Batman: Vengeance


Batman: Vengeance is a 2001 video game based on the fictional superhero of the same name, that was released for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. It was developed and published by Ubi Soft in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics.
The game is based on the television series The New Batman Adventures. The story revolves around Batman investigating the mysterious circumstances of the apparent death of his archenemy, the Joker, only to soon find himself entangled in a web of nefarious schemes orchestrated by other villains, such as Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy; the connection between all these schemes eventually becomes obvious when evidence hinting at the Joker's survival comes into light, and Batman must once again foil the Clown Prince of Crime's sinister plot to destroy Gotham City.

Plot

Batman saves a woman named Mary Flynn from a bomb placed by the Joker at Gotham Chemicals, and learns that the villain is holding her son hostage for ransom. Using a transmitter, he tracks the Joker and Mary down to the partially demolished Gotham Bridge, only to discover that Mary was actually Harley Quinn in disguise and that the kidnapping scheme was merely one of the Joker's plans to lure Batman into a trap. After Batman defeats the Joker, the villain seemingly falls to his death, though Batman suspects he is still alive and, therefore, lets Harley go, believing that only through her could he learn more about the Joker's true plans.
Over the following weeks, Batman foils other villains' schemes: he rescues Gotham Industrial Research scientist and the inventor of the Promethium drug for cryogenically frozen people, Isaac Evers, from Mr. Freeze's wrath, and thwarts Poison Ivy's attempt to blackmail politicians and other wealthy socialites, including Mayor Hamilton Hill, through plant parasites that she created using a chemical she received from an unknown source, retrieving the antidote for all of Ivy's victims that she mass-produced at a rebuilt Gotham Chemicals. However, upon closer investigation, Batman and Batgirl deduce that both of these schemes are related to the Joker: Evers received funding to create more Promethium from the villain after his initial funding was cut due to Promethium's high flammability; and Batgirl stumbled upon Ivy's plan while tracking down Harley via the transmitter, implying that Harley wanted them to thwart Ivy.
After spotting some the Joker's goons hijacking a blimp, Batman goes to speak with Harley, who swears she hasn’t seen Joker and informs him that, following the Joker's death, his men have been operating on their own. With some goons having left with the Joker's explosive "toys" and the blueprints to the Gotham Gasworks, Batman goes there and beats them, while foiling their plan to send the toys through Gotham via the pipe network by flooding the pipes. He then finds a tied up Issac Evers, who reveals that he hired the Joker's goons to destroy Gotham Industrial for the insurance money, having been unable to collect on the damage left by Mr. Freeze without revealing his involvement with the Joker; however, the goons suddenly turned on him and tied him up, before attempting to burn down the entire city. While Batman hands Evers over to the police, Harley frames him for hitting Commissioner Gordon with a Batarang and barely escapes from the police. Concluding that Harley is behind everything that occurred since Joker’s 'death', Batman disguises himself as a drifter to avoid police attention and investigates the Joker's old hideout, finding evidence hinting at his survival.
After tracking the stolen blimp to the Gasworks, Batman confronts a still-living Joker, who confirms his suspicions that he had faked his death to exact his true plan in a silent fashion, and that everyone unknowingly contributed to it: Evers supplied the Joker with Promethium, which he used to make his Joker toxin highly flammable; Mr. Freeze's attack on Evers, provoked by the tape he received from the Joker, led the scientist to plan the Gasworks scheme; Poison Ivy, who also received the chemical from him, rebuilt Gotham Chemicals, allowing the Joker to mass-produce Joker toxin; Harely relayed false information to Batman and framed him for attacking Gordon to take him out of the equation once he foiled Freeze and Ivy's schemes before they went too far; and Batman himself flooded the pipe network, which will allow the Joker to spread his toxin from the blimp throughout Gotham, burning it down. As the Joker escapes, Batman defeats his goons and Harley and boards the blimp, stopping the flow of Promethium and Joker toxin in the pipe network and even foiling the Joker's backup plan to crash the blimp and detonate the Promethium, while defeating the Joker and destroying the blimp.
As Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Harley, and the Joker are locked up at Arkham Asylum, Batman looks out over the city, where the Bat-Signal ignites behind him.

Development

Vengeance took environmental and character designs from The New Batman Adventures, and starred most of the main voice cast from both it and its predecessor, Batman: The Animated Series. The voice cast includes Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker, Tara Strong as Batgirl, Diane Pershing as Poison Ivy, Michael Ansara as Mr. Freeze, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Alfred Pennyworth, Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn, Bob Hastings as Commissioner Gordon, and Lloyd Bochner as Mayor Hill.

Reception

By the end of 2001, sales of Batman: Vengeance had surpassed 540,000 units. Its sales surpassed 670,000 copies by the end of March 2002.
Batman Vengeance received average reviews from critics and fans alike. The game's praise mainly went towards the voice acting, story, and cinematic cutscenes. There was criticism for the first person mode, which limited player's abilities in-game. The PC version drew a lot of mixed or negative reviews due to complex and sometimes confusing controls.
Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "While it has a number of things going for it, Batman Vengeance still comes up short in a few key areas."
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Batman: Vengeance for its 2001 "Outstanding Achievement in Original Musical Composition" award, which ultimately went to Tropico.