Batman: Arkham Asylum

My Overall Thoughts:

-    I really really enjoyed this game.  Batman fans are going to love and adore it!  

-    Batman: Arkham Asylum is a sophisticated game that is challenging yet beatable.  It is everything a Batman game should be, great villains, detective solving, beating people up, dark and scary surroundings, and everything else!  I was geekin’ out the whole way through.  This game is seriously epic , and I think any gamer will enjoy playing it.

My Thoughts on Gameplay:

-    Batman has once again captured the notorious Joker, but this time, being captured was all part of Joker’s plan.  He quickly takes over Arkham Asylum and puts his plan into motion.  Several of Batman’s villains are seen throughout the game.  Some of them are working to help Joker, and others are just up to their own tricks.  It is pretty thrilling to play as Batman and take down these bad dudes using detective skills, fighting techniques, and of course, awesome gadgets.

-    I loved the different playing styles this game incorporates.  Batman becomes the ultimate predator when taking out armed thugs.  You can hide in air ducts and on top of gargoyles to take out opponents all stealthy like.  You can also take on 1-20 guys in hand to hand combat.  Final take downs are just so awesome!  The guys with knives and electric rods are annoying though.  Batman gets gassed by the Scarecrow a few times, and the game style changes to a side scrolling stealth type of play.  There is a lot more, but I don’t want to spoil it for ya.

                

-    Throughout the game you will find little riddler trophies, and you can choose to solve the riddles or not.  It will give you achievements, but it isn’t important to the main story line.  I think I solved about half of the riddles just running through the game and looking at things out of the ordinary.

-    Like I said, this game is challenging all the way through, but I never got stuck and everything is doable.  I think this game would be enjoyable for all gamers.

My Thoughts on Control:  

-    The controls are pretty sophisticated, but pretty easy to learn.  The game will prompt you what to do, so you will never forget how to do anything.  The prompting is a lot like Zelda, so it isn’t annoying or anything.

                

-    My only complaint is the hand to hand combat might have been a little too sophisticated for me.  Your basic attack button is X, but you can also counter attack with Y when a thug is about to hit you.  My problem was you couldn’t just button mash the X and use the Y when needed.  Timing is everything, and it was little hard to fight a big group of guys, especially when some of the guys had electric rods and knives.  You have to stun the knife guys before you can take them out, and you have to jump over the rod guys and take them from behind.  The key is to try to be aware of ALL the guys around you.  It gets tough, but the game is really good at being aware of Batman’s surroundings.

                

-    All the gadgets are pulled out by pushing the Left Trigger and pushing the Right Trigger uses them.  It’s really simple.  You can select which gadget to use by selecting a direction on the d-pad.  I really didn’t prefer having gadgets assigned to a diagonal direction, but it was ok.

                

-    Batman has a detective mode that is really useful throughout the game.  You can easily go in and out of the mode by hitting LB.  The mode lets you see how many thugs you have to fight, and which ones are armed.  Clues and extra things are also highlighted in this mode.  

My Thoughts on Graphics:

-    The surroundings and characters are awesome!  The programmers did a really great job with the graphics in this game.  

-    Batman’s cape effects were great, and his costume could get torn and ripped but it didn’t regenerate, so it was more realistic.  

-    The environments were really done perfectly.  The entire story happens in one night, so it is dark and creepy just like Batman stories are supposed to be. 

-    The villains were designed really well.  They were creepy and scary to fight.  I wish they had kept Harley Quinn’s and Poison Ivy’s traditional costumes though.

My Thoughts on Sound:

-    Sound effects and music were really good.  No complaints.  It kept the game suspenseful and perfect.

                

-    I absolutely LOVE that they used the same voice actors from the old original Batman cartoon!  Mark Hamill does an AMAZING job (as always) with the Joker’s voice.  It was a real treat to have the old cast back together again to make this game even more epic.