Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition

This is one of those rare instances where I would recommend the same game to long time fans and people who are barely familiar equally. And that goes for whether we're talking about Batman media, video games, or the various video games subgenres that this fits into. Whether you've been reading the comics for several decades or you’re barely familiar with the character. This manages a seriously impressive balance between the Nolan verse realism, which though the middle movie of the trilogy is truly amazing, did bother a number of fans who liked the more out there stuff from the comics, and, well, delivering for those fans. The stealth provides challenge without throwing you in the deep end or punishing the player overly harshly. If you make a mistake in one of the first three thief games and you’re not saving frequently, you might have to do a huge chunk of the level over. In this, it's never more than several minutes worth, and if you end up just having to take a break you can return to that area the next time you play. The combat is indeed easy to learn but difficult to master. Hypothetically if you're really not very good, you can get a lot of the way through this; it just won't look as cool, won't be as rewarding. If you want to get extremely good at it, even if you've played dozens of other fighting games before you play this, its sequels or something heavily inspired by it, it’s actually going to really challenge you. Perhaps the best thing about this is it just makes you feel like you are Batman, experiencing one of his adventures. Name your favourite thing about Batman and as long as we're talking solo stuff, this has it. In addition to what I've already mentioned, there's detective work, platforming, tragedy, a gothic feel, etc. The choice to bring in the cast from the animated series may have been fairly obvious but sometimes that is the exact thing you want to do. And just like on that show the actors really make these characters come alive.

I loved this game, which is why I was going to buy it again from GOG. (I own a physical copy for PC.) Good luck trying to install this sucker. It is a frustrating buggy mess that constantly crashes with DirectX issues.

Batman Arkham Asylum is one of the definitive ways to experience the Caped Crusader's fight against crime. Great combat, a metroidvania style world design, fun characters, and self contained story are it's strongest points, but the boss fights may leave a lot to be desired. Wether you're an experienced fan or a casual one of the character, the game is absolutely worth checking out.

Hm, I am pretty bad with words, but here we go. Franchise games have had a terrible reputation for the longest time. Loads of shovelware all of them. Then this game came, smashing all expectation. With a very simple promise. FEEL IT. YOU ARE BATMAN. And the game delivers on that front. You are Batman. You are powerful, you are prepared and Joker's henchmen are nothing against you. Under the hood Batman: Arkham Asylum is a good action game with some stealth elements. The combat feels fluid and the Predator (Stealth) sections offer a variety of ways to solve. The sequel Arkham City improves on most of the things that don't work quite well here. Most notably movement between areas, which often feels boring here, and some tweaks to combat (still feels slightly clunky in big fights) Story-wise Arkham Asylum is nothing special. Joker and his gang are running amok on Arkham Island and the insane asylum being there. Stop them from doing whatever it is they plan. With some guest villains, and lots of notes about various other characters from the Batman universe. Graphics and sounds are nothing special anymore, but still do their job decently. Maybe a bit stiff when it comes to facial animationss in dialogue sequences. Who cares in an action game.

This is the Batman game that began the Arkham series. It's an incredible third person game that's amazingly easy to pick up and play. The controls are amazing, and everything flows really well. There's a lot that I'd go into, but I don't want to spoil the surprises that await you. You don't even need to be a Batman fan to appreciate this, but you'll probably be one after playing.