I won’t pretend like you don’t know the story of Batman or some of the more notable characters in the franchise, so let’s cut to the chase.
We’re introduced to Batman as he drives the arrested giggling maniac Heath Ledger, I mean Mark Hamill, I mean the Joker, to this game’s namesake - Arkham Asylum. After the long introduction, as Joker is strapped to a cart and being carted to his cell, he manages to break free, with some help from the inside, no doubt, and makes a run for it to the depths of the asylum. Surely, the world’s greatest detective – no Sherlock, not you – Batman is up to the task of finding him and bringing him to his rightful place, where they dress in white straightjackets.
Arkham Asylum is a magical place. Some would say, the most magical place of all, where all the most colorful dreams come to life, if you’ve breathed in some fumes of Scarecrows serum that is. Developers Rocksteady managed to make a truly wonderful looking game, that, except for some facial expressions, looks staggering to this day. But not only had they made a truly beautiful looking game, they’ve made a very, very good game too, but more on that in the next paragraph. One can still see some remnants of the 2006-2010 sickness, where stuff is grey, brown and there’s blur around things, but it’s so well packaged, that it does not stand out as an eyesore. Quite the opposite, it makes everything else stand out and that is remarkable how gorgeous the asylum looks, in general. Rocksteady played a lot with different colors to make almost each area look brand-spanking new and shiny, despite the destruction that takes place there and the ever-changing circumstances of locations as one progresses the story only adds more to it.
The game consists of a few things – parkour, combat, stealth and some form of detective work. Let’s talk of the latter one first – during various stages in the game the player, or Batman, will need to activate the X-ray vision to find various things – clues - as to where to go next, scan the surroundings for hidden ventilation shafts as well as for hidden enemies or objectives. One can, of course, do very well without it, except for a few parts where it’s mandatory to progress, but it’s a nice touch. What’s also nice about it, it illuminates dark spaces, letting the player more clearly strategize their next move, during a heated stealth section. Speaking of stealth, it’s not mandatory, one can always go guns blazing, or should I say, fists and batarangs blazing, but try that only on the easy difficulty. Batman moves quietly so really the only noises are screams the escaped prisoners make when they’re getting beat up. Batman can move through ventilation shafts, hang from and swing across the ever so conveniently placed gargoyle statues or even silently creep up on someone from the back to take them out. These sections can be a little bit arduous as prisoners can move in groups and it takes time to separate them, for those clean takedowns. But overall, it’s not too bad, especially once Batman unlocks various upgrades. How to get those? Easy, just beat up escaped prisoners. And mutants. Batman is a world class boxer and MMA fighter with a bit of wrestling background. He can take on 20 people and come out of the fight unscathed. Combat has a very nice flow to it and at some points it gets addicting to see the combo meter go up. A fight might go something like this: Batman creeps up and knocks out a prisoner, then punches one guy, then jumps across the room to strike another, then jumps back again and kicks the first guy, dodges an incoming attack from the guy with a pipe, then blinds the guy holding the knives, just to give him a knuckle sandwich, throws a batarang at the first guy, then blocks another incoming attack from the guy holding the pipe and chokes him out, then, lastly, jumps across the room to the first guy and, finally, knocks him out on the floor. It’s kind of like dance. The higher the combo, the more experience Batman gains and that means faster upgrades. Upgrades are simple - they can add more moves, better combo multipliers, better batarangs and some utility like proximity bombs (not really bombs, but close) or a better hacking range which comes in a clutch for the Riddler clues. Lastly, we come to the parkour section. If you’ve played Assassins Creed, then some of the things here might feel familiar. Batman can’t necessarily climb walls like Altair, but he does have a hook that he can shoot toward a ledge and zip up, no matter the height, Batman can also shimmy across some ledges and he runs and climbs fast too. His cape won’t let him down either, as jumping off a higher elevation can let Batman float a little bit. It’s great fun.
Did you know the asylum is packed full of secrets? It is, Riddler has littered the place with audio logs from key super villains, his trademark – green question marks, - as well as hidden references to other fan favorite characters from the Gotham cast that didn’t make it to the Asylum game, but then there’s City, Origins and Knight, where some of them might pop up. Some clues are easier to find than others but gathering them all concludes with a fun little conclusion to the Riddler.
Audio for this game is also very well done, props go to Mark Hamill for his excellent performance as the Joker, of course, but the rest of the cast were also no slouches. During my playthroughs I’ve never felt like any sound or noise was out of place, everything was coherent and wrapped up in some pleasant ambient music and higher-octane music during more intense sections.
Overall, I am very pleased with this game, it has been a good ride, even now, replaying it after 17 years, it keeps up very well. If you like the Batman as a character and the DC universe in general, this gets a very high recommendation from me. A steady 9/10. Great game.
