Batman games of the last decade have either been good at best and unplayable at worst. The last game that came out which was based on the Batman Begins film was actually good but ended up underwhelming and extremely simple. Eversince, Batman was off the radar and it seems that people have forgotten about the Dark Knight in the gaming industry even with the extreme critical and blockbuster success of the latest film of the franchise.

Come mid 2007 and Batman Arkham Asylum was announced and screenshots surfaced. People were ecstatic. The screenshots were so aesthetically pleasing and it was so realistic that some gamers even assumed that the game will be all style and no substance. Early 2009, a demo was released and most skeptics were proven wrong while others still remain cautious and still in doubt. The Batman game had a divided concensus.

Then came August, the game was released and a lot of the fans of Batman were excited. I was extremely excited. I installed the game booted it up and tested it out. The first parts of the game felt really linear and the battles felt too easy. In fact, I was quite disappointed at first. Then came the first room that required you to use stealth. I felt like Batman. Lurking in the shadows, waiting for the enemy to get terrified and pounce for a silent attack. It was a great feeling. It was like I finally knew how it felt to be Batman. As the melee battles became more intense, the game requires the player to use reflexes rather than just pulling off combos. Also, using some of the Batgear during melee battles make battles a lot more interesting.

The game uses the Unreal 3 engine used in the Gears of Wars game and the game truly shines and as for the PC version, the Physx engine truly enhances the mood but doesn’t add much to the gameplay at all. The artistic direction also is tremendendously beautiful. It’s like watching a realistically painted comic book that moves at more than 30 frames per second.  Rather than being overtly realistic, the game still uses some deformed characters and a style that actually makes the style more of surreal than being realistic.

Some may say that the game may be short and after playing the campaign, there’s nothing else to look forward to. Well, truth to be told, there’s more to do here than most adventure games of the same style. There are a lot of challenge rooms consisting both melee and stealth based challenges. There are leaderboards that record your score or your time and compare your ranking with other people playing the game. At first it may look shallow but based on experience, it is extremely addicting. Trying to reach the number one spot is such a great challenge that it can actually make a player very competitive.

Aside from that there’s the challenge of looking for and answering the Riddler’s challenges even after finishing the game. These challenges aren’t easy as the riddles are very hard to solve and even with the map for the riddles, they’re still hard to solve.

Overall, this game is a success in every way. As a Batman game, it’s really satisfying. The writing is well done and the voice overs from Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill give you that sense of Nostalgia you get from watching the old Batman Animated Series from the 90s. As a stealth action game, it succeeds with fluid movement and responsive control. The only problems I could think of is that the final boss is extremely easy. Other than that, this is a must buy if you’re an action gamer and a Batman fan.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars