and Batman nicely.


Monkey-man on the loose... hey, that looks like Batman though

I have to give credit where it's due, though. Batman Begins meshes the espionage mechanics of Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid series and does a pretty decent job at it. Well, it could be more polished than how it is presented in the game. There are also times when I've encountered frame drops as well, which really marred the gameplay experience even for diehard Batman fans. The Burnout-like racing and takedown sequences fared much better, and Burnout veterans would surely be pretty amused to see the flashing words that read "Thug Takedown!" each time you successfully sent any thug's vehicle crashing.


The action gets intense with the Batmobile driving sequence ala Burnout. Does the spark effect looked kinda familiar?


And when your meter fills up, you get BOOST!

The 'shadow incident' in the Batman Begins game that I mentioned earlier in one of my posts still stands out like a sore thumb. It may not interfere with the overall gameplay, but it does mark the sloppiness of their beta testers, which will negatively affects the overall image of Eurocom.


For the last time, are you following me up the stairs or not?!


Fine! Stay where you are then. Darn those game testers...

Though being a retail product, Batman Begins still felt like an unfinished work that still required a lot of rework to be done. I wouldn't recommend anyone to get this game at all, unless you really, really do like the movie and don't mind the heavily scripted linear gameplay. If you still feel like giving this game a go, I suggest a rental would do just fine.