Felt Like an episode of the Animated Series. Final boss felt like a "had to" thing. Like "it should have been something else but this is the thing we built up". Good game.
2nd time playing through this game, first time in 13 years.
Solid as always, never realized how much backtracking (not the good kind either) you do in this game. Still a great game.
Solid as always, never realized how much backtracking (not the good kind either) you do in this game. Still a great game.
Just an incredible game, a triumph in every aspect. Lots of collectible items and hidden secrets that explain the lore and story further and are fun to discover. It was truly a game ahead of its time.
If you are a fan of the Batman universe, cartoons, comics or you just enjoy action games YOU OWE it to yourself to pick up and play this. It is absolutely fantastic.
If you are a fan of the Batman universe, cartoons, comics or you just enjoy action games YOU OWE it to yourself to pick up and play this. It is absolutely fantastic.
Arkham Asylum is the definition of simple yet very effective.
I know its almost cliché to praise this game as the 2nd coming of christ but It kinda was for superhero games much less licensed titles, with this and the surprisingly underrated X-Men origins wolverine game adaptation by raven in 09 really told the world how comic book games SHOULD be done after a sludge of just licensed shovelware with some hidden gems here and there. Showing that this genre isnt a laughing stock and that these relatively unknown (non mainstream anyway) devs at rocksteady, who just came off 3 years after making urban chaos, being a janky console fps of playing a cop having to take down thugs lethally or nonlethally, weren't anything to scoff at.
Just to set the stage: I was a fan of batman to the point of watching a lot of cartoons featuring him on Cartoon network including BTAS or Brave and the bold, getting off the high of the dark knight the last year, even owning those special DVDs where the case was the mask of the hero (same with iron man) and owning a batman costume as a kid for halloween that very year. So to see this games reveal trailer on old youtube got me so intrigued to the point of begging my parents to get it that summer when it first dropped, and they did, having to drive all the way down to target, drive back to home to get enough money to pay for it, go BACK to target then go back home. and even got this very GOTY version off ebay one year later on PS3 coming with 3D glasses and extra maps like the endless combat scarecrow nightmare/totally insane, crime alley and nocturnal hunter predator challenge maps, only fueling more hours into it.
All of that to say this game and eventually franchise means a whole lot to me and i'll admit to my bias there, however i had to come back to this game after not only beating it multiple times, nearly platinuming it on PS3 with regular AND GOTY, but also getting that remaster on PS4 and finally got the platinum trophy on there, to see if it still holds up. And seeing my rating you can tell, it does. (for the most part but we'll get to that titan filled elephant in the room)
The setup is very simple: Batman captures Joker who seemingly gave up very easily and takes him to Arkham Asylum, medical facility set to "treat" the criminally insane, however he seemingly escapes and takes over the asylum and releases not only his thugs from Blackgate who got transferred to here, not only actual insane lunatics in straightjackets but also come to find out, his main rogues gallery including: Bane who's been fucked up and addicted to titan after origins, Scarecrow, Killer Croc who's gotten more animalistic than half hybrid in origins, Poison Ivy, Victor Zsasz, all with the help of his girl Harley Quinn who also got in and helped him with this plan to stop batman from thwarting his REAL plan to release an army of roided up behemoth monsters with a Titan formula (that's been since retconned from Bane's TN-1 Formula that gave him strength but fucked him up mentally) into Gotham City. Even hearing instances on the radio of little diversions he placed within Gotham to distract the GCPD from focusing on the clusterfuck going on at the asylum.
Its the way the journey plays out that really makes it special, its like wack-a-mole, as soon at bats put down one villain, another pops up running amok, activating "detective vision" (X-ray mode where batman's eyes go white like in the comics or cartoon) and investigate the crime scene, scan the key problem and trace down certain DNA throughout the island to get to the next objective, running around the island in this castlevania ass design backtracking back & forth, all while joker just talkin shit on the mic throughout the game. This really feels like an long ass animated series episode with how all these villains hamming it up or even the sequences at play here with the scarecrow nightmares. Which is funny seeing all of them like this compared to the rest of the series where they take a darker, almost more grounded turn from city onwards.
It helps with the fact that they got not only paul dini who wrote for TAS but also Kevin conroy, Mark hamill, arleen sorkin, etc. to reprise their roles from TAS, like rocksteady could've easily gotten any one else but it definitely was on purpose by them & WB to have an less family friendly, more mature, more dark oriented vision of batman using influence with the animated series. Like not just with cussing or dead bodies everywhere, its also be having conversations with the thugs implying to do some devious shit like the infamous "Joker told me to kill my sister" dialogue.
You can tell rocksteady are also huge fans because they did their research and be having riddles or references to very obscure ass villains (by comparison) like prometheus, tweedledee and dum or the great white shark, like jesus this games character bios is the first time i've seen these characters and they give you a brief run down on them. and even give "patient recordings" to the villains and even an brief sequence of Dr harleen quinzels encounter with the joker before escaping with him and turning into Harley. On top of that, they got characters in the comic this games named after like aaron cash, whom went onto become a recurring character in the series and new characters made specifically for this game like quincy sharp or penelope young whose also a major player in the plot as to why joker got himself into the asylum in the first place.
They didnt have to go so hard on the detail on making this a more unique batman story but they did. Even getting the same narrative director from urban chaos, rocksteady even implemented a few workers, security guards, etc. just in minor 2 second roles on people batman have to save and check up on. It really makes this feel a lot more lived in despite it being mostly barren. I say barren, not empty because this is a map that gets more dynamic throughout the story, going from thugs who've just broken out, to snipers who've taken guns from the armory, to the insane patients who are weak with 1 punch or counter but will latch on and drain your health to ivys pods that you need to quickly dispatch or face 3 little ball spores that'll also kill ya.
The atmosphere has peaked to the point where it hasn't been matched for its sequels or prequels. The gothic nature and the art direction of the asylum really pops out, including the designs from Harleys nurse fit, to ivys fit with wearing nothing but the arkham shirt and vine based panties and vine veins, to scarecrow having discount Freddy Krueger claws (or needles in this case), venom-roided up bane, to killer crocs massive size to even batman and joker themselves being realized with such detail, joker having a dying flower on his suit or bats having to be all scratched up with his suit throughout the game.
All with the faces looking like they're straight out graphic novel and the mo-cap featured in cutscenes also really gives it that GRIMEY feeling that's been lacking as the series went on ironically with bigger budgets and better mocap.
Speaking of animations, id be amiss to not mention those throughout the game, the little animations even the thugs or lunatics be doing, it really gives them a lot of character, from the thugs taunting batman to kiss their ass or lunatics be walking around smacked outta their mind with loose straightjackets or running at ya like toddlers. And on PC is the definitive version because on console they don't have PhysX, but if you have an Nvidia card, you can enable PhysX which makes paper, debris, shotgun shells, etc. on the floor move all over the place, even being able to break some porcelain tile floors during combat, or the debris flying during scarecrow sequences just adding to the experience. Its such a small thing but it really makes a difference.
The combat with the freeflow system punching one thug to leaping to the next, countering their attacks, doing attack takedowns and throwing them, all in a rhythm like pattern that you have to keep going otherwise it'll drop and you have to start over. To think rocksteady went from an actual rhythm combat to this more simplified less taxing version, actually makes it all the better and it was so influential, other devs just straight up copied it without realizing why it was special in the first place. Having to stun enemies with knifes who block straight punches, having to counter lunatics jumping on you to jump over others who'd cattle prod you. Its easy to learn but hard to master FULLY but when you do, you'd see some smooth as hell moves that make you feel like batman. and on top of that i do miss the actual physics the enemies have to where you can hit 2 of em at once, or how they're almost Rockstar's euphoria levels of reaction of beating their asses with the titan or throwing them at each other. Shame that isn't really there from what i remember within Arkham City, Origins or Knight when they've tightened up the combat.
Sounds definitely help, i usually don't mention sounds but when i do, its either bad or succint, this is the case of the latter, from punch sounds, specifically the 1-2-3 punch, to the bones crack in takedowns to the batarangs to the batclaw to the grappling hook to the line launcher, zipping you across the area to the explosive gel to the batglide to the sonic batarang to the cryptography sequencer, these sounds are so damn iconic and live rent free in my head for so long. Same with the music, playing nothing but that trombone notes during exploration and when the shit escalates it'll start to get more intense.
The stealth is also very simple but when you master it, you'd feel like a badass. With you typically come into a room with a handful of armed thugs covering the room, picking them off one by one and the ai having to scramble to find you. While they aren't too complex with their tactics, they make up for it by being aimbots as soon as they see you they'll shoot you. So you CANNOT be seen. there's no get out of jail free card with the smoke bomb either, you gotta be smart and get rid of em one by one quickly especially when they got "suicide collars" (heartbeat monitors) that'll go off when an enemy is unconscious. So you gotta use all the aforementioned gadgets to clear the room including getting onto gargoyles and do inverted takedowns by stringing them up on a gargoyle with a rope or sometimes to a ledge takedown which is the same thing but on most ledges. All of this to make a well designed stealth system that you can play semi-aggressively and pull off some cool shit. And its so simple to where most can clear a room without much problem but the challenge is to do it so fast within a blink of an eye.
Though it isn't all sunshines and rainbows, the unfortunate boss fights range from "alright i actually like this" to "fuck it lets reskin the titan boss", Arkham origins this is not. There's standouts like Ivys big plant battle dodging her spores (whom i hated as a kid but can easily wipe just based on timing), having to sneak in Killer crocs lair, scarecrow nightmares where you have to sneak around his vision, even peeping your head out will get you dead but then the most of the time, its the one type of fight that'll be throughout the game and that are titans, basically humans turned into roided up monsters that'll charge at you or throw bodies at you. and you just stun them with a batarang, move the hell out of the way, let them hit a wall and go in for the 1-2 punch then dodge their incoming attack and repeat until they get down and you can strangle and ride them to punch all those around you. Its fun but then you realize, 90% of the damn fights were based on titan including 2 major ones: Bane & Joker. Bane makes sense given the backstory but Joker on the other hand, you literally avoid his attacks get his boys to come in, beat them up and batclaw him onto the platform while he's distracted by jack ryders news choppers, They aren't frustrating, its just a bit repetitive of having to face again and again. And while i do miss the sillyness of the titan bosses from Asylum, I'm glad rocksteady evolved the boss fights in city. (not knight unfortunately but we'll talk about that when we get there)
Then after you beat the story you'll get to play challenge maps that'll put combat and stealth up front and challenge yourself into mastering them. Combat you'd have to use all your gadgets and moves and even a bonus on not being hit ONCE, and Stealth you get the chance to do creative shit that'll earn you a medal. Both of these have 3 medals for a certain high score on combat or all these lil mini challenges in stealth. Infinitely replayable especially the actual bonus infinite ones that has no metals but to see how long you can survive. Then there's the bonus on the PS3 and PC (You have to mod in the files tho) where you can play as the joker himself, where you can play all the maps in the original game as the joker taking down the guards, his combat and movement is different, a lot more jovial, just wacky as hell, and instead of batarangs and batclaws, he got 1 bullet in his revolver, explosive rattling teeth, and goofy x ray glasses instead of detective vision. Which is funny as hell seeing the compare and contrast between the 2.
Then there's the riddler trophies/riddles that you have to do via detective mode, which is easier than i remember, its like a combination of having to look around in the environment with some clever shit to scan like things that were out of place or stuck out like a sore thumb and also using your gadgets like the sequencer, line launcher or the batclaw/ultra batclaw to solve the riddle/collect the trophy. Ironically i did most of 'em subconsciously without any guides, only for the damn joker teeth that you have to destroy with batarangs to be hidden under my nose. On top of having to do scanning the chronicles of armadeus arkham in the island and his backstory. I'd probably take back the riddler trophies being the easiest in origins, because asylum is even easier and to think i just pass by them when i was playing this as a kid when they were so simple.
Overall, This game is a classic and while its successors did a lot of improvements, this was remembered for being the quintessential batman game for a reason.
I know its almost cliché to praise this game as the 2nd coming of christ but It kinda was for superhero games much less licensed titles, with this and the surprisingly underrated X-Men origins wolverine game adaptation by raven in 09 really told the world how comic book games SHOULD be done after a sludge of just licensed shovelware with some hidden gems here and there. Showing that this genre isnt a laughing stock and that these relatively unknown (non mainstream anyway) devs at rocksteady, who just came off 3 years after making urban chaos, being a janky console fps of playing a cop having to take down thugs lethally or nonlethally, weren't anything to scoff at.
Just to set the stage: I was a fan of batman to the point of watching a lot of cartoons featuring him on Cartoon network including BTAS or Brave and the bold, getting off the high of the dark knight the last year, even owning those special DVDs where the case was the mask of the hero (same with iron man) and owning a batman costume as a kid for halloween that very year. So to see this games reveal trailer on old youtube got me so intrigued to the point of begging my parents to get it that summer when it first dropped, and they did, having to drive all the way down to target, drive back to home to get enough money to pay for it, go BACK to target then go back home. and even got this very GOTY version off ebay one year later on PS3 coming with 3D glasses and extra maps like the endless combat scarecrow nightmare/totally insane, crime alley and nocturnal hunter predator challenge maps, only fueling more hours into it.
All of that to say this game and eventually franchise means a whole lot to me and i'll admit to my bias there, however i had to come back to this game after not only beating it multiple times, nearly platinuming it on PS3 with regular AND GOTY, but also getting that remaster on PS4 and finally got the platinum trophy on there, to see if it still holds up. And seeing my rating you can tell, it does. (for the most part but we'll get to that titan filled elephant in the room)
The setup is very simple: Batman captures Joker who seemingly gave up very easily and takes him to Arkham Asylum, medical facility set to "treat" the criminally insane, however he seemingly escapes and takes over the asylum and releases not only his thugs from Blackgate who got transferred to here, not only actual insane lunatics in straightjackets but also come to find out, his main rogues gallery including: Bane who's been fucked up and addicted to titan after origins, Scarecrow, Killer Croc who's gotten more animalistic than half hybrid in origins, Poison Ivy, Victor Zsasz, all with the help of his girl Harley Quinn who also got in and helped him with this plan to stop batman from thwarting his REAL plan to release an army of roided up behemoth monsters with a Titan formula (that's been since retconned from Bane's TN-1 Formula that gave him strength but fucked him up mentally) into Gotham City. Even hearing instances on the radio of little diversions he placed within Gotham to distract the GCPD from focusing on the clusterfuck going on at the asylum.
Its the way the journey plays out that really makes it special, its like wack-a-mole, as soon at bats put down one villain, another pops up running amok, activating "detective vision" (X-ray mode where batman's eyes go white like in the comics or cartoon) and investigate the crime scene, scan the key problem and trace down certain DNA throughout the island to get to the next objective, running around the island in this castlevania ass design backtracking back & forth, all while joker just talkin shit on the mic throughout the game. This really feels like an long ass animated series episode with how all these villains hamming it up or even the sequences at play here with the scarecrow nightmares. Which is funny seeing all of them like this compared to the rest of the series where they take a darker, almost more grounded turn from city onwards.
It helps with the fact that they got not only paul dini who wrote for TAS but also Kevin conroy, Mark hamill, arleen sorkin, etc. to reprise their roles from TAS, like rocksteady could've easily gotten any one else but it definitely was on purpose by them & WB to have an less family friendly, more mature, more dark oriented vision of batman using influence with the animated series. Like not just with cussing or dead bodies everywhere, its also be having conversations with the thugs implying to do some devious shit like the infamous "Joker told me to kill my sister" dialogue.
You can tell rocksteady are also huge fans because they did their research and be having riddles or references to very obscure ass villains (by comparison) like prometheus, tweedledee and dum or the great white shark, like jesus this games character bios is the first time i've seen these characters and they give you a brief run down on them. and even give "patient recordings" to the villains and even an brief sequence of Dr harleen quinzels encounter with the joker before escaping with him and turning into Harley. On top of that, they got characters in the comic this games named after like aaron cash, whom went onto become a recurring character in the series and new characters made specifically for this game like quincy sharp or penelope young whose also a major player in the plot as to why joker got himself into the asylum in the first place.
They didnt have to go so hard on the detail on making this a more unique batman story but they did. Even getting the same narrative director from urban chaos, rocksteady even implemented a few workers, security guards, etc. just in minor 2 second roles on people batman have to save and check up on. It really makes this feel a lot more lived in despite it being mostly barren. I say barren, not empty because this is a map that gets more dynamic throughout the story, going from thugs who've just broken out, to snipers who've taken guns from the armory, to the insane patients who are weak with 1 punch or counter but will latch on and drain your health to ivys pods that you need to quickly dispatch or face 3 little ball spores that'll also kill ya.
The atmosphere has peaked to the point where it hasn't been matched for its sequels or prequels. The gothic nature and the art direction of the asylum really pops out, including the designs from Harleys nurse fit, to ivys fit with wearing nothing but the arkham shirt and vine based panties and vine veins, to scarecrow having discount Freddy Krueger claws (or needles in this case), venom-roided up bane, to killer crocs massive size to even batman and joker themselves being realized with such detail, joker having a dying flower on his suit or bats having to be all scratched up with his suit throughout the game.
All with the faces looking like they're straight out graphic novel and the mo-cap featured in cutscenes also really gives it that GRIMEY feeling that's been lacking as the series went on ironically with bigger budgets and better mocap.
Speaking of animations, id be amiss to not mention those throughout the game, the little animations even the thugs or lunatics be doing, it really gives them a lot of character, from the thugs taunting batman to kiss their ass or lunatics be walking around smacked outta their mind with loose straightjackets or running at ya like toddlers. And on PC is the definitive version because on console they don't have PhysX, but if you have an Nvidia card, you can enable PhysX which makes paper, debris, shotgun shells, etc. on the floor move all over the place, even being able to break some porcelain tile floors during combat, or the debris flying during scarecrow sequences just adding to the experience. Its such a small thing but it really makes a difference.
The combat with the freeflow system punching one thug to leaping to the next, countering their attacks, doing attack takedowns and throwing them, all in a rhythm like pattern that you have to keep going otherwise it'll drop and you have to start over. To think rocksteady went from an actual rhythm combat to this more simplified less taxing version, actually makes it all the better and it was so influential, other devs just straight up copied it without realizing why it was special in the first place. Having to stun enemies with knifes who block straight punches, having to counter lunatics jumping on you to jump over others who'd cattle prod you. Its easy to learn but hard to master FULLY but when you do, you'd see some smooth as hell moves that make you feel like batman. and on top of that i do miss the actual physics the enemies have to where you can hit 2 of em at once, or how they're almost Rockstar's euphoria levels of reaction of beating their asses with the titan or throwing them at each other. Shame that isn't really there from what i remember within Arkham City, Origins or Knight when they've tightened up the combat.
Sounds definitely help, i usually don't mention sounds but when i do, its either bad or succint, this is the case of the latter, from punch sounds, specifically the 1-2-3 punch, to the bones crack in takedowns to the batarangs to the batclaw to the grappling hook to the line launcher, zipping you across the area to the explosive gel to the batglide to the sonic batarang to the cryptography sequencer, these sounds are so damn iconic and live rent free in my head for so long. Same with the music, playing nothing but that trombone notes during exploration and when the shit escalates it'll start to get more intense.
The stealth is also very simple but when you master it, you'd feel like a badass. With you typically come into a room with a handful of armed thugs covering the room, picking them off one by one and the ai having to scramble to find you. While they aren't too complex with their tactics, they make up for it by being aimbots as soon as they see you they'll shoot you. So you CANNOT be seen. there's no get out of jail free card with the smoke bomb either, you gotta be smart and get rid of em one by one quickly especially when they got "suicide collars" (heartbeat monitors) that'll go off when an enemy is unconscious. So you gotta use all the aforementioned gadgets to clear the room including getting onto gargoyles and do inverted takedowns by stringing them up on a gargoyle with a rope or sometimes to a ledge takedown which is the same thing but on most ledges. All of this to make a well designed stealth system that you can play semi-aggressively and pull off some cool shit. And its so simple to where most can clear a room without much problem but the challenge is to do it so fast within a blink of an eye.
Though it isn't all sunshines and rainbows, the unfortunate boss fights range from "alright i actually like this" to "fuck it lets reskin the titan boss", Arkham origins this is not. There's standouts like Ivys big plant battle dodging her spores (whom i hated as a kid but can easily wipe just based on timing), having to sneak in Killer crocs lair, scarecrow nightmares where you have to sneak around his vision, even peeping your head out will get you dead but then the most of the time, its the one type of fight that'll be throughout the game and that are titans, basically humans turned into roided up monsters that'll charge at you or throw bodies at you. and you just stun them with a batarang, move the hell out of the way, let them hit a wall and go in for the 1-2 punch then dodge their incoming attack and repeat until they get down and you can strangle and ride them to punch all those around you. Its fun but then you realize, 90% of the damn fights were based on titan including 2 major ones: Bane & Joker. Bane makes sense given the backstory but Joker on the other hand, you literally avoid his attacks get his boys to come in, beat them up and batclaw him onto the platform while he's distracted by jack ryders news choppers, They aren't frustrating, its just a bit repetitive of having to face again and again. And while i do miss the sillyness of the titan bosses from Asylum, I'm glad rocksteady evolved the boss fights in city. (not knight unfortunately but we'll talk about that when we get there)
Then after you beat the story you'll get to play challenge maps that'll put combat and stealth up front and challenge yourself into mastering them. Combat you'd have to use all your gadgets and moves and even a bonus on not being hit ONCE, and Stealth you get the chance to do creative shit that'll earn you a medal. Both of these have 3 medals for a certain high score on combat or all these lil mini challenges in stealth. Infinitely replayable especially the actual bonus infinite ones that has no metals but to see how long you can survive. Then there's the bonus on the PS3 and PC (You have to mod in the files tho) where you can play as the joker himself, where you can play all the maps in the original game as the joker taking down the guards, his combat and movement is different, a lot more jovial, just wacky as hell, and instead of batarangs and batclaws, he got 1 bullet in his revolver, explosive rattling teeth, and goofy x ray glasses instead of detective vision. Which is funny as hell seeing the compare and contrast between the 2.
Then there's the riddler trophies/riddles that you have to do via detective mode, which is easier than i remember, its like a combination of having to look around in the environment with some clever shit to scan like things that were out of place or stuck out like a sore thumb and also using your gadgets like the sequencer, line launcher or the batclaw/ultra batclaw to solve the riddle/collect the trophy. Ironically i did most of 'em subconsciously without any guides, only for the damn joker teeth that you have to destroy with batarangs to be hidden under my nose. On top of having to do scanning the chronicles of armadeus arkham in the island and his backstory. I'd probably take back the riddler trophies being the easiest in origins, because asylum is even easier and to think i just pass by them when i was playing this as a kid when they were so simple.
Overall, This game is a classic and while its successors did a lot of improvements, this was remembered for being the quintessential batman game for a reason.
The story, atmosphere, and scarecrow sections are all awesome. I also really enjoyed the Poison Ivy fight. Everything else though? I would say some of it is because it's a 15 year game, so some of it hasn't aged well. The combat, while simple and fun, is flawed. The game is very janky and clunky. Especially the camera and movement. As a person who doesn't care for stealth much, the stealth parts were very annoying. I probably spent an hour on some of the stealth sections, and it was frustrating. The game has some pretty high highs, and some pretty low lows.
Arkham Asylum is turning 15 this year and it still holds up quite well in lots of areas! The story is nice, I'm not a huge Batman fan but I still liked it, the level design good, the atmosphere is amazing, although I felt the more open parts of the island felt a bit boring, but everything else is fun to explore. You have some gadgets you can use, only a few of them can be used in combat though, but it adds some slight variation to the combat. Speaking of that, it is fun and flows quite well most of the time, when doing a ground takedown you can still get hit but when doing a takedown you can use after achieving a 5x streak in combat you do not get hit, so I almost never did the ground ones. The stealth is nice, nothing out of this world but it gets the job done nicely.
You have upgrades which can increase your health, damage, gadgets efficiency, there's a nice variation of upgrades.
There's a couple mini-bosses you fight which are literally equal, I'd have liked some more variation, even if it was only on their moveset. Some enemy related gimmicks could also have been more fleshed out imo. The final boss battle also felt very random... It was disappointing for me.
Overall it is a fun game that mostly holds up very nicely!
You have upgrades which can increase your health, damage, gadgets efficiency, there's a nice variation of upgrades.
There's a couple mini-bosses you fight which are literally equal, I'd have liked some more variation, even if it was only on their moveset. Some enemy related gimmicks could also have been more fleshed out imo. The final boss battle also felt very random... It was disappointing for me.
Overall it is a fun game that mostly holds up very nicely!
oh my fucking god. let me put yall on smth. like wow. awesome AWESOME scarecrow
This review contains spoilers
Arkham Asylums terrifying and isolated environment is what makes this game my favourite Arkham game. Asylum almost feels like a horror game with its killer croc and scarecrow levels, paired with its fantastic combat and revolutionary detective segments make this game a perfect opening to the Arkham series
Awesome game that I stupidly used to think is the weakest in the Arkham series when in reality there isn't a solid answer to that. loved
Simplemente maravilloso. Batman es uno de los superhéroes con la mitología más extensa e increíble que se encontrarán en el mundo del cómic y este juego realmente le hace justicia. La historia es entretenida y la jugabilidad es excelente tanto para jugadores casuales o primerizos como para jugadores más experimentados. Más allá de la historia principal, el juego te ofrece muchos más aspectos que enriquecen tu experiencia: la recolección de trofeos, los acertijos, los challenges, las biografías de los personajes (que ademas vienen acompañadas con muy bonitas ilustraciones y de vez en cuando audios) e incluso la oportunidad de explorar el asilo de Arkham. Desde hace años que soy fan de Batman (y todos los superhéroes de DC en general) y me dio mucha ilusión jugar este juego.
A classic legendary game. This game and the series it spawned are what set the standard for me on what Batman should be - an unsettling, almost horror-like atmosphere, great combat, and highlighting Batman's role as the world's greatest detective.
its fun but i wish the female character designs were less sexist
Batman is one of the Best Charcters in fiction. This is one of the best games ever made. Mark Hamil best Joker. Peak.
Score: 4.6/5
Letter Grade: A+
Score: 4.6/5
Letter Grade: A+
After playing the Spider-Man games I couldn't resist going back and playing the Arkham games again. If you saw my Spider-Man review you'll know I spent alot of time talking about what those games could take from the Arkham series to improve them.
Arkham Asylum is the first in this series and while compared to the later games in the series this is extremely basic going back to 2009 when this released it was revolutionary and didn't just set the standard for Super-Hero games but third person action games as genre. Still to this day you will see some sort of variation of this combat system in modern games.
The atmosphere in this game is really unmatched by any of the other games in this series. It really gives you this feeling of being trapped in a prison with some of the biggest psychopaths of this world that is crafted.
The Scarecrow hallucinations don't just give you new interesting areas to traverse they really fuck with you as a player faking out that your system crashed and restarts the game.
Now the Riddler trophies... While I think that they aren't nearly as bad as people say in this game you don't gwt much for doing them. Although, I will say that the audio tapes you can find are super interesting and give you some great context to the villains you run into across the course of the game.
Overall this game is great, While I do think this is rather outdated these days compared to what came after it is still a great game.
Arkham Asylum is the first in this series and while compared to the later games in the series this is extremely basic going back to 2009 when this released it was revolutionary and didn't just set the standard for Super-Hero games but third person action games as genre. Still to this day you will see some sort of variation of this combat system in modern games.
The atmosphere in this game is really unmatched by any of the other games in this series. It really gives you this feeling of being trapped in a prison with some of the biggest psychopaths of this world that is crafted.
The Scarecrow hallucinations don't just give you new interesting areas to traverse they really fuck with you as a player faking out that your system crashed and restarts the game.
Now the Riddler trophies... While I think that they aren't nearly as bad as people say in this game you don't gwt much for doing them. Although, I will say that the audio tapes you can find are super interesting and give you some great context to the villains you run into across the course of the game.
Overall this game is great, While I do think this is rather outdated these days compared to what came after it is still a great game.
I've literally played all the other Arkham games, but NEVER got around to the one that started it all, funny enough. So a good amount of this review is really just comparing it to what comes later, while still acknowledging the game based on its own standalone merits
But yeah, this shit rocks. I can 100% see 10 year old me getting lost in this game had I played it when it was new, everything from the atmosphere, music, gameplay, it all works together to really make you, say it with me now, feel like Batman
While freeflow combat and predator sections absolutely revolutionized gaming as a whole, its obviously pretty bare bones here compared to what came later. In fact, it started out pretty frustrating, but actually ended up like a pretty fun challenge not having access to knife counters, cape stun beatdowns, etc
What AA makes up for that the rest of the franchise seemed to lose overtime is atmosphere. Arkham Asylum is filled to the brim with detail and love. It's the most comic-booky out of the Arkham franchise (later games being more its own thing), and it works wonders with fleshing out the world that its set in.
The only honest to god issues I have with the game is that some of the level design is ass sometimes. Its really the only metroidvania in the main series, so its a little annoying when navigating some areas aren't as smooth as they should be with really weird placements of ledges and grapple points
Another SUPER big issue (that they fix in the sequels, thank GOD) is that not every interactable object is highlighted in detective mode. Doors and some collectibles just don't show up and its insanely frustrating to find some things and progress without knowing where the fuck to go. I spent 20 minutes wandering around the same place, because the placement of the doors were so obscure and painted the same color as the rest of the wall
Other than being a little dated, this is still an amazing game and I'm glad I finally got around to playing it after all this time!
But yeah, this shit rocks. I can 100% see 10 year old me getting lost in this game had I played it when it was new, everything from the atmosphere, music, gameplay, it all works together to really make you, say it with me now, feel like Batman
While freeflow combat and predator sections absolutely revolutionized gaming as a whole, its obviously pretty bare bones here compared to what came later. In fact, it started out pretty frustrating, but actually ended up like a pretty fun challenge not having access to knife counters, cape stun beatdowns, etc
What AA makes up for that the rest of the franchise seemed to lose overtime is atmosphere. Arkham Asylum is filled to the brim with detail and love. It's the most comic-booky out of the Arkham franchise (later games being more its own thing), and it works wonders with fleshing out the world that its set in.
The only honest to god issues I have with the game is that some of the level design is ass sometimes. Its really the only metroidvania in the main series, so its a little annoying when navigating some areas aren't as smooth as they should be with really weird placements of ledges and grapple points
Another SUPER big issue (that they fix in the sequels, thank GOD) is that not every interactable object is highlighted in detective mode. Doors and some collectibles just don't show up and its insanely frustrating to find some things and progress without knowing where the fuck to go. I spent 20 minutes wandering around the same place, because the placement of the doors were so obscure and painted the same color as the rest of the wall
Other than being a little dated, this is still an amazing game and I'm glad I finally got around to playing it after all this time!
(Note: I played with GPUnity and Evergreen's Asylum Reborn HD mod, available on Steam. I'd highly recommend it to PC players)
Sights & Sounds
- Before I installed the texture pack, I have to confess that the game was showing its age a bit. It still looks quite good for a decade old game, but I HIGHLY recommend using GPUnity & Evergreen's texture pack. It really does breathe new life into the game
- As you might expect from a Batman game, the lighting is very moody and colored in a highly stylized way (lots of reds, greens, blues, and yellows for different moments)
- Especially with the texture pack, the Asylum is awesome to walk around and take in visually. I found myself climbing up to high areas just to see it all
- Character designs are great; this is one of the best Joker designs ever. In fact, all the villains are great renditions of their comics/movies counterparts
- The voice acting is superb
- Batman properties have always had great music, and this game is no different. Stepping out onto the island after a long mission and hearing the theme play makes you feel like a badass
Story & Vibes
- The story is tightly written and moves quickly. There's very little fluff here, which is nice. Even though the game won't take most people more than 15 hours to beat, the lack of filler makes it feel longer and more fulfilling
- As far as the quality of the story goes, it's decent. You're very much thrown in to the plot (in media res style), and the action kicks off almost immediately. I was expecting more plot twists and turns, but it's surprisingly straightforward. I was also expecting a little more intrigue given the emphasis the game puts on Batman being a detective
- The set pieces and character designs really emphasize that gritty, grimy Batman vibe. There's crumbling architecture, flickering CRTs, and shadows everywhere. If you're interested in a "grown-up" take on Batman, this is it
Playability & Replayability
- Overall, the game controls fairly well. The lack of an option to reassign buttons for controller play was really disappointing. I like to play with backpaddles on my controller, but not being able to swap the bindings made that too awkward
- There's a fair amount of variety in the gameplay. From full-on 10 vs. 1 brawls, to quick-death stealth, to exploring the Asylum with parkour and Batman's gear, you'll be faced with a quickly revolving set of challenges
- The stealth portions were the most fun for me because they allow for the most creativity. You have a ton of options. You could pop out of floor vents for stealth takedowns, lure enemies into exploding gel with your sonic baterangs, string up an enemy on a gargoyle to distract their friends, or whatever you feel like. The baddies' faces are your canvas, and Batman's bootheels your brush
- The combat, despite how well it flows, does begin to feel a bit drab as time goes on. There's some challenges presented in terms of enemies with guns/cattle prods/knives or the occasional Titan enemy, but you'll just find yourself timing the attack button most of the time while holding different directions. The counters, combat abilities, and tool usage all kinda fall off in combat
- Although I can see myself coming back to this game some day to find all the Riddler trophies and do the challenges, the ho-hum combat makes me want to think twice. Besides, I need to get to the rest of the Arkham series eventually
Overall Impressions
- The presentation is quite good, but as I've mentioned a few times, the recommended texture pack will make your overall experience much better
- Spring for the advanced launcher in the texture pack as well; it gives you access to many more visual options
- The game ran exceptionally well. No crashes, bugs (that I noticed, anyway), or audio glitches. It also managed to keep up a high framerate regardless of the action on-screen
Final Verdict
- 9/10. If you can get past the fact that the combat gets old after 2 hours, definitely pick up this game. It's considered a classic for a reason
Sights & Sounds
- Before I installed the texture pack, I have to confess that the game was showing its age a bit. It still looks quite good for a decade old game, but I HIGHLY recommend using GPUnity & Evergreen's texture pack. It really does breathe new life into the game
- As you might expect from a Batman game, the lighting is very moody and colored in a highly stylized way (lots of reds, greens, blues, and yellows for different moments)
- Especially with the texture pack, the Asylum is awesome to walk around and take in visually. I found myself climbing up to high areas just to see it all
- Character designs are great; this is one of the best Joker designs ever. In fact, all the villains are great renditions of their comics/movies counterparts
- The voice acting is superb
- Batman properties have always had great music, and this game is no different. Stepping out onto the island after a long mission and hearing the theme play makes you feel like a badass
Story & Vibes
- The story is tightly written and moves quickly. There's very little fluff here, which is nice. Even though the game won't take most people more than 15 hours to beat, the lack of filler makes it feel longer and more fulfilling
- As far as the quality of the story goes, it's decent. You're very much thrown in to the plot (in media res style), and the action kicks off almost immediately. I was expecting more plot twists and turns, but it's surprisingly straightforward. I was also expecting a little more intrigue given the emphasis the game puts on Batman being a detective
- The set pieces and character designs really emphasize that gritty, grimy Batman vibe. There's crumbling architecture, flickering CRTs, and shadows everywhere. If you're interested in a "grown-up" take on Batman, this is it
Playability & Replayability
- Overall, the game controls fairly well. The lack of an option to reassign buttons for controller play was really disappointing. I like to play with backpaddles on my controller, but not being able to swap the bindings made that too awkward
- There's a fair amount of variety in the gameplay. From full-on 10 vs. 1 brawls, to quick-death stealth, to exploring the Asylum with parkour and Batman's gear, you'll be faced with a quickly revolving set of challenges
- The stealth portions were the most fun for me because they allow for the most creativity. You have a ton of options. You could pop out of floor vents for stealth takedowns, lure enemies into exploding gel with your sonic baterangs, string up an enemy on a gargoyle to distract their friends, or whatever you feel like. The baddies' faces are your canvas, and Batman's bootheels your brush
- The combat, despite how well it flows, does begin to feel a bit drab as time goes on. There's some challenges presented in terms of enemies with guns/cattle prods/knives or the occasional Titan enemy, but you'll just find yourself timing the attack button most of the time while holding different directions. The counters, combat abilities, and tool usage all kinda fall off in combat
- Although I can see myself coming back to this game some day to find all the Riddler trophies and do the challenges, the ho-hum combat makes me want to think twice. Besides, I need to get to the rest of the Arkham series eventually
Overall Impressions
- The presentation is quite good, but as I've mentioned a few times, the recommended texture pack will make your overall experience much better
- Spring for the advanced launcher in the texture pack as well; it gives you access to many more visual options
- The game ran exceptionally well. No crashes, bugs (that I noticed, anyway), or audio glitches. It also managed to keep up a high framerate regardless of the action on-screen
Final Verdict
- 9/10. If you can get past the fact that the combat gets old after 2 hours, definitely pick up this game. It's considered a classic for a reason
This review contains spoilers
- A classic game
- The Riddler puzzles were fun & didn't feel too overwhelming in this entry
- Juggled many of Batman's rogue's gallery very well
- The first time I played many years ago, I was too young to get to grips with the puzzles
- Years later I played through the whole thing in a week, it was gripping
- The combat challenges, like all the Arkham games made the game artificially long and cap its score due to unfun grinding
- The characters are great & this is the definitive Batman experience for me
- The Riddler puzzles were fun & didn't feel too overwhelming in this entry
- Juggled many of Batman's rogue's gallery very well
- The first time I played many years ago, I was too young to get to grips with the puzzles
- Years later I played through the whole thing in a week, it was gripping
- The combat challenges, like all the Arkham games made the game artificially long and cap its score due to unfun grinding
- The characters are great & this is the definitive Batman experience for me
to be honest i only played for Poison Ivy's ass
Batman Arkham Asylum foi o jogo que deu inicio a grandiosa franquia Arkham. E tenho que dizer, foi um grande começo. Nunca pensei que ser o batman seria tão ♥♥♥♥! Nesse game batman leva o coringa para o asilo arkham, mas o coringa acaba escapando, e com isso trazendo caos para dentro do asilo. E então cabe ao batman resolver a parada. No caminho, você tambem encontra varios vilões iconicos. Parece ser um historia simples, mas o interessante, é como ela é contada. Pois junto com o ambiente, e a trilha sonora, você realmente fica envolvido.
O combate desse jogo não deixa nem um pouco a desejar. Os combos são suaves e a coriografia da luta é impecável, o modo stealth desse game tambem é incrivel , existem muitas maneiras de passar de certa parte, em que a luta corpo-a-corpo nao é uma boa ideia.
Uma das poucas coisas que deixam a desejar, são as boss figths, que são um pouco repetitivas, mas mesmo assim são divertidas.
é incrivel o carinho e dedicação que rockstedy colocou, não só nesse game, mas em toda franquia, oque não só faz Batman arkham ser uma das melhores franquias de heróis, mas sim uma das mais revolucionárias, que inspirou jogos atuais.
O combate desse jogo não deixa nem um pouco a desejar. Os combos são suaves e a coriografia da luta é impecável, o modo stealth desse game tambem é incrivel , existem muitas maneiras de passar de certa parte, em que a luta corpo-a-corpo nao é uma boa ideia.
Uma das poucas coisas que deixam a desejar, são as boss figths, que são um pouco repetitivas, mas mesmo assim são divertidas.
é incrivel o carinho e dedicação que rockstedy colocou, não só nesse game, mas em toda franquia, oque não só faz Batman arkham ser uma das melhores franquias de heróis, mas sim uma das mais revolucionárias, que inspirou jogos atuais.
really fun game, doesnt feel too outdated for me at least, solid story, and buff joker
Não tinha muita expectativa pra esse, mas mesmo assim me surpreendeu em algumas partes. Principalmente aquela do Espantalho, que foi muito foda. Pena que fica um pouco repetitivo as vezes, mas mesmo assim é bom.
This review contains spoilers
Batman: Arkham Asylum is a “IT’S THE BAT” simulator and “metroidvania” styled superhero game developed by Rocksteady, whose history before this was one that was in its infancy. Rocksteady was created by Sefton Hill (the director for AA) and a guy named Jamie Walker, whose previous studio (named Argonaut Games, creator of the original Star Fox on NES, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and it’s sequel, the first two Harry Potter games on PS1 AND the Catwoman game based on the box office bomb of the same name with similar results) had closed and was put up for sale in 2004 to recover from the lack of publishing deals. Many would hop over to Rocksteady, whose first game would be the only non-related DC title they’ve ever made: Urban Chaos: Riot Response. After average reviews and god knows how many sales their publisher, Eidos Interactive, would pop up with the rights to create a Batman game. Rocksteady had jumped at the chance, working on the concept that would become Arkham Asylum, written by DC Comics pen Paul Dini and taking inspiration from known Batman comics like Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison along with the likes of other authors such as Frank Miller (of course) and Neil Adams, at least according to Wikipedia though I haven’t read enough Batman comics to really get a grasp on everything (though I would love to one day). The development goal was to create a game that could be beaten in 8-10 hours, with a story written around the gameplay and game design centered around isolation: Arkham Asylum fit just this design. The release of Arkham Asylum would lead to critical acclaim and sales up the iz-a s s as well as redefining the entire superhero genre with its intricate gameplay, its high stakes story and true to the comics style atmosphere.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is an experience to me personally that I don’t think I really remember where I first heard it from, or when I first played it. I remember specifically playing it and really enjoying the plot, though being disappointed at the lack of enemies to beat up post-game as well as dreading the “metroidvania” riddler trophy collect-a-thon, ESPECIALLY the cave systems underneath the Asylum man I dreaded playing that s h i t (though I played both the OG and the Game of the Year Edition on Xbox 360). However, I remember at least this being one of my first true exposures to the Batman mythos (along with Heath Ledger Joker impressions, Batman: Begins the game and the Tim Burton Batman film) and finally becoming engrossed and interested in this dark, gloomy superhero character. Imagining where the series would go next was a fascinating thing for me, I imagined a sort of open world Gotham City (which we would eventually sorta get with City/Origins and later fully with Knight) where you could fly into and beat up bad guys and have a fun time. Having last played Knight on the Xbox One, a buddy of mine DarkRaptor (shoutout to Dino AGAIN) sent me this game for Christmas and I’ve been itching to get back into the series. However, I had this hyper-fixation for Arkham Origins after getting belt fed youtube shorts and wanted to play that; however my buddy Steve (shoutout to SuperPunchGod) told me I should just start again with Asylum because mechanically it was in its infancy and so that’s what I did. How has Asylum held up to me personally compared to how it held up nigh a decade ago?
The plot starts straight after one of Joker’s schemes is foiled by Batman, one which apparently involves assaulting Gotham City Hall along with the Mayor. Having recently broken out of Arkham Asylum to do this, the Bat captures him and brings him back to their special place in the middle of a giant rainstorm while the Jonkler cackles in the backseat. Bringing him inside, Warden Quincy Sharp is waiting for him along with Officer Frank Boles, who seems to want to beat him up. They strap him to a gurney thing and walk him along, with Batman joining due to a strange feeling going on with the Goober. Along the way you’ll meet other characters like Dr. Penelope Young (Warden Sharp’s protege with a personal stake in curing the asylum’s inmates), Aaron Cash (a no-nonsense security guard with a family and a stub for a hand due to inmate Killer Croc), and finally Killer Croc (a man with a life altering disease that gives him scales, who also ate Cash’s hand). Meeting up with Jim Gordon downstairs, the guards lead Joker the rest of the way while Bats and Gordon talk about whenever it's clear that Batman’s suspicions of ulterior motives prove to be correct. Joker strangles a guard and breaks out, with Harley Quinn helping them in the breakout attempt, putting one of the force fields up as Batman jumps through a window. It’s here where the first combat section goes off, and Batman pummels a bunch of Joker’s goons who were transferred to Arkham Asylum from Blackgate Correctional Facility due to a “mysterious” fire.
Chasing after the Joober, he gets sidetracked when serial killer Victor Zsasz holds a security guard hostage with the electric chair. Sneaking into the room and knocking him out, he saves the guard but learns that Harley has kidnapped Warden Sharp. The security system goes offline, and the Joker threatens to bomb the city if anyone attempts to penetrate the Asylum. Forced to work alone, Batman follows a trail to the processing corridor where he sees the Joobler all alone on top of a suspended cell. Throwing a batarang at him for…some reason, Joker gets cocky and releases a giant behemoth of a monster who proceeds to charge though gets knocked out even with difficulty. Joker decides to give Batman a shot to end it all there, to kill him though Batman doesn’t take him up on his offer with the whole “no kill” code thing. Saving a nearby guard from being trapped, the Joker contacts Batman and shows a backup plan: Officer Balls is actually under Jonkler’s payroll, and knocks out Jim Gordon as a part of a kidnapping plan. If Batman follows him, Gordon dies though we all know that he’s going to follow them anyways. Following the trail back from the area where Joker escaped, Batman follows Officer Ball’s trail (filled with pure unbridled alcoholism) and traces him to the exit of Intensive Treatment, where of course he ends up a LITERAL dead end for being a backstabbing piece of shit.
Escaping to the outside, Joker gloats about the location of the Batmobile, being outside of the front gates. Heading back to the car and beating the shit out of all of Joker’s goons kicking it in, he pulls out the Explosive Gel he has hidden in the trunk and follows a tobacco trail left by Gordon which leads him to the Medical Facility. Entering inside, he finds only Harley kicking her feet up behind a security gate and talking to Joker on a TV with Gordon held nearby. Batman sneaks in a different way, and after going through numerous goons rescues Dr. Young, who warns him that Joker has kidnapped a bunch of doctors. Going to every one of them and saving them, they rendezvous in the center where Dr. Young flees to Arkham Mansion to snatch away some research notes in case Joker decides to steal them, with Aaron Cash following behind her as protection. Following the tobacco trail after knocking out a bunch of armed goons coming to storm the facility, he ends up in the basement where he’s hit with Scarecrow’s fear gas and hallucinates Gordon to be dead. Attempting to call Oracle (Barbara Gordon) fails, so chasing the killer into the morgue reveals hallucination of Bruce Wayne’s dead parents begging him not to let them die. He proceeds to wake up in a hallucination, a floating world with bits and pieces of Arkham infrastructure as a giant, high-pitched Scarecrow patrols looking for Batman. Batman sneaks up to a giant light and shines it on him, waking up in the real world morgue.
Following further into the facility, Gordon is revealed to be alive and still held by Harley, who is watching over…something. She gets knocked the hell out by Batman, who saves Gordon and they both infiltrate the lab. The computer inside is revealed to be Dr. Young’s, who seems to have strapped Bane via multiple tubes to a nearby wall for strange experiments, involving draining the Venom from his blood. Joker activates the tubes again and turns Bane mad, who proceeds to grow super sized and throws Batman through a wall. Another boss battle (that plays like the big guy from earlier, throwing batarangs as they charge) plays out where Batman rips out the venom tubes on his back, and the entire infrastructure crumbles as Batman and Gordon escape outside. Bane breaks out and attempts to kill Batman once more, but Batman remote controls the Batmobile to crash Bane into the ocean where they both sink to the bottom. Batman brings Gordon to the nearby boat and tells them to go back to Gotham to calm the civilians with the bomb threats. Batman tells Oracle to find everything she can on Dr. Young, while he goes to the Batcave; yes it turns out Batman has a batcave ON Arkham Island as a backup plan in case. Batman climbs up to a cave near Intensive Treatment and glides down into the secret entrance of the Batcave. It’s here where he looks into the research Oracle sent, which involves Dr. Young experimented on patients with a modified version of Venom, nicknamed Titan and externally funded by a mysterious person. However, the formula is missing and that’s apparently the secret that Dr. Young is trying to hide. Batman theorizes that Joker’s endgame is to acquire an army in comparison to “a thousand Banes”. He leaves the Batcave to chase after Young when it’s learned that the mysterious funder is “Jack White”, one of the old aliases of Joker. Dr. Young blocked the payments so he proceeded to get captured by Batman just so he could get the formula back for himself, after of course sending email death threats involving dead babies.
Making his way to Arkham Mansion, Joker yells at his thugs to search the entire place while he’s interrogating Dr. Young for the location. Making his way to her office, he finds the safe empty and follows her trace to the library, where Joker has taken two doctors hostage. He ends up cracking a chandelier and has it crash to the bottom, saving the doctors who confirm Batman’s suspicions that Dr. Young ran in before being captured. It’s probably reversed but either way, Batman finds the formula in the library and burns it before Joker can obtain it. Joker reveals a new backup plan: Dr. Young has been captured by Zsasz again. He gets hit by some gas as he exits the library and ends up in ANOTHER Scarecrow hallucination, this time re-enacting his parents murder in Crime Alley, all while experiencing it as a child again. Ending up in another game of hide and seek with Scarecrow, he AGAIN gets the spotlight and shines it on him before waking up in the clock tower. Batman throws one of his ‘rangs at it, with the giant crash below opening up a new way to get to Zsasz and Dr. Young in the Warden’s Office. The Bat manages to get her safe by throwing a batarang straight at the dude’s forehead, knocking him out cold. Young freaks out at him before crying to Batman that she tried to give him his money back before warning him about a lab hidden in the Gardens, the codes being in the warden’s safe. However, the safe is booby trapped and Dr. Young is now mucho deado. For some reason, Harley appears with the kidnapped Warden who is beaten up and leaves an easily followed trail and a bunch of goons as cannon fodder to get beaten up.
Batman follows the trail easily left by Harley and the Warden to the Penitentiary, where Poison Ivy begs to be let out. This of course is denied by Batman, who instead continues to follow the trail and finds the Warden, watching a tv feed of Harley letting Poison Ivy free to roam. Joker of course frees all of the “looneys” and the Warden gives Batman the sequencer to hack into the systems. Warden hangs back for safety reasons, and Batman chases Harley Quinn while beating up multiple goons to Extreme Incarceration, where a giant fist fight ends in Harley being defeated. Joker gives her “encouragement” by removing her from the “party list” (revealing names from Selina Kyle to Rocksteady contest winner Luke Oliver, though none of it really matters). Harley attempts a sucker punch but gets flipped over and her fingerprints scanned before being thrown into this cell and Batman makes his way over to the lab in the botanical gardens. He confronts Joker, who responds by throwing the guard into an electrified pool of water. Chasing him to the Aviary, he knocks out the patrols holding hostages before opening up the secret lab with Joker and two of his guards inside. He shoots his goons with the Titan formula, who transform body horror style and prepare for combat. The fight ends with the goons knocked out and the Titan Production Facility destroyed, though with Joker escaping with a whole bunch.
Batman narrows it down to a Venom Hybrid plant, and tracks Poison Ivy’s pheromone sample nearby to ask for her help. After some “tough persuasion”, she reveals that there’s a plant that can counteract this Titan…located inside of Killer Croc’s lair. He makes his way out, but it’s learned that Joker injected Ivy with Titan, which causes freaky plants to grow all around the island. Now there’s a time limit before the entirety of Arkham Island is overrun, and Batman races to the mansion to talk to Aaron Cash about a way into Killer Croc’s cell. Batman makes his way to Intensive Treatment once again for the most memorable section in the game: Scarecrow’s last hallucination. First it hits you with a glitch of sorts, making you think that the game’s seemingly crashed. Then it hits you with a reversal of the opening cutscene, Joker as Batman and Batman as Joker. Batman is brought to Arkham Asylum and strapped to a gurney, pushed along as he screams for help. Scarecrow and Zsasz inspect him before Joker pulls out a gun and shoots him, leading to an unavoidable game over screen where he’s told to “wiggle the mouse to dodge his bullets”. Waking up out of Bruce Wayne’s grave, he finds himself in one last Scarecrow hallucination involving Batmen eating dead rats and a giant searchlight being shined on Scarecrow. Waking up in the real world with Scarecrow’s neck wrapped around Batman’s hand, he attempts to jab him with more fear toxin which pits Batman against skeletal enemies. However, this backfires as Batman gains clarity once more, having “ingested enough toxins to drive 10 men insane” and he escapes, planning to flood the water in Croc’s lair with enough fear toxin to drive everyone insane. Chasing him down there, this fails as Scarecrow is grabbed by Killer Croc for lunch before a batarang/shock collar combo brings them both into the waters nearby.
With Scarecrow’s plans now failed, Batman enters Croc’s lair to find all of these plant spores meant to build the counteracting chemicals. This game of cat and mouse has Batman slow walking, quickly reacting with more shock collar/batarang combos and a whole lot of running, which ends in Croc having a floor blown out from under him and into the abyss below. Making his way to the Batcave, where he creates an antidote to reverse engineer Ivy, planning on giving her the cure while the computer creates more. In the meanwhile, plants raid the entire lair and Batman barely gets away, making his way back to the asylum. Climbing up through the sewers, Oracle reveals that Joker is polluting Gotham river with Titan waste and Batman proceeds to shut down all of the control rooms. Batman then makes his way back to Ivy, who overrun the ENTIRE Botanical building with plants and red mist. Attempting to inject the plant results in Ivy going berserk, and a boss battle ensues with a giant plant. Of course, Batman manages to crack through the shell with explosive gel before the entirety of the greenhouse collapses. Batman glides out as fireworks engage, and Joker’s “party” is finally announced as Batman makes his way over.
If you’ve been going to the Visitor’s Room throughout the game, you’ll notice a mannequin with a TV strapped to its head as Joker’s voice taunts Batman about a variety of subjects and changing positions. Going back here now, it’s revealed that it’s NOT actually a mannequin but actually the Joker himself…sticking his head through a TV? How this works I’m not totally sure, but it’s cool nonetheless! Batman follows the Joker after the TV blows up to reveal a giant lair covered in barbed wire, the Joker sitting atop a throne with Scarface the doll on his hand and two giant titan goons chained to the wall. One last fight in this throne room leads to Gordon AGAIN having revealed to have been kidnapped, though how this time is unknown. Joker attempts to shoot Gordon with Titan, only for Batman to jump in and take the hit. However, Batman resists the Titan formula as the Joker attempts to tickle him with a feather, going on a rant about wanting to bring down Batman’s facade of the world. He then shoots himself with the Titan as the news helicopters surround the entire island, with Jack Ryder having been sent a news message to look upon the rooftops. Titan Joker appears, throwing Batman into an arena as Gordon is strapped in a nearby electric chair. Batman injects himself with the antidote, and defeats the Titan Joker and his goon squad, which ends in Titan Joker getting pulled down into a floor and electrified. The fight ends with a Mike Tyson punch-out as Batman puts explosive gel on his fist, punching Jonkler in the face and knocking them both back. Probably dislocating his arm and messing up a couple of fingers, the night is saved as the GCPD takes control and criminals are brought back to their cells. Everyone who was injected with Titan transforms back to normal, even if the process is painful. If one were to wrap up the Riddler trophies before then, Batman also sent the location of the Riddler to GCPD, where he’s arrested in an apartment building. The game ends with Batman racing off in the Batwing to take down Two-Face, who's robbing a bank and the final post credits shot concludes with a box of Titan formula floating outside of Arkham Asylum, with one of three hands popping up for a grab: Scarecrow, Killer Croc or Bane.
The plot to Arkham Asylum, while it’s not my favorite of the series, is still a lot of fun. It feels like a classic Batman plot, a Joker scheme where he sends you out on a wild goose chase to stop a bunch of plans before the reveal of “the party” which has been built up all night. The whole Titan monster plot feels a bit weird sometimes of course, like a bit out of tone for the rest of the Arkham franchise but considering that this was the first game in the series it’s not a surprise that over time the tone would change into something more dark and a bit less fantastical then “super soldier enemies”. I appreciate all the little details, the plot twists, and honestly let’s just be real about the VIP here: the Scarecrow hallucinations. I knew it was coming this time, but both of the previous times I played this game on the Xbox 360, it really shook me up and wigged me out, making me panic that the game actually crashed. The whole meta thing of that made for a pretty damn good Scarecrow moment, and followed up by the tense Killer Croc sewer segments made these to be the two best moments in the game for me. I love the lore that Rocksteady managed to put in here between the Riddler trophies or even things that aren’t related to that but reference other DC and Batman media as little easter eggs. I sometimes think that the game has a couple of strange plot twists (mainly how did Commissioner Gordon get kidnapped AGAIN after being sent out via police boat, why does Hush appear as an entry here when he only later shows up for the first time in City or how did Riddler get all of his trophies around the asylum) but overall, a solid plot. I was reading up on TVTropes (as always my go-to site) trying to learn new things about the game and apparently, the game had featured the Mad Hatter inside of a botanical garden maze which would’ve been interesting as well as a Mr. Freeze section. These were either cut for pacing purposes or because in Freeze’s case, the motives don’t line up really well. I also appreciate the brisk pace that the game goes in, with me beating the game in around 10-11 hours or so and it never felt like it overstayed its welcome with how small and honestly claustrophobic the Asylum is.
So what’s the gameplay like for Batman: Arkham Asylum? It’s a sort of “Metroidvania” style game, where you explore different areas of the asylum, later backtracking to follow different story objectives with new gadgets or collecting “Riddler Trophies”. The Riddler collectibles consist of actual hidden trophies, riddles which require either painfully obvious answers or semi-confusing puzzles (almost always consisting of scanning/holding down the detective vision button) that gives greater context to DC lore or gets you THIS much closer to taking down Riddler himself. While I loved getting a bit of background lore to the world, the Riddler trophies are always going to be the Arkham game’s biggest pain in the a s s, with the thing I honestly dreaded most replaying the game. The gadgets (which consist of things like Remote Controlled Batarangs, Explosive Gel, Grapple Hooks and other stuff) were also apparently influenced by Metroid and even The Legend of Zelda for their out of the box environmental puzzle solving. For the most part this works, there’s definitely a bit of puzzle solving that once you figure it out can make you feel pretty smart. That being said, if one decides to just use a guide I wouldn’t blame you considering how frustrating finding some of these guys are.
What else do you do in the open world? Other than grapple to certain spots (which change over time due to story events), you can engage in combat (or stealth knock out some goons). The stealth combat is pretty simple, you can either literally sneak around (in which case the field of vision/retention meter is pretty solid) or grapple between gargoyles as you try to make your way around the arena to knock out Joker goons. This can be done in many ways, between capturing goons and strapping them to the gargoyles, to corner takedowns, grate takedowns, explosive gel takedowns, grapple hooking people off of ledges; the list while not the most expansive goes on a bit and makes you feel pretty great when taking down goons. That being said, the AI reacts pretty decently to this too and adapts accordingly, like looking through nearby grates if a goon was taken down near one or even later on placing bombs on gargoyles to give you less advantage. Best part is, unlike later games, henchmen don’t try to wake each other up either so you’re given a lot more breathing room to interact, wait and plan how you want to.
So what’s combat like? For the most part seamless! Originally the game was planned to be sort of a rhythm game and you could tell just due to how rhythm based the combat is set up to be. Obviously you can punch people, and punching enough people builds up a combo; the higher the combo, the more powerful and the faster you get and such. Along the way you have to be careful to counter certain goons (marked with blue lightning above a goon’s head) or dodge them entirely (red lights above a goon’s head), and certain goons have a certain way of being fought. Electric prod ones you need to jump over their heads before punching them in the back while the big knife guys you have to stun with your cape before beating them up. Titan guys you have to wait till they charge before quickly throwing a batarang and dodging, which allows you to punch them a bit before riding their back and forcing them to knock out other goons. Again while there isn’t as much variation as the later games would have, it’s a pretty solid system that works pretty well and feels powerful. That being said, it can be a bit touchy and one accidental press of the counter button (Y on the Xbox controller) will mess up your whole combo so you need to pay attention to your surroundings but be quick enough to actually dodge everything. It’s a system that while in it’s infancy stage, really blossomed into something that later games would take influence from and use for their own games which is awesome. And another thing, the more Riddler trophies you get through the entire game, the more combat maps/takedown maps you’ll unlock in the main menu. Luckily, if you don’t want to do that, the PC version has all of the DLC maps (like the Scarecrow one) for free which is nice! The only thing it doesn’t have though is the Joker maps, exclusive to PS3 and the Linux apparently? However, there are guides to actually mod that in (one of which I posted in the links below), so if you want a bit more Arkham Asylum feel free to go through that.
Built on Unreal Engine 3, the amount of graphical fidelity that this game has is honestly pretty astounding. It has this sort of detail in the environmental and character modeling that the truth is sometimes the other games don’t really match up with. Don’t get me wrong, the other games don’t look bad in the slightest. However, there’s something about Asylum that just has more of a strike to it, though this could be due to the bigger scope of the latter three games leading to it being taken down a notch. If the devil is in the details then this game definitely leads a satanic cult because this game is packed full of them. Over the course of the game the Batsuit will experience damage due to story events and his beard stubble will grow over time as you go through the set pieces. If one were to compare the Return to Arkham Ports with the current PC port you’ll notice a bit of a difference graphically: number one is that the older ports will always have this greenish hue of sorts that makes it feel surprisingly…dead almost? Apparently the game was supposed to include rain (later added to the Xbox One/PS4 ports) though was cut from the original releases due to technical limitations, but in a strange sense it actually enhances the dread for me even more? With the graphics mixing into the atmosphere section now, how's the atmospheres? It’s this mixture of this gothic seriousness thrown into a blender and shaken up a bit with a little goofiness here and there. Another thing, the detective mode that you get in this game is actually pretty cool looking, so much in fact that players would go through the entire game just using that mode as a sort of filter (enough so that the developers would nerf it for Arkham City and beyond).
Understandably, the idea of superheroes and villains as a concept are goofy; that’s a lot of the reason why something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit as hard as it did because it didn’t take itself too seriously. This game is what I would consider to be the closest to that in the Arkham franchise I would say, but that’s for later on. Arkham Asylum as a location is gloomy and oppressive, secluded on its own island in a sort of vibe where it looks like it could fall apart at any moment, only to reveal something airtight and state of the art underneath and while it’s not art deco, apparently a lot of this boils down to apparent “Bioshock” influence that game had on developers. This only gets worse and more oppressive as the night goes on, between the destruction wrought on by Joker and his goon squad and Poison Ivy’s giant plant vines literally inserting itself into every little facet of Arkham Asylum’s architecture. The empty rooms with flipped tables and leftover paperwork, especially after you’ve beaten the game (or right before) and are just wrapping up Riddler trophies could feel like it’s this bizarre, maze-like liminal space that’s hostile and instantly uncomfortable. Honestly it was so effective (along with the Metroidvania styled collectible stuff) that it was a huge part of the reason why I didn’t want to come back and play this game for a long time. The Medical Wing is I think one of the biggest offenders, with the path going to the basement becoming kind of confusing, and the paths have details ranging from liquid-filled jars with severed heads to the cell that USED to hold Killer Croc. It looks like something honestly out of an 80s horror movie, like Herbert West’s Re-Animator or something (though I never watched that movie sadly). Don’t even get me started about the Scarecrow hallucinations, usually marked with dutch camera angles, glitches or long hallways that even though doesn’t hit rated-R levels of creep factor does a really good job messing with Batman in a seamless manner.
The sound design in terms of the noises, how things sound reminds me in a strange way of a filing cabinet. That slick papery sound as you pass through page after page, it’s especially prevalent in the biography pages when you earn entries through Riddler trophies or interview tapes. This smooth sound of paper being flicked back and forth just fills this weird ASMR brain thing in my head, along with the audio tapes being activated. Gliding using the cape also elicits the paper ASMR in a similar sense from earlier, and while not as strong certainly sounds appealing as hell. Punching and kicking people, while not as striking or appealing as the later games, still have this oomph to it that just feels satisfying kicking the s h i t out of everyone and everything you see. The noises and little jingles that go off as either the Joker or a pre-recorded message from the Asylum itself goes off and recites statistical facts or vague threats feel right at home. There are so many noises and sounds that just fit the feeling of what Arkham Asylum IS, I honestly can’t think of a single sound that doesn’t fit at home here or isn’t perfect. How about the soundtrack, does it have a unique flare to it or tracks I could listen to away from the game? The composers for the score here consist of Nick Arundel and Ron Fish, who manage to make this mysterious sound as if it comes straight out of a noir film. Another track they did, Enter the Asylum, is probably what I would say their “main track” is, which while repeated and altered in other locations kind of reminds me of how Halo would pull off their compositions. Other tracks consist of a lot of choir chanting, which I’m always a bit of a sucker for. Like the case for most other soundtracks, it really works within the game’s environment even if there’s no memorable tracks that I would say “slaps in the whip” so that’s all I really have to say here. It’s perfect, fits the atmosphere, no honest complaints.
Voice acting across the board is pretty fantastic, bringing in a lot of the talent from the Batman: The Animated Series cast like Kevin Conroy as Batman (Rest in Peace to THE definitive Batman), Mark Hamill as The Joker, Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn like other than the movie adaptations of these characters I don’t really see anything to change. It’s almost effortless how they knock it out of the park, even with the producers having told Kevin Conroy to use his general speaking voice it just feels like I’m hearing Bruce Wayne speak. I think the main things to point out honestly would come from the other members of the cast: Tom Kane (Takeo from Call of Duty: Zombies fame, Dr. Loomis impersonator from Halloween H20, etc.) has such a magnificent boomy voice performance it feels like he should be involved in public speaking of sorts, and plays both Commissioner Gordon as well as Warden Quincy Sharp and while they both sound similar they’re both different enough to be unique. While Steven Blum mainly plays Killer Croc with this vicious snarl, talking as if he’s drowning in water, he also plays other characters (like a doctor at the beginning) in his regular voice that always sounds iconic. Wally Wingert plays The Riddler and others and by god does his Riddler voice sound like such a narcissistic pompous ass that honestly feels perfect. I also recognize Cree Summer as Dr. Penelope Young, a performance that while sounding like Cree Summer, she always sounds recognizable in everything which in this case is a good trait. These are only a couple of examples, these guys exemplify the characters in-game and it’s honestly hard to see them as anything else (except maybe Steven Blum I can always pick that dude out of a crowd to be honest).
Having replayed Arkham Asylum, I had found a lot of my old frustrations that built up in my mind to honestly be unfounded. I dreaded replaying this game, doing all those damn Riddler trophies and coping with fighting mechanics that was stuck in its infancy compared to the upgraded arsenal and fluidity that we would later have in City and Knight. But honestly? Replaying this game gave me a sort of newfound respect for the game, as truth be told the title is to me an inherent classic with its influence on future games. Other games (mostly superhero) would attempt to ape the freeflow combat style from Spider-Man games to Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor/War, Sleeping Dogs to Mad Max to even the likes of the awful game Ride to Hell: Retribution. However, what really holds this game up for me other than the combat system is just genuinely it’s delivery, it’s atmosphere, it’s reverence for the DC history. Riddler Trophies or without, the amount of details they put into this game is just so astounding that even to this day I’m still learning new details about this game (like the beard stubble), and it’s genuine foreshadowing on Arkham City with the secret room, or even obscure stuff that I wouldn’t have even recognized without doing deep dive stuff. Rocksteady cared about this product and it truly shows with the popular reception this game gave, that even now people will still list this as their favorite game even if it doesn’t deliver as hard compared to the rest of them. I’ll still always prefer Knight mechanically or Origins/City for their plots but the game has my deep respect and admiration and honestly deserves it as one of the greatest games of all time, a forerunner in the superhero genre that showed making these games CAN be good, that it’s not all a one time fluke or having to be tie-ins to movies or cartoons. Releasing to the aforementioned critical acclaim, the developers must’ve known how good they had it because they pulled off a bit of a risky gamble: staging hints of a sequel in the base game. Going into the Warden’s Office area and blowing up a wall with the max amount of explosive jail would reveal the Warden’s secret plans for a special prison, sectioning off a piece of Gotham. Going back to the Morgue where Ra’s Al Ghul’s corpse was for the riddle would later reveal that it disappeared, also setting up the sequel. This sequel would become Arkham City, and with the sequel in development along with the success of Asylum, Rocksteady would be purchased in 2010 by Warner Bros. There’s not much else historically wise that I know of that I wouldn’t cover in the next game’s review other than the fact Arkham Asylum was later re-released as Game of the Year along with being remastered for Xbox One/PS4 and ported to Switch, but the impact Asylum had is not to be understated in the slightest. It may not be my favorite superhero game, but it helped influence the industry and cemented its influence as a classic game.
Links:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120712005612/http://www.arkhamcare.com/prices/
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/BatmanArkhamAsylum
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nRBWe14tYdo (Easter Eggs)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6126146/Batman-Arkham-Asylum-interview-with-Paul-Dini.html
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3179787276 (Joker install guide)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Th1-HHfLAk (Officer Balls)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuuHMPqrXy8&list=OLAK5uy_k0DH8cZzBb9Uq-1L6M2H7c2lGKJZK7mvI&index=1 (Soundtrack)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1282022/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcveNqT6Lfg&ab_channel=Gamer%27sLittlePlayground (Cutscenes)
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
Batman: Arkham Asylum is an experience to me personally that I don’t think I really remember where I first heard it from, or when I first played it. I remember specifically playing it and really enjoying the plot, though being disappointed at the lack of enemies to beat up post-game as well as dreading the “metroidvania” riddler trophy collect-a-thon, ESPECIALLY the cave systems underneath the Asylum man I dreaded playing that s h i t (though I played both the OG and the Game of the Year Edition on Xbox 360). However, I remember at least this being one of my first true exposures to the Batman mythos (along with Heath Ledger Joker impressions, Batman: Begins the game and the Tim Burton Batman film) and finally becoming engrossed and interested in this dark, gloomy superhero character. Imagining where the series would go next was a fascinating thing for me, I imagined a sort of open world Gotham City (which we would eventually sorta get with City/Origins and later fully with Knight) where you could fly into and beat up bad guys and have a fun time. Having last played Knight on the Xbox One, a buddy of mine DarkRaptor (shoutout to Dino AGAIN) sent me this game for Christmas and I’ve been itching to get back into the series. However, I had this hyper-fixation for Arkham Origins after getting belt fed youtube shorts and wanted to play that; however my buddy Steve (shoutout to SuperPunchGod) told me I should just start again with Asylum because mechanically it was in its infancy and so that’s what I did. How has Asylum held up to me personally compared to how it held up nigh a decade ago?
The plot starts straight after one of Joker’s schemes is foiled by Batman, one which apparently involves assaulting Gotham City Hall along with the Mayor. Having recently broken out of Arkham Asylum to do this, the Bat captures him and brings him back to their special place in the middle of a giant rainstorm while the Jonkler cackles in the backseat. Bringing him inside, Warden Quincy Sharp is waiting for him along with Officer Frank Boles, who seems to want to beat him up. They strap him to a gurney thing and walk him along, with Batman joining due to a strange feeling going on with the Goober. Along the way you’ll meet other characters like Dr. Penelope Young (Warden Sharp’s protege with a personal stake in curing the asylum’s inmates), Aaron Cash (a no-nonsense security guard with a family and a stub for a hand due to inmate Killer Croc), and finally Killer Croc (a man with a life altering disease that gives him scales, who also ate Cash’s hand). Meeting up with Jim Gordon downstairs, the guards lead Joker the rest of the way while Bats and Gordon talk about whenever it's clear that Batman’s suspicions of ulterior motives prove to be correct. Joker strangles a guard and breaks out, with Harley Quinn helping them in the breakout attempt, putting one of the force fields up as Batman jumps through a window. It’s here where the first combat section goes off, and Batman pummels a bunch of Joker’s goons who were transferred to Arkham Asylum from Blackgate Correctional Facility due to a “mysterious” fire.
Chasing after the Joober, he gets sidetracked when serial killer Victor Zsasz holds a security guard hostage with the electric chair. Sneaking into the room and knocking him out, he saves the guard but learns that Harley has kidnapped Warden Sharp. The security system goes offline, and the Joker threatens to bomb the city if anyone attempts to penetrate the Asylum. Forced to work alone, Batman follows a trail to the processing corridor where he sees the Joobler all alone on top of a suspended cell. Throwing a batarang at him for…some reason, Joker gets cocky and releases a giant behemoth of a monster who proceeds to charge though gets knocked out even with difficulty. Joker decides to give Batman a shot to end it all there, to kill him though Batman doesn’t take him up on his offer with the whole “no kill” code thing. Saving a nearby guard from being trapped, the Joker contacts Batman and shows a backup plan: Officer Balls is actually under Jonkler’s payroll, and knocks out Jim Gordon as a part of a kidnapping plan. If Batman follows him, Gordon dies though we all know that he’s going to follow them anyways. Following the trail back from the area where Joker escaped, Batman follows Officer Ball’s trail (filled with pure unbridled alcoholism) and traces him to the exit of Intensive Treatment, where of course he ends up a LITERAL dead end for being a backstabbing piece of shit.
Escaping to the outside, Joker gloats about the location of the Batmobile, being outside of the front gates. Heading back to the car and beating the shit out of all of Joker’s goons kicking it in, he pulls out the Explosive Gel he has hidden in the trunk and follows a tobacco trail left by Gordon which leads him to the Medical Facility. Entering inside, he finds only Harley kicking her feet up behind a security gate and talking to Joker on a TV with Gordon held nearby. Batman sneaks in a different way, and after going through numerous goons rescues Dr. Young, who warns him that Joker has kidnapped a bunch of doctors. Going to every one of them and saving them, they rendezvous in the center where Dr. Young flees to Arkham Mansion to snatch away some research notes in case Joker decides to steal them, with Aaron Cash following behind her as protection. Following the tobacco trail after knocking out a bunch of armed goons coming to storm the facility, he ends up in the basement where he’s hit with Scarecrow’s fear gas and hallucinates Gordon to be dead. Attempting to call Oracle (Barbara Gordon) fails, so chasing the killer into the morgue reveals hallucination of Bruce Wayne’s dead parents begging him not to let them die. He proceeds to wake up in a hallucination, a floating world with bits and pieces of Arkham infrastructure as a giant, high-pitched Scarecrow patrols looking for Batman. Batman sneaks up to a giant light and shines it on him, waking up in the real world morgue.
Following further into the facility, Gordon is revealed to be alive and still held by Harley, who is watching over…something. She gets knocked the hell out by Batman, who saves Gordon and they both infiltrate the lab. The computer inside is revealed to be Dr. Young’s, who seems to have strapped Bane via multiple tubes to a nearby wall for strange experiments, involving draining the Venom from his blood. Joker activates the tubes again and turns Bane mad, who proceeds to grow super sized and throws Batman through a wall. Another boss battle (that plays like the big guy from earlier, throwing batarangs as they charge) plays out where Batman rips out the venom tubes on his back, and the entire infrastructure crumbles as Batman and Gordon escape outside. Bane breaks out and attempts to kill Batman once more, but Batman remote controls the Batmobile to crash Bane into the ocean where they both sink to the bottom. Batman brings Gordon to the nearby boat and tells them to go back to Gotham to calm the civilians with the bomb threats. Batman tells Oracle to find everything she can on Dr. Young, while he goes to the Batcave; yes it turns out Batman has a batcave ON Arkham Island as a backup plan in case. Batman climbs up to a cave near Intensive Treatment and glides down into the secret entrance of the Batcave. It’s here where he looks into the research Oracle sent, which involves Dr. Young experimented on patients with a modified version of Venom, nicknamed Titan and externally funded by a mysterious person. However, the formula is missing and that’s apparently the secret that Dr. Young is trying to hide. Batman theorizes that Joker’s endgame is to acquire an army in comparison to “a thousand Banes”. He leaves the Batcave to chase after Young when it’s learned that the mysterious funder is “Jack White”, one of the old aliases of Joker. Dr. Young blocked the payments so he proceeded to get captured by Batman just so he could get the formula back for himself, after of course sending email death threats involving dead babies.
Making his way to Arkham Mansion, Joker yells at his thugs to search the entire place while he’s interrogating Dr. Young for the location. Making his way to her office, he finds the safe empty and follows her trace to the library, where Joker has taken two doctors hostage. He ends up cracking a chandelier and has it crash to the bottom, saving the doctors who confirm Batman’s suspicions that Dr. Young ran in before being captured. It’s probably reversed but either way, Batman finds the formula in the library and burns it before Joker can obtain it. Joker reveals a new backup plan: Dr. Young has been captured by Zsasz again. He gets hit by some gas as he exits the library and ends up in ANOTHER Scarecrow hallucination, this time re-enacting his parents murder in Crime Alley, all while experiencing it as a child again. Ending up in another game of hide and seek with Scarecrow, he AGAIN gets the spotlight and shines it on him before waking up in the clock tower. Batman throws one of his ‘rangs at it, with the giant crash below opening up a new way to get to Zsasz and Dr. Young in the Warden’s Office. The Bat manages to get her safe by throwing a batarang straight at the dude’s forehead, knocking him out cold. Young freaks out at him before crying to Batman that she tried to give him his money back before warning him about a lab hidden in the Gardens, the codes being in the warden’s safe. However, the safe is booby trapped and Dr. Young is now mucho deado. For some reason, Harley appears with the kidnapped Warden who is beaten up and leaves an easily followed trail and a bunch of goons as cannon fodder to get beaten up.
Batman follows the trail easily left by Harley and the Warden to the Penitentiary, where Poison Ivy begs to be let out. This of course is denied by Batman, who instead continues to follow the trail and finds the Warden, watching a tv feed of Harley letting Poison Ivy free to roam. Joker of course frees all of the “looneys” and the Warden gives Batman the sequencer to hack into the systems. Warden hangs back for safety reasons, and Batman chases Harley Quinn while beating up multiple goons to Extreme Incarceration, where a giant fist fight ends in Harley being defeated. Joker gives her “encouragement” by removing her from the “party list” (revealing names from Selina Kyle to Rocksteady contest winner Luke Oliver, though none of it really matters). Harley attempts a sucker punch but gets flipped over and her fingerprints scanned before being thrown into this cell and Batman makes his way over to the lab in the botanical gardens. He confronts Joker, who responds by throwing the guard into an electrified pool of water. Chasing him to the Aviary, he knocks out the patrols holding hostages before opening up the secret lab with Joker and two of his guards inside. He shoots his goons with the Titan formula, who transform body horror style and prepare for combat. The fight ends with the goons knocked out and the Titan Production Facility destroyed, though with Joker escaping with a whole bunch.
Batman narrows it down to a Venom Hybrid plant, and tracks Poison Ivy’s pheromone sample nearby to ask for her help. After some “tough persuasion”, she reveals that there’s a plant that can counteract this Titan…located inside of Killer Croc’s lair. He makes his way out, but it’s learned that Joker injected Ivy with Titan, which causes freaky plants to grow all around the island. Now there’s a time limit before the entirety of Arkham Island is overrun, and Batman races to the mansion to talk to Aaron Cash about a way into Killer Croc’s cell. Batman makes his way to Intensive Treatment once again for the most memorable section in the game: Scarecrow’s last hallucination. First it hits you with a glitch of sorts, making you think that the game’s seemingly crashed. Then it hits you with a reversal of the opening cutscene, Joker as Batman and Batman as Joker. Batman is brought to Arkham Asylum and strapped to a gurney, pushed along as he screams for help. Scarecrow and Zsasz inspect him before Joker pulls out a gun and shoots him, leading to an unavoidable game over screen where he’s told to “wiggle the mouse to dodge his bullets”. Waking up out of Bruce Wayne’s grave, he finds himself in one last Scarecrow hallucination involving Batmen eating dead rats and a giant searchlight being shined on Scarecrow. Waking up in the real world with Scarecrow’s neck wrapped around Batman’s hand, he attempts to jab him with more fear toxin which pits Batman against skeletal enemies. However, this backfires as Batman gains clarity once more, having “ingested enough toxins to drive 10 men insane” and he escapes, planning to flood the water in Croc’s lair with enough fear toxin to drive everyone insane. Chasing him down there, this fails as Scarecrow is grabbed by Killer Croc for lunch before a batarang/shock collar combo brings them both into the waters nearby.
With Scarecrow’s plans now failed, Batman enters Croc’s lair to find all of these plant spores meant to build the counteracting chemicals. This game of cat and mouse has Batman slow walking, quickly reacting with more shock collar/batarang combos and a whole lot of running, which ends in Croc having a floor blown out from under him and into the abyss below. Making his way to the Batcave, where he creates an antidote to reverse engineer Ivy, planning on giving her the cure while the computer creates more. In the meanwhile, plants raid the entire lair and Batman barely gets away, making his way back to the asylum. Climbing up through the sewers, Oracle reveals that Joker is polluting Gotham river with Titan waste and Batman proceeds to shut down all of the control rooms. Batman then makes his way back to Ivy, who overrun the ENTIRE Botanical building with plants and red mist. Attempting to inject the plant results in Ivy going berserk, and a boss battle ensues with a giant plant. Of course, Batman manages to crack through the shell with explosive gel before the entirety of the greenhouse collapses. Batman glides out as fireworks engage, and Joker’s “party” is finally announced as Batman makes his way over.
If you’ve been going to the Visitor’s Room throughout the game, you’ll notice a mannequin with a TV strapped to its head as Joker’s voice taunts Batman about a variety of subjects and changing positions. Going back here now, it’s revealed that it’s NOT actually a mannequin but actually the Joker himself…sticking his head through a TV? How this works I’m not totally sure, but it’s cool nonetheless! Batman follows the Joker after the TV blows up to reveal a giant lair covered in barbed wire, the Joker sitting atop a throne with Scarface the doll on his hand and two giant titan goons chained to the wall. One last fight in this throne room leads to Gordon AGAIN having revealed to have been kidnapped, though how this time is unknown. Joker attempts to shoot Gordon with Titan, only for Batman to jump in and take the hit. However, Batman resists the Titan formula as the Joker attempts to tickle him with a feather, going on a rant about wanting to bring down Batman’s facade of the world. He then shoots himself with the Titan as the news helicopters surround the entire island, with Jack Ryder having been sent a news message to look upon the rooftops. Titan Joker appears, throwing Batman into an arena as Gordon is strapped in a nearby electric chair. Batman injects himself with the antidote, and defeats the Titan Joker and his goon squad, which ends in Titan Joker getting pulled down into a floor and electrified. The fight ends with a Mike Tyson punch-out as Batman puts explosive gel on his fist, punching Jonkler in the face and knocking them both back. Probably dislocating his arm and messing up a couple of fingers, the night is saved as the GCPD takes control and criminals are brought back to their cells. Everyone who was injected with Titan transforms back to normal, even if the process is painful. If one were to wrap up the Riddler trophies before then, Batman also sent the location of the Riddler to GCPD, where he’s arrested in an apartment building. The game ends with Batman racing off in the Batwing to take down Two-Face, who's robbing a bank and the final post credits shot concludes with a box of Titan formula floating outside of Arkham Asylum, with one of three hands popping up for a grab: Scarecrow, Killer Croc or Bane.
The plot to Arkham Asylum, while it’s not my favorite of the series, is still a lot of fun. It feels like a classic Batman plot, a Joker scheme where he sends you out on a wild goose chase to stop a bunch of plans before the reveal of “the party” which has been built up all night. The whole Titan monster plot feels a bit weird sometimes of course, like a bit out of tone for the rest of the Arkham franchise but considering that this was the first game in the series it’s not a surprise that over time the tone would change into something more dark and a bit less fantastical then “super soldier enemies”. I appreciate all the little details, the plot twists, and honestly let’s just be real about the VIP here: the Scarecrow hallucinations. I knew it was coming this time, but both of the previous times I played this game on the Xbox 360, it really shook me up and wigged me out, making me panic that the game actually crashed. The whole meta thing of that made for a pretty damn good Scarecrow moment, and followed up by the tense Killer Croc sewer segments made these to be the two best moments in the game for me. I love the lore that Rocksteady managed to put in here between the Riddler trophies or even things that aren’t related to that but reference other DC and Batman media as little easter eggs. I sometimes think that the game has a couple of strange plot twists (mainly how did Commissioner Gordon get kidnapped AGAIN after being sent out via police boat, why does Hush appear as an entry here when he only later shows up for the first time in City or how did Riddler get all of his trophies around the asylum) but overall, a solid plot. I was reading up on TVTropes (as always my go-to site) trying to learn new things about the game and apparently, the game had featured the Mad Hatter inside of a botanical garden maze which would’ve been interesting as well as a Mr. Freeze section. These were either cut for pacing purposes or because in Freeze’s case, the motives don’t line up really well. I also appreciate the brisk pace that the game goes in, with me beating the game in around 10-11 hours or so and it never felt like it overstayed its welcome with how small and honestly claustrophobic the Asylum is.
So what’s the gameplay like for Batman: Arkham Asylum? It’s a sort of “Metroidvania” style game, where you explore different areas of the asylum, later backtracking to follow different story objectives with new gadgets or collecting “Riddler Trophies”. The Riddler collectibles consist of actual hidden trophies, riddles which require either painfully obvious answers or semi-confusing puzzles (almost always consisting of scanning/holding down the detective vision button) that gives greater context to DC lore or gets you THIS much closer to taking down Riddler himself. While I loved getting a bit of background lore to the world, the Riddler trophies are always going to be the Arkham game’s biggest pain in the a s s, with the thing I honestly dreaded most replaying the game. The gadgets (which consist of things like Remote Controlled Batarangs, Explosive Gel, Grapple Hooks and other stuff) were also apparently influenced by Metroid and even The Legend of Zelda for their out of the box environmental puzzle solving. For the most part this works, there’s definitely a bit of puzzle solving that once you figure it out can make you feel pretty smart. That being said, if one decides to just use a guide I wouldn’t blame you considering how frustrating finding some of these guys are.
What else do you do in the open world? Other than grapple to certain spots (which change over time due to story events), you can engage in combat (or stealth knock out some goons). The stealth combat is pretty simple, you can either literally sneak around (in which case the field of vision/retention meter is pretty solid) or grapple between gargoyles as you try to make your way around the arena to knock out Joker goons. This can be done in many ways, between capturing goons and strapping them to the gargoyles, to corner takedowns, grate takedowns, explosive gel takedowns, grapple hooking people off of ledges; the list while not the most expansive goes on a bit and makes you feel pretty great when taking down goons. That being said, the AI reacts pretty decently to this too and adapts accordingly, like looking through nearby grates if a goon was taken down near one or even later on placing bombs on gargoyles to give you less advantage. Best part is, unlike later games, henchmen don’t try to wake each other up either so you’re given a lot more breathing room to interact, wait and plan how you want to.
So what’s combat like? For the most part seamless! Originally the game was planned to be sort of a rhythm game and you could tell just due to how rhythm based the combat is set up to be. Obviously you can punch people, and punching enough people builds up a combo; the higher the combo, the more powerful and the faster you get and such. Along the way you have to be careful to counter certain goons (marked with blue lightning above a goon’s head) or dodge them entirely (red lights above a goon’s head), and certain goons have a certain way of being fought. Electric prod ones you need to jump over their heads before punching them in the back while the big knife guys you have to stun with your cape before beating them up. Titan guys you have to wait till they charge before quickly throwing a batarang and dodging, which allows you to punch them a bit before riding their back and forcing them to knock out other goons. Again while there isn’t as much variation as the later games would have, it’s a pretty solid system that works pretty well and feels powerful. That being said, it can be a bit touchy and one accidental press of the counter button (Y on the Xbox controller) will mess up your whole combo so you need to pay attention to your surroundings but be quick enough to actually dodge everything. It’s a system that while in it’s infancy stage, really blossomed into something that later games would take influence from and use for their own games which is awesome. And another thing, the more Riddler trophies you get through the entire game, the more combat maps/takedown maps you’ll unlock in the main menu. Luckily, if you don’t want to do that, the PC version has all of the DLC maps (like the Scarecrow one) for free which is nice! The only thing it doesn’t have though is the Joker maps, exclusive to PS3 and the Linux apparently? However, there are guides to actually mod that in (one of which I posted in the links below), so if you want a bit more Arkham Asylum feel free to go through that.
Built on Unreal Engine 3, the amount of graphical fidelity that this game has is honestly pretty astounding. It has this sort of detail in the environmental and character modeling that the truth is sometimes the other games don’t really match up with. Don’t get me wrong, the other games don’t look bad in the slightest. However, there’s something about Asylum that just has more of a strike to it, though this could be due to the bigger scope of the latter three games leading to it being taken down a notch. If the devil is in the details then this game definitely leads a satanic cult because this game is packed full of them. Over the course of the game the Batsuit will experience damage due to story events and his beard stubble will grow over time as you go through the set pieces. If one were to compare the Return to Arkham Ports with the current PC port you’ll notice a bit of a difference graphically: number one is that the older ports will always have this greenish hue of sorts that makes it feel surprisingly…dead almost? Apparently the game was supposed to include rain (later added to the Xbox One/PS4 ports) though was cut from the original releases due to technical limitations, but in a strange sense it actually enhances the dread for me even more? With the graphics mixing into the atmosphere section now, how's the atmospheres? It’s this mixture of this gothic seriousness thrown into a blender and shaken up a bit with a little goofiness here and there. Another thing, the detective mode that you get in this game is actually pretty cool looking, so much in fact that players would go through the entire game just using that mode as a sort of filter (enough so that the developers would nerf it for Arkham City and beyond).
Understandably, the idea of superheroes and villains as a concept are goofy; that’s a lot of the reason why something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit as hard as it did because it didn’t take itself too seriously. This game is what I would consider to be the closest to that in the Arkham franchise I would say, but that’s for later on. Arkham Asylum as a location is gloomy and oppressive, secluded on its own island in a sort of vibe where it looks like it could fall apart at any moment, only to reveal something airtight and state of the art underneath and while it’s not art deco, apparently a lot of this boils down to apparent “Bioshock” influence that game had on developers. This only gets worse and more oppressive as the night goes on, between the destruction wrought on by Joker and his goon squad and Poison Ivy’s giant plant vines literally inserting itself into every little facet of Arkham Asylum’s architecture. The empty rooms with flipped tables and leftover paperwork, especially after you’ve beaten the game (or right before) and are just wrapping up Riddler trophies could feel like it’s this bizarre, maze-like liminal space that’s hostile and instantly uncomfortable. Honestly it was so effective (along with the Metroidvania styled collectible stuff) that it was a huge part of the reason why I didn’t want to come back and play this game for a long time. The Medical Wing is I think one of the biggest offenders, with the path going to the basement becoming kind of confusing, and the paths have details ranging from liquid-filled jars with severed heads to the cell that USED to hold Killer Croc. It looks like something honestly out of an 80s horror movie, like Herbert West’s Re-Animator or something (though I never watched that movie sadly). Don’t even get me started about the Scarecrow hallucinations, usually marked with dutch camera angles, glitches or long hallways that even though doesn’t hit rated-R levels of creep factor does a really good job messing with Batman in a seamless manner.
The sound design in terms of the noises, how things sound reminds me in a strange way of a filing cabinet. That slick papery sound as you pass through page after page, it’s especially prevalent in the biography pages when you earn entries through Riddler trophies or interview tapes. This smooth sound of paper being flicked back and forth just fills this weird ASMR brain thing in my head, along with the audio tapes being activated. Gliding using the cape also elicits the paper ASMR in a similar sense from earlier, and while not as strong certainly sounds appealing as hell. Punching and kicking people, while not as striking or appealing as the later games, still have this oomph to it that just feels satisfying kicking the s h i t out of everyone and everything you see. The noises and little jingles that go off as either the Joker or a pre-recorded message from the Asylum itself goes off and recites statistical facts or vague threats feel right at home. There are so many noises and sounds that just fit the feeling of what Arkham Asylum IS, I honestly can’t think of a single sound that doesn’t fit at home here or isn’t perfect. How about the soundtrack, does it have a unique flare to it or tracks I could listen to away from the game? The composers for the score here consist of Nick Arundel and Ron Fish, who manage to make this mysterious sound as if it comes straight out of a noir film. Another track they did, Enter the Asylum, is probably what I would say their “main track” is, which while repeated and altered in other locations kind of reminds me of how Halo would pull off their compositions. Other tracks consist of a lot of choir chanting, which I’m always a bit of a sucker for. Like the case for most other soundtracks, it really works within the game’s environment even if there’s no memorable tracks that I would say “slaps in the whip” so that’s all I really have to say here. It’s perfect, fits the atmosphere, no honest complaints.
Voice acting across the board is pretty fantastic, bringing in a lot of the talent from the Batman: The Animated Series cast like Kevin Conroy as Batman (Rest in Peace to THE definitive Batman), Mark Hamill as The Joker, Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn like other than the movie adaptations of these characters I don’t really see anything to change. It’s almost effortless how they knock it out of the park, even with the producers having told Kevin Conroy to use his general speaking voice it just feels like I’m hearing Bruce Wayne speak. I think the main things to point out honestly would come from the other members of the cast: Tom Kane (Takeo from Call of Duty: Zombies fame, Dr. Loomis impersonator from Halloween H20, etc.) has such a magnificent boomy voice performance it feels like he should be involved in public speaking of sorts, and plays both Commissioner Gordon as well as Warden Quincy Sharp and while they both sound similar they’re both different enough to be unique. While Steven Blum mainly plays Killer Croc with this vicious snarl, talking as if he’s drowning in water, he also plays other characters (like a doctor at the beginning) in his regular voice that always sounds iconic. Wally Wingert plays The Riddler and others and by god does his Riddler voice sound like such a narcissistic pompous ass that honestly feels perfect. I also recognize Cree Summer as Dr. Penelope Young, a performance that while sounding like Cree Summer, she always sounds recognizable in everything which in this case is a good trait. These are only a couple of examples, these guys exemplify the characters in-game and it’s honestly hard to see them as anything else (except maybe Steven Blum I can always pick that dude out of a crowd to be honest).
Having replayed Arkham Asylum, I had found a lot of my old frustrations that built up in my mind to honestly be unfounded. I dreaded replaying this game, doing all those damn Riddler trophies and coping with fighting mechanics that was stuck in its infancy compared to the upgraded arsenal and fluidity that we would later have in City and Knight. But honestly? Replaying this game gave me a sort of newfound respect for the game, as truth be told the title is to me an inherent classic with its influence on future games. Other games (mostly superhero) would attempt to ape the freeflow combat style from Spider-Man games to Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor/War, Sleeping Dogs to Mad Max to even the likes of the awful game Ride to Hell: Retribution. However, what really holds this game up for me other than the combat system is just genuinely it’s delivery, it’s atmosphere, it’s reverence for the DC history. Riddler Trophies or without, the amount of details they put into this game is just so astounding that even to this day I’m still learning new details about this game (like the beard stubble), and it’s genuine foreshadowing on Arkham City with the secret room, or even obscure stuff that I wouldn’t have even recognized without doing deep dive stuff. Rocksteady cared about this product and it truly shows with the popular reception this game gave, that even now people will still list this as their favorite game even if it doesn’t deliver as hard compared to the rest of them. I’ll still always prefer Knight mechanically or Origins/City for their plots but the game has my deep respect and admiration and honestly deserves it as one of the greatest games of all time, a forerunner in the superhero genre that showed making these games CAN be good, that it’s not all a one time fluke or having to be tie-ins to movies or cartoons. Releasing to the aforementioned critical acclaim, the developers must’ve known how good they had it because they pulled off a bit of a risky gamble: staging hints of a sequel in the base game. Going into the Warden’s Office area and blowing up a wall with the max amount of explosive jail would reveal the Warden’s secret plans for a special prison, sectioning off a piece of Gotham. Going back to the Morgue where Ra’s Al Ghul’s corpse was for the riddle would later reveal that it disappeared, also setting up the sequel. This sequel would become Arkham City, and with the sequel in development along with the success of Asylum, Rocksteady would be purchased in 2010 by Warner Bros. There’s not much else historically wise that I know of that I wouldn’t cover in the next game’s review other than the fact Arkham Asylum was later re-released as Game of the Year along with being remastered for Xbox One/PS4 and ported to Switch, but the impact Asylum had is not to be understated in the slightest. It may not be my favorite superhero game, but it helped influence the industry and cemented its influence as a classic game.
Links:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120712005612/http://www.arkhamcare.com/prices/
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/BatmanArkhamAsylum
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nRBWe14tYdo (Easter Eggs)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6126146/Batman-Arkham-Asylum-interview-with-Paul-Dini.html
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3179787276 (Joker install guide)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Th1-HHfLAk (Officer Balls)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuuHMPqrXy8&list=OLAK5uy_k0DH8cZzBb9Uq-1L6M2H7c2lGKJZK7mvI&index=1 (Soundtrack)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1282022/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcveNqT6Lfg&ab_channel=Gamer%27sLittlePlayground (Cutscenes)
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
Nostalgia bait. I like a challenging game; took the time to 100% the likes of Elden Ring, Jedi Survivor (Grandmaster) and such, but this game on hard was miserable and not in a fun way. The Scarecrow sections were insufferable, the stealth gameplay was just tedious, map exploration equally so, and almost every boss-fight was incredibly annoying. Maybe I'm just bad, but I could hardly enjoy what felt like a decent combat system due to ridiculous amounts of ads the entire game. I told myself I would play these in order so I'm looking forward to the next games in the Arkham series.
perco tudo no coringa maromba
I really enjoyed playing this, and next onto Arkham City!
A very good game, even legendary I could say.
This game still rules. I prefer the more focused approach of the asylum compared to the sprawling worlds of City and Knight. The combat system was good enough to become the standard for third person action games and it killed the mediocre licensed game for a long time. Everyone should probably play it. I'm taking a point off because the Harley Quinn design is incredibly rough.
im batman
I
AM
VENGEANCE
AM
VENGEANCE
Played the demo like 10 times before I got Arkham City, which this came packaged with at the time.