Action Heroes and Super Heroes

From Action Heroes to Super Heroes

A lot of people tend to feel that the action hero has gone the way of the dinosaur, a product of their time in the 80’s and 90’s. Guns, Bullets, explosions, and more explosions.
But have they actually been replaced by Super Heroes, or have they simply moved to an environment where they can still thrive in contemporary times. But what about super heroes?
how can they share a marketplace with the action hero and not step on each other’s toes?

In order to better understand what each genre archetype is doing to stay relevant, fresh and exciting;
we’re going to take a look at a particular year that showcased both hero types crushing it (ha see what I did there?).

What can I say other than 2009 had some amazing games; two of which came from some of my favorite franchises. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Batman: Arkham Asylum.
One critically acclaimed for being the first game to actually do a “Liscenced property right” becoming the king of super hero games, and the other praised for its never before seen:
elaborate set pieces, gameplay, storytelling, graphics, and technical innovation.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a third person action adventure “metroidvania” game. It came to fruition through a collaborative effort between several parties that actually cared about the I.P. The game was first revealed to the public in 2008. After Edios Interactive obtained the license for a Batman Game in 2007. Edios approached little know British developer Rock-Steady to create the game after seeing their prototype. Once full production finally began, DC comics approached Emmy award winning writer Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series, Detective Comics) to create
An original story for a Batman Game due to his
amazing track record (have you seen BTAS!?).

Stories written by some of the most revered comic book authors(who wrote Batman Comics Specifically) such as Neal Adams, Frank Miller and Grant Morrison were influential to the games overall design. The most important factor that contributed
to the immersion of the game was the design team’s commitment to make the player feel like Batman.  They isolated each component that makes Batman BATMAN and exaggerated them until it felt just right. The game also heavily enforced Batman’s no kill
rule but provided a multitude of ways to incapacitate enemies.

Due to the fact that the developers really cared about the IP, and wanted to include the most iconic aspects of the Batman Mythos; Rocksteady ended up casting two most iconic voices for Batman and The Joker ever. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hammil (Batman: The Animated Series, The New Adventures of Batman and Robin, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited). This alone was able to give any 90’s/00’s kid nostalgia fever to the point that the hype train left the station as soon as it was announced.
 

The linchpin to this masterpiece however was the combat. Rocksteady developed the free flow combat system. Flashy, full of gadget abilities (that can be used to chain combos), and the acrobatic grace of a master ninja were all key components in making you feel like the real Batman (you know the one from the comics and animated films/series, not that silly movie one “where’s the trigger?” please.)  

What I’m really getting at is that Rocksteady did EVERYTHING right, and doing everything right lead to 3 additional sequels and more critical acclaim than you can shake a stick at.
For the kid in all of us who always wanted to be THE BATMAN, Rocksteady gave us the ultimate Saturday morning cartoon fantasy on steroids.

So... with all of this: swinging in the night, taking out baddies by bursting through the floor grates, and fighting 12 enemies at once; surely there couldn’t be any room left for globetrotting and gunfights right? WRONG!

Uncharted 2: Among Theives; the smash follow up to 2007’s Uncharted Drake’s Fortune released only a few months after of Batman: Arkham Asylum, to just as much critical and commercial success. Arkham Asylum put you in the
shoes of an established character, and made you feel like them. Uncharted on the other hand puts you in control of a much less established character and presents them more like an archetype; The Indiana Jones everyman who’ll
break your neck without even thinking twice about it.

Where Arkham Asylum strictly enforced Batman’s no killing policy, Uncharted encourages you to leave a sea of bodies in your wake. If Uncharted Drake’s Deception was an 8 on the intensity level and wow factor, Among Thieves cranks it up to 11
from the moment you press start. I mean come on, you start by waking up in a destroyed train car, hanging off the side of a cliff, in the Himalayas.

Upon Uncharted 2’s release, the game was revered for its highly elaborate set pieces, character design, storytelling, graphics, technical innovation and gameplay mechanics (try saying that on one breath). Clearly Naughty Dog cracked the formula with
Among Thieves and turned us into the murderous treasure hunter we never knew we wanted to be.

Here’s hoping Uncharted 4 A Thief’s End will be the Swansong Nate deserves.