Batman is a piece of art, as much as it is a game.
The story is intense and well thought out. It has a plot. A real, honest to god plot that pulls you into the story, and the Riddlers riddles, while sometimes being a serious pain to find, add a lot to the game. All in all this game is simply amazing. It really shows what a game developer can do with a cool title like Batman and some good story writing, VO acting and some good engines behind it.
THere are a few flaws. Major flaws in my opinion but they dont really detract from the over-all game play. The fact that you never really fight any of Batmans villains...for instance the fight with Harley Quinn is done through a cut-scene. Good animation and all, but id rather have gone toe-to-toe with Harley than watch Batman just rip her apart. You end up fighting henchmen almost exclusively, and while its hellishly fun to beat them senseless in so many ways, I just wish I could have done battle with Mr. Freeze or The Rat Catcher or the Killer Moth, so many opportunites that seem to have been missed. And 2ndly, Im not really all that pleased with the "detective" vision. While its cool and all, and incredibly useful, its perhaps TOO useful, and you end up spending far too much time using it, and missing out on the incredible scenery. It seems a waste to create such lush and detailed scenery and then nix it all with the "detective" vision which shows an x-ray type view of the game. But seriously, those two complaints are literally the only two i can think of, and with the added content, the challenges, the leaderboards, all the extra's, theres even an RPG element to it where Batman levels up, gaining powerups and the better you fight, the more XP youll get. A lot of details like that make Batman; Arkham Asylum a game you really shouldnt miss. Its truly amazing, and really sets a bar for what video games can and should be these days.