Batman Begins – GC – Review

Having risen
well beyond its origins as a comic book created by Bob Kane, the legend of
Batman has inspired filmmakers to chronicle the career of a man who has decided
to fight crime in the streets of Gotham dressed as a human bat. Thanks to Tim
Burton (let’s not even mention a certain somebody that ruined the franchise)
Batman came to life on the big screen, but it hardly touched a major point in
the life of Bruce Wayne. Sure we all know how the murder of his parents (right
before his very eyes) affected him as a child, but what we don’t see is what led
him on the path to become a “symbol” that strikes fear in the hearts of bad men
… that is until the new movie, Batman Begins, hit theaters. Quite
possible the best and most realistic look at the Caped Crusader, you can bet
this one has great gaming potential or does it?

Batman Begins
tells the
complete tale that covers Bruce Wayne’s training and his first year as Gotham’s
defender. Having been emotionally crippled and on the verge of attempting to
kill his parents’ killer, he decides to disappear until he shows up at the
courtyard of the leader of a secret organization called the League of Shadows.
Seeking the power to stop evil, Bruce Wayne is trained rigorously by a
mysterious man named Henri Ducard. The game, however, skips ahead as Bruce Wayne
– now as Batman – must discover what a deranged psychiatrist that calls himself
the Scarecrow and a crime kingpin named Falcone are doing to Gotham’s water
supply.

The game starts
you off as Batman, learning his basic combat skills but it isn’t until after the
prologue that you learn the complete basics by Ducard in the Himalayas. Ducard
teaches Bruce Wayne about the art stealth, a necessary approach seeing as Batman
realistically can’t take on more than four armed men at the same time. Not only
does stealth serve as a tactical advantage but it also helps introduce the
concept of Area Fear. Sneak up behind an unsuspecting armed thug and the rest of
the thugs will begin to tremble and some even cower in corners. Of course, there
are those who see Batman as just a costumed freak and will attack nonetheless.

Yet if the
game’s stealth element feels familiar it’s because Batman borrows a page from
Sam Fisher’s stealth handbook. I don’t like to compare but it’s hard not to
notice the similarities between this game and the Splinter Cell series.
Not only can Batman creep along silently; keeping an eye on a radar that
includes a thug’s field of vision but he can also grab enemies and either knock
them out or interrogate them. Reach a closed door and you’ll be able to use an
optic cable to see what’s going on in the next room. You can even pick a lock,
opening up a lock picking mini-game. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Well, I don’t
mind a little stealth in my game or imitating the best elements of a great game,
but in Batman Begins the stealth isn’t handled as well as Splinter
Cell. In fact, you’ll be spotted quickly for the simplest of blunders. And
while Splinter Cell has terrorists combing the area to look for you after
you’ve been spotted, being spotted in this game means instant death.

There’s also a
lot of fighting and, for the most part, it’s handled pretty well. There are
plenty of combo attacks and Batman can even perform a number of acrobatic moves
that are pretty fun to pull off. Yet after awhile the same moves just becomes
too repetitive so you’ll certainly be glad Batman has a number of neat gadgets
to use. Aside from the computer hack tool there’s the Batarang that’s useful
when you want to drop a load of crates near enemies and an HF Transponder that
calls a swarm of bats to distract the enemy. You can even use your grapple hook
to make quick escapes. Yet even with this combat doesn’t seem as challenging and
since you use stealth to take out the armed thug first there’s hardly a time
when you’ll get beat to death in this game.

Breaking up the
stealth-beat-’em-up are two levels that have Batman driving his ultra cool
Batmobile tumbler. It is here that you’ll be chasing down bad guys, ramming them
off the road for some spectacular crashes that won’t fail to make you wince at
its destructive nature. The Batmobile handles great, leaving gamers to
concentrate on the turbo-charged thrashing you’ll do in this game. Really, it’s
one of the highlights of the game. The game even recreates the sequence in the
film when Batman is attempting to save Rachel (Katie Holmes) from the effects of
a lethal dose of a hallucinogen.

Control-wise,
the game feels right at home on the GameCube yet what will sure to be a major
turn-off is the fact that the game has the tendency to lead you by the hand.
Sure you’ll find areas within a level that will have you wondering how to
proceed next but there’s always a hint marker that points you in the right
direction. If that wasn’t enough, your faithful butler Alfred chimes in via
communicator and doesn’t fail to come up with a solution to a problem or offer
helpful advice on how to proceed. Yet as it stands, Batman Begins plays
far better than last attempts at bringing us a game true to the Batman franchise
(just try to forget the nightmare that was Batman Forever for the SNES).

Visually
speaking, Batman Begins is one gorgeous-looking GameCube game. It comes
close to rivaling the sharp, detailed visuals of the Xbox version. Aside from
the cool visual effects and the neat rendering of Batman himself, all the
supporting characters look a lot like the actors that portrayed these characters
on the big screen. Even if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll easily pick out
Liam Neeson’s character or even Katie Holmes the very second they make an
appearance. Even the environments look great despite the fact that the majority
of the game takes place at night. My only major gripe is with the bits of actual
film footage  … it’s choppy, grainy and the sound is stifled.

Another of the
game’s strongest points comes in the form of the sound. With a major portion of
the movie’s cast providing the voices of their characters we get original
dialogue that’s handled beautifully. Christian Bale’s Batman is voiced
menacingly to the point that you can see why some of the bad guys begin to cower
in fear and getting an earful of Michael Caine (as Alfred) throughout the game
is a major plus in my book. There’s even the movie’s great score playing
throughout the game. The soundtrack certainly makes up for the stifled sound
effects … I mean Batman’s punch doesn’t sound as good as it should and calling
an army of bats just produces ho-hum flapping of wings.

No doubt about
it, Batman Begins is the best GameCube game based on the Caped Crusader
thus far but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect either. It’s rough around the edges
in terms of the stealth portion of the game and the fighting becomes a bit
repetitive despite the cool gadgets Batman has at his disposal. Yet with
dazzling visuals, extremely fun Batmobile levels and talented voice work, this
is a game you shouldn’t miss if you loved the movie or all things Batman.

#Review Scoring Details for Batman Begins

Gameplay: 7.5
While the game
mixes sneaky stealth mechanics