This all-around fantastic game can be enjoyed by everyone, even non-Batman fans like myself.
Batman: AA starts off with the Joker in handcuffs and being escorted to Arkham Asylum located on Arkham Island by the hands of, who else, Batman. The island is located just across the water from Gotham City. The Joker is handed over to the guards of Arkham reluctantly by Batman (with good concern) and of course all hell breaks loose. The Joker is able to escape fairly easily once Batman is out of the picture with the help of his partner in crime, Harley Quinn, and that's where the madness begins. Batman must stop the Joker and his henchman from taking full control of Arkham Asylum and eventually Gotham City. Batman has to use his many skills and weapons to tackle enemies, super villains, puzzles, and traps before Joker can create his army to destroy Gotham. That's the main gist of the story in nutshell. Along the way you'll meet many familiar faces that add to the main storyline.
The characters are a big reason why AA is such a great game. This wonderful cast of heroes and super villains makes the game fun and pretty intense. The Joker is probably one of the best characters I have ever experienced in a game. He is both brutally evil and hilarious at the same time. At one point you'll squirm at his demented thoughts, but then 10 seconds later you'll burst out laughing from his many jokes. He wouldn't be the Joker without some sort of humor would he? Batman is also done very well and pretty much portrays what I think Batman is all about. You'll meet many familiar faces as you progress through the game. I won't spoil a ton of names, but know there are many characters you can interact with. The voice acting is superb, especially Mark Hamill's rendition of the Joker. Just a fantastic job done with the characters.
You'll start the game in a fairly small portion of Arkham Asylum, but that quickly expands into a pretty big island featuring many places and buildings to explore. The game is pretty good at letting you know where to go and what objectives to complete, so you'll never feel totally lost. These markers are usually displayed on your map. Getting there is the fun part though. Batman has many devices at his disposal and others to unlock during the course of the game. Perhaps the most useful of all these is Batman's Detective Mode. This is basically an X-ray type of view that displays movable objects, enemies, and other useful items. If you are stuck in a room, odds are your detective mode can uncover any clues you may be searching for. Things like air duct gratings can be removed to sneak through small tunnels, or breakable walls will be highlighted to uncover secret rooms or passage ways. It will also display all the enemies in an area and whether they are armed or not. Detective mode is a lot of fun and in some cases it's hard to disable it since it provides so much use. Gamespot listed this as one of their cons of the game, but I disagree. While the detective mode is extremely useful and helpful, it can be a hindrance at times and I highly recommend you turn it off on some occasions. It can be difficult to fight with it on, and sometimes you get a better look at the terrain or layout of an area with it off. Obviously it's beneficial to have it on a lot, but I disagree with GS saying there is little incentive to not playing the entire game in this mode. Batman also has many other tools including his trusty batclaw, batarang, and other cool devices such as explosive gel to advance through the stages. These devices are essential for progressing through the story and uncovering more areas, but luckily they are all given to you as you advance through Arkham. Using all these items is extremely fun and also necessary for collecting the many extras spread across Arkham Asylum.
One of the best parts about AA (and perhaps the most addicting) is finding all the special items located throughout the game. These items are tied to the Riddler and his many challenges. 240 to be exact. They are an optional part of the game, but sometimes finding and unlocking all his clues will become your main focal point of the game. The Riddler will have a sarcastic remark for you when you do find his clues, and he provides a great sense of humor. Clues range from finding Riddler trophies, interview tapes, destroying chattering teeth, and actually taking snapshots of an area to answer a Riddler question. If a green message is displayed on the screen when entering a room that means a snapshot of an item, room, etc. is required to solve the riddle. One incentive to finding and solving as many riddles as possible is the fact that you receive experience once you do crack the riddle. You don't level up in Batman, but after receiving a set amount of experience you'll be allowed to unlock an upgrade. These upgrades range from extra health, using special moves in battle, or enhancing your Bat Tools (giggle). Not every upgrade is essential in beating the game, but they sure do help out a lot. Another great feature attached to some of the riddles is the ability to unlock character bios and trophies. There are many bios and trophies to unlock. The bios can be accessed in-game and the trophies can be viewed from the main title screen. If you want to know the progress of your detective sluicing you can see how many riddles are left in an area, and in the case of the question riddles the marker that represents these questions will flash if there are any left in the room or area. You won't get that help with the trophies and such, but at least you can keep track of how many are left in the general area. Luckily you can find a Secrets Map of each area that shows where each riddle is located in a room or area on your main map. Makes it a bit easier, but you'll still need to use your brain to solve them all. Seriously, the Riddler challenges are extremely addicting and I found myself many times searching for just one more trophy or interview tape before moving on in the story.
The actual fighting in Batman is extremely fun, but hard to master. For the most part you'll be able to handle your enemies while taking only a few hits of damage, but in order to be perfect you can't take any hits and you must keep your chain active at all times. Each hit you land on an enemy increases you chain, but it is sometimes hard to keep that chain up when enemies are spaced so far apart. You'll really need to time your attacks and evasions perfectly in order to get maximum experience. You'll have the ability to counter enemies which are crucial in not getting hit and keeping that chain alive. The higher your chain, the higher your experience bonus will be. You can also perform special moves when your chain reaches a certain level. For example, once you unlock the special move upgrade and attain a chain of 8 hits in a row you can instantly take down an enemy in slow-mo without being hit by pressing the right button combination. There are no difficult button commands during fights, just simple taps of a button or two will get the job done. You'll also have access to your tools in battle, so if you want to stun an armed enemy with the batclaw and take out the unarmed guards quickly, then you'll have that option. Sometimes planning a strategy is your best option for survival. Direct combat is not always the best choice, so that is where your patience and sneak skills come into play. In small quarters that feature armed enemies, it is imperative you take cover and quietly take out one enemy at a time. You must be quick though because the Joker is always watching you and will inform the other guards that someone is missing. You can also use the terrain to your advantage. Most rooms will feature gargoyle creatures on the high walls where Batman can take cover. From there you can hop to other creatures using your batclaw, glide down to the ground and kick enemies from above, or hang from the structure and takedown an enemy by stringing them up from the gargoyle. There are many options to defeat your enemies including silent takedowns from behind or even ledge takedowns where hanging from a ledge has never been so fun. You can also sometimes hide underground and even use explosive walls to take down multiple enemies at once. You'll eventually get a hang of the finer tunes to fighting or not fighting, so don't get discouraged if things don't go your way the first few times. Patience is key some times.
Boss battles are one of the few lackluster points to Batman. The fights are certainly not bad, but they usually follow the same basic pattern and offer little variety. And with a great cast of super villains you'd kind of wish there were actually more fights with them. You are definitely left with wanting more. The final battle is also a little bit of a letdown since it's rather easy considering it is the last fight. The boss fights are not terrible by any means, but considering how awesome the journey is to get to those fights, it's a little disappointing there is no super villain waiting for you and that you'll be following the same procedure to win.
The game's visuals are nothing spectacular, but they certainly are nice to look at and set the mood of the game nicely. There was quite a lot of detail put into character models and environments, so that is especially appreciated. It's always fun to zoom in on Joker's face and notice the great attention to detail they put into this game. Batman's suit even becomes more dirty and tattered as you progress through the game. Heck, even Batman isn't perfect and will take his licks now and then. Again, the attention to detail is great. Even if the graphics aren't legendary the game is still pleasing to the eyes. The music and sounds fit the game perfectly as well. You are in an insane asylum, so it's only natural you get a little spooked at times throughout the game. Not only do the environments portray those feelings, but the sounds do as well. There will be patients who scream at you, music that intensifies as you get closer to danger, and background sounds that will creep you out. There is also that heroic style music that suits Batman so well. I already mentioned the outstanding voice acting performed by the cast. The visuals and sound really add that something extra to the game.
It's hard to complain about a game so great, but there are a few minor points that bugged me. I already mentioned the lackluster boss battles, but there are also 2 other facets of the game I want to talk about. The first is something very minor, but it still took a lot of time to get used to. Batman's walking is extremely slow and can be a pain at times. You can run by holding down the X button, but I wish the default speed of Batman was a bit quicker. I much prefer the method of making characters run by holding down the analog stick or making him walk by easing up on the pressure. Batman's walking speed is the type where in some games you'd have to hold down the X button to make him walk extremely slow. And that turns out to be Batman's actual default speed. It's not a crawl, but it's still much slower than most other action games. The other problem with the game is the enemy's A.I. during times where you have to sneak around and be patient. Sometimes I'll plainly run in front of an enemy or batclaw my way up to a ledge way too late, but it's like the henchman never saw me. It's nice you are not caught, but it can take away from the tenseness and pressure you are experiencing. A little more A.I. recognition probably could have been added. For the most part though the A.I. is responsive and will open fire on you, but there are a few occasions where you'd think there is no way they didn't see me, but you live to takedown another enemy.
One aspect of the game that gives Batman: AA so much replay factor is the Challenge Rooms you can access from the title screen. These optional set of challenges involve taking on hoards of enemies one after the other or eliminating enemies in a small room in as fast a time as possible. Within each challenge room you can gain medals based on your score when fighting swarms of enemies or by completing certain tasks in the elimination/sneak challenges. These tasks vary from the very simple, such as taking one enemy down by silent take down, to the extremely difficult such as taking down 3 enemies with the explosive gel. In order to complete the game 100% you'll need to perform these tasks and gain the medals if you find yourself really itching to accomplish everything. These challenge rooms are fun though because they allow you to fight whenever you want to practice keeping up your chains or allow you to eliminate enemies one by one if you are in a stealth type of mode. Batman has lots of replay value aside from the main story. You can also keep exploring Arkham Island after you beat the game in case there are a few riddles you missed. All in all the main story will probably take you about 10-12 hours to beat and even longer if you spend the time to do everything. The challenge rooms also add lots of hours as well. It's been a long time since I've been so absorbed in a game.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is a fantastic game on all fronts. The story is compelling, the use of Batman's tools are incorporated beautifully, the fighting is fun, and looking for all the Riddler's riddles is extremely addicting. You can tell a lot of time was spent on this game and the end product demonstrates that. The cast and crew of this game should be well-applauded. This action game will last you a long time even after you finish the main story with the challenge rooms, and I'm positive you'll keep coming back to it in the future. Not even a few minor flaws affected my experience with this game one bit. I believe no game is truly perfect, but Batman comes darn close to the highest praise I can personally give a game. At the time of this review, Batman is my clear cut personal GOTY for 2009. That could change within the next 2 months, but Batman will never be removed from one of my favorites of all-time. On its own, Batman is a truly excellent action game with tons to do. For Batman fans this might be heaven. But you really don't have to be a Batman fan to enjoy this game. I'm proof of that.
9.5/10