The Dark Knight is sent to the Asylum in his best video game yet.

User Rating: 8.5 | Batman: Arkham Asylum PS3
Superheroes don't have a great track record in video games. Most end up being nothing more than a quick cash-in. So, when an unproven studio stands up and decides to make a superhero game, everyone is right to be wary. Rocksteady aims to take the Bat out in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Can they trump the curse on licensed material? Or is the Bat doomed to fail at the hands of the Joker?

Batman: Arkham Asylum opens with Batman taking the Joker to Arkham Asylum. When they arrive the Joker escapes, revealing that he planned the whole thing. He releases all of the inmates and takes over the asylum. Batman now has to save them all, and find out what Joker is really up to. If you are a Batman fan, you will really enjoy what's here. It's interesting and takes different sources from the source material to make something new and excellent. It is a very simple set-up, but it spreads out to something more. There are a few Batman villains to face and they all add to the story.

Gameplay is where the game is really interesting. You explore Arkham Island in a Metroid style, only being able to enter and explore certain areas when you have certain abilities. You fight enemies in a beat'em up style. You punch enemies to build up combos, use your cape to stun, leap over enemies to catch them off guard and counter. When an enemy attacks, a blue mark appears over their head, if playing on easy. The combat is extremely fun and can get challenging. Building up combos is addicting, as is the exploration. Boss fights are a totally different story, however, they are extremely simple and not a whole lot of fun. You mainly explore Arkham Asylum with Batman's usual array of gadgets, including his grapel gun; which allows you to get to higher ground, and your cape; which allows you to glide.

The boss fights just boil down to dodging and abusing patterns. As you fight and complete objectives you gain experience and when you level up you can gain new abilities. These abilities range to combat boosts; such as critical hits and takedowns, exploration boosts and health boosts. One other aspect of the game are the "stealth" sections. You stay out of sight, hide on gargoyles way up high and try to sneak behind the enemies to take them down silently. This is required thanks to these enemies having guns. Batman doesn't have very high damage resistance to gunfire and will be killed in a few seconds after being discovered. While this sounds frustrating, it isn't due to the poor AI. The fact that the AI doesn't even bother to look up where they could clearly see you, and if they do look up they still don't see you, can really pull you out of the game.

There are also a lot of collectibles scattered throughout the island set up by the Riddler. He set up trophies, riddles and other challenges for you to complete at your leisure. These make the exploration even more entertaining. In short, this is how you do a superhero justice.

The audio is as excellent as you'd think it'd be. Kevin Conroy, Batman's voice from the Animated show, is back to voice the Dark Knight and Mark Hamill is back to voice the Joker. Everyone else sounds great as well and the soundtrack is dark and fantastic. The sound effects are good as well. You will not forget Joker's time in the spotlight.

The visuals are amazing, even if it uses the Unreal Engine 3. The character models look fantastic, none so much as Batman, Joker and Harley but they all look great. The environments are dark, grimy and detailed. There is a lot of texture loading, but it's less noticeable. The facial animation looks just okay, but looks great on the Joker. A lot of time was put into the Joker and you can hardly wonder why.

PROs:
- Interesting story
- Joker is amazing
- Exploration is addicting
- Combat is fun
- Riddler challenges are plentiful
- Voice work is great
- Visuals are great, even using the Unreal Engine 3
- Joker's character model
- All of Batman's well-known gadgets are present

CONs:
- Texture pop-in
- Some villains are just there
- Combat has little variety
- Non-main characters look noticeably worse

Overall, Rocksteady has proven that the Batman can be done justice in video game form. The combat, the exploration, the story, the voice work, the Joker, all extremely well done. If there was ever only one superhero game to be released, we hope it's this one. Walk into the night and fight alongside the Dark Knight.

Story: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 9.0/10
Audio: 9.0/10
Presentation: 9.0/10