Batman Arkham Asylum Review PS3

Batman video games have always been lackluster and devoid of any true immersion in the game, whether it is horrid gameplay or uninteresting plot lines. Batman Arkham Asylum is the first real attempt to repair a fractured franchise and it definitely delivers. The game centers around Batman escorting the Joker into Arkham Asylum as a prisoner and the Joker subsequently escaping his bond and delving into Arkham to hatch his plan of finishing off Batman once and for all. Batman gets to fight many of his familiar adversaries such as Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, and others. The game is a refreshing treat after so many years of substandard iterations before it.

Graphic and sound:

The graphics in Batman Arkham Asylum are beautifully rendered, from the grimy indoor cells, to the sanitary medical ward, and the luscious Botanical Gardens area. All of the environments look great with hi-res textures and no lag even when perched high atop the clock tower and gliding across the island. Characters are also highly detailed, but sometimes experience a graphical glitch where a pixilated low-res texture will pop in on either Batman’s chest plate or the Joker’s bow tie. I also experienced a point in the game where it seemed the game was trying to load a cutscene from the hard drive, but froze for a second. I loaded it up a second time and it did not occur again. The animation is very good, especially the lipsyncing and combat, although there are some clipping issues during combat such as Batman’s fist going completely through enemy bodies or the Joker’s arm passing through the medical gurney he is strapped in.

The sound quality is excellent; the voice actors include Mark Hamill as Batman, and many other familiar voices from the animated series that provide an outstanding performance in voice acting. Any player who has watched the animated series will immediately recognize the familiar voiceovers and applaud their performance in the game. The background music adds to the atmosphere while not intruding on the gameplay.

Gameplay and controls:

Batman Arkham Asylum has three basic difficulty levels: easy, normal and hard, and the game is quite punishing on hard. The game is slightly similar to Bioshock in terms of level design and atmosphere. The island is divided into sections such as the Botanical Gardens, Mansion, Cell Block, and others. Batman traverses from one area to the other and revisits many areas throughout the game. Instead of the game feeling like robotic missions, the missions are actually integrated fairly well into the story line and immerse the player instead of feeling like a grind.

Batman can upgrade many of his skills throughout the game and has a few nice gadgets to play with. Batman has a special detective mode where he can see through walls and detect people and whether they are armed or not. The detective mode also reveals vent covers, Riddler secret items, and breakable walls. I used the detective mode constantly to try and discover most of the secrets and plan my stealthy assault on the enemies. There are many hidden Riddler items that unlock challenge maps and other extra content, which add to replayability. Once the game is completed, the player can either move on to the challenge maps or free roam the island to collect more secret Riddler items and audio diaries missing from their inventory.

The boss fights were very fun except the battle with Killer Croc and the final encounter with the Joker. The Killer Croc fight was nothing more than fleeing from Croc and watching a brief cutscene. It was quite a disappointment considering the hype the game makes with Croc in the first encounter cutscene while escorting the Joker into Arkham. The final encounter with the Joker is also a disappointment. It is a very short and easy battle, the expectation was for a gladiatorial battle between good and evil and instead we received a pansy fight.

The challenge maps consist of fighting prison guards as the Joker or the Joker’s henchman as Batman in special configurations such as stealth or timed challenges. The challenges are ranked and very enjoyable to compare your scores with other players around the world.

Overall thoughts:

The game is honestly very good and I highly recommend it to anyone who has played the prior sub-par games or anyone new to the Batman series. The game also has a Collector’s Edition that includes a plastic Batarang attached to a stand with a display case, Dr. Young’s journal on all of the villains, a behind the scenes DVD and a downloadable challenge map. The PS3 has the exclusive on playing as the Joker in the challenge maps. The game looks great and plays great, but the two primary boss fights leave the player wishing for more. Hopefully the next entry in the series will make up for it.