When fans were first introduced to Rocksteady's Arkhamverse with 2009's Spider-Man movie tie-in games, the genre was far off the fluidity of combat that truly captured what it would feel like to take control of a highly skilled superhero such as Batman.
In the immediate years prior to Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman fans didn't have much luck with combat in the Caped Crusader's titles. In the year before, they were able to play titles such as 2008 LEGO Batman, which played very similarly to other LEGO titles like the much-loved LEGO Star Wars series, and featured a standard one-button hit mechanic that players could use on foes and items in the world. Before that, there was a movie tie-in for 2005's Batman Begins. Despite having combat, Batman Begins had more of a focus on stealth and using gadgets to instill fear in opponents. Batman Begins overall was a slower title, which was fine for its story of a Batman newly trained by Ra's al Ghul's League of Shadows, but it did make Batman feel somewhat more vulnerable. While the Batman: Arkham series also had the Dark Knight having to use stealth to plan his attacks when facing armed foes, they supplied him with more grapple mechanics to quickly escape and reassess the situation.
One of the main reasons fans and critics praised Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequels' combat was because, while it seemed simple on the surface with its timed counters, it actually added kinetic value to attacks. Every punch and kick felt like it connected due to a mixture of audio and visual cues that helped sell the impact and weight behind every hit. Although Batman doesn't kill in the Batman: Arkham games, he certainly delivers large amounts of damage and over the course of the fight - as players implement a variety of gadgets to chain attacks and quickly take down opponents. The speed of these encounters is enhanced by more brutal animations until finally the fight concludes with a slow-motion bone-cruncher of a blow.
Other Games Have Copied Batman: Arkham's Freeflow Combat
In the years following Batman: Arkham Asylum's release many games from Warner Bros.' other game studios and external developers have emulated the title's freeflow combat. However, none have quite mastered it in the same way. The underrated Mad Max came closest in of its brutality. However, due to the character's lack of martial arts training and various mechanical additions such as a leg brace and gloves that had been modified with heavy metal objects to allow for more damage, the combat itself was slower than the Dark Knight's. Batman's speed and agility was met and possibly exceeded due to the addition of powers and suit abilities in Marvel's Spider-Man, however, that combat understandably had more of a weightlessness due to the webhead's super-strength, as well as the ability to take the fight into the air with aerial moves, rather than the more grounded, weighted fighting that Batman does.
It's yet to be seen how superhero games will build upon the Batman: Arkham series' freeflow system going forward. Rocksteady's next entry to the Arkhamverse, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is due to incorporate more shooter and ranged mechanics with characters such as Deadshot and Captain Boomerang being key playable characters. Rocksteady could also expand upon the freeflow combat system it already has in place with the likes of Harley Quinn or King Shark, who will likely have more melee-based gameplay. Batman: Arkham Origins developers WB Games Montréal, meanwhile, has opted for a combat system different from Batman: Arkham's with the co-op-focused Gotham Knights. In any case, the freeflow system is still hugely influential. Hopefully, Rocksteady's peers will be able to tap into the same kind of kinetic responses that made Arkham Asylum's combat so compelling to begin with.