What's your favorite Batman: Arkham game?

[hanselthecaretaker]

I've only played through Asylum on PC, which was good, but have just picked City back up after initially starting it last year. I find it quite a bit more interesting given the expanded setting, moveset, etc. Other than Demon's Souls it's looking like the best PSN Plus "free" deal for me.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I like Asylum best, honestly, if only because when it came out, it made the biggest impression shocking the gaming world that a dev finally (and unexpectedly) nailed a Batman game after so many had tried and failed. City, Origins and Knight were just more of the same after Asylum set a pretty high precedent, so while they're still good, they didn't have the same impact, IMHO.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Asylum, as I much prefer linear over open world.

 

[Evonisia]

"Asylum" had the better handling of tone and worldbuilding. "City" had better gameplay. The other two are rubbish.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Well seeings how Asylum was the only good one, I'm going with Asylum.
City had its moments, sure, but it was a mess of a plot and gameplay mechanics with way more backtracking and collecting that needed.

The other two aren't even worth mentioning.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I've only played Asylum and City. Of those two, I very much preferred City. The gameplay was much better, especially the boss fights. I preferred the larger, more open world to the smaller hub of Asylum. I also thought it did a much better job encouraging the player to experiment and pacing new challenges in relation to that. Asylum was arguably more groundbreaking, but I felt that City improved on what Asylum did in just about every way.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

asylum but series got stale after each franchise. and hitting a bottom once arkham knights came out. that game was real bad.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

I played City before Asylum, so I was a bit spoiled in that regard. The combat is about the same but flying around the city like Spider-Man is so gosh dang fun I can't play Asylum too long without getting bored

Plus I have all the costumes for city so I can play dress up as Batman Beyond Batman

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I liked both Asylum and City (which I think refined the gameplay to a T). Origins felt like a retread. Haven't played Knight.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Asylum

It felt like a tighter package, and the writing was also better. I still like City well enough, and it's certainly took better to the open-world genre than, say, MGS5.

Never played Origins and Knight was just a lesser City.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'll start by saying that Arkham Asylum is a better designed game and as the first in the series it's one of the most unique and memorable gaming experiences that I've had. Just enough stealth, fighting and puzzles mixed with the fact that it's freakin' Batman. It's also one of those rare games that managed to deliver on a ridiculously high hype.
But with that being said, I still had a lot more fun with Arkham City because it expanded on that formula. I also really dug Catwoman gameplay. Origins was OK but it got old. I am yet to play Arkham Knight. Heard terrible things about the PC port and the gameplay in general.

 

[Silvanus]

City, which still rests in my top 10 games (I think). Gameplay and combat felt refined, and the additions were well utilised. Had a good combination of interior sections and exterior sections (Knight dwelt too long on the latter). Felt epic, simply, and I loved the menagerie of villains.

Major pitfall was the mishandling of side-quests. The Hush and Deadshot sidequests in particular were a terrible let-down.

Asylum was the tightest game, but felt more restricted with so much of it taking place indoors. The formula really shone when it went outdoors in City. Origins is the weakest, though it still had better boss fights than Asylum (and Knight, come to think of it). Knight... I played the PC version, which heavily marred my enjoyment of it.

 

[The Enquirer]

I, as many other people, like the first two but for different reasons. The first one was more linear and thus had a tighter story while the second had better mechanics but a less refined story.

 

[bjj hero]

The original, asylum, was the best. The story was tight, the atmosphere was amazing and the feel was just right.

City seemed to struggle with the storys pacing and many of the villains felt shoehorned in with little reason other than because theyre batman villains.

 

[The Harkinator]

Arkham Asylum is my favourite, it had the best story and having everything in a tight and neat location really did help. Batman is stuck on Arkham Island with most of his villains, and it's a great game. The feeling of first playing it was exceptional, I really had never played a superhero game that good before.

Thing is, it's hard to go back to Asylum because the gameplay has progressed. I do love City and Knight, but they're a bit broader and I think the game loses something. Then again, it was necessary to move away from the asylum and into Gotham city. I consider Arkham City to be a bit like the Aliens/Terminator 2 to Alien/Terminator. I like it only a minuscule amount less than Asylum, but because it moved the gameplay along I can't go back to Asylum without it feeling a bit outdated.

I didn't play Origins. Maybe I'll work my way back to it.

I liked Knight, but it had too much in it and the Batmobile stuff didn't quite work. I did like roaming around the larger city, but there was so much going on that I felt it had too many things trying to take focus.

 

[Potjeslatinist]

Arkham Party. Play a bunch of mini-games against Bane, Joker, Killer Croc, and Luigi and humpee dumpee frikkedee frokkedee smeeglesmooglesmerpeedoo.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Hard to pick a best because they each excelled at their own thing. For me it's:

Asylum for story, level design (didn't like the other open world stuff), and overall impact of being the original

City for the gameplay, added combat and stealth elements

Origins for a couple of the boss fights, and that's about it

Knight is just more of the same of the above, but with nothing except great Joker stuff thrown in. The tank can piss right off. Ok was entertaining in the beginning but got old *real* quick, and replaced a lot of the stuff that made this series great.

Overall it would be City for me though.