One of the biggest and most successful games of last year, Batman Arkham Asylum has been rereleased with extra content for those that missed the boat the first time around under the guise of the ‘Game of the Year Edition’. I’ll break all laws of reviews and tell you straight away – this game is phenomenal. Based upon the true comic book version of Batman, in particular the Batman that appears in the late 1980s graphic novels Arkham Asylum and The Killing Joke, this is a beautiful and quite remarkable rendition of the Dark Knight’s universe that comic book fans will appreciate every second of.
You play the role of Batman himself, and as the game begins you find yourself escorting the freshly captured Joker to the notorious Arkham Asylum. Something isn’t right though, as you follow him down to his holding cell, a trap is sprung which turns the tables on you. The inmates have taken over the asylum, and it is down to you to escape and recapture the Joker before he can cause any more havoc on the people of Gotham City.
As the Dark Knight, you can perform all of the actions you would expect from the comic book superhero. Not only can he handle himself in a fight, but he also has a whole assortment of different gadgets at his disposal and is a dab hand at sneaking about undetected. This means, thanks to these abilities, there is a whole variety of ways that you can play this game. On top of this, you get to unlock new skills and power ups as you play. You do this by collecting hidden Riddler icons that are hidden throughout the game maps. Whilst to begin with you only have a small range of basic moves at your disposal, after an hour or so of game time, you will find you have a whole arsenal of new features and skills to hand.
Different game modes will also be unlocked as you play and complete sections of the game; the majority of these are stand alone mini-levels that put you up against the Jokers henchmen in high scoring beat-‘em-up contests. On top of that there is also additional content to unlock that help add to the game mythos in the form of character descriptions and interview tapes from the archives of the asylum. Each of these is extremely well presented, and in true Pokémon fashion, the urge to collect them all is extremely strong. So much so that you will keep coming back long after you have completed the story mode just so you can collect the whole set.
With a gameplay arc that is set just perfectly, you will never reach a point where you will be stuck for things to do. Sure, some of the puzzles require a lot of perseverance and patience, but thanks to the open ended nature of the game maps, it is very rare that you come to points where you have nothing to do or anywhere to explore.
At any point in the game you can tap a button and enter detective mode, which takes the form of a sort of heads up x-ray vision, with handy pointers to objects or items that can help you progress. It is possible to play the whole game in this mode, but to do so would e robbing you of some of the most detailed graphics I have ever seen on a console. Everything here, be it the characters or the environments, captures the feel of a graphic novel, and the level of detail is quiet stunning – you can even zoom right in to characters as they talk and see just how much effort has gone into the models, which can be quite mesmerising at first. It’s very easy to just sit there, jaw wide open, as you admire the graphics let alone playing the game. The voice acting too, earns a solid ‘AAA’ for effort. Mark Hamill (yes the same Mark Hamill that was in Star Wars) reprises the voice acting duties as the Joker from the Batman cartoon series and it’s hard to imagine any other actor’s voice in the role. The rest of the voice cast are just as good, and they all put in a first-rate effort here. Just as you can spend hours simply viewing the graphic, so you can spend the same amount of time simply listening to the various conversations the different characters have. Err… if that’s the way you are inclined of course.
Everything about Batman Arkham Asylum is so well honed and impressive you cannot help but be drawn in and admire this game for the work of art it is. There is even a pair of 3d glasses that come inside the box so you can play this in three dimensional glory. I’m not kidding you. Admittedly the glasses didn’t work that well for me, but the designers get ten out of ten for effort.
I loved Batman Arkham Asylum. As the kid who used to religiously collect all of the Batman comics and graphic novels, I can honestly tell you hand on heart that you will not find a more faithful adaption of the Dark Knight in a video game. Heck, even if you’re not a comic book fan you should give this a whirl as this is an experience no gamer should miss out on. Game of the Year? Yep you could say that, and then some… In fact, I would even go as far to call this the Game of the bloody Decade, it’s that good.
