Developer: Rocksteady Studio Ltd
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Game Rating: T (Teen)
What makes a great game? Is it the graphics? Is it the controls? Is it game play? Storyline? What? What is it?
I believe that the gaming community needs to look at this from a different perspective. I’ve determined that a great game is a game that you enjoy playing over and over despite any faults the game might have in any of the aforementioned areas. It’s a game you can’t wait to talk about with your friends and one that brings you a little reprive from your mundane daily grind.
The greatest games I play are with my kids, but when it comes to video games Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the best I’ve ever played. It mixes elements from all the top games in various genres to create something unique, and something worthy of talking about.
You start the game with a batarang, your fists, and your detective skills. Which is all you really need because you’re f’n Batman. What more do you need? But, even if you don’t really need them you’ll get plenty of things as you play through the story including zip lines, grapple lines, sonic batrangs, and a series of other cool gadgets and additional fight moves. How awesome is that?
Arkham Asylum not only lets you play as Batman it invites you to be Batman. So much so, you may find yourself going around the house going – “I won’t let Joker get away with this” in your best Kevin Conroy voice. Yes, the man who voiced the dark knight through the Animated Series and several other Batman flicks brings his gruff batty voice to the game world. It’s most welcome here.
The basic story line has you facing off against the nefarious Joker inside Arkham Asylum where the baddest of the bad have been locked away… mostly by Bats. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) provides the voice of the prince of mischief. Like Conroy, Hamill has been doing the voice of the crazy clown since the animated series.
I’m not one to get into the gritty boring details. I prefer to just say it how it is. This game is a blast. The storyline is stellar, the gameplay is terrific, the stylized graphics are near immaculate, and the sound is bang on. There, summed it all up into one nice package.
Worth the purchase? Definitely.
Crave Factor – 9
Out of 10
Batman: Arkham Asylum is also available on the Xbox 360.
