By "bad" that can mean not designed well, hurtful, offensive, problematic, poorly written, poorly considered, etc.
In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Joker orchestrates a takeover of the asylum and manages to get his many henchman to be transferred to Arkham as part of his plan.
The joker gang constitute most of the enemies the player faces, but there are patients introduced later on. However, all the patients are portrayed as feral, snarling freaks in undone straitjackets who will clamber atop Batman if the player misses a counter, and only stop once the player mashes buttons to make Batman slam them down and punch their heads into the ground.
Arkham isn't portrayed as a benevolent facility, but these enemies being the sole depiction of mental illness aside from named characters/enemies was in real bad taste. There's some surface lore that suggests these patients were experimented on and made to be this way, but it's subtext that should've been text, and the game wasn't really made better with their inclusion. It's made worse that there are no patients to help or save throughout the game. I didn't expect nuanced handling of such issues, but other games in the series at least sidestep that particular enemy type.
I realized this messed up a while ago, but it was still years after finishing the game. It feels like something from an older game, but it was only a decade ago—mental health depictions still are poorly handled in most media.
In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Joker orchestrates a takeover of the asylum and manages to get his many henchman to be transferred to Arkham as part of his plan.
The joker gang constitute most of the enemies the player faces, but there are patients introduced later on. However, all the patients are portrayed as feral, snarling freaks in undone straitjackets who will clamber atop Batman if the player misses a counter, and only stop once the player mashes buttons to make Batman slam them down and punch their heads into the ground.
Arkham isn't portrayed as a benevolent facility, but these enemies being the sole depiction of mental illness aside from named characters/enemies was in real bad taste. There's some surface lore that suggests these patients were experimented on and made to be this way, but it's subtext that should've been text, and the game wasn't really made better with their inclusion. It's made worse that there are no patients to help or save throughout the game. I didn't expect nuanced handling of such issues, but other games in the series at least sidestep that particular enemy type.
I realized this messed up a while ago, but it was still years after finishing the game. It feels like something from an older game, but it was only a decade ago—mental health depictions still are poorly handled in most media.
