The game is uneven, but Rocksteady did the Batman character justice and few developers can make that claim.

User Rating: 6 | Batman: Arkham Asylum PS3
The game is called Batman: Arkham Asylum, but Batman and goons of all abilities could congregate mostly anywhere and the results would be the same. Here Arkham is a space for just that. Some parts of the facility have a medical facade, but the surplus of supervillains and thugs willing to blindly follow them makes me wonder how many successful rehabilitation cases there are. The opening sequence at least shows a lot of high security features, but I'm sure everybody knows how that ends. So Arkham Asylum is simply a space to highlight villains and provide opportunity for Batman. For that, the game is mostly successful even if the periphery members of the cast can sometimes detract from the more successful main characters.

Before there can be any heroics, there needs to be The Joker as a catalyst. He stages a coup in Arkham where the details aren't really important but the gist of it is that the inmates are running the asylum. Of course, mere control of a heap like Arkham isn't his ultimate goal. That remains a mystery for a while, but The Joker is content to play games with Batman in the meantime. He proves to be a good match for the medium, matching the player's and designers' motivations to stretch things out for the sake of play. There are times where it seems like The Joker could win (or at least give his side more of an advantage), but he would rather watch everybody squirm instead. The only blemish is that developer Rocksteady Studios falls into one video game trope that doesn't fit the character late in the game. There are plenty of villains that can punch Batman in the face, but The Joker is such a great foil because he doesn't have to.

The player character is, of course, Batman. While Bruce Wayne has no time to offer the traditional balancing act with his mask, Batman himself is present and does everything you might expect. There are waves of The Joker's thugs to knockout, which is done with ease. They never feel like they are politely taking turns trying to beat Batman to death (take notes, Assassin's Creed), making a big part in any brawl the quick decision between a safe, defensive counter and continuing the more damaging combination moves. Stealth portions also control smoothly in cases when the Dark Knight has to deal with the consequences of not using guns. Rather than inching slowly behind objects, stealth values moving quickly between shadows.

However, Rocksteady recognize that controlling Batman should be about more than beating people up. He has no real superpowers, so he instead relies on his riches and intelligence to make tools. While many of these tools do translate to beating people up, their biggest contributions are in opening up new parts of Arkham to progress. It's traditional metroidvania structure except with the added twist of a visor for tracking down clues. It would be disingenuous to make any positive connections to the less staged scan visor of the Metroid Prime series, but it does add a detective flavor to exploration. While some of the pieces of Batman's arsenal are more successful than others, the greatest success in controlling him is that it is so easy to switch between all of them.

The supporting characters are really where Batman: Arkham Asylum stumbles. The whole Batman lore is filled with countless characters crafted to fit different tones of stories from numerous different authors and artists. Rocksteady Studios seemed to want to pick a little from everything while still trying to maintain the more fashionable, darker take on the hero. Some choices certainly work, like the savage Killer Croc whose animal motivations make for a physical threat that lends itself well to the tone and genre. Too many others aren't such good fits. The Riddler fancies himself a challenger to Batman, but his challenges are delightful scavenger hunts. There is even a nod to the wimpy Calender Man, who plans his mischief on holidays. How will Gotham go on with this threat to weekends and Arbor Day?

Batman: Arkham Asylum isn't what you might want out of a metroidvania game thanks to a forgettable setting and average level design. It's also uneven as a piece of lore, throwing in too many characters where a few well chosen and rendered ones would have sufficed. However, it does the most important thing in creating a Batman game which is depicting the hero well and giving him a proper villain. Rocksteady did the Caped Crusader justice and few developers can make that claim.