Batman: Arkham Asylum is an action-adventure-stealth game developed by Rocksteady Studios and produced by Eidos Interactive. The game was released for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 in August 2009, and the PC version was released in September 2009. I personally reviewed the PS3 version.
In Batman: Arkham Asylum, you play the world's greatest detective aka Batman, aka Bruce Wayne. Let's just stick with Batman for now though. Your character (Batman) has just caught The Joker, and is bringing him back to Arkham Asylum, where Batman himself thinks something is fishy, that The Joker made it all too easy. Sure enough, The Joker did have something planned, and chaos ensues. The Joker locks down the Asylum and has taken over the island. You as Batman must of course go after The Joker, which is a lot harder than it sounds. This sets up for a classic super hero vs. arch nemesis storyline that I don't think could have been made better, the story was on point and The Joker setting up all these scenarios for Batman to play into his "Big Plan," was just classic, and very well done.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is a fantastic game. It is the best Batman game I have ever played bar none. Right from the opening cinematic of the game I was hooked. With voice actors Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Mark Hamill as The Joker, it is hard to go wrong. (For those of you who don't know, these are the guys who voiced these characters for the 90's Batman: The Animated Series cartoon, which is also fantastic and if you have not seen it, stop reading this review and go watch it now. Additionally, a little bit of trivia here, but Mark Hamill was the guy who played that one dude with the lightsaber... In that one Star Wars movie? Just kidding he played Luke Skywalker!!!! Okay back to the review now.) This game has the most fantastic voice acting I have heard in a while, Mark Hamill as The Joker is just, ugh, words can not describe how awesome he is. Same goes for Kevin Conroy. All voice acting is recorded on point, with every single grunt Batman makes in his batclaw grapples, his fighting, whenever he pulls a grate off and chucks it, or kicks it etc. The Joker, with all of his maniacal laughter, and fun poking, and teasing he does throughout the game is perfect. Harley Quinn is another character whose voice actress also played the animated Harley from the same series as Conroy and Hamill. She also does a wonderful job at her voice acting. Her whiny talking, and teasing to Batman, calling him "bats," or her undying adoration for The Joker who she frequently calls "Mistah J!" It is all just the same as I remembered it from when I was a kid... Except for Harley Quinn's outfit...
While Harley Quinn is undoubtedly pretty hot in Arkham Asylum, I thought she was just as good looking if not better looking in the animated series in her jester outfit, but for some reason they decided to really flaunt her sexuality in this game by giving her a super short skirt, with her thong sticking out, huge breasts, popping out of her shirt, etc. Which for me was not okay. As a kid growing up to watching my older bros. favorite show at the time Batman: The Animated Series, she was always in a jester outfit, it matched her character, that is what her character has always worn, some sort of jester outfit (whenever she is with The Joker at least.) Both Batman and The Joker's outfits didn't change from The Animated series, much, but hers did... I don't know, I guess when I saw her in that provocative outfit it sort of killed some of that childhood innocence I felt for her as a kid.
The voice acting, like I said before was enough to bring me back to my childhood Batman days, and just oogle and oggle nonstop. But that was not where the awesomeness stopped. The graphics were very crisp and had a realistic tone to them. When you're used to the animation from the show, and you get introduced to the gritty graphics in this game, it is actually a good transition. The Joker looks so much more creepy when he is all CGI'd up and looks like he could possibly be a person, with wrinkles, and facial expressions, and that never changing smile, it is all super creepy to look at in that beginning sequence of the game. Furthermore, a thing I like to see in a game are peoples mouths moving when they are talking. I don't know about you, but sometimes I play a game and when a character talks and it isn't a cut scene their mouths don't move, and it just annoys the hell out of me, not the case with Batman, their mouths move whenever they talk no matter what! YAY! Another thing that is awesome, is the deterioration of Batman's costume, similar to how The Prince in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time gradually lost his clothes. However, Batman does not lose any articles of clothing, his suit just takes one hell of a beating. Throughout the game his suit gets really battered, scratch on his chest, later a tear in his cape, later a scratch on his cheek, later another tear in his cape etc. Now there were SOME bat (I meant to say bad here, but I figured leaving my typo in here was fitting) things about the graphics such as reappearing faces on multiple characters, or Batman's cape looking kind of like it was made out of plastic. The guards of the asylum, look different for the most part, except for the guards with helmets and face masks. They all have the SAME face, so unless there is a guard who has the power to multiply himself or teleport like crazy, that was a silly graphical encounter. Batman's cape looks too plasticy to me, but it was still OK. Additionally, all of The Jokers cronies looked like beefy steroid crazies. Which in this case, was okay, I mean they're just cronies, but some variety would have been nice.
Another thing that could have stood some variety, were the boss fights. Almost every boss fight was the same, ALMOST every boss fight... Which honestly did not bother me at all during my play session, as I was drooling through the whole game really, but as an afterthought, the boss fights really could have been more varied without too much detraction from the core gameplay of this game.
Gameplay. Wow. Talk about phenomenal. There is a ton of content in this game. While the storyline will run you approximately 8 hours, if you want to find EVERYTHING, and unlock EVERYTHING, and beat peoples high scores on various challenge modes, then you are looking at 20+ hours of game time. Furthermore, the controls. The control scheme for this game is actually really nice. Combat is easy to learn with there only being 2 buttons involved for melee, but very difficult to master. If you are the button masher type like me, then you will have no issues here. However, if you like some finesse to your combat, and want to spend the effort and time and skill into timing your hits and racking up combo points, you will have a more difficult time with the combat, but a more rewarding time with the combat. The great thing is, no matter which route you take, it is still extremely satisfying combat to play, and watch. I noticed when I played I just mashed one button, then would counter attacks, and Batman looked like SUCH a badass, catching bad guys legs, punching their faces really fast, breaking their arms, flipping back to a guy behind him, and kicking him, then leaping across the room to dive at another guy, all the while the cape is flailing about so swiftly. Taking on 10+ guys, oh so much fun! Then I watched how my brother played the game, and he did it more methodically, he is not a fan of the brainless button mashing, and upgraded his melee in a way to compliment his playstyle of getting perfect hits and racking up 30+ combos and one hit k.o.'s etc. His combat style made Batman do slightly differing things then the combat style I had, which I thought was cool. But no matter which route you take, it is still fun. And that is just the melee.
There are stealth portions of this game that make you feel like Batman, that no other Batman game accomplishes. There are several times where you will walk into a room with armed baddies, which means you can't just run up and punch the crap out of them, as they will most definitely shoot you to death. This makes for a whole new style of combat that is quite refreshing. Grappling from gargoyle to gargoyle above the enemies in different rooms (now, why there are gargoyles INdoors?... I have yet to find out, but I digress) hanging down above a bad guy only to swoop down and tie him to the gargoyle, attracting other bad guys attention as you grapple away, smirking to yourself slyly as you look at the now frightened bad guys "one guy down, 5 more to go." Then you hop down into a vent on the floor and crawl underneath some guys to the back, pop out, and stealth k.o. a guy, hop back in the vent, and hide. The stealth combat is so incredibly varied, that it would be hard to go through them all. It is really fun to take out the last guy with a gliding kick though, just glide down from above, and kick him in the face, OH so satisfying! Something that is interesting and makes stealth combat great is Detective mode, this mode causes your eyes to go to that comic book white (similar to The Dark Knight white cell phone radar lenses) where you can actually see hostiles in rooms, how many there are, if they're armed or not, right off the bat. (heheheh) This mode also is used to uncover secrets, riddles left by The Riddler, and to follow trails left behind by certain people, or to scan things, or just to figure out where to go next, as this mode makes any object you can interact with, orange against all the blueness that is detective mode.
The game has you stealthing, sleuthing, and fighting your way through Arkham Asylum grounds, unlocking several different neat bat gadgets, encountering classic comic book villains such as Ivy, Bane, and Killer Croc. All the way to The Joker, in a very well done way. On top of all that there are TONS of collectibles in this game. From Riddler trophies, to Character bios, the whole bit. There are 28 HIDDEN character bios in this game which are REALLY interesting, especially to those of us who don't read comic books (guilty...) They have a run down of their first appearance, their looks, their story, facts about them, and even interview tapes of the villains that have been kept at Arkham Asylum, which are really amusing, that show you how The Joker and Harley Quinn got so close, among other things. The way you unlock these bios are by solving The Riddlers... Well, riddles. You never come into contact with the Riddler in this game (sorry I know I spoiled it...) as he is just a voice that talks to you and gives you these riddles you have to solve and constantly harasses you about being a bad detective etc. And this is where the Riddler Challenge grid comes into play. They have a whole grid laid out for you in a menu screen that tells you everything you've unlocked. There are also Riddler Trophies you can find which also unlock character bios, as well as reveal hidden things on your map etc. It is all very detailed and intense if you get into it. Then there are the Joker's ratting teeth you can seek out and destroy, if you destroy them all you get a prize, which I won't tell you what it is....
Doing these side objectives also unlock Challenge maps which are separate missions outside of the campaign, where you can go and try them, and rack up scores that actually compete with other scores via online, which makes for an interesting type of competition. These challenge maps consist of fighting through waves of enemies, stealthily taking out a certain number of enemies, and seeing how fast you can do it, etc.
Another objective are the Arkham Chronicles which are only found in this game, they aren't from the comic book or anything, they're new to this game. All around Arkham Asylum you'll find these bat symbol looking things you can scan and archive, where once you scan, this old British guy says a small clip about the island, and Arkham Asylum and its founding. You have no idea who the guy is, but maybe if you scan each thing you will find out who he is. It is really boring to hear him talk though, because he talks in a long drawn out monotone voice, and none of the clips make sense when you hear them separately, so the best thing is probably to scan all of them, then listen to them all in order one after the other to make sense of it all.
Batman: Arkham Asylum really does have a lot to offer, to comic book fans and video game fans alike. Fluid controls with stealth combat, melee combat, using your gadgets left and right making for great gameplay, then there's of course great graphics, a great soundtrack, great voice acting, a great story, it's all there!
Breakdown:
Story: 10/10
The main story does what it does fantastically, and there are also other stories to be had on the side.
Graphics: 8/10
The graphics were run on Unreal Technologies, and as such are pretty good, lack of variety in facial design, and a plasticy cape made for a lesser score
Sound: 10/10
The voice acting is superb, and the soundtrack is extremely well done, no complaints here. It is an original soundtrack, that sounds so Batmaney!!!!
Gameplay: 10/10
Fluid controls, tons of variety (with the exception of some boss fights) , and tons of extra content after beating the main story earn this a 10.
Overall: I give this game 5/5 stars.
I recommend all fans of Batman to buy this game, and also anyone who thought this review made it seem SOMEwhat worthwhile, definitely go buy it, you will not be disappointed.
This game is rated Teen for alcohol reference, blood, mild language, suggestive themes, tobacco reference, and violence.
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