Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum

(Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 and PS3)


Are you bad enough dude to step into the boots of Batman?!

Well incase you are, you're in for a real treat. Batman: AA is one of the few licensed games to truly get excited about, it came out of nowhere and blew everybody's mind, the authentic and perfect Batman experience that everyone has waited for.

Arkham Asylum is a action-adventure-stealth game played in the third person, and was developed by Rocksteady studios, a quite unknown game studio which has so far created only two games, including Arkham Asylum, the other one being some First Person Shooter that nobody has probably heard of before.

The story is written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini and the voice acting is delivered by the animated series' Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin as Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn. So expect no Christian Bale's awkward Death Metal growling from Batman. This game truly is every Batman fan's dream.

Well now that I've gotten the praise out of the way, let's talk about the game.

The game begins when Batman is taking Joker to the infamous psychiatric institute, the Arkham Asylum.

As soon as Joker is handed to the security upon arrival, Batman expresses his concern to commissioner Gordon as it seemed that Joker pretty much gave himself in without a fight.


After that of course, to nobody's surprise Joker breaks free and takes Arkham Asylum to his control as he's apparently been scheming this plan for months.

After that you start to go after Joker and in no time you run into some of Blackgate Penitentiary's inmates who have been transferred to Arkham, a.k.a Joker's thugs.

By then you're introduced to the combat, which is ... very flowing! Thanks to the game's FreeFlow combat system.

The combat consists of three buttons, one for attacking, one for stunning and one for countering. It's really easy to fight even when you're ganged up on multiple enemies and when you keep hitting enemies while not taking a hit yourself you build up your attack multiplier and Batman gets more faster and can pull up instant takedowns and throw enemies. Most of the time when I was fightning with a big attack multiplier Batman seemed more like Neo from Matrix as he was able to bounce from one side of the room to another in seconds, no matter how big the room was, and his attacks were lightning fast.



The combat is very rewarding and extremely fun, once you play it for a while the combos are really easy to pull out and when you get to upgrade your gear you can actually use your Batarang and Batclaw to extend combos.



There are a variety of thugs, too. There are ones that you need to stun first and then attack and ones who carry a stunstick and cannot be attacked directly. They are a good addition and prevent the combat from coming too repetetive. There are also these big Hulk type enemies who can take alot of beating and taking them down can take a bit of strategy when you're being beated up by regular thugs at the same time.



There is also a XP system in the game, you gain experience from fightning enemies and going further in the storyline. You gain bonus XP also from executing better and more elaborate combos.

The next aspect of AA is it's brilliant stealth gameplay, you can prey on your enemies and take them out one by one, utilizing Batman's gadgets such as Batarangs, Explosive Gel that can be used to blow up weak walls so they collapse on enemies and more.

It's incredibly fun to stealth play in this game and to see the enemies freak out when they're being taken out one by one and finally being alone.

Batman can also utilize the "Detective Mode" that let's him see enemies heartbeats and what's their state of mind (for example Calm or Terrified).



The Detective Mode plays much more bigger role in the game than just scanning for heartbeats however, as the name implies, it helps Batman to scan for fingerprints, smoke trails, DNA etc. It also shows Batman the interactable objects in the surroundings, hinting where to go next.

The movement in the game is also a thing worth commenting on, the platforming and moving in the game is spot on, it's really easy and takes almost no effort to jump and move around.

Every time I ever wanted to jump somewhere where I think I can jump, I can. It really feels like you are Batman and completely immersed in the game.

As you can expect from the name of the game, you'll be stumbling upon many of Batman's classic adversaries for example Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Bane to name a few, who all look great, especially my favorite, Poison Ivy.


She's just... wow. (Yes, hotter than Uma Thurman!)

Hidden in the game are Riddler challenges too, Riddles placed around most of the game, which can be something like "What does a Penguin need in the rain?" And you have to take a photograph with Detective Mode of a Umbrella in the game, referring of course to Batman's enemy the Penguin.

Riddler challenges award you with info about Batman different enemies with cool artwork.

There are also audio Interview tapes, 5 for each Batman's enemy within the Asylum.

These are a really cool addition in the game in my opinion as it gives you backstory of Batman's enemies as you go through the game and as you progress further in the game you learn more about them on the way.

Anyway, to wrap this thing up, the game looks, sounds and plays great and I can't believe there's not a single thing in this game that I could bitch about, it's just perfect, and I'm not even a hardcore Batman fan, but I can sure recognize a good game when I see one.

Oh... There IS one more thing that annoys me, but it's a really minor thing and i'm really nitpicking here, but everytime you knock out a opponent they do this weird short animation where they hold their head like they got a major migraine. Ugh I think I just gave myself a headache while writing that..


THE GAME IS A MASTERPIECE END OF STORY.