Batman Begins (Xbox)

While the game's initial beginnigs (ha ha) seem well founded, the execution and finishing touches seem rushed and gone to pot. For example, Batman makes use of a variety of gadgets, such as a grapling guns and camrera scramblers, but when he does so, there is no gadget in his hand. He just points and shoots, and cables shoot out of...his finger tips? This seemed to me to be an obvious tell-tale sign that the game had been rushed to coinside with the film's release, not gonna work in its favour.

Another sign of its hurried production is that you have very little choice over where you go and what you do. There is nigh on nill free roaming throughout the game. If you want to progress its one way and one way only. Not only that but the game makes it so obvious what it is you have to do that you almost feel as though you're just along for the ride. Hearing Michael Cane give you advice is great, but its annoying when you know that its just dictating what your next move will be.

Attacking enemies suffers from a similar problem. You can drop down on thugs and drag them to the rafters in order to pummel or interogate them, but only where the game says and the game will decide whether to pummel or persuade. This proves frustrating as you don't feel so much like you are the character, more just a conduit from one cut scene to the other.

As I mentioned before, grphically the game aint too bad and it caputures the atmosphere well for what's there. On a side note the way Batman glides looks almost identical to the way he glides in Batman: Vengence, just like they copied it all across and changed his suit! That said the graphics are good, however I would have sooner seen worse graphics and more of Gotham to explore. Spiderman 2 may have been yod in many ways, but what it got fundamentally right was that you got to be Spiderman with all of his spider powers at your disposal, in a free-roaming Manhattan. Batman can not so much as fall below a ledge or dip his toe in the water before he plumits to his death (despight being able to glide) or drowns (well he will wear all that rubber...).

So with even the graphics holding your hand and forcing you in the very narrow direction that they want you to go, not to mention the game play, what is there about this game that justifies a purchase? Well I suppose the answer is simple: its a movie franchise game, and as such its not too bad. As a game its below avarage, but put it in the context of the other Batman games and other movie games, and its about average/slghtly above average.

I'd recomentd that in the Batman frenzy at the moment, if you can't keep going to see the film in the cinema because, I don't know, you have a life or something, rent this out for a few days and get the gist before you decide to buy it.