Protagonist!

In the comments to yesterday’s post, one of the things I talked about was the difference between the culture of the US and the culture of Japan when it comes to the philosophy of role playing games… specifically, Japan (sweeping generalization) tends to focus on teamwork and the US (sweeping generalization) tends to focus on the individual.

Thinking about that some more, I’m pretty sure that I’m wrong about that. Here. Watch this short flick.

It’s a vid from the Extra Credits folks at Penny Arcade (and, prior to that, The Escapist (oh, there’s a story there, I tell you what)) that discusses the advent of the First Person Shooter in America and how Japan treats it one way… and the US treats it another. The movie specifically delves into the Warrior Culture of Japan and how it pre-dates the gun and the Warrior Culture of the US relied upon the gun.

A quick aside, I was speaking to Dman earlier and he told me about watching some movies while he was batchin’ it this weekend and he talked about a Japanese “Bad-Ass” movie (I forget what it was! Dman! Please leave the title in the comments!) where the staredowns took longer than the fight scenes. He shrugged at one point and said “when you’re that awesome, you don’t need to take 20 minutes to beat someone up. You do it in 3 seconds.” I was reminded of the Samurai movies I enjoy and how the main character demonstrates his mastery of his craft by, you guessed it, winning fights handily. The cultural comparison that first came to my mind was John McClane from the Die Hard films. McClane starts out perfectly fine and healthy but, as the movie progresses, he gets his behind whupped but good. The final scene (spoiler) where he’s limping/staggering into the last room with, what? One hit point left? This embodies the American idea of the awesome action hero. (“Hi, Honey.”)

Which brings us back, as we always come back, to Batman. (Have you seen Dr. Saunders’s post depicting Bruce Wayne’s annual physical? If you’re one of the four people who reads this site but not the main site or the other sub-blogs, you *NEED* to.)

Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s Batman Arkham Asylum. Much like in the first game, Batman starts off in top form and, as the story progresses, demonstrates more and more of his own humanity in the face of the inhumanity he’s faced with. (This manifests by showing his outfit as clean and fresh at the beginning of the game… and, slowly but surely, showing it burned and ripped and punctured as the night progresses. At the end, he also needs a shave.)

Now, the story is every inch a continuation of the first game. It’s a year later. The former warden of the Asylum has, somehow, managed to get himself elected Mayor and he assented to Hugo Strange’s bright idea to create an open-air prison for everybody from Blackgate and Arkham and call it “Arkham City”. Bruce Wayne happens to get himself tossed in there himself after protesting the very idea of such a thing… and the game begins after a short interlude where Bruce Wayne and the Penguin have a short conversation about Penguin’s family baggage.

Through the main story proper, you’ll meet Two-Face, Harley Quinn, The Joker, The Penguin (again), Mr. Freeze, Solomon Grundy, Ra’s al Ghul, and Talia. (And side-quests and the Riddler’s tasks will have you hanging with Szasz, the Mad Hatter, Deadshot, and Bane.) On top of *THAT*, you’ll talk to your comrades Alfred, Batwing, Robin, Oracle, and Catwoman.

Everybody shows up, pretty much everybody you’re going to interact with is given a good reason to be there and I haven’t felt like they’ve given anybody short shrift yet.

The free-flow combat is fun and frustrating at the same time… it’s easy to beat up a dozen guys (some with baseball bats or broken bottles) but it’s difficult to beat up a dozen guys and make it look like a ballet (but you’ll try). The stealth portions are intuitive and the getting around the city from here to there is fun and intuitive.

After playing any number of competently developed games with heart, it’s so surprising and refreshing to play a game that is *THIS* close to perfection. It’s a breath of fresh air and an absolute delight while, at the same time, giving you a bunch of red meat to chew on while you’re off somewhere else doing real stuff. This is one of those rare games that makes it worth getting a console for. You should get this one.

So that’s my recommendation for you this week.