Who hates clowns, stay away, but to others- Mandatory Play.
Joker is brought to prison by Batman, then joker double crosses Batman by saying that this was his plan and Batman stepped into the trap gloriously.
As game evolves it turns out that Joker searches notes how to create chemical called Titan- his plan is to create a unstoppable powerful army of mutants, and secondly, to let venom flow into Gotham's water supply.
Player will quickly see that theres no warm welcome to Batman, everyone seems to want a piece of him. Theres some awesome plot twists, Every now and then Batman must stand agianst his own fears, including revisiting scene of his parents death, all thanks to scarecrow who will poison Wayne many times during gameplay.
Gameplay
as the game progresses you unlock more useful, powerful features for your character to use. I really like those brutal, savage, rewarding wrist fights (punches).
Batmans suit gets visual damage, as the game progresses there will appear holes in cape, wounds on face, chest etc, every action game should have it, it precicily shows how much effort, fight against human garbage Batman had to go through to save the day.
Some good levels which need you to use stealth and take enmys down so that noone sees you, things which we remember from Hitman series.
But theres more, the awesome boss fights are ingeniously done. I like that you just cant take them down with few punches, but you need to play through a little puzzle system, which sees batman moving at the right time, hitting exactly the needed spot, using cover etc, - brilliant.
loved how you can hang upsidedown and at right moment grab enemy and tie them up to the statue.
-There are many Riddler Trophy items in the game. These are a collectible, and are considered part of the "Riddles" achievements. Many are in plain sight but some are behind various obstacles. A bunch of them are only accessible once you get the explosive gel.
Bruce humms hints where to go and what to do next, plus every once in a while theres literally a trcack to follow by scanning environment using your x vison and picking up fingerprints, alcohol etc, so you never actually get lost.
when you are about to fall to your death there appears a option on screen to save yourself.
Still game dosent quite surprise, and it becomes a bit repetitive, and predictable, games ending isnt quite satisfying as you would wish. AI feels cheap and pretend you are not there at the same time you are hanging on one of those statues and staring to their face, especially had a laugh couple of times while being upside down.
Graphics
Already with its opening scene, theres represented great amount of detail and attention put to create lifelike environment, every reflection on rocks, pipes, pattern of foliage looks amazing, its dark but also beautiful, zoom in and look the highly detailed textures on batmans suit, jokers clothes, flesh textures of ivys half naked body, add to that the facial animation which rivals „Among Thieves" and you get one of the visually finest game ever made.
Audio
nice background music. The most importand thing is that voice of batman and Jokers are very satisfying and belivable.
Summary
Arkham asylum is definetly one of the best game this year. And best Batman game ever made.
Let the freak show begin...