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Batman: Arkham Asylum Review

Posted on 30. Sep, 2009 by Freak_c in News, Reviews

Batman, one of the great classic comic book heroes of our time, movies and games alike have done there best to portray this deep story behind the dark crusader, and many have failed. With the exception of Tim Burton’s Batmans and the recent Dark Knight. So has Rocksteady achieved greatness with Arkham Asylum?

Absolutely YES! This is what a Batman game should be, it has one excellent story that sticks true to the series. Gameplay that feels just, oh so right and not repetitive at all. Graphics to make even your grand mother take a double take. All of these mixed together to produce the game that all comic book hero games will now be judged and bench marked against.

Story
The story behind Batman and his villains have all got very deep and clever psychological histories. The Joker one of the craziest villains out there that even have real life therapists doing case studies of him. The Scarecrow, a therapists turned crazed psycho himself and then the Riddler, a genius psychopath. Then there are the more strange and unique villains of Batman, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy which are, among many of the villains that posses actual powers. You see Batman is more than just a hero without super powers he is a man with a deep back story, facing and doing super hero stuff.

As many of you know if you have tried out the demo, you get to play as Batman. You have just recently captured the Joker and are escorting him back to Arkham Asylum Island, but you are weary as the Joker seemed to give up fairly easily and almost without a fight. Of course this is the Jokers plan all along and he soon escapes from his bindings and takes over the Island trapping Batman and many of the guards in it. Sure enough chaos is ensured as the joker releases the inmates and plans to destroy Gotham City. This of course sends Batman on a mission to stop the Joker at all costs.

Gameplay
With the help of Batman’s cool gadgets you set out to find and stop the Joker once and for all. Being Arkham Asylum you are faced with many various villains (some famous, from the series and others just simple henchmen), but thanks to the excellent combat system you can learn to take care of these with ease.

The game has two main elements to it, that you encounter throughout the game, the first is the combat. This is one of the best I have experienced in a game, since Devil May Cry 3. This dynamic combat system takes some getting use to but at the same time is extremely simple. Using only one button for fighting, it’s strange at how enjoyable it is beating up these foes. The Square button is used to strike your enemies, but Batman does this dynamically, which basically means that he never really does the same move if you press square twice. Counter is performed by pressing triangle at the correct time and this to is dynamic, if an enemy tries to kick you Batman will catch the kick and counter. It truly is a simple and great combat system, and you feel yourself smiling while you are ranking up a 25+ hit combo.

Aside from the action fighting there is the other portion of the game, the stealth rooms. In this mode you have to hide and take down a certain number of armed henchmen in a room, without being seen. This is the fun part as you get to truly become Batman and take out the baddies, using the various gadgets, without them even knowing what hit them. And the game juggles between these modes effortlessly and neither ever feel over used or “gimmicky”. Yes they are repeated, but the combat is fun and the number of henchmen change, the stealth modes rooms are always different so you will always have to look a round and think before you act.

You gain experience during the game that you can use to upgrade certain aspects of Batman or his gadgets. These include things such as health boost, vertical take downs, remote bata-rang and increased fighting points. Now there are extra ways of gathering these experience points and are done so in an in-genius way (I think), because they include a character from the comics, The Riddler. The riddler has left riddles around the island for you to solve. Some are as simple as finding interview tapes, which are audio clips of the doctors interviewing the various criminals that also shed more insight to them and the story. Then the others are actual riddles that will have you thinking a bit. These are solved when you enter detective mode which allows you to see through walls, where you can see the enemies walking paths. Think X-ray vision, but the game changes it up during the story where you will have to follow the path of someone by following their alcohol vapour that was on their breath.

The extra challenge rooms in the game are where you get to test yourself in certain combat challenges and predator (stealth) modes. There are certain requirements to complete each room and to tr and get the highest score, which you can then upload to the web for all to see. The best part is that for the PS3 version you get to try these as the Joker, which can be downloaded for free off the PSN store.

Graphics
The game is created on the Unreal 3 engine so the graphics are great. The characters look fantastic, the environments are eye openers and the atmosphere is spot on. batman has always been a dark and twisted feeling comic, and that is still carried through here in the game. There is one problem though, sometimes you will miss the beautiful graphics, and environment because you will be using the detective mode more than the standard vision. So remember to keep swapping between the two.

Sound
The sound in the game is excellent and the voice acting is even better! A top mention must go to Mark Hamill as the voice of Joker (also from the animated series), credit also goes to Kevin Conroy as the voice of the caped crusader, Batman. These guys really bring the characters to life, and bring you more into the story. As for the effects, spot on, gadgets sound as they should, punches pack a punch and the surrounds are used brilliantly. With reference when you first encounter the Scarecrow, wow, the sound and surround sound during that was just great, so if you have a fairly decent system then crank the volume when you play this game.

Conclusion
This is by far hands down the comic book game of, well comic book games. If you are a fan of Batman and were worried, don’t be, Rocksteady have out done themselves and have created an excellent game, so go get it. Hell even if you are not a fan of Batman you should get this game. This game does what all great games do, they  hook you with an excellent story, excellent gameplay, and simply fun and enjoyable to play. Get this game!

Story and Gameplay – 9 Gripping and entertaining
Graphics - 9 Eye opener
Sound – 8 Pump up the volume

Overall – 9/10

Written by Claudio Cecchi (Freak_c)

A HUGE thank you to NuMetro for supplying the game for review.

Tags: batman arkham asylum, Reviews