Solid Metroidvania game overall, but an incredible take on the Batman universe. Physical combat is addictive, easy to learn/easy to mess up, and makes you feel as powerful and competent as Batman should be. The stealth does an equally good job of this as well, making Batman play like an actual predator preying on the weak. Rocksteady did an amazing job of recreating the universe, with all the lore and attention to detail, plus getting the BTAS voice actors. The bosses are pretty basic though.

The best Arkham game.

The world and detail is so incredibly focused. I think that once the games went open-world, they lost a little bit of that focus. My only complaint with this game are the croc boss fight, and the ending joker fight.

This game changed changed action games. There are still games over a decade later that are ripping off its combat mechanics - that’s how much influence this game has.

A game-changer, not just for Batman but... games. The dynamic camera that shifts from a Resident Evil 4 esque over-the-shoulder immersion to wider views for combat is at its most polished at this point; the combat itself - chaining hits and dodging attacks in single sweeping moves - has never felt more satisfying. For the fans of the Caped Crusader, there's also an abundance of gadgets, villains and subtle references to previous media. It also retains a dramatic self seriousness that works mostly due to the fully realised Gothic visual style, evocative of the graphic novels and even the Tim Burton movies.
The sequel, Arkham City, is a degree fattier than this one but is a vast broadening of the area you can explore for side quests, Riddler collectables and other various goodies.

Arkham Asylum is truly phenomenal, introducing the Arkham series’ world with a first-class tour through Batman’s rogues gallery! This game stands out in the trilogy for its small, manageable map as well as its tight and impressive story that moves from major beat to major beat rapidly. The gameplay is fun, especially in open combat scenarios where the game becomes a rhythm game as much as a superhero action game. I want to particularly shout out the Scarecrow and Croc missions in this game for outstanding and unique design that doesn’t feel like novelty for novelty’s sake. The only thing holding this game back is its poor stealth design for many of the stealth arenas (relative to the other games in the series).

Both the best and worst title in the trilogy, the highs in this one are the highest in the series but the lows are also lower. This sticks super hard to the 3D metroidvania genre with it's structure and level design. This is the weakest in terms of overall narrative but there are some of the strongest individual moments in the whole trilogy, particularly the most famous scene in the game (the third scarecrow scene, you know the one).

Some of the character designs are pretty weak, even batman himself, but there's a couple that really stand out, at the very least for some little details.
There are some small weaknesses like no enemy respawns leading to some lame post-gameplay, but the biggest weakness has to be the bosses, for the most part they look great visually but they're just not strong segments of gameplay, this is encapsulated best with the final boss, which entirely feels like a lame cop-out.

I expected the gameplay from this one to feel more clunky but honestly it feels pretty good still for the most part, It'll definitely be interesting to see how I feel about the gameplay in the sequels, having remembered this as being worse than it is.

Coming off the back of this game I feel like I could end up feeling similarly to this as I do Dead Space, the first game has some great art design and some strong stand-out moments but overall feels to derivative for my taste, is still finding it's feet. Dead Space 2 however is a refinement on almost every aspect of the game, with some weaknesses like the increased characterisation of the protaganist, but with better setpieces, more story depth and more interesting lore; we will see, though.

Writing: 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Art Design & Visuals: 3/5
Voices & Sounds: 2/5
Atmosphere & Immersion: 3/5