Maybe the best Batman game ever made.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is terrifically paced action adventure with tight controls, great visuals and memorable voice acting. Everyone who considers himself a gamer should absolutely play it.
LUNATICS ARE LOOSE
Game takes place in the course of a one night. Batman is delivering the Joker to Arkham island but of course he escapes and takes entire island as a hostage. Now it’s up to Batman to find out what’s going on and try to stop joker. Story is paced in a way that you never feel bored in the course of this 10 to 15 hour adventure. Usually games start to repeat themselves as they progress but Batman: Arkham Asulym actually gets better as you play it. Structure of the game is quite linear, but still it doesn’t feel like you are being held on a leash.
OH THE COLORS
Game uses the Unreal Engine and this results a somewhat plastic look, although it is very detailed and the animation is well done. Island doesn’t feel overwhelmingly big, but it also doesn’t feel too small either. Even this is Batman game and even when it takes place during the night the game still uses a lot of colors so be prepared to see brightness alongside black and grey.
WHO IS THE JOKER?
Sound is done in a word right. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill make excellent performances as Batman and Joker and voice acting in general is just right. Sound effects - especially in combat - are memorable, because they make punching dudes quite satisfying. As a whole Arkham Asylum is a feast to both eyes and ears.
GADGETS AND FIGHTING
Batman is controlled from a third person perspective and the focus is combat and using different gadgets. Combat is quite simple comparing to games like Ninja Gaiden and God of War, but it works. There are a number of boss fights and they are so different from one another that from beginning to end you get to see something new. On top of all this there are also things to collect like audio logs and Riddler challenges. In short this is a fully featured game that you probably want to play more than once.
DON’T MISS IT.
Batman: Arkham Asylum has quality written all over it. You don’t need to be a Batman fan to appreaciate the effort that has been done to make this game. Anyone who considers himself a fan of good videogames should absolutely experience it.
