Is this the best licensed game, and the batman game fans have been waiting for? Lets flip a coin and find out.
The Joker has been cap
tured, and Batman is en route to Arkham Asylum (Where all the bad guys go when captured) to put Joker in the pound. Batman senses something is wrong though: Joker let him capture him without a fight, unusual of him; Batman was right. Joker has set a trap, which batman has sprang ‘gloriously’, in the Joker's own words. Joker has been planning to get Batman in the Asylum with his greatest enemies. Thus begins an epic game of Cat and Mouse as Batman chases down Joker whilst trying to get rid of fellow inmates, goons, and help save the Asylum staff.
tured, and Batman is en route to Arkham Asylum (Where all the bad guys go when captured) to put Joker in the pound. Batman senses something is wrong though: Joker let him capture him without a fight, unusual of him; Batman was right. Joker has set a trap, which batman has sprang ‘gloriously’, in the Joker's own words. Joker has been planning to get Batman in the Asylum with his greatest enemies. Thus begins an epic game of Cat and Mouse as Batman chases down Joker whilst trying to get rid of fellow inmates, goons, and help save the Asylum staff.Bat fans will relish the chance to go toe-to-toe with some of Batman's greatest enemies, including Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and the Scarecrow. Combat is nice and easy, with only a few buttons to attack, dodge, block and counter, and at the end of every fight when your about to take the last goon out, it goes into a sweet slow-motion close-up to see their face getting pounded. You can also takedown any enemies that are lying on the ground dazed with a quick punch to the head.
Its not all about hand to hand combat though, stealth plays a major function in the game. From time to time you get into rooms which have Gargoyle statues hanging from the walls in which batman can grapple up to, to get a better view of the room. This is when the detective mode really comes in handy, as it allows you to see where every goon is, who is carrying a gun, and if there are any breakable walls and such to use to your advantage. This is truly where the game shines, when your tasked to take out goons that have guns (reme
mber, batman is a normal human, if he takes about 5 bullets – he’s dead.) silently. You can glide kick them from Gargoyles and take them out with a finisher, and quickly get back onto the gargoyles before his comrades notice. There are plenty of ways to take people out silently though; drop behind them and break there neck, hang them upside down from gargoyles – or you can opt for a louder approach – blow up walls with exploding gel and crush goons (you’ll have to get out of there sharpish, as the goons will come running to the noise). My personal favourite is silently taking a goon out, then spraying exploding gel at his body, so that when his buddies come to check out what happened to him, the gel explodes and takes them all out!
mber, batman is a normal human, if he takes about 5 bullets – he’s dead.) silently. You can glide kick them from Gargoyles and take them out with a finisher, and quickly get back onto the gargoyles before his comrades notice. There are plenty of ways to take people out silently though; drop behind them and break there neck, hang them upside down from gargoyles – or you can opt for a louder approach – blow up walls with exploding gel and crush goons (you’ll have to get out of there sharpish, as the goons will come running to the noise). My personal favourite is silently taking a goon out, then spraying exploding gel at his body, so that when his buddies come to check out what happened to him, the gel explodes and takes them all out!Although all the goons are essentially the same, you get goons with no weapons, or goons with pipes, stun batons, knifes, and guns. And Different tactics are needed to take each of them out, and eventually titan-enhanced goons that basically turn into the hulk!
The boss fights although, are surprisingly in a game glowing with so much attention, rather poor. The only boss fights I would say are worthy of mention are the Killer Croc and Scarecrow ‘fights’. I wont spoil them to much, but that Killer Croc encounter where your walking on boards of wood floating in the sewers, trying to make as least amount of noise as possible, knowing that Croc could be right below you is intense and frightening. The Scarecrow encounters steal the show, and even talking about them would ruin it, but I will say this: the 3rd encounter is fantastic and shines out.
The real star of the show though is Arkham Asylum itself, which is beautifully created and incredibly life-like. The Asylum has many references to Batman rivals from Harvey Dent aka ‘Two Face’ to Tweedledum and Tweedlee and Clayface. The Riddle has even place many riddles for you to figure out and Riddler trophies which open up new challenge’s for the challenge room mode and character trophies. There are also Character interview tapes which allow you to hear the main enemies being interviewed which are basically brilliant.
There’s also a set of challenge’s for you to do after you have finished the game, which task you to take down as many enemies silently and as quickly as possible or fight as many goons as possible until you run out of health. Each challenge features a online leaderboard so you can compete with friends and try to become number 1.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is the game that every Batman fan would want. It shows that developer Rocksteady has took care with the license and not went too over the top, or made a usual licensed game crap-out. Hats off to Rocksteady, for creating one of the best games of 2009, and this generation!
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 5
Presentation: 5
Sound: 5
Replay value: 4
