Game Review: Batman Arkham Asylum

What’s up guys? It is a start to a new month and you all know what that means? Right? Really? No? Ok, well I’ll tell what that means. It’s game review time!!!!! Woohoo!!

Anyway, it is the month of October and one of this months big game releases is Batman Arkham City. And in celebration of said game release, this months game review will be for Arkham City’s predecessor, Batman Arkham Asylum. Ready? Alright! Here we go!!

Short Story:
Batman has finally captured the Joker has taken him to Arkham Asylum, with the Joker going quietly and going down without a fight. To say the least, Batman is suspicious. He finds that his suspicions were correct because as the Joker is being prepped for incarceration, he escapes into the Asylum and completely takes it over causing all kinds of Hell. Now, Batman must venture into the asylum facing some of his most dangerous enemies, including Bane, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, and of course The Joker, and bring justice back to Arkham Asylum.

Score:
To say that Batman Arkham Asylum was a great game would be an understatement. Finally, a game developer did something right with the Batman game franchise and made a game with an incredibly in depth story and fluid game and combat engine. Throw in the awesome voice talents of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their respective roles of Batman and the Joker and you’ve got yourself a damn near perfect game. Batman Arkham Asylum gets the score of a 4.9 out of 5.

Body of Review:
Gameplay:
Arkham Asylum plays like a dream. By using the Unreal Game Engine, Rocksteady Games, who developed the game, has made one of the most fluid combat engine I’ve ever seen in an action adventure game. The way that Batman’s combos and counters flow together is a dream come true. If there is one thing I’ve never liked about past Batman video game titles(besides Batman Forever for the Super NES) it has to be the game engines in those games. So great job Rocksteady.

Story:
Arkham Asylum had one of the best stories I had ever played through in a game. Being able to find collectables in the game that give the back story on the island and pretty much every villain in the Batman universe. Along with that, the overall story is incredible. As you make your way through the asylum, you learn more about the inner workings of Arkham, and, thanks to Scarecrow, you see how tormented Bruce Wayne is about his parents’ murder. You throw in the Joker’s plot to take over Arkham Island and you’ve got yourself a great story.

Bad Things:
Although I’ve been speaking highly of this game thus far, there were a couple of things about it I wasn’t fond of. Primarily, the boss fight against Killer Croc. In every other boss fight in Arkham Asylum, you actually fight the villain. With Killer Croc, you roam around the sewers looking for spores to help prevent what Poison Ivy had done. Now, if you move to fast on the wooden crates floating in the water, Killer Croc will jump up a little ways behind you or on the side of you and begin to charge you. All you have to do to prevent Croc from pulling you under is to just hit him with a Baterang and he goes back under water. Then after you’ve collected enough spores, you have to avoid Croc one more time at the entrance to the sewers by exploding a floor just as he runs over it causing him to fall down a deep cavern. Very exciting. Not.

Anyway, the other thing that bothered me was with the fighting system every now and then. I know I said that the game engine is incredible in this game, and it is. With that said, when you are taking on a large group of enemies at one time, it can be difficult to keep you combo going. Every now and then, Batman will just attack to nothing when you want him to jump from one enemy to another. But other than that, I really have no other complaints.

Conclusion:

All in all, Arkham Asylum was an absolute delight to play. I really can’t wait for Arkham City to come out a little later this month. It’s looking incredible and the added bonus of being able to play as Catwoman in the campaign and also being able to play as both Robin and now recently announced Nightwing in the challenges section of on the game, it’s shaping up to be a great game. I personally can’t wait.

Well, till next time, Happy Gaming everyone!!