Batman: Arkham Asylum is amazing.

Story
- The overall story of Arkham Asylum is very simple. Joker escapes and takes control of the asylum, with a plan to march into Gotham with an army of thugs pumped full of Titan formula. Batman has to put a stop to it. By using Arkham Asylum as its setting, we have the means to fight a large number of Batman's iconic rogues gallery. Much of the story, as well as the wider context of this iteration of Batman and Gotham are given to the player through interview tapes found around the Asylum. Much of this information, despite effectively being side content, is extremely compelling; I did not skip any of it.

Combat
- Arkham Asylum's combat system is an incredible exercise in bringing a character fantasy into reality. The feeling of a flowing combat system, of commanding Batman's martial arts mastery against a large mob of enemies is amazing. Whilst incredibly simplistic, consisting mostly of left-clicking to attack and right-clicking to counter, effective timing, quick reaction speed and awareness of space are highly rewarded. Combat is not just button mashing, but requires consideration of which actions you want to perform, and a meaningful choice between attacking a new enemy or performing a takedown, for example. Where the combat falls short is in its lack of variety in its enemies types and moveset. Most enemy types in the game can be taken down with simple punching and countering. Taser and knife enemies are introduced which require a different response, but no interesting choices are made as a result. Taser enemies need to be vaulted over, and knife enemies need to be stunned. These combat options will rarely be more or less useful than any other; they are simply the set allocated response to a certain new enemy type.
- Boss fights themselves often begin very cinematic, however tend to diminish into more standard thug combat, sometimes with larger, Titan-empowered enemies that are a more considerable challenge. The Scarecrow encounters, Killer Croc and Poison Ivy boss fights are more unique, although they also include common thug combat. The final Joker boss fight was incredibly disappointing, to say the least. Joker pumping himself full of Titan already damages his character in my eyes. The clown prince of crime goes from being a sadistic showman and charismatic mastermind to a big, deformed monster. And the final battle itself is even more of a letdown. It's just more common thug combat until you pull joker to the ground and wail on him, then he gets back up and you do it all over again.
- Predator/stealth encounters are very well done. Most encounters include thugs armed with guns, making head-on combat a much less desirable option, although its important to note that it is still viable. Stealth is complimented by a number of useful gadgets, such as the explosive gel and sonic batarangs, which allow for more strategic playstyles, preparing the environment as you like. Stealth also lives up to the Batman character fantasy, as strategically and meticulously planning your approach with gadgets, or sneaking behind enemies and swooping down on them from above can be a very satisfying feeling.

Presentation
- The acting performances in Arkham Asylum are absolutely fantastic. With the original voice actors reprising many of their roles from the Batman Animated Series, including Mark Hamill's Joker and Kevin Conroy's Batman, each give performances worthy of being called some of the greatest interpretations of these characters. I especially loved Arleen Sorkin's portrayal of Harley Quinn. These performances are complimented by high quality animated cutscenes, which greatly enhance the portrayals of these characters. Joker looks so good in cutscenes; his expressiveness and charisma are both beautifully depicted.
- All of the character designs are incredible, focusing on a slightly more realistic design philosophy for characters with a hint of the horrifying and grotesque. Killer Croc and Scarecrow are perfect examples of this. Many of the character profiles also include amazingly designed images for characters that are not even present in the game.
- The atmosphere and claustrophobic feeling of Arkham Island lend itself fantastically to the sense of isolation and lawlessness in the game. Whilst the map itself is small in scale, due largely in part to budget and development constraints, different stages of the game have you exploring through parts of the map you have already experienced, often in a new context or with new gadgets. By the end of the game, you will have an appreciable familiarity with the layout and environments of Arkham Asylum.
- The menus in this game are comics-inspired, and the game itself contains so many references to comics and characters, you can tell this game was made by genuine fans of the source material.
- The music of this game is wonderfully composed and adds to the gloomy atmosphere of Arkham Island. The sound effects likewise are well designed and become iconic to the player over the course of a playthrough.

Traversal
- Batman has two interesting movement abilities you'll use through the majority of your playthrough: the grapple hook and gliding. The grapple hook is actually somewhat limited in what it can do, requiring a ledge vertically aligned with where the player is. I found myself questioning whether I could grapple to certain ledges or not a good number of times during my playthrough. Interestingly, the grapple hook cannot be used to swing from one point to another except for swinging between gargoyles during a predator encounter. To have that level of versatility in the open world would have been useful. Gliding, especially from high points on the map, is incredibly stylish, as batman's cape spreads open to take up a large portion of the screen. Gliding can take you very far. Gliding above the waters surrounding Arkham Island is also incredibly scenic and cool to see. I wish there was more fluidity between both grappling and gliding. There will often be moments when you grapple to a high place in order to glide somewhere else, but Batman has to grapple to the ledge, climb up onto the ledge, climb over another ledge, and then you're able to glide. It feels slow, and I think this issue is somewhat solved in Arkham City.
- the other way you will be traversing for most of your playthrough is simply running. It's hard to make running good or bad, so all I can say is that there were times running from point A to point B that I thought, "I wish Batman could run faster".
- The map in Arkham Asylum is an essential tool in order to find where you need to travel next. The map is sometimes difficult to read, and being unable to add markers means you will need to repeatedly open the map to make sure you are going the right way.

Side Content
- The majority of the side content is contained within the Riddler's challenge, and consists of collecting riddler's trophies, finding a riddler question mark "?" hidden in the environment, solving one of his riddles to scan an object in the environment, scanning to find the spirit of Armadeus Arkham's recorded messages, and finding patient interview tapes for a number of batman's villains. A good deal of these can only be obtained after unlocking more gadgets, and so require backtracking to find. Riddler maps are hidden deep within each of the buildings in Arkham Asylum, marking the approximate location of riddler's challenges, making the task of collecting all of them much easier. In all honesty, the spirit of arkham and patient interview tapes are much better than the rest of the collectibles, solely for what you get as a result of finding them. Recorded messages, with strong voice performances, that slowly unravel an interesting story for each of the recorded characters. How the Joker was able to manipulate Harley into falling for him, how Scarecrow used his fear toxin and was caught, exploring the mindset of the founder of Arkham Asylum, and more. These recordings add a whole other layer of storytelling that is greatly appreciated. The rest of the collectibles are a poor showing in comparison, typically hidden in the same kinds of places or involving simple riddles even a child could figure out. More than anything, player will likely want to collect them all to spite the arrogant Riddler, who chimes in your ear to tell you how unintelligent you are and how smart he is every time you solve his riddles.

Conclusion
- Overall, I think I spent more time critiquing this game than praising it, simply because it is easier to critique. But Arkham Asylum is a true masterpiece of game design, making innovations to combat and video game storytelling that many future games would take as inspiration. This may be one of the best iterations of Batman and Joker that we've seen in fiction. It's not perfect, but as close as it could otherwise be.