Finally a game that does Batman justice! Batman Arkham Asylum is a must play!
-Excellent combat system
-Good graphics
-Amazing atmosphere and story
-Great and memorable boss fights
-Challenge rooms are fun
-Excellent voice actors
-Great stealth gameplay
-Good variety in Gadgets
-Upgrading and unlocking new moves and gadgets is great
-Detective Mode is helpful and a nice touch
-Riddler challenges are fun
Cons:
-A little short
Comic based hero games have had a muddy past, often times they feel like cheap cash ins to make money simply off the name alone. But Rocksteady Studios shatters the past stigmas and manages to make not only an amazing Batman game, but one of the greatest games of all time! There is no excuse, everyone needs to play this game!
Arkham Asylum begins with Batman recently capturing his Arch Nemesis, The Joker, and is returning him to Arkham Asylum, however upon his arrival Joker breaks free and takes over the Island of Arkham and set's all the prisoners loose, trapping you, Batman, alone in a nut house full of crazy psychopaths that want to kill you. Fortunately for you however, you are of course Batman, and you know how to dish out the pain! The fighting system is flawless, movements and hits flow together smoothly, it looks and feels realistic. As Batman you have your standard attacks which consists of punches and kicks, you have counter attacks, and you can stun enemies, causing them to break their guard and be in a daze temporarily. You can also jump and dodge various attacks. The combat system is brutal to watch as Batman can break bones, cripple enemies, or just put them in a general world of pain. You also have a variety of gadgets at your disposal, from bateranges, to explosive gel, and more. The combat is varied and great to play. You really get the sense that you are Batman and powerful, however you also have Batmans morals as you will never kill anyone in the game, you'll just put them in so much pain that they'll wish they were.
The atmosphere of Arkham Asylum is immersive, it's dark and dangerous, the graphics are very detailed and solid, you certainly get the sense that anarchy has opened up. Arkham Asylum is not the best looking game by any means, but it's certainly quite nice. Another great element that adds to the atmosphere is the great voice talent, consisting of high caliber actors such as Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, Arkham Asylum comes alive with every line of dialog. Another excellent aspect of Arkham are the boss battles, that's right there you fight far more than just Joker. You will be forced to deal with Bane, Scare Crow, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Harely Quin, and Zsasz. As well as Joker's Henchmen that have been given Titan, a dangerous drug that turns them into hulking beasts. Each boss battle takes a different strategy, and each one is memorable and amazing. Batman also features good stealth gameplay as well, you can sneak and hide in the shadows with ease as you take down enemies one by one, which in turn causes the other enemies to loose their cool and panic. The amount of strategy you can develop with Arkham Asylum is insane! Another cool gameplay feature is Detective Mode, this allows you to see through objects and walls, and generally serves as a great way to spot secret objects or enemies as you sneak around. It's a very nice feature and enhances the game even further.
As you defeat enemies in the game you will earn XP that you can use to unlock or upgrade new fighting moves or gadgets, this allows you to develop Batman how you want. There are also a variety of different Riddler trophies to find challenges that you can try to solve, each one offering a good rewarding experience. And each one you solve making the Riddler even more angry and upset. The only downside to Arkham Asylum is it's a little on the short side, fortunately however the game provides such a high quality experience that you will replay it multiple times, and the game does offer challenge rooms that you can play in and try to best high scores and fastest times. These are divided into 2 different categories, Combat and Stealth. The PS3 version comes with exclusive Joker challenge rooms, this is a very unique experience and it's a shame that it's only exclusive to PS3 (the system I own the game on) however this is merely a bonus and 360 owners are not missing out on anything too much, however if you own both systems then the PS3 version is recommended as you can get this extra content. But the 360 version is just as equally good. Arkham Asylum offers a good amount of side content as well, from finding audio tapes and secrets. The game offers plenty.
Batman Arkham Asylum is simply an amazing experience that everyone owes it to themselves to play.
Batman Arkham Asylum get's a 9.5/10