Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum, When Does a Killer… Not Kill?

By: Daniel Lipscombe
Posted: Aug 31, 2009

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Arkham Asylum, home to the filth of Gotham City – Murderers, rapists and robbers, the insane and the dangerous, all under one very large roof.

An Alcatraz for the DC comics universe, the prison that houses any and all of Batman’s many foes. A gritty and dark island overlooked by the bright lights of Gotham. Not only is Arkham island home to the maniacs but now home to one of the best games this year.

Superhero games have long been a staple of the games industry, with content steeped in action it’s seemingly easy to tap into a franchise and create a potentially fantastic game. Unfortunately this hasn’t always been the case and up to now, top tier superhero games are few and far between. This is about to change, all thanks to Rocksteady.

Starting with an ominous walk through the doors of Arkham Asylum, as part of a security retinue, taking the ever laughing and wondrous Joker to his cell after an escape. Jeers echo from nearby cells, prisoners are baying for your blood. It’s not long before things, as they tend to do, go horribly wrong and suddenly Arkham is under the control of the green haired fiend. Batman, the world’s greatest detective and Commissioner Gordon are now trapped on the island surrounded by Jokers henchmen, escaped lunatics and other “unhinged” inhabitants.

The beauty of Arkham Asylum as a game comes from the island it’s named for. Rarely is there such a marvellous environment to explore and admire. From the sprawling Arkham mansion; where the founder lived, to the penitentiary; housing the inmates and an overrun medical facility.

Each of these areas is home to many moments through the story and all are interlinked by the surface and underground tunnels of the island. While graphically stunning, the exploration does feel stilted in places due to the sometimes endless corridors and air vents that must be traversed. There was always a part of me wanting a little more verticality and a little less air vent crawling.

Playing Batman you are of course holding some of his best inventions, these add to movement later in game. Scaling heights with your grapple, soaring open spaces with your cape or zip line, using explosives to open walls or floors. These are all fully upgradable within the pause menu, adding more to your arsenal. Your single Batarang later becomes a sonic device that helps distract guards; the Batclaw is upgraded to take out sections of wall and you can of course upgrade armour, combos and others.

Whilst adventuring around Arkham, you will begin to discover the obligatory hidden items, the standard find X amount of these. However they hold a lot of meaning here, finding artifacts from the asylum will teach you the history of the island or you can take on challenges from The Riddler.

These challenges are a great addition to the game, finding trophies, taking pictures of items and finding hidden question marks will all unlock character models to admire, back stories and character bio’s and challenges to be played later.

You can even find audio recordings of the inmates to find out more of the story and their personalities. These hidden items go a great way of extending the life of the game, being able to carry on playing on the island once the story is finished to find them all.

And what a story it is, created using cannon from the whole universe rather than one story arc from the comics. This enables you to meet many of the great characters along the way and interact with items linked to notorious enemies of Batman. Each twist and turn here feels as if it’s been ripped from the minds of the great comic book writers. With intrigue, suspense and a touch of comedy, this reviewer was a little sad to see it end and it wasn’t just because of the anti-climatic ending that left me a touch empty after such a journey.

My main issue is with the final boss; unfortunately this battle feels as if it was shoehorned in, as it doesn’t really follow any line from the history of Batman. Another slight gripe about this boss is that throughout the main game, all of the bosses are unique and each presents a different challenge. They all seem genuinely undefeatable until you find their weakness; the end seems poorly designed based on decisions from earlier encounters.

Although these boss fights do carry on the fantastic and varied combat. And, this is another area where Batman: Arkham Asylum gives other adventure games a run for their money. Using what the developers call free form combat, each and every move that you use flows beautifully into one another. Using minimal controls, strike, counter and cape stun, then when some of these are combined you will use throws or take downs.

The best thing about the combat is the fluidity, making you feel as if you are acting out the comic panels that made the Batman so famous. Taking down grunts with ease, combos are frequent, using Batarangs to keep people away and minimise the attackers or the Batclaw to disarm them.

Each and every part of Batman: Arkham Asylum is astounding, the atmosphere is sinister and tense, the enemies are incredibly realized from Killer Croc and his insatiable hunger for Bats to Scarecrow and his fear toxins that create some of the best moments in game. Not only do they look the part, but all of the voice acting, particularly Mark Hamill as Joker is superb. Each actor delivers their lines in a truly terrifying fashion.

Every effort has been made by Rocksteady to recreate the imagery and style from the graphic novels and they’ve done a tremendous job. As a huge fan of Batman comics I was pleased to see all of the small cameos and additions, stumbling across Catwomans gear, posters with Penguin and campaign adverts for Harvey Dent otherwise known as Two Face.

These small but crucial additions go a long way to solidifying the universe and drawing you into the story. Spending time with Arkham Asylum you will notice a direct change from what seems like a brawling adventure to a genuinely scary detective story. Following clues to find enemies or kidnapped allies, using detective mode to trace DNA. Use it again to find entry points into rooms discover which guards are armed before moving in and judge their threat. Are they calm? In which case they’ll search you out methodically, are they scared? Watch as they panic and fire their guns wildly at the shadows.

With an excellent mix of stealth and action, there is something for everyone and even non fans of stealth games will adore the mechanics here. Perching on statues waiting for the moment to glide downwards to kick a guard and stun him.

Hanging upside down from the same statues and swooping in to hang your foe upside down, leaving him to be discovered by his cohorts. Each of these moves is thrilling from the first time to the last and unfortunately the game does have to end. At least you can play through the Riddler challenges you opened.

From the main menu choosing a challenge gives you different scenarios to play out and watch yourself and friends on the leader-boards. Play the predator challenge and be tasked with dispatching enemies in a room using nothing but stealth. Try the combat challenges and fight waves of enemies that grow in increasing difficulty.

This mode alone can garner many hours of your time and time is something that will trickle away with Arkham Asylum. The average first play through taking around ten hours and then the inevitable itch to find all the hidden items kicks in.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an absolute treat, not just for gamers but for the industry. This game not only lives up to the hype but in some ways, surpasses it. Batman is an amazing achievement, not just technically but in terms of character development and storytelling.

The action is nonstop from start to finish, with an unrelenting pace there may be moments where you find time has flown by because you’ve been so absorbed in the game. In fact “game” may not be the right term to use, “experience” may be better. And what an experience it is.