Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Okay so I have a LOT of catching up to do, I just got really lazy. I have a ton of games to review and most of them are fantastic so you all probably already know about them. I’ll start this with one of the best games of 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum.
This game was hyped up because it wasn’t a simple cash-in on the movie The Dark Knight the game has its own original story that sees Batman facing off against familiar faces on Arkham Island after the Joker takes it over. The game itself is around 6-7 hours of playtime but significantly more if you find all of the hidden Riddler trophies, chronicles of Arkham, patient interview tapes, and solve all of the Riddler’s riddles.
The first thing I want to talk about is the voice acting; Kevin Conroy plays Batman as he did in the animated series and it many other iterations of Batman and he does a fantastic job as always, for my money he is the voice of Batman. Mark Hamill (yes Luke Skywalker) portrays the Joker and gives one of the greatest performances I have ever heard, he mixes the insanity and the playfulness of the character so well. The other actors all do a good job but Conroy and Hamill stand out.
The gameplay is varied as you will fight opponents head-on and you will have to sneak around to take out armed henchmen who you can’t just charge up to. To fight opponents there is a free-flow combat system where you basically mash X and keep pointing your thumbstick to the next opponent, you get score multipliers for your combos and these points go towards upgrades to your armor, new combo moves, and upgrades to your weapons and gadgets.
All of Batman’s standard arsenal of gadgets are there; batarangs, grappling hooks, (no shark spray though) as well as some new gadgets like the cryptographic sequencer which allows you to overload security panels across Arkham to gain access to new areas. Pressing the left bumper pulls up “detective mode” which looks similar to Superman’s X-Ray vision. Objects of interest will appear in orange to make them easier to spot.
One key element of the game is sticking to the shadows when there are armed opponents around. You can rip off vent covers and crawl through ventilation shafts, or open up panels on the ground to crawl around under your enemies. The most important thing however is grappling onto gargoyle statues that will keep you hidden from armed henchmen and will give you a place to strike from. You can do an inverted takedown of an enemy that passes under a gargoyle that you are on, you can glide kick and knock down an enemy, or do any number of other things from that vantage point. This really makes you feel like Batman, striking fear into the henchmen every time you silently take one out. Their mental status will go from calm, to nervous, to terrified and their heartbeat will rise. All of these details serve to make the game a more complete experience.
The graphics are amazing, Batman will take damage to his suit that will remain there until the end of the game, the cut scenes are gorgeously rendered and overall the scenery looks great, very little pixilation and no delay on loading graphical assets.
The story is nice and original bringing in many rogues gallery characters like Scarecrow, Riddler, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and Bane to name a few. There are also riddles that give nods to popular characters that aren’t in the game like Two-Face, Penguin, and Catwoman. All of the characters are perfectly realized and the patient interview tapes help to solidify the cruel and insane nature of Batman’s enemies.
One of the best parts of the game are the encounters with Scarecrow where Crane’s gas sends you to his domain where he is a giant in the middle of the scenery and his eyes are light beams that constantly search for you. If he sees you he kills you so you need to avoid his glance by hiding behind objects and moving when he isn’t looking. There are some great images and his realm captures the character perfectly.
The game is fantastic but there are some minor issues that should be addressed. The game isn’t level-based so you can’t go back and replay a particular part without replaying the whole game from the start, that can get frustrating and it is even worse because the saves are all automatic so you can’t save in a bunch of slots like you can in an RPG to make your own levels.
Besides some minor issues the game is incredible, the best Batman game by far and one of the best comic book video games around. A sequel has already been announced and the first teaser is out. Hopefully the second game will allow us to see some other big characters that were only hinted at in this game like Ra’s Al Ghul, Catwoman, Two-Face, and Penguin along with a myriad of other minor characters. But for now you can’t beat this quintessential Batman experience.
Gameplay: 10
Story: 10
Replay Value: 9.5
Graphics: 10
Overall: 9.9