Batman: Arkham Asylum review

The Batmobile races through the dark and murky streets of Gotham transporting the (once-again) captured Joker back to Arkham Asylum, Gotham's home for the criminally insane. When Batman arrives at the facility with his prisoner something doesn’t feel quite right. The Joker was too easy to catch, almost like he wanted to be brought back into the Asylum and after a “mysterious” fire at nearby prison, the facility has been stocked with hundreds of the Joker's goons. As a wary Batman escorts his prisoner deeper into the Asylum, the Joker breaks free, with the help of Harley Quinn, and his carefully formulated hostile take over begins.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a third-person action video game that places players in the role of the Dark Knight himself, Batman. With the help of a few of Batman’s notoriously hi tech goodies and special training, the player must navigate the isolated Arkham Asylum island: saving the innocents and defeating the villains. All in the effort to stop the Joker from releasing an army of mutated human monsters on the people of Gotham City.

Now, this might sound like your typical Batman story -- and it kind of is -- but it's important to take note that this is a fairly adult title. Arkham itself is a dark and gothic place that has just been completely torn apart by every psychopath housed there as they were set free. Dead guards are laid out and debris is strewn about. The facilities have seen better days.

Gameplay in this game breaks down into three main portions – exploring, fist fighting and stealth.

There are six main buildings on the island and each is one is fairly large: filled with cells, laboratories, libraries, and more. Explore! The driving motivation behind a detailed exploration of each location are the 240 Riddler challenges. Every so often, Edward Nigma chirps a riddle into Batman's earpiece that pertains to the room the Caped Crusader is in. It is up to you to locate the answer and scan it with your analysis tool. Beyond these worded riddles, the Riddler's challenges include trophies he's tucked away in the asylum, visual puzzles you can only solve through Detective Mode, villains’ patient interviews, and more. Most of areas that house these items will take your gadgets to find, so it's up to you to crawl through grates, use your cryptographic sequencer to hack security panels, use explosive gel to knock down walls and so on to get where you’re going.

As you move through the facility you're going to run into the baddies. Several confrontations await you, whether the Joker springs a trap with handfuls of guys ready to kill you or you find a crew of goons milling about; this is when you'll make use of your straight hand-to-hand moves. Batman's training allows him to move faster than his enemies and engage them in 360 degrees. Aim Batman towards whatever enemy you want to attack and he will follow through. Through four commands-- strike, reverse, jump, and stun -- you'll unleash the Bat’s fury on the scum of the Earth. You can just mash the strike button and take down the bad guys with a healthy set of animations -- dropkicks, elbows, punches, and more are peppered in -- and counter when you see the icon pop-up, but there's a sweet science to this madness if you use the right sequence of attacks. I felt empowered as I knocked these goons down, grabbed their bats and slammed them back into the attackers.

My favorite part of the game is taking out your opponents via stealth. While there are going to be those times where Joker's men ambush you, there are also the moments where you must be invisible, attacking from the shadows. These scenarios are enticing because they forced me to plan my movements instead of rushing in like an action star. I’d perch on a gargoyle and use an inverted takedown to snatch up my foes, then continue to pick them off one by one.


Some of the folks from Batman: The Animated Series are back to reprise their roles: Mark Hamill is the Joker, Kevin Conroy is Batman, and Arleen Sorkin is Harley Quinn. Mark Hamill is excellent in this game -- his inflection, his timing, and everything else is just spot-on. Thing is, he's not the exception to the rule -- Batman, Poison Ivy, the Riddler all sound excellent. Sure, some of the guards are hit or miss, but the characters you care about nail it. Add in the fact that you have an orchestral score that fits the dark, brooding mood of the game, and you have a title that is everything a Batman game's supposed to be in terms of mood.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the greatest comic book video games of all time. This is an adult Dark Knight story that is well-told, packs some truly fun gameplay elements, has topnotch voice talent, and feels like it's truly of the Batman caliber.

I am Batman.

Check out "The First 60 Minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum"


Check out my playthrough of Batman: Arkham Asylum on YouTube.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was on my list of "older" games I wanted to experience.