Batman: Arkham Asylum Review

In recent years Batman has taken the movie world by storm with the great success of 'Batman Begins' and most recently 'The Dark Knight'; but Batman has never really had a good game interpretation. However, Batman: Arkham Asylum is just that; the best Batman game to date and it actually makes you feel like Batman.

The whole game takes place on Arkham Island, home of the Arkham Asylum where all Gotham city's criminals/insane characters/Batman's foes are kept. The game starts as Batman catches the Joker ready to imprison him in Arkham Asylum once and for all. But nothing is ever that easy for Batman, the Joker escapes and creates hell for Batman as you play out the longest night in Batman's life.

The gameplay is simply phenomenal. Detective mode is genius and the game has a great variety of combat where you can take out your enemies one by one in stealth mode or take them all on at once with a simple but effective 3 button fighting system. Quite simply, you will love playing this game. I don't want to give too much away but Batman's altercations with Scarecrow, where Batman is faced with his deepest darkest fears, are presented incredibly well.

What's also unique about Batman: Arkham Asylum in the Batman sense is that it is not at all based on any recent Batman movie and focuses on just the Batman character. Batman has a very interesting history which is represented well, for example winessing the murder of both his parents at a young age, a memory that is exploited in the game. All of Batman's gadgets are used in the game and you unlock and upgrade them as the game goes on, for example the Batarang can be upgraded to a triple Batarang to take out three enemies at once.

Furthermore any Batman fanatic will love this game; it is so well researched featuring all of the characters from Batman's illustrious comic book career. Character's biographies are unlocked throughout the game along with tapes of interviews with patients at the asylum creating a tremendous back-story.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was developed by London-based Rocksteady Studios, a relatively unknown developer that has only ever produced one game before this; Urban Chaos for PS2 (anyone remember that? No, didn’t think so...) Yet this game is still up there with the best action/adventure games available.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is almost the perfect game, the only thing that lets it down is that at times it can be repetitive and the boss battles could have been improved. However, these are small flaws in this very fresh game. The game also has great replayability with 240 riddles to be a solved all over Arkham Island and the very challenging, and aptly titled, challenge mode. More challenge rooms are unlocked as you solve more riddles. Even more challenge rooms are set to be released at downloadable content with two free sets of DLC already available.

Overall Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the best games out this year so far and if you haven’t played it yet, what are you waiting for?

9/10