Batman: Arkham Asylum Review - The definitive Batman game
A superhero licence hasn’t exactly been a seal of quality in recent years, so it was a wonderful surprise to find that Batman: Arkham Asylum is an absolute gem of a game.
Every moment of the game radiates with love and respect for the source material. Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin reprise their pitch-perfect voice roles from the revered animated show, while veteran bat-scribe Paul Dini crafts an epic and enthralling adventure. With so many of Batman’s rogues gallery of villains making an appearance, the whole thing could easily have got contrived, but the Arkham setting and Dini’s top-notch writing make you feel like you are in the middle of a proper Batman story.
Where adept handling of the source material forms one pillar of Arkham’s success, the other pillar is gameplay. Combat is fast and furious, depending on well-timed strikes and counters that build to combos allowing Bats to perform special moves to subdue his foes more quickly. The system is easy to learn but tough to master: The in-game fights don’t require advanced skill, but the special unlockable challenge rooms really separate the wheat from the chaff. Brawls have the kind of frantic yet graceful quality you would expect to see when Batman takes on a dozen thugs, yet the player remains firmly in control throughout.
The other main gameplay element is stealth. Thugs armed with guns make short work of the caped crusader so it is essential to scout your prey and take out gunmen in your initial surprise attack. Stealth set-pieces see you picking off armed thugs one by one, hiding in vents and swinging from the rafters to avoid detection. Like the combat, this truly captures the feel of what it is to be Batman.
Once the main story is completed there is still plenty to do. The game area is littered with collectables that unlock challenge rooms, and character bios, the search for which can be resumed after the final battle. Then there’s the challenge rooms offering combat and stealth mini-games which provide an addictive extension to the game’s life.
Arkham is the definitive Batman game and one of the best of 2009.
