What Batman: Arkham Asylum does so beautifully is it keeps the controls so streamlined. Aside from the upgrades you receive you have almost all your moves at your disposal from the get-go, most of the game is about using your many abilities to outsmart your enemies and slowly feel Batman become your little puppet. Almost never do the controls feel context sensitive or contrived. Your abilities are at the tip of your fingers, everything from throwing a Batarang to grabbing a weapon out of a criminal’s hand are a button press away and not once will you feel yourself grappling with the controls. Everything in that introduction story is possible to do. I casually threw a batarang at a man I had hung from a gargoyle and watched as he fell on top of the two guys who had found him. I’ve pulled criminals over ledges, silently wrestled them to the ground while their friends stand mere feet away unfortunate enough not to see me before finding their colleague unconscious while I’ve silently whisked myself up to a gantry above them and am watching them firing their gun at the slightest sound in the darkness.
But it’s not all stealth and skulking about in the shadows. Oh no! When they aren’t lucky enough to have guns, they get to feel the might of Batman’s fists instead. Combat is fast, fluid and relies on you moving through a crowd of hardened thugs, beating on them with your martial arts skills, throwing them into each other and just breaking limbs left right and centre before being treated to a close up, slow motion shot of Batman’s last hit. And you don’t know happiness until you’ve seen Batman punch a man in the genitals so hard he flies back six feet in a quivering mess.
This game is truly exceptional. Eidos have not simply made a Batman game, they have made a game where you are Batman. My only disappointment is that it has to end at some point, although the challenge modes are definitely good consolation for that fact, testing you on how fast and well you can dispatch a certain number of goons until your eyes bleed.
If all comic book based games were this well thought out and nicely made, the world would be a better place. If you enjoyed Nolan’s recent films you will love this, if you enjoy Batman you will love this, if you enjoy anything you will love this!
