The game opens with Batman returning Joker to Arkham Asylum, the mental institution that houses all of the super criminals of Gotham City. But Joker's admission hardly goes smoothly, and before too long, he's running the asylum, complete with a master plan involving a drug called Titan that turns men into gigantic, jacked-up murder junkies. Along the way, you'll encounter plenty of regular thugs, as well as a swath of lesser Batman villains, such as Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, and Scarecrow, who brings with him some Eternal Darkness-like sanity effects that turn into full-on hallucination sequences. The characters are treated well, which makes each encounter with a main villain feel memorable, even if most of them aren't traditional boss fights.
In a lot of ways, the gameplay in Arkham Asylum feels similar to the Metroid/ Castlevania style of exploration-focused adventure. In the early parts of the game, you'll immediately start seeing areas you can't reach or walls that you can't get through. You'll return to these areas later on, once you've acquired the proper gear. Though the game is very linear in the way it presents its objectives, the island feels wide-open, and in most cases, you're free to roam around as you please. The game contains plenty of collectible objects to reward explorers, and you'll also have challenges to solve. These are especially cool because they come your way in the form of clues from The Riddler that give you a sentence or two about the thing you're looking for and what area of the world you can expect to find it in. The riddle approach, along with some in-game maps that help point you at trophies and other items, prevents the collectibles from getting too tedious over the course of the game.
The cool part about playing Arkham Asylum is that you're never doing any one thing for too long. As you move from one area to the next, you'll transition between up-close fights with multiple thugs, stealth areas where you'll want to carefully take down enemies from behind, and plenty of enemy-free rooms where you just need to figure out how to navigate the area. The fighting feels nice and has a combo system that lets you easily transition from one target to the next. You'll face off against these guys in groups, forcing you to watch your back. When an enemy attempts to hit you, a little marker will appear above his head, giving you time to hit a counter button to prevent the attack. You'll also unlock extra moves as you gain experience and upgrade your abilities. It's rarely difficult, but Batman animates well enough to make the combat really satisfying.
Then, of course, there's the exploration itself. At any time you can flip into "detective mode," which is an alternate viewing mode that lets you see scent trails, DNA, or other things you might be using to track your current target. This mode also lets you see through walls, letting you get a good sense of what's coming up, where enemies are positioned, and so on. It also highlights things like ventilation ducts and other points of interest that might blend into the background if you aren't careful.
All of the different aspects of Batman: Arkham Asylum come together along with some great graphics. The principal characters look really great and extremely thick. The meaty character models make the fighting look downright painful. The island itself also looks great, with a great amount of variety, with torn-up cell blocks, a mansion, a big greenhouse, and a sizable exterior with guard towers, statues, and so on. The atmospheric nature of the game is also furthered by its audio. There's a lot of great voice work throughout the game, and there's a lot of it to listen to, including collectible tapes you'll find that feature some of the game's criminals being interviewed by Arkham's psychiatrists, giving you a bit of insight into the characters. Also, the combat itself is bolstered by some great smacks, chops, and thumps.
But Batman: Arkham Asylum's minor issues only serve to remind you how strong the rest of the game is. Its different elements mesh together in a way that keeps it feeling fresh over the course of the game, and the story moves in such a way that even players who aren't big Batman fans will come away satisfied.
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