Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a great start to the best superhero video game trilogy in gaming. Rocksteady did an exceptional rendition of Batman and the setting that surrounds him, to the point it became iconic.

Arkham Asylum is not my favorite entry in the trilogy due to being more comic book centric in it's presentation, that is by how the characters themselves look and by how narrative is presented and especially how it ends, but got to admit it does what it aims to achieve confidently, and as their first try this is just mindblowingly good.

Visually, Asylum aims to provide a more foreboding atmosphere than to be graphically impressive, although the Return to Arkham edition is trying to rectify that, but in the end manages to mostly hinder the atmosphere. The setting possibly is my favorite in the series; Asylum is not that varied but is consistent in its level design and rather grim in its presentation. Perfect choice for the first entry. Also, Return to Arkham is still capped at 30 fps, which is a travesty. I know not updating the disc version gives you 60 fps, but I got it digitally, and I don't want to buy it again on disc just to get something that should just be there.

With narrative I do have some issues with Asylum. The setup is pretty clever and well executed; having Joker take over an asylum and communicate with Batman throughout the entire game is an exciting premise and overall is well done thanks to the performances of Mark Hamill and the late Kevin Conroy, but how badly they handle the final chapter of the story just leaves a sour taste afterwards. Besides that, some villains like Poison Ivy are underutilized, with the Joker being mostly the highlight. The Killer Croc encounter was pretty memorable, though. Arkham Asylum just mostly serves as an introduction to this then-new universe of Batman, so story-wise it doesn't try to accomplish something great or dig deep into characters and their personal struggles.

Gameplay is just excellent, both combat and stealth; they are so simple yet fun and addicting. No wonder challenge maps are so abundant in the series. In combat, getting a high combo score is always satisfying; fighting goons is like a dance that you quickly get into. It's fluid, punchy, acrobatic, and with the addition of using gadgets in combat, deep. Stealth is well designed; every encounter has a lot of ways to be tackled, and trying to be as stealthy as possible with using the provided points to pull off a certain move just feels good when your plan comes together. Besides that, the gameplay is a metroidvania, which I do highly enjoy; puzzles are too simple at times but fun too. Riddler trophies are a clever way to design a collectible that fits a Batman game, but Riddler does get under my skin after finishing thousands of his tasks at this point across all games.

To sum up, Arkham Asylum is a solid start of a great series, but because it is the start of it, in retrospect it is in fact the weakest entry in the trilogy, but as a standalone adventure it is really good and deserves all the praise it received. I can even say, "It sure makes you feel like Batman".

Played on: Playstation 5
Version: Playstation 4 (Remastered)
Edition: Digital

It is truly amazing how well this game holds up many years later. The physics, stealth, aesthetic, story, etc. makes this a classic & almost unrivaled even for today. Sad honestly. We should have this & more today but we've gone backwards. The industry standard for today is "release now, fix later". Playing through this gave me what I have been issuing for a while & that is passion that is polished.

Final verdict: Buy it

A great entry to best superhero game series

Positives: The Gameplay still feels amazing to this day. The story is Solid. Graphics and environments look great. The sound design still great and still holds up. The soundtrack is awesome and captures the atmosphere of the setting perfectly. The overall presentation of the game is amazing.

Negatives: I feel like the ending isn't the best, the joker bossfight is underwhelming. Sometimes the cutscenes look a bit weird and Batman's face doesn't fit with what it looked like in the original game.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an Amazing game that offers a lot of great quality throughout. This is one of the greatest superhero games ever made and I recommend anyone play it.

Hours Played: 2

Arkham Asylum does Batman so well this game has a great story and great combat. My only complaint is I feel the side stuff is kinda to much I beat the story and it says im 60% done the game and I didn't even notice there were side missions, idk I feel some of the side content is to hidden and I couldn't be bothered to do it all and how do I have only 16 character profiles and theres like 30 of them after beating the game lol. Great game though