I had very little familiarity with Batman when I bought this game years ago. I tried playing it once and was put off by all the references I didn't get. I didn't have access to comics as a kid, and my only understanding of Batman was from the Adam West series. I remember when the Michael Keaton one came out thinking "Wait, they're trying to make a serious Batman?"

Still, it's the only super hero franchise I have any connection to at all, and with it being such a beloved game I thought I should give it its fair due. This time around, to prime the pumps a bit, I watched the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. This was extremely helpful to get a bunch of the backstory and feel like I was in on the references.

It's a ton of fun to see how many gadgets and activities from Batman's escapades they were able to translate into gameplay. I don't remember him crawling through quite this many vents though; seriously the guy spends more time in ducts than Harry Tuttle, heating engineer. I don't normally like stealth gameplay; it makes me feel weak and I feel like you spend all your time waiting for something. But here they did a great job making me feel like a predator. I like the way the chatty enemies slowly getting more and more freaked out as you thin their numbers gives you a sense of power even when you're hiding in a drain.

Both the gameplay and the stakes of the plot built up at a nice steady pace that kept me moving forward. I really liked how Batman looked more haggard and unkempt as the game progressed. The voice work is amazing; I know it's been said a million times but this is the performance of a lifetime for Mark Hamill. His voice is in every scene but I never got sick of it because it was always in flux. He's constantly sliding between high and low, rough and smooth, fast and slow, loud and soft; he uses his full vocal and emotional range and through all of it never lets up on the energy. It's like 10 straight hours of him dialed to 11.

All in all it was a grand old romp; the combat was sweet, the bosses were a little iffy, the environment was amazing, the stealth was exciting and it really made me feel like ductman. I'm looking forward to the second one!

Decided to buy the double pack of Asylum and City cos it was $8 on sale and its been a while since I played both. For a 15 year old game, it stands up so well. This is probably my 4th playthrough, and the atmosphere, voice acting, gameplay, combat, and overall presentation is so fucking great, even if the graphics def look like PS3 graphics. This game accomplished something that a hundred other modern AAA games just cannot: it made the collectables fun! Every time I play, I love finding all the tapes, Arkham stones, Riddler question marks, and working out the riddles. Why oh why is it so hard for other games to make finding collectables not a fucking boring grindy slog??? Just goes to show, Rocksteady really gave a shit about every single aspect of this game.

Oh, and I totally don't remember it being this short, its like 8 hours to beat, probably get it down to 5ish if speed running. And can I just reiterate how fucking awesome the voice acting is? Hamill is the GOAT.

Acredito que esse jogo tenha sido a experiência mais imersiva, até o momento, em como é ser o Batman.
Se por um lado nós temos a ideia de que certas mecânicas desse jogo estejam um pouco "ultrapassadas", por outro vemos o quanto ele se sobressaiu na época em que foi lançado e se mantém como uma boa entrada a série Arkham.

O estilo "metroidvania" adotado nesse título se entrelaça de maneira tão orgânica a sua narrativa que você não acaba enjoando, muito pelo contrário, isso só te faz querer ir até o fim da campanha e logo depois ir explorar setores nos quais o player não tinha acesso antes.
E como se já não bastasse esse detalhe, os tais setores citados vão mudando conforme nosso progresso ocorre no Asilo Arkham. Isso desde precisarmos cortar caminho pelo sistema de esgoto até lutarmos com plantas mutantes.

Com relação ao combate eu senti que ele se mostrou bem limitado, apesar de eu ter vindo do Arkham Knight para o Asylum pude notar que o Batman "apenas" perde o combo sem mais e nem menos. Isso não é tão perceptível durante a campanha e seus inúmeros inimigos, mas quando você vai testar os Desafios aí sim essa tal limitação se mostra mais do que deveria:

- O inimigo no lado do Batman mostra que irá atacar? Sem problemas! Estou terminando de dar esse último soco em outro inimigo e irei casar o combo nesse do meu lado... certo? Errado. Mesmo entrando em câmera lenta o inimigo consegue ser mais rápido, fazendo você ficar put# com isso;

- A câmera consegue, em certos momentos, mais atrapalhar do que ajudar, fazendo você perder a noção de profundidade do cenário e tendo que se reposicionar no combate;

- Mesmo que o jogo contenha apenas 9 variações de combate elas se mostram bem competentes, mas experimenta errar um golpe em um "cara com facas" e um "cara com bastão-elétrico"... hmmmmmm, tenso.

As partes de stealth se mostraram muito boas e imersivas. A cada eliminação nossa os capangas são alertados pelo Coringa ou pela "Coleira X9" (nome dado carinhosamente por mim), e quando sobram 3 ou menos inimigos na área eles acabam entrando no modo Aterrorizados e começam a temerem a própria sombra.
Muito bom.

A narrativa tem como objetivo mostrar o plano do Coringa e seus prisioneiros no Asilo Arkham, como cada um reage ao caos no local.
O local e seus setores ajudam bastante na hora de criarem uma atmosfera de insegurança (o pessoal do Corredor da Morte que o diga), e carregando esse aspecto de ser um pouco mais escuro acaba dando ainda mais identidade visual para o jogo.
Crocodilo, você não gera medo nesse jogo.

Agora os prisioneiros, mais precisamente os vilões principais do Batman.
Ao longo da nossa jornada podemos coletar Fitas de Entrevistas com relatos de cada um desse vilões, e assim, alguns até chegam a serem ok... mas outros são muito exagerados fazendo os cair no "Vale da Estranheza". Ou seja, "sou insano porque sim".
E as boss battles, o que dizer? São um dos pontos fracos do jogo. Se eu fosse listar as que eu gostei só colocaria a do Espantalho, já as outras deixaria na geladeira, principalmente a final.

Tendo em vista tudo isto, venho ressaltar que "Batman: Arkham Asylum" é um bom jogo que recomendaria para alguém que nunca jogou algo da série. É até satisfatório que vários jogos de hoje tenham seus combates baseados nesse jogo, isso mostra que ele é uma forte referência para a indústria (quando feito do jeito certo).
É bem nítido o carinho e dedicação do pessoal responsável pelo título, são tantos detalhes presentes que você facilmente ficaria instigado a querer saber mais.

This game was just good fun. A great start to a series that I plan to complete. Claustrophobia done right. Wide cast of villains and memorable moments. Killer Croc in the sewers was one of my favorites. Scarecrow moments were dope as hell too. The combat is classic, I mean come on. How many games has arkham inspired. Reading the character bios and seeing the art actually made me wanna solve the riddles too. I did get stuck a few times with exploration but that’s mostly a skill issue on my part. The only thing I didn’t like too much was the backtracking and getting lost within it. The game sometimes doesn’t make it clear where to go which I personally find frustrating. Besides the final boss being a little disappointing, this game was awesome, even if I don’t see myself going back to it.

The first Arkham game ever made and what an introduction to this series. From the moment you load this game up and pull up on Arkham Asylum ready to kick some ass, you know the developers of this game are big Batman fans.

The atmosphere of Arkham is bang on the money, having that creepiness and uneasiness the whole way through. The colour scheme is dark and bleak, the music is eerie, the structures are all old and worn. I truly feel like I've been thrust into hell itself. Even the small things such as guards being dead when you come back to them after the beginning of the game. They nailed the profile of Arkham on the head.

The characters are written superbly and the voicework quality is exactly what you'd expect of a Batman product (especially Mark Hamill as Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman). They really kept true to the source material which is something I can really appreciate.

And let's get on to what makes the Arkham games great, the combat. While understandably, Asylum has the worst combat out of the series, it's still very impressive for the time. While simple, its very fun to watch and truly does make you feel like the Bat. For this title, it does feel a little janky at times with you not being able to flow as nicely but again, it's understandable for it's time.

The story of Asylum is in my opinion a mixed bag. It starts really good, involving many different Batman characters and maintaining a tense feeling as you try to take back the asylum but then slumps out at the end with a disappointing end. The final boss fight is very clearly rushed and no effort has been put into it. It’s just ‘hit a couple of buttons and then defeat some thugs’. Very underwhelming ending for an otherwise great game.

These things in my opinion stop the game from getting that 5/5 mark. However, despite this, I do believe the game is definitely worth trying as it is still a top game, especially if you’re a fan of Batman

Batman Arkham Asylum foi uma grata surpresa. Eu já esperava um bom jogo por ser do Batman e pela fama que a franquia tem, porém, o game ainda conseguiu superar minhas expectativas. O jogo que foi lançado originalmente em 2009 se mostrou ser algo muito a frente do seu tempo, tendo uma gameplay, combate e sistemas que são muito atuais e divertidos.
A história se passa dentro do Asilo Arkham onde o Coringa está promovendo uma revolta, sendo muito boa e prendendo o jogador. O game em vários momentos tem uma atmosfera que beira o terror (o medo só não vem pois somos o Batman afinal) e é recheado de vilões icônicos do herói.

Realmente esse é o jogo mais fraco da série arkham, mas ainda assim é um ótimo jogo. O início de uma mecânica maravilhosa de jogos de herói, que foi se aperfeiçoando ao decorrer da série mas que tem um bom começo. Agora no jogo em si, gostei muito do combate, mecânicas, trilha sonora, gráficos, vilões, lutas de chefes (menos uma), e principalmente de toda a vibe bem sombria e de “terror” que só esse jogo tem. Em certas partes eu me sentia como se realmente estivesse em um jogo de terror e tudo o mais kkk. Mas agora na questão dos pontos negativos, temos os efeitos sonoros que muitas vezes são toscos e bem falhos e tiram um pouco da emoção de certos golpes, e também a luta do chefe final…. Meus amigos, que coisa horrorosa! As mecânicas e controles ficam horríveis nessa batalha, o chefe em si é ridículo e com um design tenebroso, e tudo mais de ruim que se possa pensar! Mas como conclusão o jogo é bem legal e me diverti muito com ele, e acho que essa vibe de terror podia ser passada para outros jogos do batman.

I played this for the first time as a 11 years old kid, I never read a comic before that but I loved the movies and the Animated Series (Where Paul Dini was one of the main hands), i loved the game and played the demo times and times until I rented the game for a good while. I had fond memories of this game and vividly remember some moments of my life surrounding it, of the game itself I remember only stuff like the combat system and the gadgets, the Scarecrow sections, Nygma things, the Joker final boss and that Ivy and Quinn sure did a number on me in molding my taste for women. I remember not being scared as I played the game because I was Batman and not even fear itself scares Batman. I would later play City and Origins but not Knight because I had no Ps4 so I saw that on YouTube but I guess I'll talk about that another time.

Fast forward 12 years and I'm 23, I've seen the movies time and time again, hating some of them, enjoying the later animated stuff and reading a really huge number of Batman Comics, from the latest Snyder and King runs to the acclaimed Morrison's and Miller and Moore's masterpieces even going back to Starling and Aparo and O'Neal and of course, Paul Dini. I really like Batman. So why not replay the games and finally play Arkham Knight? Every couple of months they are on big sale sure why not. I start the game and there is the big walk with Hannibal Lecter like Joker and now I'm a guy who watches the credits and here I see the name Paul Dini and things start to make more sense, I beat up the first tough guys taking some punches since I play on hard but it's okay, it's fun, and some minutes later there I am walking in long ass corridors trembling like a leaf, I wasn't thinking I was Batman therefore that setting scared me, if for a second you forget that you are Batman you realize that you are in fucking asylum for insane people that murdered hundreds of people, who would ever want to set foot in a place like that? Fuck them, close everything and let them starve to death, but Batman wouldn't like that so here we go punching thughs, helping Gordon and noticing little details that an 11 years old hardly would have grasped, like when at the start of the game while escorting Joker turning around the guards in the back you can notice one of the guards drinking alcohol and then you play a couple of hours and there he is that guy and his alcohol are important to the plot, so I spent the next twenty hours looking for every secret and reference and all the Nygma Riddle because it was fun to read the bio of character sadly not in the game. I noticed that there is a lot of stuff I didn't remember like I thought it was all tunnels so when I got out and later in the batcave I felt like a kid again discovering wonderful places. Then there is that great pov scene even more at the end and the dub, ugh, Conroy and Hamill are so so so good. What a game. What a experience. Far from perfect as a game of course, some qol that is normal now wasn't there yet and I'm 100% that I'll like Arkham City more If my memory serves me correctly but whatever, you probably haven't even read this far. Play the game if you haven't and still manage to read all this, respect.

I honestly don't know what was the initial point that I wanted to make, but I don't care, i love talking nonsense non stop, Batman is great, you should play the games, you should watch the movies and you should read the comics, about that, now I'm going to read the latest Zdarsky and Ram V's issues, bye bye.

This has got to be around the 5th time I have played this game and I have the same amount of fun with it each time. Batman Arkham Asylum is my favourite of the Arkham franchise and I doubt that it will ever be dethroned.

I think without a doubt it has one of the best atmospheres in gaming. Walking through the empty halls of Arkham Asylum just has this eerie feel to it which makes each segment feel tense and exciting. Being stuck on Arkham island with a great selection of Batman's greatest rogues taunting him just makes for an amazing experience.

Taking a look at the characters, this game of course features the best batman of all time Kevin Conroy(RIP), who will always be the definitive version of batman for me, and pairing him with my favourite Joker of all time Mark Hamill makes these characters amazing off the bat. Of course there are a great cast of side characters most notably Arleen Sorkin(RIP) who played Harley Quinn. As someone who grew up watching the animated series, all these returning actors made me like this game even more. I also really like these renditions of Ivy, Killer Croc and Scarecrow (Even though i much prefer the Knight version).

Gameplay wise it lays out the foundations that each game built upon. I played through the game this time on hard difficulty and I actually found it quite challenging, all it does is increase the damage you take and remove the counter prompt which really makes boss fights more difficult. It of course introduced the free flow combat system and while it definitely is the weakest showing of it, it was ground breaking and lays perfect framework to be improved upon in the next games. Traversal wise, due to the smaller scale of the map there isnt as much focus on it which works in this case luckily. The boss fights/segments in this game are the real standouts of the gameplay loop. The iconic Scarecrow nightmare segments are my personal favourite followed closely by the Killer Croc lair segment, whilst these aren't technically "Boss Fights" they really effectively use the characters without adding a needless beat em up segment. Out of the other boss fights the only real standout is Poison Ivy who has a great fight in this game. The Bane fight is just a tutorial for fighting Titan henchmen and the Titan Joker fight is well known for being disliked as it isn't really a boss fight just a gauntlet of henchmen.

Score and Visual wise this game excels. Obviously this is the Return to Arkham addition which adds a bit more of a polished look to the character models. Whilst i do think the original game looks better, outside of the janky character models this game looks fantastic. The score is perfect mix of creepy and heroic, which is a staple of the games going forward.

Side content wise Asylum lacks any beside the Riddler trophies. Strangely enough in this game only, I actually enjoy the Riddler trophy hunting. Particularly the riddles because they unlock the cool character bios for a wide host of characters that arent in the game. Im definitely glad they decided to go for the more open world feel in later installments so that they could do more with side content because Asylum has no reason to keep playing after beating the main story.

I am going to replay the whole series to see if my ranking has changed since the last time I played them years ago. As of right now Asylum will remain at the top and I dont see it going anywhere. One of my favourite games of all time.

Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum is a remastered version of the 2009. game released on 7th-gen consoles and PC. Now available on 8th-gen consoles and PC. The remastered version offers a more stable perfomance and overall better graphics.

The adventure starts by Batman taking the Joker to the Arkham Asylum and already in the beginning Batman was suspicious about the whole situation as he had no problem capturing him. We soon realise that he was right, Joker has been planing on capturing the Arkham Asylum for months and now Batman stepped right into a trap. It's your job to defeat Joker once more and take the control over Arkham Asylum.
The map of Arkham Asylum is very small and its divided into other smaller areas. This doesn't offer the player any other side activities other than collecting collectables and solving riddles by highlighting the solution.
The combat is basic attack, counterattack control with few other variations by using various special attacks and gadgets at your disposal.
As this is the first game made by Eidos and Rocksteady, the player has to first get used to the new combat system and gadgets, so not all gadgets are available from the start as you unlock others with progressing throughout the story.
The story is very linear and not that long, by the end of it, you will visit every location in the asylum.
The challenges achieved by solving riddles are very hard, the combat challenges takes a great amount of practice and not making a single mistake to get gold, while the predator challenges are easier.

All in all a great introduction to the Batman series, but the small map and very linear story with no side quest other than collectables and riddles which make this game a very short experience with only few boss fights.

The original title didn't have any additional content aside from the PS3 exclusive playable Joker and a few challenge maps. So this is basically just a higher resolution version of the 2009 epic. It's probably the definitive way to play this game moving forward but I will admit I miss the hazy visuals of the original. It added an almost grimey texture to the whole experience.

Despite sounding negative here this is still an excellent time and I'm happy I finally went and got the platinum. I'd be inclinded to do it again with the original release if Batman would just break his no kill rule on the Riddler.