Batman Begins

Stuff

Longtime Bat-gamers can consider Batman Begins the cave-engineered antidote to the Bat-crap that’s been dropping on consoles in recent years.

PGNx Media

The production values are outstanding.

Xbox Solution

I wish the old Batmobile was unlocked and in the game but instead gamers will get to drive the prototype instead. For fans of Batman it is safe to say there is plenty of replay value.

Maxim Online

Batman Begins isn't just a good game, it's two great games that play great together. When you’re the caped crusader, it's an action game in the mold of "Splinter Cell"... Then, when you’re driving the Batmobile, the game morphs into "Burnout," with you knocking cars off the road as you careen through traffic.

GamerFeed

The gameplay goes deeper than expected with stealth elements and the ability to build a fearful reputation and then kicks it into high gear with some thrilling racing sequences.

Gaming Target

While it’s easy and linear (not to mention short – 6 to 7 hours or so), Batman Begins excels where it counts, truly making you feel like the Dark Knight, stalking his prey and brutalizing those who target the weak and innocent.

Computer and Video Games

It's good. Clichéd nonsense, but good. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

GamePro

The training levels are a little tedious, but serves it purpose to have you naturally thinking and reacting as if you're Batman by the heart of the game.

Xbox Evolved

With perfect voice acting and sound effects, very crisp and good looking graphics, a truly wonderful story, but somewhat lacking gameplay…Batman Begins is at most a weekend rental for the average gamer, but is definitely worth a purchase by any Batman fan.

AtomicGamer

With a completion time of under eight hours and a few half-decent extras, one has to wonder if Batman Begins was essentially targeted directly as a rental game.

The New York Times

While the storytelling is poor, the game does an excellent job of evoking the film's ambience, with striking visuals even better than those in the movie. The game's use of light as it streams through broken boards into a dark room is reminiscent of the wonderful art direction of the first "Splinter Cell" game.

Gamer's Hell

Like most games in its genre Batman Begins isn’t a game we’re likely to remember in a year. It’s a good game in most ways, but even if it introduces some interesting elements into the gameplay I doubt it’ll be enough to appeal to those not heavily into Batman, or the action / third-person action genres.

Play Magazine

The decision to go stealth was a good one and even though scripted and prompted, the gameplay hits the broad mark.

XboxAddict

Batman should be able to have options. He should have so many combat skills that it is almost impossible to learn them all.

Next Level Gaming

Although repetitive at times, it does provide a few hours of fun. The game is incredibly short and can be finished in well under 10 hours.

Game Informer

Is it great? Heck no. Does it offer little substance, but an enjoyable handful of thrills? It does, more often than not. [Aug 2005, p.97]

Game Chronicles

The use of the fear aspect is slightly innovative but it can’t help boost this game out of its heavily scripted and repetitive rut.

DarkStation

EA finally does some justice to the Batman license with this decent if not unspectacular action title that ends up far too linear and repetitive for its own good.

Game Over Online

With extremely linear gameplay, a relatively flawed fear mechanic and basic combat system, Batman really isn’t breaking a sweat in this title.

Kombo

Not the best game ever, but one of the better movie based games and easily one of the better Batman games in recent history.

Worth Playing

It has surpassed all expectations and that it is, in fact, a very fun and entertaining title.

GameSpy

It features some excellent graphics and audio production, as well as some of the best voiceover work to date. However, this can't make up for the frustrating gameplay, which tries to focus on stealth, combat, and platforming, yet doesn't manage to do any of these particularly well.

Inside Gamer Online

At least it’s easy on the eyes and ears: Batman Begins looks remarkably good, from twilight environments that make for a spooky Gotham City to some surprisingly impressive character models.

GameBiz

This is the best Batman video game ever released, saying that this game still isn’t a AAA title but is above average. The linear storyline does subtract from the playability but this is really not a true hindrance.

AceGamez

In the end or in the beginning if you like, Batman Begins is a good game, just falling short of great due to the linearity.

XGP Gaming

For a game that is supposed to be a stealth game, it doesn’t progress the stealth action genre at all.

TeamXbox

While Batman Begins tries to introduce the concept of fear into the stealth/action genre, it needs a bit more fleshing out. The linearity of the gameplay prevents you from creating your own “fear events” and keeps things limited to scripted cinematic events.

IGN

As a whole, the game was a little short (six hours), but it's still a pretty fun ride despite the fact that it is not the definitive Batman game we've been waiting for. This game ain't the greatest in terms of freedom and linearity, but I'll still take it over "Spider-Man 2." No doubt.

GameSpot

Unfortunately, the gameplay feels too much like a mishmash of several other well-known gaming franchises and ends up overly simplistic.

Gaming Age

If you are a fan of the Batman, you should play this game in some form, as it is one of the better representations of the comic hero in quite some time.

Talk Xbox

What really holds this title back is its extremely linear gameplay. Everything seems to be dumbed down.

Xbox World Australia

Like cinema coke, the gameplay has been watered down to the point where it almost feels like an occasionally-interactive movie, where you only need to pay attention during fight sequences.

1UP

The stealth fails, however, in at least two significant ways. The first is a near-total lack of choice: there's almost always one prescribed way to navigate a given situation, and player improvisations are promptly curtailed by unsustainable gunfire.

GameZone

It seems like the developers might have gotten rushed to get the game finished at the last minute and did not finely tune all of the game’s aspects, especially the enemy AI.

Pelaaja (Finland)

Despite its limitations Batman Begins is an okay-ish action/adventure game, which has excellent production values. The voice acting is excellent and helps to make the game feel and sound very authentic compared to the movie. This game certainly is no "Catwoman"! [July 2005, p.59]

Sydney Morning Herald

Batman smartly accommodates beginners and never frustrates, but it forgets that much of the pleasure derived from gaming is freedom. Too often you feel you are going through the motions because you can only fight at predetermined positions.

MS Xbox World

The game felt a little like a cheaper more linear version of splinter cell with none of the style and with some hand to hand combat and plat forming moments thrown in for good measure.

Cheat Code Central

I find it vexxing (love that word) when I play a game and I can't stop thinking about all of the things that are missing, rather than what is present... Batman Begins is rife with missed opportunities and it's a much lesser game because of it.

PALGN

An above average game that could have been so much, if only it was a little longer and a little larger.

Eurogamer

The thing that upset me, though, was that by the time I got through most of it there was a real sense that these ideas - however basic - could have been applied so much more exotically and with so much more freedom than they have.

Yahoo! Games

Requiring only five to seven hours to finish, and having virtually no replay value, only the most dedicated fans should own Batman Begins.

Total Video Games

The game does feel a bit ‘by the numbers’ and certainly doesn’t match the quite frankly sublime quality of gameplay that fellow movie tie-in "Chronicles of Riddick" achieved in 2004. Fans of the film are sure to be satisfied with Batman Begins, but for regular gamers, it’s all been seen and done before.

G4 TV

A reasonably engaging, yet perfectly average experience--much like most summer blockbusters.

GameShark

A rather short game, pulling in at about 6-7 hours to complete, the repetitiveness and the arduousness of the gameplay and fighting style, makes it seem much longer, although, admittedly, it is one of the better Batman games to be released in some time.

Edge Magazine

Where the game really succeeds, however, beyond providing a robust and solid, if unassuming model of explorative stealth and attack, is in fulfilling that old and oft-forgotten criterion - putting the gamer inside the movie. [Aug 2005, p.95]

TotalGames.net

The biggest problem with Batman Begins is that it tries to imitate both "Splinter Cell" and "Burnout," two fantastic games that ought to combine for a very successful title. Unfortunately, with Batman at the helm, they turn into parodies bordering on farce.

Gaming Horizon

Everything about this game is top notch, except for the game itself which is altogether terrible.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

It's too simplistic. While the game gives the illusion of Splinter Cell-style freedom in how you want to take out your enemies, Batman only really ever has one course of action: knock something over, scare the bad guys into dropping their guns, then come in punching and kicking.

BonusStage

Unless you are a true comic fan and know nothing about games, avoid this title like avoiding the Scarecrow’s neurotoxin. Instead, save your money from the rental and see the movie, which far exceeds what this game presents.

Game Revolution

Although its blend of stealth and action is clever, it's also derivative and boring.

Detroit Free Press

Compromised because you've pretty much seen and played the game before. Fans will see the adventure through, but many players will find their attention wandering.

Official Xbox Magazine

More a dreary exercise in solving the developer's puzzles, and less about the thrill of being Batman. [Sept 2005, p.82]

Gamestyle

Another by-the-numbers film license cash-in which will entertain, but ultimately leave the player wishing they parted with their cash for something that has had more creative and industrious effort put into it.

Times Online

A classic case of style over substance, being little more than a glossy advertisement for the film.

NTSC-uk

What was shaping up conceptually to have been the definitive Batman game to date, simply ends up being little more than a disappointing cash-in, complete with spoiler-laden (and bafflingly unskippable) clips of the movie between levels, film trailers, and even some unlockable costumes for good measure.

Computer Games Magazine

You've basically got a barely interactive "Splinter Cell for Dummies." [Sept 2005, p.91]