Batman: Arkham Asylum was released worldwide for consoles, beginning in North America on August 25, 2009. It was developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Arkham Asylum is a modern action-adventure type video game with a touch of an open world setting and some basic puzzle solving. Written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini, Arkham Asylum is based on the long-running Batman comic book mythos. Most of the game’s leading characters are voiced by actors who have appeared in other DC Animated Universe; Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin. The game received critical acclaim—particularly for its narrative—and won several awards. It even held the Guinness World Record for “Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever”. Arkham Asylum’s success launched a series of Batman: Arkham sequels, beginning in October 2011 with Batman: Arkham City.

Pros:

This really is an awesome game. Probably some of the best and most fun group fighting dynamic I have seen yet. The combat system is easy to pick up, but not the easiest to master, pushing you to get better as you start kicking a lot of ass real quick. You can upgrade Batman with extra moves and unlock various equipment, a classic level up type system. It’s a bit on the light side, but I like that it’s just a touch of it, no crazy tech tree needed here. Batman has and does all the classics in this game as well. He’s got batarangs that can be upgraded to take down 3 enemies at a time, one that you can guide, and one that acts as a homing beacon for enemies. Your batline and batclaw let you scale and take down obstacles. And your explosive gel and computer hacking tool help you reach previously unreachable areas. Hell, you’ll have hours of fun just using the basic grappling hook to clear huge distances and then gliding down ominously, like Batman does best. The main storyline is pretty good, keeps your roaming with very little backtracking and if there is any there usually a good reason for it. The bosses are pretty varied, but once you get introduced to Bain and the Titan strain, it’s more or less the same from there on out, just more or less of it. The Scarecrow sequences are awesome and probably the most creative part of the game. They also happen just enough not to get dull either. Riddler has little puzzles littered throughout the game, which are a fun way to get you to explore the island discover some of the backstory as well as unlocking extra games like challenges.

Here are 107 (thats a lot) of facts about the Arkham Series. the first 50 or so are specific to the Arkham Asylum game.

Cons:

This game is a bit ridiculous at times. As a rule, I don’t complain about graphics and this is a really good looking game, but why the hell is everyone so fucking buff in this? I get Batman is strong, so I can accept a bigger build, but he looks like a body builder and so does everyone else, including a greying commissioner Gordon, seriously? Funny enough the “over-the-top” part that bothered me the most was when you got the batline. After beating poison ivy your autopiloted batjet comes crashing through a glass ceiling, hovers there for a second and drops what looks like a bomb and out of this whole sequence you get the fucking batline?… AWESOME some fucking rope! Beyond that, the whole poison ivy part of the game could have used some more creative use of bad guys, giant flower pods that spit out bat tracking poison BUBBLES! …wow. Her boss battle design is a bit dumb too, but better at least. I actually found her to be way harder than the final super monster Joker battle. A few things bothered me about the final Joker battle too. He a titan injected 12-foot Joker monster, yet he is still talked and acted like Joker, while anyone else he gave the Titan strain to become a drooling roaring meat wall and as far as fighting him goes, it’s really his henchmen you are taking on. You occasionally drag his ass down and hit him a few times and congrats you won.