It took me longer than I wanted to finally get my hands on all of the Batman Arkham games. Before this, I had only played Arkham Origins, so my only comparison point was a game that released years later and which I believe is fantastic, and I was afraid the whiplash would've been too big. Fortunately that wasn't the case.

Before I review the game itself however, I need to address technical issues. This is a 2009 (This version specifically from 2010) 7th gen game, and my experience with PC ports of games from that era - especially coming from not PC centric devs - is usually poor, and it was no different this time. After launching the game and getting to the "press start" menu, the game refused to recognize my controller. After extensive research, troubleshooting, messing with Steam controller settings, and a painful whole hour without any solutions, I saw a random comment in a 14 years old GameFAQs forum page that said it would only would only work for that user if he plugged his controller only after getting to the "press start" screen. It seemed so simple and stupid, but I was desperate and had nothing to lose. Lo and behold, it worked, and I had to unplug and reconnect my controller every time I launch the game. Troubleshooting took me so long I only had time to play 30 minutes that night. I also came across a softlocking bug, thankfully I didn't lose more than 10 minutes of progress as it was close to a checkpoint. I won't weigh these issues much on the final score because they're less related to the game itself and more so to the port itself, but they're still unfortunate and noteworthy.

You can very clearly see how this game is the blueprint for every other Arkham game, it's impressive how much mechanically was already here coming from Origins, so much so that right when the action and stealth started I immediately knew what to do. You got the freeflow combat, the flight, the stealth takedowns, and more. Sure, it's missing some moves and gadgets that came later, but it was familiar from the get go, which goes to show just how well made every system is for them to be used in every subsequent game. I did find the camera to be weird at times, especially during the Scarecrow sequences, it was hard to correctly determine depth. Boss fights, with some exceptions, were repetitive, they copied the Bane fight and sprinkled it around. Animations are a bit stiff, but that's probably a problem of its time rather than lack of polish, as it can be seen in future games. Overall, it's a little dated, but it's not even close to unplayable.

The gameplay loop is simple: Go from A to B, hide from enemies, fight enemies, boss fights every now and then, rinse and repeat. It sounds bad when I oversimplify it, but it works, it's exactly how I imagine Batman's MO to be. And beyond that, there are also collectibles and riddles to solve, but I never went out of my way for them, only getting the ones that I could find where I needed to be. Of course, some more variation would be welcome, like Killer Croc's lair or Scarecrow nightmares. But overall, I never got bored, and things never stalled.

As for the story and narrative, characters and writing, I don't know if they consulted with external sources for it, but they nailed it. It feels exactly how a Batman story should, I could totally see this being a movie or animated show. Characters are all well written, especially the Joker (Hot take, I know), with a great dynamic with "B-Man". They managed to expand on Arkham Asylum's lore (As in the institution), and give us a tour through the facility. Another detail I liked was how the environment changed as you progressed, not only is it great environmental storytelling but also makes the world feel alive. I have nothing to complain here, it's a good Batman tale.

It's hard to judge this game by its visuals considering it's a 15 years old game. It never looked graphically bad, but it is dated. It probably looked good at the time, but I can't judge it properly. What I can judge is the art style and details, such as Batman's suit getting more damaged as the night progresses. The Asylum is a gloomy and sometimes creepy looking place, mixing high tech with an early 1900s architecture, and the infamous "piss filter" from 7th gen games is much less prevalent. Character designs are inspired by the originals, but manage to change them in ways that are still very fitting (Such as Harley, using something else instead of her skin suit).

The music is a little "shy", only making its presence known (Other than simply as background noise) at times, but it does its job. Sound effects are good, and the best way to describe them is "fitting", they sound on point for a superhero game, and most of them were the same (Or similar) to the ones in Origins, with them sounding a bit crispier in the latter as expected from a game that came 4 years later, but it goes to show how well they worked. Something weird with the audio however was specifically Batman's voice acting, as if the mic they used wasn't as good as the other characters.

It's easy to see why this was called "the best licensed (Or superhero) game ever" when it first released. Batman, Superman and Spider-Man are the biggest superheroes ever, and making a game worthy of these characters is no easy task, and yet this new studio, which had only made a riot response game beforehand, managed to make a better job than most studios at the time could dream of, they nailed it. I still prefer Origins, and it's not without its flaws, as I have made clear, but the positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot, even if a little dated. If you're a Batman fan, or simply a gamer that hasn't tried this yet, it's a must-play.

SCORE: 8.5/10