Batman Beginner

Good Evening!

I'm your typical adult gamer with more money than time and because of this never played Batman: Arkham Asylum. I watched the Arkham City Quicklook and am sold on playing it, but I'm curious if I'm doing myself a disservice by not playing Aslyum first?

Would love any suggestions you can give, and what console should I get it for? (I have the three major platforms). Also does anyone know if playing Arkham Aslyum gives you any benefit in Arkham City?

Thanks Giantbomb Community.

Arkham Asylum is a really great game. It's definitely worth playing. So far as which platform is best, I think it's about the same on all three, so go with your controller preference (or play on PC and use a controller, that probably works).

But, if you don't have the time or something, you probably don't really need to play it to know what's going on in Arkham City. If you know who Batman is, you know enough.

I have yet to play Arkham City, so I don't know if the story is connected all that much or anything, but either way, I would say try and play Arkham Asylum just because it is so good. I can't really comment on what system to go for, but I can say that I played on the Xbox and didn't have any sort of problems.

If you don't have the time to play the original, then it sounds like there were several improvements made to the sequel, so you should probably just play that. If you have the time then you should definitely play Arkham Asylum.

PC is the superior version of Arkham Assylum due to a few graphical goodies. But they are all more or less the same. If you have a good enough PC get it for that, but you cant really go wrong.

I haven't played Arkham City so idk if there's a benifit to playing Asylum first except maybe getting a better grasp of the characters/story.

If you decide to get Asylum I would go with the PS3 version soley because it has exclusive DLC where you can play as the joker in challenge rooms or something like that. Of course if you don't give two shits about challenge rooms then I say go with your heart!

I'm a few hours into Arkham City and see no reason why you couldn't just jump right in. The mechanics don't seem to be described as well as in Arkham Asylum but shouldn't take that long to pick up. The story may carry over a little from the first game in so much as the Joker and Batman didn't get along and guess what....they still aren't getting along. Go get it and have fun!

You'd be doing yourself a huge disservice if you didn't play Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Thanks for the opinions everyone. Appreciate the input!

i havent played city yet but damn arkham asylum is brilliant. i got it on steam for like 5 bucks on sale, it was great. really tempted to get city but i think i might play it later on when it gets cheaper since its a strictly single player game thats apparently only 10ish hours long. so ill wait awhile but im most certainly interested.

If you are a Batman fan, Asylum is a must play, as there is a treasure trove of hidden goodies in that game related to Batman and his rogues gallery. I beat it and fully intend to try and track down all of the interview reels and Arkham symbols, just for the story elements they present. Play it on easy and you could burn through the story in a weekend, no problem. 100% worth the time to do so.

Thanks! Just looked at steam and the GOTY edition is $9.99, I'm losing money if I don't purchase it at that price!

haha. Wish I hadnt already invested so much time in the PS3 version. Dang it.

Honestly, I found Arkham Asylum really disappointing. It had a much hyped combat system that I found really really shallow. The exploration wasn't too interesting. The game was linear. Pretty much I had watched quite a few reviews and had quite high expectations from all the GOTY talk and so had my hopes shot down. But I think that I am most definitely not the norm

You should buy it.

All you need to know is a couple of things.

1.) Joker is dying.

2.) Catwoman saved Bruce Wayne

3.) All the Blackgate and Arkham prisoners were placed in Arkham after mayor Quincy built a massive city/prison.

4.) Dr. Hugo Strange controls what mayor Quincy says and does.

5.) Dr. Hugo Strange knows Bruce Wayne is Batman and vise versa.

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Enjoy the game.

@MooseyMcMan said:

Arkham Asylum is a really great game. It's definitely worth playing. So far as which platform is best, I think it's about the same on all three, so go with your controller preference (or play on PC and use a controller, that probably works).

But, if you don't have the time or something, you probably don't really need to play it to know what's going on in Arkham City. If you know who Batman is, you know enough.

Actually the PC will be the best version since the visuals should be noticeably better along with more options for control schemes. It's also only $40 for those that own AA, $50 for everyone else.