Batman: Arkham Asylum Reviews

I truly felt like I was Batman. I became so immersed in this game, I felt a kind of mad glee at picking off bad guys one by one with brutal stealth takedowns and watching the remaining goons becoming increasingly panicked, jumping at shadows, never knowing when or where I'll strike next. I relished the terror that Batman inflicts upon the evildoers of Gotham.

Wow, just wow. Easily the best Batman game ever created, and quite possibly the best game ever created. The Joker has taken over Arkham Asylum, taken the Warden and Gordon prisoner and it's up to Batman to stop him and rescue everyone in the prison/asylum. It's an RPG and you play as Batman, no Robin to distract you. It's heavily influenced by the Christopher Nolan films in terms of style and characterisation.

Let's start with the environment, it *is* stunning. Arkham is present in the game in all it's creepy glory. There's several buildings, all rendered with lavish detail. The music is mostly very good. I'm not completely enamoured with it, but more often than not, it's adds to the atmosphere.

The characters get as much attention as the environment, if not more. As part of a puzzle quest, you get patient interview tapes all through the game. All of them are exceptional, kudos to both the writers and the voice artists. You encounter all the classic Bat-villains - the Joker, of course, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Bane, Killer Croc, Bane and Scarecrow. The story is largely driven forward by The Joker but each of the other villains gets their 15 mins. Then there is Batman himself. He's voiced by Kevin Conroy, who has done a brilliant job voicing Batman since the early 1990s starting with the Animated Series. His face, his suit, his weapons - everything is perfect.

The game play emphasises stealth over action. You get the fights with the inmates and the boss fights but much of the game involves sneaking around without being detected by your pursuers. This is entirely in keeping with the character of Batman, who never carries a gun and relies on stealth and surprise to overpower his opponents. You get toys and upgrades to help with this, the Batarang chief among them.

The game play, the story, the characters, the environment are the best in a Batman game created so far. As a Batman fan (both movies and graphic novels), I am in heaven every time I play this game. It's as close to perfection as a game can be, in my opinion.

Batman Arkham Asylum really impressed me. The Characters are cool and have got nice voice actors, the looks are convincing, it's varying and the mood is well delivered. I just didn't like the ending, the characters acted so OOC. ô.o It's probably not perfect but very close to it. It's great fun to play and one of the best super hero games I've seen so far.
Let's see how Arkham City will become :)

As posted on Hijinks Inc. Please visit our site and tell us what you think!

Hello again boys and girls. I realize Batman: Arkham Asylum isn't the latest and greatest video game by any means, however, it is a solid game that merits involvement in our line of game reviews. It's no coincidence that it's also one of the games I played with my recent game pass from Blockbuster.

B:AA (short for Batman: Arkham Asylum, I like to simplify things) is an action-adventure stealth game that gets quite a bit more right than wrong. Many of the other Batman games that have come out over the years took a lot of liberties with their story lines. This one strictly adheres to the comic book mythology. They even went so far as to have long-time Batman scribe Paul Dini write the story. That's a big point in favor of the game. The second big thing they got right with this game is the voice acting. They went out and got the actors from the DC Animated Universe, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to voice Batman and Joker, respectively. Many hardcore Batman aficionados consider these two to be the best representations of what these characters should sound like, in an animated universe anyway. The third biggest achievement? No Robin!! Just how Batman should be!!

The overall story in this game borrows loosely from the graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. It starts out with Batman apprehending The Joker and taking him to Arkham Asylum. Along the way you learn that there has been a fire at Blackgate Prison, so there are a bunch of regular sane criminals in Arkham, and they all 'happen' to be linked to Joker and his crew. Seems pretty standard for one of Joker's ploys. Batman elects to accompany the guards taking Joker to his cell and along the way they are ambushed by Harley Quinn and *gasp* Joker escapes! Man, I totally didn't see THAT coming! Anyway, after this daring escape the madness ensues.

B:AA is based on Batman in his truest form, his fighting, detective, and stealth skills along with all of his crazy gadgets. As is standard in games like this, you are very limited in what you can do at the beginning of the game. Naturally, you unlock new moves and equipment as your progress through the game. Overall, the idea is to be as stealthy as possible, in some cases you aren't even allowed to alert the guards. Don't worry, you get to kick plenty of ass along the way streaming together combos and counter-attacks to gain experience points and then be able to unlock more moves and equipment. Many areas of the game require special equipment in order to advance, so you get plenty of opportunities to use all of your fancy gadgets.

There's plenty in this game that any Batman fan can appreciate. Obviously, there are plenty of encounters with Joker, but you also get to face off against Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy and others and there's plenty of nods to other characters if you keep your eyes open. The game also has some built in exploration benefits as well as you can unlock special achievements and special content... most of which I hardly even scratched the surface.

B:AA currently holds a Guinness World Record for being the 'Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever' along with garnering plenty Game of the Year awards. I've messed around with some other superhero games and many of them could hardly hold my attention. I was involved enough with this game that I wanted to see it all the way through to the end. Perhaps the best part is that a second game has already been announced so you should go play this one, if for no other reason than to be all caught up when the second one is released!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Rent/Buy: Rent
Publisher: Rocksteady Studios
Platform: Xbox 360 and PS3
Cost: Varies [Amazon Link]
Release date: August 25, 2009

Such a great experience! I like it when game developers use actual comic writers to write their games. Makes it feel more authentic. I am so glad they had Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their roles as Batman and the Joker. The only other Batman game I have owned and defeated prior to this was Batman Returns for the SNES. Arkham Asylum put you under the Cowel. I like the thrid person view and I like the idea of being able to adjust the camera angle to where you wanted it and needed it to help you in your detective work, combat, and absorbing the ambience of the Nightmarish Arkham. One of my favorites is suspending yourself from a gargoyle and snatching up a prisoner and hanging him from the statue. I cannot find to much fault in the game. The Review stated that this UK developer did not give a jump button which would make sense to have since Batman is such a great Athlete but I can see no need since you have your grappling gun and you are able to jump over the minor villians as you evade. SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! the Joker is not going to go toe to toe with Batman in melee combat so it makes since he would use the Titan formula to "Bane" up on the Dark Knight as a final resort.

I'm still currently playng this game, and I can honestly say this one of the greatest games I've ever played. The graphics are insane the gameplay is easy to understand. I highly recommend this game to anyone who's a Batman fan