User Review : Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman and Joker are at it again! Geoff Yam does one amazing review on this game!

Batman and Joker. The constant struggle between good and evil. Batman: Arkham Asylum, developed by Eidos, is a surprising game that has defied the trend of pathetic movie games and brings us a nihilistic world in a mental asylum controlled by the Joker.
The game begins with batman driving his good old batmobile, travelling to Arkham Asylum to ensure that the Joker remains inside the asylum as they transfer him. However, something goes wrong and Joker manages to escape and in turn takes over the entire asylum, making the mentally ill his guards, rigging television screen to broadcast himself. He then sends the city into chaos by announcing he has planted bombs around the city. It is up to batman to stop him again and save Gotham city.

Batman: Arkham Asylum’s plot is simple and to sum it up, it is basically Batman vs Joker. However between them lie many other well known characters such as the humongous killer Croc, the rather seductive Poison Ivy and many more. The storyline is intriguingly well done even though of its simplicity, probably helped by the comic series. It does really seduce you in, making you need to know what happens next. Add this quality storyline to a marvellously lighted mental asylum which reeks the gargled cries of the mentally ill, and you have yourself a wonderful but eerie setting.
In Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman must fight his way through the hordes of minions that Joker sends at him, solves clues and riddles, and then fight the bosses themselves. Combat is simplistic and you could easily button mash your way through the game, but it rewards more experience points when combo strings on unbroken hits and counters are done to enemies. Experience points are then used to unlock new skills and items which can help you complete the game easier. It will take you the full game to complete acquire all the upgrades, so you will have a motivation to keep unlocking new equipment to see what it does. Batman also has the skills to glide with his batman cape and is able to use detective vision to help him see what his next objective is. These are very useful and when in detective mode, your enemies are highlighted in red. However playing the game while constantly in this mode takes away the psychopathic scenery and defeats the purpose of the game and you will find yourself using it only when needed.
After you entering an area and clearing it from the pathetic guards of Joker, you will be free to explore the area, more often than not, you will have to look for your own way and figure out any puzzles that the area presents in order to move on. Often the most obvious ways to advance through an area will be blocked off and you will have to crawl through vents, use your grapple hook to get to hard to reach places, or use explosives to blow up weakened structures to get through the area. This is when detective mode is very useful. Sure this may sound repetitive, but that desire to find out what happens next, or unlock that next item to see what it really does is far too great. You will often be saying to yourself, “just one more area” over and over again until you realise it’s the next morning.

Each boss has their own unique fight and you won’t come across the same type of boss twice. More often than not, you will have to find the bosses weakness for yourself and you cannot just keep mashing the attack button until your finger bleeds. Your moves will have to be timed, coordinated and you will have to dodge some attacks. This adds a nice change to fighting the incredibly stupid asylum inmates that joker calls his guards.
One of the stand out factors of this game would have to be the character development. All enemies and batman have incredible voice actors which bring the characters to life. Even their animations and movement are created to precision and reflect their characteristics. You will find that Harley Quinn is bubbly and active, while Killer Croc is slow with larger powerful movements and Joker has his famous sinister laugh and sociopathic attitude. Visually, the darkness of the asylum and the lighting really set the scene for these characters to come to life and you will often find joker talking to you over a computer or TV screen in the asylum mocking you into his next trap. Oh the anticipation!
Apart from following the very linear storyline, you can also collect Riddler trophies and collect audio tapes. Riddler trophies will give you new riddles to solve and audio tapes will allow you to listen to the characters when they are first admitted into the insane asylum. These in fact are quite interesting if you have never read the Batman comics before. Arkham, the founder of the mental institute has also left diary entries in some sort of code all over the asylum, so you can find them as hear what he has to say as well. There are also challenge missions based on stealth or combat. It is riddled with extra features and stuff to do after completing the game and will definitely keep you entertained long after you finish the main story.

Overall there are hardly any faults in the game. It has a good storyline, graphics and sound which complement the characters, a lot of extras and never gets boring. Perhaps the only criticism it would have is that you cannot replay the storyline missions after you have finished the game. It wouldn’t’ have been bad to replay some fights with the boss or perhaps relive the nightmares you have that are induced by scarecrow.