What a great start to this series. I’m gonna get my favorite thing out of the way with this game. The atmosphere is truly amazing. I love how it really does feel like I’m in an high level security asylum. Whether it’s the crazy sociopathic criminals that you have to beat the snot out of. The place itself. The dark muddy sky and ground. Not only that but how things could suddenly change like with Scarecrow and his fear toxin, or Poison Ivy’s plants taking over the place. The combat is simple yet really fun. It relies on reaction time, but also skill with the Critical Strike. If you wanna go crazy, you can’t just mash, and I really like that. Same for the stealth, which really can keep you on your toes sometimes. It’s also just real fun to knock these criminals lights out. Like really fun. The progression feels real satisfying as well. It felt nice getting each main gadget throughout the game. I feel the most disappointing part of this whole game is easily the bosses. Scarecrows set pieces were really cool and you have so much potential for him as a boss, but uh, it’s just an easy enemy gauntlet. Poison Ivy wasn’t anything special either. Killer Croc shouldn’t even count. Bane legit besides the final boss feels like the only real boss here if you ask me. Even then the variety with the bosses is really lacking. You’ll realize how they always have to spawn reinforcements for you to beat up, just to give these bosses some kind of substance. Also, yeah I know this game came out in 2009, but uh wow these models. Wow they did not age well. Batman looks like he’s constipated. The length of the game is actually really refreshing. I appreciate it. It doesn’t feel like some grand adventure but it’s not too short of one either. It feels like it hit the sweet spot for something like this. Overall, I think Arkham Asylum laid a great foundation for this series, and I bet it still has some merit to it to this day with how it handles things.