I may revisit these Arkham games sometime soon. I played these way back around 2013 on my Xbox 360, and I have nothing but good memories regarding it. The big thing I remember thinking back then is how tight the experience felt- every action, every collectible, every gadget made sense.

The combat was satisfying and simple, with a big emphasis on building up combos. There was creative implementation of the gadgets here as well, with certain enemies requiring you to break their guard with something like a batarang or a stungun. Animation and sound quality is something that stuck with me here, everything had a very satisfying thunk to it. Stealth, too, was wonderfully implemented. There was a system in place where, the more you pick off thugs, the more panicked they become. It all felt very diegetic and satisfying.

I never was big on collectibles in games, but I think Arkham Asylum put a clever twist on these by having a majority of them actually be riddles strewn out in the world. I remember some of these being pretty clever and, again, making use of everything the player has. This actually made the collectibles feel like content rather than additional bloat or time wasters.

The voice acting and presentation was a big highlight too, they brought in all the big actors from the old animated series and they killed it. The constant night and moody atmosphere of the game really felt like peak noire Batman stuff.

Again, I'd like to revisit these games some time to see how well they hold up.