Login
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.
