Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

[Samurai Goomba]

This game looks a lot like Splinter Cell: Double Agent (or Chaos Theory, but DA is grittier) for the original Xbox. Eh, I still say the best superhero game is The Punisher.

 

[Citrus]

I just ahve one question.... Is the game hard? I played the demo and never died once. Hell, I never eaven got hurt once. Is this the entire game? Anybody know?

Also, Can you continue playing after the story?

The hard difficulty is a little challenging. And yes, you can.

Can you do anything else other than collect riddler trohpys.

Also, you can spoil anything about mr. Zsasz. I played the demo thinking "Time to kick ass! Have a glide kick! Oh....I geuss I win...."

Do you fight him again? Seemed kind of lame how he took a kick to the back and got knocked out. Just tell me If I get to Fight him again.

Yep. You do.

Shit. First some dude on youtube bilding up my hopes by saying You get to beat up penguin and now this. Meh. I'l still probubly get it. The demo had a blocked off menue that said dlc. Mabye we get to go out of arkahm and into gotham for a new story. Or mabye is challenge rooms. And it probubly will be challenge rooms becaause devs somehow think theat evereyone cares about them. We want More story dammit.


And the second fight is lame? Why are we fighting this little shit again? If I fight him, I want to hurt him, not just knock him off his ass and put him back in a cell.

What about the endgame? Can you do anything after the game, other than riddler tropheys. I know you can get paitent interviews and stuff. Not collectables, like can you do side quests or time trials? Stuff like That.

Err, no. But there is a challenge mode which is like a time trial. BTW, your second fight with Zsasz is equally lame.

No, the second Zsasz enounter is awesome and suspenseful. And he's a skinny little guy; it wouldn't make sense if he could take dozens of punches from the goddamn Batman.

 

[Semitendon]

Out of curiosity, which villans are actually in the game?
I know that Joker, Harley, Croc, Ivy, Scarecrow, Bane and Zsasz are in it, but is there anyone else?

The character profiles contain information on numerous villans.
But, as to those who "appear" in the game, the list is as follows:

Joker
Scarecrow
Zasaz
Killer Croc
Harley Quinn
Bane
Poison Ivy
Clayface
Scarface ( no Ventriloquist)

Voices heard:
Riddler
The Creeper

Sadly, of these villans, you only physically fight:
Poison Ivy
Bane
Zasaz
Joker

The rest of the villans are either challenges ( in which, you don't actually actively fight the villan) cutscenes, or merely make an appearance.

Maybe the next Batman game will make better use of the villans and bossfights.
( by no means, do I imply that it is a bad game, it's actually quite good, but they did not make the most of the famous Batman villans)

 

[Gyrefalcon]

Scarecrow was probably my favorite villain in the Batman mythos, and it's great to see him get fair treatment in Arkham Asylum.

Oh and let's not forget Harley Quinn.

As happy as I am to see some of the female villains are in it (which was completely omitted in one early review I read), I would have liked to see them in their more traditional costumes. As a female gamer I'd prefer seeing more butt-kicking and a lot less cheesecake. A harlequin costume and a school girl one are not in the same ball park. For me it jars me out of the game play just as a plot hole in a movie will jar you out of your suspension of disbelief.

Batman looks good though, and having Mark Hamill voicing the Joker is awesome. Better, is that it isn't just a couple of tired lines repeated over and over, but rather a running monologue that can be quite chilling. He's ALWAYS done a great job as the Joker!

 

[Mariena]

I just think it's so funny that batman is always so manly, while the enemies finally use their brains for once and get a freaking rifle to deal with him.

Speaking of which, just shoot that damn Joker. Like, bam. No more insane asylum takeovers!

I guess I don't understand DC / Marvel comics and such.

 

[EvilMaggot]

God darn it, stop posting about Batman!! I still have two weeks till PC release :/

me2 :/ abit pissed off they delayed it alittle...but hey.. maybe no bugs then ;D

 

[timmytom1]

I just ahve one question.... Is the game hard? I played the demo and never died once. Hell, I never eaven got hurt once. Is this the entire game? Anybody know?

Also, Can you continue playing after the story?

The hard difficulty is a little challenging. And yes, you can.

Can you do anything else other than collect riddler trohpys.

Also, you can spoil anything about mr. Zsasz. I played the demo thinking "Time to kick ass! Have a glide kick! Oh....I geuss I win...."

Do you fight him again? Seemed kind of lame how he took a kick to the back and got knocked out. Just tell me If I get to Fight him again.

Spoiler

Not really he crops up in the challenge modes but he`s like the other enemies in that ,though he does appear a second time in the main story though that time you have to batmarang him in the face before he kills someone

 

[Cairo]

I wanted to point this out, but couldn't find anywhere better to put it: in the escapist Batman quiz, one of the questions asks about something added to the Batsuit in Batman Forever. It was added in Batman and Robin.

 

[Marowit]

Hands down one of the best games I've played - and probably the most fun action game I've played in...I can't remember how long.

I hope that more games continue with the combat mechanic. It's so simple, but with it being directional and choreographed so well it's so much fun at the same time.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Could have sworn I heard a rather loud snapping noise when he grabbed someones neck, but I guess I'm mistaken on that, considering It's now two against one, and those two actually own the game...

He breaks people's necks in the stealth moves, I've noticed in when playing quite a few times. It still usually says unconscious in detective mode though.

It's a great game all around, my main gripe is that detective mode is too handy, so it's too easy to miss all the beautiful art while walking around in detective mode all the time.

Does it actually say that they're deceased in Detective Mode after you take them down with the stealth move? I think he might just be applying a sleeper hold. A pinch on the carotid artery with enough pressure can actually be very quick and sometimes instantaneously incapacitating.

 

[Kross]

Could have sworn I heard a rather loud snapping noise when he grabbed someones neck, but I guess I'm mistaken on that, considering It's now two against one, and those two actually own the game...

He breaks people's necks in the stealth moves, I've noticed in when playing quite a few times. It still usually says unconscious in detective mode though.

It's a great game all around, my main gripe is that detective mode is too handy, so it's too easy to miss all the beautiful art while walking around in detective mode all the time.

Does it actually say that they're deceased in Detective Mode after you take them down with the stealth move? I think he might just be applying a sleeper hold. A pinch on the carotid artery with enough pressure can actually be very quick and sometimes instantaneously incapacitating.

From what I could tell, it only says deceased on guards the enemies kill. The neck definitely makes a sharp *crack* sound in the stealth holds though. It's nothing important, but it's definitely there.

 

[sln333]

I pre-ordered the collectors edition and it was totally worth it. The extra stuff is great, and the game itself is amazing. It's one of those single player games with a reasonably short story that you could still sink weeks, if not months into. I haven't played anything else since I got it.
Nice comparison between the combat and a ballet =)

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I clocked at about 17 and a half hours playing first time through on Normal, obsessively getting all the pickups. Thats not counting the hours more I spent on those challenge maps. The Challenge maps will LITERALLY challenge you, not just hitting you with impossible goals or trumped difficulty but forcing you to learn game mechanics you wouldn't have even used in the normal game. I had no idea you could string the battarang or the claw into combo's, or the leap n hit counted as a special move.

When you can beat those last extreme trials, you will definably be an expert.

PS: I think they were sleeper holds, I never saw any neck snapping. There was ALOT of cock-punches though. And groin tasering.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Could have sworn I heard a rather loud snapping noise when he grabbed someones neck, but I guess I'm mistaken on that, considering It's now two against one, and those two actually own the game...

He breaks people's necks in the stealth moves, I've noticed in when playing quite a few times. It still usually says unconscious in detective mode though.

It's a great game all around, my main gripe is that detective mode is too handy, so it's too easy to miss all the beautiful art while walking around in detective mode all the time.

Does it actually say that they're deceased in Detective Mode after you take them down with the stealth move? I think he might just be applying a sleeper hold. A pinch on the carotid artery with enough pressure can actually be very quick and sometimes instantaneously incapacitating.

From what I could tell, it only says deceased on guards the enemies kill. The neck definitely makes a sharp *crack* sound in the stealth holds though. It's nothing important, but it's definitely there.

I checked in detective mode, they're definitely still alive.

How some of the people survive is ludicrous though. An example that comes to mind is a patient who is hanging on for dear life on a rope and the nearest footing is at least two stories tall. You need to cut him down, wherein he will fall through a concrete ceiling into a room full of Joker toxin. Yet when you reach his ragdoll, it still says unconscious despite, the fall through both the ceiling and floor and breathing in all that toxin for an indefinite amount of time.

(It would have been more realistic for Batman to administer the anti-venom to him.)

And I will never know how someone is able to get up after being pierced by a bat claw, or having an explosion go off next to their head right after enough plastique is detonated to punch through concrete. But this is the DC Universe after all, so it's not too much of a stretch to believe that they could have superpowers of their own.

PS: I wanted to replay some parts so I go through the menu. WTF? There are limited save points and no chapter selections or cinematic play-list! That should be a feature in EVERY game!

 

[Ranooth]

I must say it does look awesome, played the demo and loved every second of it. But what about length and replay value? Im moving into Uni around release so i really need to watch my money.

 

[teknoarcanist]

The gargoyles drove me crazy ><
Show of hands. How many of you have seen stone gargoyles INSIDE of a building?
Hm?
Hm?
Yeah, I thought so.

It just seems like a heavy-handed way of going HAY YOU CAN GRAPPLE ONTO THIS. Because, yknow, the glowing orange dots going HAY YOU CAN GRAPPLE ONTO THIS and the voice of Kevin Conroy going HAY YOU CAN GRAPPLE ONTO THIS and the oracle telling you HAY BTW YOU SHOULD FIND SOMETHING GARGOYLE-SHAPED TO GRAPPLE ONTO MAYBE clearly are not enough clues to work off of.

The detective sense bothered me too. Remember your favorite episode of the Batman cartoon, wherein the caped crusader would be pitted against some deadly foe with a cryptic past, but it was okay because he had a pair of magic goggles that did everything for him?
Yeah, me too.

Also: the amount of time I was forced to spend in ventilation ducts is...dare I say it...BAT SHIT INSANE.

Ha. Ha ha.

Other than those few small things, though, the game was pretty brilliant.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Nice one Funk, love the bat-theme at the end.