Full disclosure: I wasn't a huge DC Comics fan at all, going into this game. I was told by many that this is a welcoming entry into the world of Batman, and I couldn't agree more. The time I spent in Arkham Asylum made me appreciate the wacky villains of Gotham...but that's all this game really impacted me with.

Truth be told, I expected this game to be some linear stealth brawler, not a metroidvania. In a way, it wouldn't have bugged me much if I hadn't already played several other games like it. The cool boss sequences (with Scarecrow's being my favorite) are ultimately undermined by a stiff combat system and a skill tree that feels absolutely pointless to upgrade later on in the game. Hell, even the voice acting shows its age!

The tl;dr here is this. Batman: Arkham Asylum is just Metal Gear Solid with a DC license on top of it. Similar cheesiness, similar plot, and similar elements of traversal. That's not to say I didn't enjoy my time with it. This game just wasn't as fantastic as other praised it was.

A product of its time, for sure.

É engraçado jogar Arkham Asylum pela primeira vez, sabendo o quão influente ele é. Se por um lado há alguns aspectos que me fazem pensar "isso funciona melhor no jogo x que saiu anos depois", há outros, bem mais frequentes, que me surpreendem pela qualidade e alto nível de detalhes.

Mais precisamente o próprio Asilo Arkham do título. Explorar seus diversos setores que vão mudando conforme o contexto da história, encontrando novas áreas e segredos enquanto novas habilidades vão sendo liberadas é de longe a melhor coisa do jogo pra mim. Esse aspecto "metroidvania" funciona muito bem e é uma pena que seja justamente a parte menos copiada por outros jogos.

O combate "freeflow" já mostra certa idade, mas ainda é competente. Há situações onde a câmera, ao tentar um ângulo mais dramático, mais atrapalha do que ajuda, e isso piora a partir do momento em que o jogo introduz inimigos com armas de fogo. Apesar de não haver tanta variedade no combate, cada diferente ação que o Cavaleiro das Trevas pode executar tem muita importância, principalmente na maior dificuldade, que pode ser bem brutal. As seções de stealth eu achei mais divertidas, um bom número de diferentes possibilidades de abordar cada inimigo e as reações deles, conforme o Homem-Morcego elimina um por um, funcionam muito bem a favor da imersão.

Talvez o que mais denuncia a época do jogo (além do visual "primeiros anos de Unreal Engine 3") seja sua história e personagens. Há um grande esforço para mostrar que os residentes de Arkham são, de fato, insanos. Mas alguns diálogos (especialmente dos audiologs coletáveis) parecem forçar muito uma reação exagerada de "ooohhh mas que psicopata esse sujeito". Mas o ponto mais fraco de Arkham Asylum são suas boss battles, a maioria é bem desinteressante. Há claro personagens bem explorados como o Espantalho e o Crocodilo, que geram cenários memoráveis, mas especialmente o combate final decepciona um tanto.

Por fim, Arkham Asylum é um jogo muito bom e facilmente recomendável, não só para ver a influência de vários jogos que saíram nos anos seguintes a ele, mas também para apreciar uma adaptação tão boa e tão cheia de carinho sobre essa franquia.

not really a fan. it was fine, but a lot here i didn't like - doesn't feel great to move around (which is why i didn't actually finish the collectables), i think the character designs (or at least how they're rendered) are pretty bad, and i wasn't really feeling the story. combat was pretty fun, which i feel like is the main thing people talk about with this game, even though i wasn't really a fan of some of the encounters (multiple gun wielding thugs in a big room? big joker?). probably wouldn't return to this, but i might check out the others!

If you were into third person action adventure games back inn 2009, you were really eating with the likes of Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2 and Infamous. Arkham Asylum was a game that kind of came out of nowhere as superhero games had a poor reputation at that point and Rocksteady were fairly unknown. Then they came and knocked it out of the park with this one.

Set in the titular asylum which gives plenty of excuse to interact with Batman's fantastic array of villains, the game tells a fun story. They make great use of the setting with a unique atmosphere mixing the modern aesthetics of a hospital/prison with the old gothic manor that it was built upon. I do think the Metroidvania aspects of the setting are a little overblown by people who don't like the more expansive sequels but it is quite enjoyable to unlock more gadgets that allow you to delve deeper into the Asylum. Even if I don't agree, I do get why people don't like the city setting of the sequels and prequel because the Asylum does have a lot of character and it's an interesting setting to explore.

The gameplay loop may have lost some lustre after being repeated a few times but I still think it is pretty fun. It bounces back between hand-to-hand combat with unarmed foes and stealth takedowns with gun-toting goons. It may not be deep but I still find the combat to be really fun. I do enjoy combat based on contextual commands rather than learning a string of combos based upon light and heavy attacks. It truly set a trend for combat in video games and I don't think any of the copycats have been as good. Batman just has the right mix of style and gadgets that no other game with this type of combat has matched. It is a bit simpler in Asylum compared to the later games but still very enjoyable. It's a shame they couldn't make any real decent boss fights with it here. The stealth gameplay, while again being a bit simpler than later games, is pretty fun. You do have a decent number of options and it satisfying to get creative with it. The game does try to encourage you to mix up your strategies by blowing up gargoyles and attracting attention to enemies who have been taken down but I don't think they're that successful in preventing you from using the same tactics that work over and over again. The challenge rooms end up being the best showcase for the gameplay. Still, I never get tired of wittling down rooms of men and watching them get more and more terrified. In between these segments, you get some light puzzle solving. A lot of which comes in the form of Riddler trophies. These have to be my favourite collectables in all of gaming. The Riddler is the perfect excuse for why someone would be scattering random crap for someone else to collect and I really like hunting them all down. The riddles could be a bit more challenging but it's difficult to translate something like that gameplay.

All in all, this is still an excellent game. As far as remasters go, this one is not anything special. It looks a bit better in some cases although would 60fps have been so hard moving to a new generation? Whatever version you have, this is still worth playing today.

R.I.P Kevin Conroy

An overall pretty enjoyable Batman metroidvania game.
The scale isn't grand and that was for the better as it allowed for the game to focus on a few characters and locations along with giving them the appropriate development.
Combat is on the simpler side, but enjoyable regardless.
There are plenty of instances where you'll have to use stealth and those areas were designed pretty well.
Platforming, even if on the slightly automated side was nice.
Overall atmosphere and vibe were fantastic.
The story is pretty much what you'd expect from a standard Batman comic or movie.
Bosses felt on the more gimmicky side, but I didn't mind that.

A game made for DC fans and Fans of the Animated Batman Series!

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an open world action-adventure game set deep in the heart of the Animated Series and DC Comic book universe with an original story about all of Arkham’s residence taking revenge on Batman for being thrown in Arkham time and time again.

Gameplay: This is a 3rd person open world Beat ‘em up Action-Adventure game with some minor horror elements mixed in, taking place in and on the grounds of Arkham Asylum. Combat works in different ways with a combo based, beat ’em up fighting style where you can strike combos and keep them going from enemy to enemy to get a higher rank and XP to unlock things. There is also a big stealth mechanic side to the gameplay where you use gadgets, an Xray (Assassins Creed style Eagle Vision) mode that allows you to see enemies’ weapons and important things in the environment. Batman unlocks a wide variety of satisfying gadgets to help him find collectibles and hidden areas along with fighting enemies and progress the story. Overall, all of the combat is pretty fun and satisfying but it can get a bit clunky and break when there are too many enemies on screen at once. There are bonus missions outside of the main story that have challenges in them giving the player a bunch to do with things like endless wave enemy modes and stealth missions all of which are fun to play. This game also has difficulty modes too so even after you beat the game and get all of the collectibles you can still replay the story on higher difficulties. All of the collectibles add to the story and lore too with a profile for his entire rogue’s gallery being unlockable and a vast majority of the collectibles being Riddles or Riddler trophies the Riddler has hidden across the map. This version of the game has a few glitches I ran into specifically in the Killer Croc section of the game in the sewers where killer Croc would get stuck or some miss me in spots where I should have died, a few objects were floating in this section too but aside from that this remaster played smooth as hell.

Graphics, Voice Acting& Music: The graphics are much improved on this version and looked great for the time they came out with a very accurate comic book gothic atmosphere and A LOT of lore and Easter eggs hidden everywhere making exploration very fun and satisfying. I've seen some debate on whether this game looks better or worse than the original and personally I think it mostly looks better but some cutscenes and spots on models look a little funny but overall I like this version and think its suitable to play. The voice acting is all top-notch incredible performances from the cast of the animated show seeing one of the best voices of Batman, Kevin Conroy and the amazing Mark Hamil as Joker, this has to be one of my favorite comic book video game franchises I have ever played next to the Spiderman games. The music and environmental OST are pretty well done as well making the ambiance of each area and the Dark Knight come to life.

Story/ Minor Spoilers: Basically, the story is about Batman some years into his career after meeting everyone and having his robins. Batman is returning Joker to Arkham after escaping, once back at Arkham things go wrong and the inmates take over the grounds and its up to Batman to figure out what’s going on and stop everyone. I’ll leave the rest of the story for you to figure out but overall, it’s a good story with great characters that feel like they were pulled directly from their source material and though this games story is more or less original its still put together very well with excellent gameplay. Id recommend this to anyone who is a batman fan, DC fan, or fan of Beat em’ up/ stealth games, this is an all around great experience to be had! 9/10