Batman: Arkham Asylum - Review

The night has been long, ominous, dark and damp. I have stalked, terrified, abused an army of Joker's goons and I have matched blow for blow Gotham's criminally insane. I have met my fears at the hands of Scarecrow, I have almost been broken by Bane again, I have outsmarted Killer Croc, I have done some serious gardening on Poison Ivy's plants and I have stopped another Joker plot that would have destroyed Gotham. I have done all this because no one else can, I have done this because I am Batman and Batman: Arkham Asylum has made my childhood aspirations come true; while at the same time managing to be the single best Batman game I have ever had the pleasure to play and one of my personal contenders for GAME OF THE YEAR.

My history with the Dark Knight has never been a deep one, I've never followed the comics and I don't know near enough about all the lore found there. Still he has always been there ever since I was a kid, I've followed him in the Tim Burton films as well as in the animated series and I have recently fallen once again in love with him through the recent films by Christopher Nolan. I am only slightly familiar with some of the comics like The Killing Joke, Year One and The Dark Knight Returns through Wikipedia. The one thing that has always stood out to me about Batman is the darkness as well as the intelligence of the character and the best part has always been that he doesn't really have any superpowers like Superman so back when I was a kid I felt hope that I might grow up like Bruce Wayne and have all those cool gadgets; that is why Batman: Arkham Asylum is such a blessing for people like me, because now I finally can at least feel like I'm Batman.




The greatness of Arkham Asylum streams from that one single idea of where you can actually play and feel like the Batman. The amount of respect for the lore of The Dark Knight put into this game by the developers Rocksteady is simply amazing - the whole game feels like an extra long episode of the animated series but with a much darker and more mature tone that reminds me of Alan Moore's and Frank Miller's work with The Dark Knight. Batman: Arkham Asylum respectfully recreates the dark, violent, scary and cinematic parts of Batman lore and The Dark Knight himself is once again the silent menace that strikes fear into the criminals of Gotham, the silent predator, the dark avenger.

While in past Batman games we've gotten mindless non-stop beat 'em up action with a Batman skin and paint job, here in Arkham Asylum, Batman is finally done justice. Yes, you will be brutalizing Joker's goons alot but that is only one small aspect of the game because you will be doing so much more; you will be exploring Arkham island, you will be solving puzzles, setting up crime scenes, silently taking out a whole room of armed goons one by one while instilling fear into them and finally you will be Batman with all the cool gadgets & tricks. The game is truly sum of it's parts because if you were doing only one of these things the game would not be as grand but the variety of gameplay really let's the game reach new heights.



The story of the game is quite simple but really good in a Batman sense of things. Joker has been apprehended by Batman and delivered to Arkham Asylum but of course things turn out to be too good to be true and it was all part of Joker's plan as he soon breaks free and takes control of the island, you being Batman and all are forced to do what it takes to stop him once again. It's a simple story but it's greatness is simply in it's presentation, you feel the tension of it throughout the game as it simply pulls you in. Arkham island is a truly living place with guards and villains but it's major appeal is in that it changes along with the story and you can really see the consequences of the actions you witness within the story.

Area-wise Arkham island is not really a big place but the developers have wisely countered this by letting Batman enter certain areas only after he has the right equipment to do so, in general this solution works really well and the backtracking isn't tedious but it does present some problems. The main problem for me was that due to plot and balance issues there is no so called "New Game+" which means that when you finish the game you won't be allowed to play again with Batman fully leveled and equipped with all the gadgets that you found, something I would love to do and it would greatly extent the 15 hours of gameplay that you already have here. The other issue I had with Arkham is the insane amount of collectibles found here and it feels at times that they're everywhere, but the really annoying part is that they're tied in with the challenge rooms so even after you finish the game you won't get to play all the challenge rooms unless you collected stuff like crazy.



Technically the game boosts impressive visually that look and run beautifully for the most part. I've stumbled upon some technical hiccups in frame-rate drops and the infamous Unreal Engine texture pop-ins, I've also had the dialogue sounds of Batman not play properly two times but in general this runs really smoothly and I haven't encountered any game breaking issues. The game certainly looks beautiful but I should also mention that I found the sound to be really impressive as well with a very moody music score as well as what seems like hours of recorded dialogue and now I'm only talking of Mark Hamill's brilliant portrayal of the Joker. One should also note that many voice-actors from the animated series have returned to do their characters for the game and yes, that includes Batman.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is simply one of those rare times where the developers have gone the extra mile, there is so much love for the Dark Knight in this game that you forgive any of the few misses that are in the game and even those few misses are really nit-picking. Last year I remember it was Dead Space that surprised me as the sleeper hit of the year and I can say the same thing about Arkham Asylum. When I first saw the game I was convinced that it would bomb but here I am playing it for the second time and I'm still in awe at what Rocksteady have done here, this game just oozes quality and care. Don't be fooled by the 15 hours of gameplay and how short that seems because you'll play this one a few times and after that there are always the challenge rooms to perfect your score and compare against people online; a feature surprisingly fun.



Conclusion:
In summary I can say that regardless of whether you're a fan of Batman comic books or not, you should feel very at home in Arkham Asylum. Batman: Arkham Asylum is quite simply the first game that lets you be Batman. Everything about the game; the impressive visuals, amazing soundtrack, superb voice acting, Bourne inspired combat, the tricky boss battles, all feel like they have been lovingly crafted by developers that are both respectful and passionate about the source material. This is the Dark Knight at his peak and don't be fooled by the comic-bookish look of the game, this game is not afraid to take dark turns and the later parts of the game are directly morbid, in many cases more so than the movie The Dark Knight. If you like action-adventure games then don't miss this one out because it might be the definitive single player experience of the year and I shouldn't even have to mention that this is the best superhero game that has ever been made. Pick this one up or the choke is on you.