Arcade Berg aka. "Learning Game Design with Arcade Berg"

Batman Arkham Asylum – Free Flow Combat

I played through Batman: Arkham Asylum a couple of days ago and gosh darn it, it's good!

The overall execution of the game is great, but if you just wanna know whether it's good or not, read some reviews. What I'm gonna discuss a bit is its' combat system; the "Free Flow Combat" as it's called.

It's pure genius.

It basically works with you, the player (I'm Batman!) having to chain attacks together to built up combos. You can attack, move and counter. (You can also stun and use tools, but that's not its' core.) Attacking can be done at any time while countering is only possible if you time it correctly based on when the enemies attack.

If you need more info on how it works I recommend reading a review or watching a video explaining it.

There are two things I find absolutely astonoshing about this system:

1. It's pretty much the definition of "easy to learn and difficult to master".
2. It's incredibly adoptable.

The first one is pretty self-explanatory. From the first moment you're able to play and to fight, but as you get more time with it you start to realise that you're so much better than you were before. Period. It's not about unlocking new moves, finally being able to execute long or difficult combos, it's about planning, reacting and timing, three skills everybody can use and improve!

I really appreciate it calling to some of our basic abilities, instead of hardcore-restricted ones like a combo of 15 button presses.

The second point, about it being so adoptable is something that fascinates me even more! In the beginning of the game you face about 2-3 enemies at a time and it works great. You're really into it, kicking ass.

As you progress in the game, you start encounter more and more enemies per battle, sometimes up to about 15 and some with special abilities, like needing to be stunned before attacking or having to be attacked from behind. But even with this, the exact same system works just as perfect!

One enemy, 15 enemies, just normal grunts, special enemies, no matter what the combination is, the system holds its head up high! I don't know of any other fighting mechanic that does this so well. Usually it's more suitable for one kind of "situation".

For example, I don't think that Dynasty Warrior's system where you fight of hundres of enemies at once would work so will with a one on one combat.

With Batman they've nailed it with making use of patterns we can easily read and decode, making it more probable to get into the game thinking of what to do instead of how to do it. The most important thing for me.

I seriously hope a lot of other developers out there will take a really close look at this game. Not to copy it of course, but to see that simplicity can achieve greatness.