Batman: Vengeance for GameCube

Batman Vengeance for the Nintendo GameCube is based on the cartoon series, "Batman: The Animated Series". You assume the roll of The Dark Knight himself, Batman. The game starts out with Batman searching for a missing child. But through Batman's search to find the child, he learns that the mother and child do not exist in any database. But he continues his search anyway. His suspicions are confirmed when he falls right into a trap set by the Joker. He learns this when, the mother is kidnapped herself. When he arrives where she is at, he carries her off to safety, sets her down, and he then realizes that she is actually a doll ready to explode. Well, the mother who said that her child was missing was really the Joker's sidekick, Harley Quinn. It was a set up from the beginning. Well later on, he gets his hands on the Joker, they both fight and then the Joker falls off a ledge into the ocean. Harley is devastated at the loss of her boss, so she then jumps off. Batman jumps off and saves her. Well, Batman gets involved in an even bigger plot. He has to try and stop several other crime bosses like Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. All of the crimes are somehow connected to each other. Could Harley be behind all of it? Is the Joker really dead?

The overall graphics of the game are crisp. It really feels like you are playing the cartoon series. The city of Gotham is large and detailed. The lighting effects are great as well. The shadows that are cast from the fans in the air ducts are a nice touch, and the shadows of the characters are nice. The character animations are nicely rendered as well; especially Batman's cape flowing in the wind.  The graphics in the game have a "film-noir" feel and it's easy to get lost in the environments.  The cut-scenes/cinemas are very grainy and choppy looking though.  There is an "unintentional" fogginess across the screen during these scenes.  The game does not use the full potential of the GameCube and it really shows during the cinematic scenes. That is my biggest complaint about the graphics.

The sound effects are ok and sound good when the Nintendo GameCube is hooked up to Dolby Digital® compatible receiver. I like the sounds made in the background of the city, like the horns honking, etc. Even the sounds of the footsteps are nice. But all the punches and kicks sound the same. There are a few sound effects that really stand out, and others are nonexistent. But the soundtrack to the game is nice. It really puts you in the mood to fight crime.  The game does have a few voice-overs throughout the game. The bad guys talk to you while you fight them (they say the same stuff over and over though) and the voice-actors who perform in the television series, provide the voices in the game as well (Mark Hamill as the Joker, and Kevin Conroy as Batman) My favorite voice is that of Mr. Freeze (Michael Ansara), who taunts you during the battle.  It gives you kind of a "chilling" feeling as he stalks you.

The control isn't the greatest in the world. The character movements are fine while controlling your character in the Third Person view. But in this game, you have to switch between Third Person and the First Person view quite often. You explore the world in the Third Person view, but when you want to use your grappling hook, or boomerang, you HAVE to change views. It is fine to change to this view to use the binoculars, but for some heavy action scenes requiring quick thinking, it a little less desirable. Like when you are fighting Poison Ivy's monster plant. You have to be in the 3rd Person view to shoot your boomerangs at the ceiling to make the creature fall into the vat of poison. But while you are doing this, his tentacles are swinging at you; I became frustrated at having to move the cross hairs, and move Batman out of the way to dodge attacks. If the game would have had a targeting system like Parasite Eve it would be a lot better. That way you could see what is going on behind you, or down on the ground. In this game though, you have blind spots on each side, and in the back. I don't really care for it. But I guess it could be worse.

The control scheme is somewhat complicated for the beginner and it's a challenge at times to remember to switch views at the proper time, etc.

The overall gameplay is alright and the exploration and free roaming aspect of the game is a lot of fun. Gameplay takes place in a number of locations around Gotham City including warehouses, back alleys, industrial factories, and the rooftops and ledges of high-rise buildings.  But the fight scenes are poorly done. If you get to close to an enemy, you are locked in. You put up your fists, and you are locked in until you either defeat your opponent or "break away".  You can break away, but sometimes the control pad either doesn't recognize the command or you are so close to the enemy that you are immediately locked back in. Spider-Man released around the same time for the Nintendo GameCube was a better example of hand to hand fighting. It was easier to get away from the enemies in that game if you chose to do so.

My next complaint is the fact that you can't kill anybody in the game (other than the plant creatures of Poison Ivy) Instead you have to knock them out and hand cuff them (or sneak up behind them) and you have a limited amount of cuffs to do so. So if you don't hurry with what you are doing in the level, they get back up and chase you. Sure the game is based on the cartoon. But at least in the cartoon, if you knocked someone out, they stayed down.  I guess it adds to the "realism" of the combat with limited weapons, etc.

The enemy AI (artificial intelligence) is alright as well. The thugs can hear you on the other side of the wall, and they can see your shadow. But once you escape them or their sight, they go back to normal. They do not continue to search for you, and they don't work together.  There are levels the game where you have to drive the Batmoblie and even fly the BatPlane. It is fun to fly the plane, but driving the Batmobile is a joke! To turn a corner, you have to shoot out your grappling hook. Plus you have to hold the corresponding Trigger Down depending on which way you have to turn. And you have to do all this while accelerating, shooting, and steering. The vehicle sequences were not executed properly in my opinion.

The game environments are filled with power ups and hidden envelopes (which open up secrets once you complete the game) Also, many of the levels have puzzles you have to solve to unlock a door, and so on. Some of the puzzles are easy, while others are not so logical, plus most of them are timed and you can't "pause" the game.  The nice thing about the game is that when you complete the each level, you can go back and try to do better. You are graded (like in Spider-Man) how many crooks you cuff, how many items you find, how many secret areas of the game you explore, etc. And each cinema is unlocked of each level, so you can view them later in the gallery.

Overall, it's a fun game if you can get past the problems with the controls. There are too many things to do at once and it seems like the developers at the time were trying to play around with new styles of gameplay instead of focusing on what worked in the past.  At the time of its release, I only paid around $19.99 which I thought was a reasonable price.  I hope that the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum for the Sony PlayStation 3 fixes all the problems of past "superhero" games.
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[GAME]
Batman Vengeance

[DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER]
Warner Bros. Interactive/Ubi Soft

[PLATFORM]
Nintendo GameCube (GC)

[GENRE]
Action/Adventure

[YEAR of RELEASE]
2001

[ESRB RATING]
T for Teen
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© Copyright 2009 Chris_Billings

*this review is an addition to the "2009 Funny-Pages Write-Off" hosted by elvisdo.