PsVita Game Batman BlackGate

One of the most highly regarded and seminal works of Batman fiction is Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. An inspiration for Batman: Arkham Asylum, it tells the tale of what happens when the Dark Knight is forced to spend a night with the madhouse’s criminally insane inmates - or, to paraphrase Rorschach in Watchmen, what happens when they’re forced to spend a night with him. On a smaller scale, both in physical size on 3DS and PS Vita, and in implementation, that’s the general idea behind the good-but-not-great Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate, as the caped crusader returns to the prison three months after Arkham Origins’ conclusion.

I bring up that graphic novel because, as evidenced by Batman: Arkham Asylum, the setup is epic, worthy of a grand tour de force in which Batman has to tackle his demons, both the twisted villains in the real world and the ones inside his own head. That is not the case in Blackgate, which turns a night inside Gotham’s notorious prison, now controlled by Black Mask, Penguin, and Joker, into a fairly run-of-the-mill Metroidvania-style action adventure.

“Well, what do you expect?” I can hear you ask, “It’s a handheld game!” True, and it manages to condense the essence of the Arkham series into a pint-sized experience that retains the stealth and combat of its console big brothers. But it also feels like a stripped-down version of Arkham Origins - more of an addendum than an experience that stands on its own. Even Batman remarks in one of Blackgate’s low-tech, graphic novel-style opening cinematics that it seems like he was just here.