after spending two months playing mostly ps4/5 games, going back to a blocky, linear, grimey ps3 era game was a real treat.

but i think i gotta divorce myself from the good vibes i get from simply playing this because at heart all i did was feel like dogshit for 4 days mercilessly beating up the poor and insane. batman, it struck me for maybe the first time, is the absolute embodiment of American imperialism. superman is the pretty face and the promised ideal but batman is the guerilla by night; the tightly knit, highly efficient machine with vast resources. if his parents murder is pearl harbour, then he is the atom bomb and the influence after that.

at one point in this game, batman (and calling him Batman, like that's his name, or could be a name, like on par with Dave or Jake or something, never fails to crack me up) has to get across a large gap. so he calls in for a tool to do the job, and this tool arrives via a remote controlled drone that crashes through the glass ceiling and delivers itself. at that moment i was like Batman absolutely terrifies me.

sucks i'mma have to play three more of these but i am who i am.

Quite shocked I never was able to get around to these games back when I was still undergoing my Batman phase as a child, but the best thing that Batman: Arkham Asylum did for me was remind me of how great it felt to have underwent that phase back then.

The great attention to detail put into the world of Arkham Asylum, turning it into a labyrinth makes the exploration of the enclosed setting feel like its own world, but it also creates a perfect atmosphere for the game too. It would be easy enough to take a character like Batman and make him the star of just about any other superhero video game, but instead what's been brought out here is a straight-up horror game - never afraid to go even more twisted as it goes on.

But above all, it's also very briskly paced, while feeling very free enough to that point it actually feels bigger than it actually is. Impressive stuff.

I haven't been this enthralled by a game's atmosphere and stylization since maybe Hollow Knight, and that's saying a lot since Hollow Knight has probably my favorite atmosphere in any game ever. But this, oh hoh hoh... this is one delicious game. Batman: Arkham Asylum is Die Hard meets Half-Life, where you're Batman. That's kind of all you have to say to describe how incomparably COOL this game is. This game FUCKS. Since Arkham Asylum is so old now, the rest of the praise I have has already been said many times before, so the last thing I'll say is that despite it's age, it holds up incredibly well to modern standards. I adored this experience, and playing this while currently going through a DC phase makes it all the more enjoyable.

Batman: Arkham Asylum excels at making one feel like a version of the comic book legend. Preying on unsuspecting criminals, dispatching fools with unmatched martial arts, becoming a sort of mini-god through the use of gadgets, pulling yourself into the corners of an environment like an animal. And the way Rocksteady Games turns the contrivances of side missions into a prolonged pursuit of the Riddler -- few moments in big-budget 21st century games match the satisfaction of shattering that magnificent bastard's cockiness -- should go down as an all-time ludonarrative masterstroke. But even though few titles put you in the shoes of a superhero as elegantly as Arkham Asylum, the game comes across as too neat and tidy with the detective vision and automated movement during fights. It's still impressive how Arkham Asylum handles such conveniences (I particularly get a kick out of extending combos with gadgets), but if the idea is to be Batman on an intimate level, shouldn't there be a greater sense of hard work and discovery? The Arkham series runs away from this question. This is Metroid Prime lite to some degree.

Mentally ill man goes around beating up other mentally ill people.

I think for its time this is great. Fluid gameplay, moody soundtracks, grim atmosphere and amazing cinematics makes this more than worth it. The voice acting blows my mind. Almost every casting is perfect, especially Joker and Batman (Dr. Young's scream still scares the shit out of me). But the actual game design (stealth, enemy variety, etc.), whilst streamlined, is extremely dated and hilariously lacking. The plot itself is bare bones and nothing to write home about. Regardless, the flaws add to the charm of this piece. The standout part of the experience isn't even Batman himself; it's the villains. Joker and Scarecrow are both fantastically written antagonists. Scarecrow nightmares are the best sequences in this game. Killer Croc's entire sewer sequence is nerve-racking, at least for a good minute or two until you get used to him. Harley and Poison Ivy are hot, so points for them too. Overall, this game works, not perfectly, but it works. 7/10

I knew this game had a lot of hype behind it but I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. On first glance it looks just decent, the combat seems simpler than Assasin's Creed's and the environments and stealth don't look that special.

However the game is always making you fight against groups, turning the timing of every punch, kick, parry and takedown into something important you have to strategize with. Enemies can bring in guns or other weapons and you must know when to target them. Stealth is actually really fun even if not that deep because you can play with your enemies by doing noise, hanging bodies and dropping them and just generally scare them. The enviroments have a good amount of variety, visiting different parts of Arkham Island that have a diferent atmosphere and even having the island change some atmosphere over the course of the game.

I didn't expect this game to have a metroidvania type progression but I'm glad it does, and very well designed too, you keep unlocking more gadgets to access new areas or get more effective in combat and all of it, even collectibles that I usually wouldn't take time to grab in a lesser game, comes pretty naturally throughout the game until the end, it's very satisfying.

The characters are all well realized, you unlock audio logs that actually are fun to seek out and have illustrations with great bios to get to know them more. The story in general wasn't amazing but it was more than good enough to keep the ball rolling.

Only part where I stood disappointed was with the bosses, only a couple of them felt notable while most are just the big brute that charges at you type, and the final boss also has a very simple strategy that doesn't feel like it amps the stakes up.

But still, I had way more fun with this than I expected and I see why people consider it one of the best games there are. Don't sleep on it like I did.

The Arkham series are not only the best Batman games ever made, they are currently the best super hero games ever made (this review was written before Marvel's Spiderman which is an obvious contender). The Arkham games also happen to be one of the best brawler games as well. With Asylum being the first in the series, it's gameplay isn't as smooth as the others, but I still find it my favorite Arkham to date (Knight might change that). I enjoy both the atmosphere and story more than the other two.

Batman: Arkham Asylum tem muito mérito no que faz, sem dúvidas sabe o universo que está trabalhando e os personagens inseridos nele e por isso, acerta tanto em sua ambientação e atmosfera. O enredo apesar de simples, tem uma introdução ótima e eventos impressionantes que trabalham os traumas e medos do Bruce de forma fabulosa, com excelentes quebras psicológicas. Outro ponto muito positivo é o Level Design e como tem muito conteúdo com um mapa contido, o jogo te induz a voltar para os locais e descobrir mais sobre a lore com biografia e fitas sobre os personagens ou simplesmente resolver os desafios do charada, que não são colecionáveis chatos, pelo contrário, é muito divertido explorar e descobrir esses segredos explorando o manicômio.

As investigações são simples e funcionam, mas o maior mérito do gameplay, para mim, está na vunerabilidade do Batman, por mais que vc derrube inimigos rapidamente, armas de fogo são letais e vc precisa de uma cautela em diversas sessões, qualquer passo em falso é fatal num ponto que até te frustra. Já seu combate enjoa rápido, é muito bom, porém não tem tantas skills ou combos novos para varia-lo. Os objetivos se repetem bastante, vc sente estar fazendo a mesma coisa, vá do ponto A ao ponto B, ajude X e descubra Y, não é intuitivo, já as boss battles são decepcionantes, o problema não está na simplicidade e sim no design, são rápidas e sem inspiração, não fazem jus ao build-up que o jogo cria nos vilões.

Como joguei a versão remaster no PS4, pude ver a diferença gráfica considerável entre as versões, nunca finalizei o jogo no PC, mas já era lindo, esse remaster poliu ainda mais as texturas e deu um upgrade gráfico muito bom em shade, um caso raro onde realmente tiveram carinho ao fazer um remaster. A única ressalva técnica em relação a essa versão é que eu tive um crash, nada que comprometeu meu progresso, mas aconteceu.

Apesar da repetição no Mission Design, um combate que cansa com o tempo e bosses fraquíssimos, Batman: Arkham Asylum compensa com uma exploração muito boa, ambientação que capta a essência do herói e um enredo competente. Um bom jogo.

Batman: Arkham Series Reviews

After ages of superhero games whose quality mostly ranged from terrible to middling at best, Batman: Arkham Asylum felt like a huge breath of fresh air back in 2009. Coming back to it today, it’s still a very good game that is bursting at the seams with love and appreciation for the character of Batman and his mythos. While the subsequent Arkham games definitely eclipse this one in terms of scope and mechanics, I think that Asylum still has a lot going for it that makes it stand out and worth playing today.

Having Arkham Island as the primary setting for a Batman game was honestly a pretty genius idea. The island isn’t a sprawling open world city like the games that would come after it, but the island is still decently big and elaborately designed. This game often gets referred to as a Metroidvania, and while I don’t think that’s quite an accurate comparison, I do see why people come to that conclusion. Exploration is very straightforward, too straightforward for the game to be one. You never really need to figure out where you need to go, you just go where the game tells you to when it tells you to go there. However getting to your next destination isn’t as simple as moving from point A to point B, as the Joker and other bad guys will frequently do whatever they can to slow your progress. You’ll be traversing up elevator shafts, crawling through vents, using gadgets to get past various hazards, rescuing Arkham staff, and battling infamous Batman villains over the course of your night in the asylum.

Games journalists have gotten flack over the years for their repeated praise regarding how the Arkham games “really make you feel like Batman”. While it’s always morally correct to dunk on games journalists (/j), this is one thing that they’re definitely right about. The Arkham games absolutely nail the feeling of playing as the character of Batman. In combat, Batman fights with the perfect combination of agility and power. There are many other games whose combat works similarly to the Arkham games, but to be honest, they aren’t games that I tend to play. I can understand feeling like the combat is rehashed and played out when a lot of other triple A titles lift from it. Personally speaking, I find the combat to be rather satisfying, despite being relatively easy. It has its roots in the idea of originally being a rhythm action game. After landing a certain amount of hits on an opponent, you will enter what the game refers to as a “freeflow” state, where your speed and power gradually increases as Batman leaps from enemy to enemy. This state lasts until an enemy manages to land a successful hit on you. It’s really easy to get the hang of, but it’s not as simple as just mashing the attack button and occasionally pressing the counter button. There is a sense of rhythm to the freeflow state, and combat feels its best and most rewarding while you’re in it.

In addition to the combat, the game also captures the feeling of playing as Batman with the “Predator” segments. These are stealth sections of the game where Batman needs to infiltrate and clear out a room filled with armed guards. Guns do a lot of damage, and trying to take out enemies that are using them head on is extremely ineffective. Instead, you have to sneak up on them from behind and take them out silently. Alternatively, you can also take them out using a location-based context sensitive takedown, but these will create noise that can alert the other enemies in the room to your location. These are my favorite gameplay segments by far. Taking down armed thugs one by one while completely unseen and instilling gradually increasing amounts of fear into them as their numbers dwindle is such an incredible thrill. The enemy AI is actually rather impressive too, especially for its time. They’ll catch on to commonly used tactics, and when they’re especially afraid, they’ll even trip and fall over themselves in a panic as they desperately search for you.

The one area in terms of gameplay where the developers sadly fumble the bag is with its boss fights. They’re unfortunately quite bad. They’re not so terrible that they become frustrating to fight, but they’re incredibly easy, not very fun, and do nothing to impress. One boss fight in particular just becomes an enemy type that you encounter many times over the course of the game, making it completely forgettable in the process. The final boss especially is just… really lame. It’s especially disappointing because a huge part of the Batman mythos’ appeal is the villains, and what’s supposed to be climactic showdowns with them are not done any justice at all.

Arkham Asylum’s story plays out like a traditional Batman story. It doesn’t really do anything particularly unique or different with its characters, however it’s still decently entertaining nonetheless. The core concept of the inmates taking over the asylum was inspired by the graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison. In it, Batman is faced with the possibility that he in fact may be mentally ill himself. Arkham Asylum does hint at this idea, but it really doesn’t go anywhere beyond some provocations from Joker. One of my biggest criticisms of the Arkham series as a whole is that it’ll constantly reference and play with this idea, but the games usually don’t really explore it in depth or in a particularly satisfying fashion, likely because it would detract from the player’s power fantasy. Batman: Arkham Knight explores it the most out of any Arkham game, and while my memories of that title are foggy, I don’t recall the idea being handled especially well there either. Still, as far as Arkham Asylum goes, it's a good albeit standard Batman adventure that ends in a pretty sudden and slightly unsatisfying manner.

What it lacks in a particularly unique story, it makes up for with its distinct atmosphere. Arkham Asylum has a horror vibe that its sequels completely lack, with disturbing environmental storytelling and gruesome imagery that really pushes the boundaries of the game’s T for Teen rating. Rocksteady did a great job of capturing that feeling of being trapped in the lion’s den with Arkham Asylum, despite the fact that you play as one of the most stoic and hardened superheroes out there.

For the most part, the developers over at Rocksteady hit the nail on the head with their interpretation of Batman and his world. It is a darker interpretation, but the dark aspects are balanced out by the unabashed embracement of Batman’s campy comic book roots. Everyone talks and acts like they came straight out of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series (minus the swearing). It helps that Kevin Conroy (R.I.P.), Mark Hamil and Arleen Sorkin return from the show to voice the characters of Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn respectively. This version of these characters are great and very true to their source material. The voice actors deliver some of the best performances of their careers in this game. I especially want to highlight how Joker takes over the asylum’s P.A. system, allowing him to constantly taunt, gloat, and goad you all throughout the game. It does a great job at making you feel like he’s in control.

There is a clear love for the source material in this game, best demonstrated with the side content involving the Riddler and his challenges. One type of challenge he offers is to solve various riddles by scanning the correct object in a room or an area. The solution to these riddles are usually easter egg references to other Batman characters that aren’t featured in the game, such as Penguin and Two-Face. There's quite a large number of these too, and they even reference Batman’s more obscure villains like Killer Moth, Great White Shark, and Prometheus. You can also unlock special artwork and biographies for each of these characters as well, allowing you a glimpse into how they look and operate in the Arkham universe.

Sadly, I do feel like I should mention that the PC port hasn’t aged well, and is in a rather poor state. Cutscenes in particular look very crispy and low res. This makes it all the more upsetting that the Return to Arkham remasters of this game and Arkham City were never brought to PC. There are mods out there for high definition textures and upscaled cutscenes, but I did have the game crash on me a couple of times, which caused the file path for the game to become corrupted, and forced me to format my hard disk drive. I don’t know if this was because of the mods or not. It’s just a shame that the PC port is the way that it is, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Return to Arkham eventually makes its way to PC.

It’s clear that Rocksteady adores the character of Batman and his history very much, which earns them my sincerest respect. There is so much detail in this game’s carefully crafted world that pays homage to the character’s legacy. They had grand ambitions, not just for this title, but for the games that came after it as well, as clearly evidenced by the famous Arkham City easter egg that players never found and the devs had to reveal themselves. It's absolutely a must-play for Batman fans (though chances are that pretty much all Batman fans have played it by now). Even if you’re not a huge Batman fan, I do think that you’ll get some decent fun from the rather satisfying combat and stealth. Overall, Arkham Asylum is not just an extremely well-crafted love letter to the Dark Knight, but also a solid video game as well. It laid out a strong foundation for the games that would come after it and is a great start to one of the best interpretations of the Batman mythos out there.

Rather bored out of my mind (it is nearing 4AM EST when I am writing this), so I figured I might as well do another off-the-cuff sort of review, this time on a game that, while not completely maligned by the masses - I mean, just take a look at that average rating! - is something I do think people scoff and handwave much too easily... especially since I find it to be my favorite Arkham entry to this day. So, indulge my writing here, as I tell you my experience with one of The Bat's most lauded and acclaimed games.

Gonna start with easily the mildest one I have, this is the best narrative of the Arkham series. It feels the most complete, it has the tightest pacing, every voice work from returning BTAS stars Kevin Conroy (RIP my GOAT), Arleen Sorki, and Mark Hamill to stars new to the Batverse like Tom Kane, Cree Summer, Wally Wingert, and Steve Blum to name the notable people delivers excellent performances, some of which have stuck in my mind for years. The way the lighting and framing's done with the cutscenes is reminiscent of the Burton films, even if it wasn't the main influence, so moments like the Poison Ivy encounter and of course all of Scarecrow's encounters stick out so much in evoking that sort of grim, rather haunting feel of both those films and what this game's aiming for. I don't have much negatives to even dish here because it's so tightly written, but if there are a few, it's that there's a weird bump around the last third that feels like a drawback of not having a clear connecting point to the endgame, and the infamous final boss for reasons I'll elaborate on for my next point. It's not exactly a grand slam of a Batman narrative, but it's still something I enjoy a lot, especially considering the following games drop the ball in more ways than one.

Anyway, here's a take that's a bit warmer: I don't find the game's combat to be all that "aged" or whatever people are throwing out nowadays, and in fact find this simple approach much more palpable than whatever Origins and especially Knight were aiming to do. The simple nature of the beat-em-up style physicality, not only sounding and connecting nicely, also has a great rhythm-groove to it, making it so that trying out for high-stringing combos and crit strike timings is always a blast. This is somewhat propped up a few upgrade unlocks, such as the batarang being usable to continue the combo going from far away foes while also stunning certain ones, special throws and takedowns to make it more snappy and line up finishers quicker, and the batclaw to pull more foes in for beatdowns. For what's supposed to be the third iteration of the physical combat, as well as something they noted as being the most difficult design aspect, the team at Rocksteady sort of knocked it out the park, and it's an aspect I feel many overlook and/or don't appreciate as strongly because City does more with it... which, to be fair, I do find myself agreeing to a degree. It at least does a better job of making minute yet fulfilling improvements than the other two games did. Still, a common opinion I've seen in this regard is that stealth's usually the more appealing and diverse route, which again, makes sense. It's Bruce's thing, after all, so I find myself getting caught by surprise over the intricacy of doing all this sort of tasks and involvement even to this day. Again, this was a first stab, and while not a true-blooded stealth game, there is a commendable amount of nuances and opportunities available to make this angle in regards to shifting about the place, going through the vents, mounted gargoyles, what have you and dispatching foes left and right as you make each remaining one feel more and more insecure and frightful of your presence. If there is an aspect I'll actually give City over though, it's the boss fights. It's no secret the bosses in Asylum are the weakest part of the game, consisting of just the Titan-infused lackeys modeled after Bane's movekit, and while far from the worst bosses ever, it's a pacebreaker to flow from one setpiece to the next to hit these bosses where the game makes you wait until you Hit Them Right, run into a wall for big damage, rinse and repeat. This is also why Titan Joker is a massive blue ball because it follows after one of those fights, and exacerbates the whole issue entirely by making you wait just a smidge locker to pull him down. City's fights aren't exactly gold standards, but opting to do more variety after Asylum only teases it with Killer Croc and Poison Ivy - who, even then, is still not all that exciting to fight regardless by how cramped and weird the arena is - makes it way easier to appreciate.

My biggest reason for a good few years now, as to why I prefer this over all the following entries, is that I much, much prefer this linear, Metroid-esque world progression and design over the sequels' often bloated and, to be frank, unnecessary sandbox ethos. Asylum's perfectly crafted to have each spot be used or reused when absolutely necessary in the story, meanwhile the sequels sort of force you to hobble all over the place for the sake of moving on. Asylum has you utilize and activate a majority of your gadgets in ways that feels congruent within the facility's island abode even past their required needs, meanwhile the later sequels fall into the same problem certain Zelda games have where you're sort of just stuck with an item because one closed-off area from somewhere in the world requires you use that and only that to nab it. On that note, getting Riddler trophies in Asylum is actually fun and rewarding because it's super easy to pick up most of them on your first run and cleaning up isn't too much of a time commitment or hassle even without a walkthrough, and the times you get hit with sweeping landscape shots, or even uncover a great secret makes it easy to get into a carefree daze, meanwhile later games forces you to do stupid minigames, waiting on side activities to reach an activation checkpoint and/or asks that you whisk wherever the Trophies are all over the place as if you're playing a middling collect-a-thon from the early 2000s, something City and Knight worsen by the former having Catwomen have her own set of Trophies to collect, and the latter outright requiring you to do this in order to properly get the ending sequence. Sorry, but there's a reason I can 100% clear Asylum in my sleep, while I give up and let the Riddler do what he wants in City and Origins, and bemoan my wasted time in Knight. Even without all of that, Asylum does a plain better job at conveying what you've been doing over the course of the game, and especially at making each quadrant of the item distinct and memorable enough to mold a mental map on. City sort of does this with each of its districts somewhat tying back into whoever the supervillain leaders are, as well as special cases like the soaked Ferris Wheel and Wonder City, and Origins by technicality """passes""" since it's just built off of City's sandbox, but Knight? I genuinely can't remember a thing about that game's world, even discounting a replay potentially helping out since I've seen footage of it on-and-off over the years! Can't help but feel like those games' sandbox approach was only ever done for the sake of excess and not because the game called for it.

So yea, there's my piece. Sorry for all the comparisons done in this (it's probably the most I've done in a long while for a review), but considering the aforementioned iterative approach Rocksteady had for the Arkham entries, it was basically inevitable. Even if you disagree with some, most, shit all of what I had to say, hopefully you can, on some level, understand where I'm coming from. It's not I have totally negative things to say about the sequels even! I'll get to those in time! Just uh, maybe have a butler or round robins force me to replay City again. Anything else here.... I guess maybe avoid the Return To Arkham remaster? I've never played it myself but I have seen comparison videos as well as first hand account from friends and acquaintances, and sorry to say, but I feel safe classifying this job as a genuine "soul vs soulless" moment. Maybe not the worst remaster released, but despite that you're still better off picking up a semi-potato computer (or perhaps a Steam Deck) instead, since it and City still run and play fine to this day. Hell, if you want a better HD remaster, a few people have answered your request. In fact, the one I linked for Asylum even details how to play the PS3-exclusive DLCs, a process also noted on PCGamingWiki!

yesterday i was watching utube videos and i saw one about spiderman ps4. then im like damn i never played the dlc for that game, thats crazy. i should go buy and play that. Then i remembered i packed up my ps4 cause im moving. Oh thats ok, i think. Now there is a pc version. its pirating time. but then i remembered again that the pc version has the weird new peter face. so I decided to replay this instead. And I've got some stuff to say. Firstly this game kind of sucks but at the same time it is like the industry standard still 20 billion years after its come out and its crazy. Now hold on. Did I just say it sucked? maybe it does suck a little bit. The animations, the flat voice acting, glitchy combat, basic stealth, and especially the story, it's all done better in city. But like I don't care because there's nothing quite like this game. Even games to this day are still copy pasting it and failing ballstacularisly (ghost of tsushima) ((sucks))

maybe it's just the mood ive been in but replaying stuff always just helps me see the flaws more clearly. But on the other hand it also helps me to see the upsides more clearly too. Combat is awesome despite the little hiccups and the atmosphere is untouchable. The riddler's riddles are elementary for a mind like mine but thats ok some of them were pretty fun. I'm really glad I played this when I was little because if i played it now i would've said "i wish i played this game when i was little" games like lego dc supervillains, scribblenauts unmasked, gotham knights, oh man gotham knights. We have to talk about gotham knights don't we. Okay here we go. gotham knights.

Umm. I didn't play it. I did not. I know I said i pre ordered it but I lied. I lie about a lot of things. I think it's funny to lie, i think it's really the only power a person can truly have over another. If you think about it like that when you lie you just change reality for the other person. I walk up to a guy and i tell him my name is Dr Shrimp Puertorico then he will just be like "ok shrimp. my name is billy smith" and he will have no idea that the reality in his head is a fake reality. That's what gotham knights basically is. A big lie. They lied to me by telling me the game would be good. I didn't think the game would be good. I thought it would suck. And as more and more info came out, it was clear to me that it would suck. Which is terrible. I mean what videogame does everyone in the universe want? that's right. a co op arkham game. OK and they set it up after the knightfall protocol in arkham knight. this will be a good continuation of the arkhamverse. BOOM its not in the arkhamverse. Why? because that shitty pooicide squad game is in the arkham verse. Firstly fuck the suicide squad and whoever decided that was the huge new dc thing. It's not. Suicide squad is so lame. I don't want a game where i play as captain fucking boomerang trying to kill superman I WANT TO PLAY AS FUCKIGN SUPERMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! same shit with avengers. you took the blandest, most c tier filled superhero team and just because marvel studios made one good movie now they're the big guys. newsflash pal... Xmen, fantastic 4, fuckin that little team in ultimate spiderman where they went to stop kingpin. u know the ones. spidey, daredevil, moon knight, shang chi, iron fist, dr strange. hell throw punisher in there too why not. They're all cooler than boring lame avengers. For crying out loud avengers has iron man and captain america and thor and black widow and hawkeye. the most bland and boring and lame and fucking lame and boring af guys ever and you put em together? you know whats truly screwed? the 3 actually cool avengers.. hulk, ant man, and the wasp... hulk barely is in the avengers movies and in the new ones hes like a little baby, and ant man and the wasp are like super old in the mcu. WTF? scott and hope are cool but like hank and jan r the guys u care about. whateversauce. What was i talking about? oh how lame suicide squad is. U know what was so terrible about this? they teased suicide squad in arkham origins. They did. And it was for deathstroke. he was gonna be in it. And years later we get rocksteady's suicide squad which they seem to have been forced to make at gunpoint, with a new deadshot, a new harley quinn, and superheroes that were only subtley and (masterfully) hinted at before. U know my theory? The guys who made gotham knights and the guys who made suicide squad swapped projects. Gotham knights was supposed to be a sequel to arkham knight and suicide squad was just supposed to be some co op live service avengers clone. Which it probably is already going to be. my theorem is that because that new THE suicide squad movie came out and was actually not terrible, the warner brothers dickhead investor dudes were like OMG OMFG OMG OMFG OMG WE NEED OUR A TEAM ON THIS and the devs were like umm sir the A team is working on gotham knights which is a high quality very good awesome game where you co op with the batfamily in an open world gotham and the story is good and we built off the already made batfamily movesets from the arkham series and like omg this game is a slam dunk waiting to happen and it didnt happen because why because who knows because i can't have good things because elden ring came out and was good and there can only be one good game per year and this is like some message from god that tells me i need to move on from superheroes and videogames and pay my taxes and my alimony and visit my son and apologize to my ex and stop listening to eminem and get a life. Wel screw you god i'm not doing any of that. You know what im gonna do? you can smite gotham knights into being bad but you can't smite me into somehow not liking arkham city on replay. So who's laughing now? bitch?

A very solid Batman game! They did so much right here - the Joker storyline is solid, with frequent taunting from him over the PA as you go, the gadgets feel great to use and really make you feel like Batman, the combat is simple but deep enough to be fun, the stealth mechanics work well, and the gameplay is streamlined so that you spend most of your time doing Batman stuff rather than some of the busywork you get in other games (scrounging for health pickups, poring over maps, managing inventories, etc).

Not just the beat-em-up, the stealth oriented preying-upon-armed-goons angle was such an insanely COOKED creative choice to embody the caped crusader. Attractively gothic detectivism that turns into a reverse-survival delight through seismic punchy combos and techno-noir sleuthing. So tonally splendid you'd groove from the ceremonial pacing running from one villain showdown to the next and game over screens down to the badass slow walking, gets a bit formulaic with far too easily readable boss fights to the point of unchallenging linearity, still takes a conceptual blast of comic book roots through amazingly ominous sequencing including a mindbending Scarecrow that toys around videogame metaphysics to amusing effect and a toolbox of crafty sneaking made particularly priceless when seeing the last armed guard running around while panicking helplessly. Solid pacesetter.

This games vibes are immaculate.

SO I don't really consider myself a superhero fan, much less a batman fan, but I was instantly digging this game and enjoyed it the whole way through. The aesthetics, the voice acting, the character interpretations, it's some of the best batman media I've ever seen. This game is also EXCELLENTLY paced and kept me engaged at all times, there are a handful of game-play systems and none of them overstay their welcome. If it weren't for a couple of issues which I'll list shortly, this game would be a bona-fide 5/5 masterpiece.

The things that keep this from being a 4.5 or a 5 for me are as follows: Combat is a little sloppy and I've been spoiled by games like sifu/sleeping dogs to let it pass, stealth feels very half-baked and honestly I think the game would just be better without it (this is the biggest flaw of the game), batman sometimes just takes up like 1/3rd of the screen and honestly not a fan of that, and finally, I thought the ending was anticlimactic, the final boss was a bit of a "meh" one.

All four of the issues I listed are REALLY not that big of a deal, this game offers a truly awesome experience in the batman universe, with some of the best versions of characters to date. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a legitimately enthralling time and I'd highly suggest it, even if you don't like superheroes.

although i grew up with this game and i cherish it deeply, it just does not compare to arkham city. combat simply feels unfinished, and while i don't blame this game, it does still suffer for it. a bite sized, less polished arkham city. the scarecrow stuff is fun, but that's all this game has over the rest of the trilogy. asylum's biggest strength and weakness is its sequel. lead to one of my top ten games of all time, but falls short itself. an ok time, but all you'll be able to think is "i could be playing arkham city instead"

Great environments and strong ambience, tons of cool easters, collectibles and moments. You really feel like Batman playing this, swooping around with newfound gadgets, beating goons in brawl out combats or stealth segments all well implemented, while it does get a bit repetitious near the end the later sections gradually builds with some extra hazards and restrictions to further up its difficulty. Only really weak areas are really some missed out opportunities for better bossfights, with only a couple exceptions, and a bit too much backtracking towards the end.

On the whole the experience of travelling around Arkham Asylum finding throwbacks and lore, listening to villains ramble and tease Batman over microphones, solving riddles and being Batman is peak gaming, and even if you're not a Batfan you might find yourself becoming one.