This should be a movie
The Graphics
They are absolutely stunning and perfectly capture the dark mood of Arkham Asylum. Everything looks dark and gritty as you progress through the Asylum going into the medical rooms and the corridors. The details goes even deeper when you get to dwell into the sewers and the air vents. Everything is perfectly detailed and everything is well put together and you don't feel one bit your running into a room that looks the same as the previous one you just walked into. You even at one point get to go into the Batcave which just worked wonders for me. It was like a dream come true. They add stuff on to things to make them feel different and you feel like this place is real and not some bland room going on and on.
The Character Design.
This was a perfect win with me. Everyone looks extraordinarily detailed. With realism on comic book characters, you feel the emotion coming from them with SPOT on voice acting. Batman himself has his belt stocked with a lot of his gadgets that are extremely and surprisingly fun to use. The Bat himself looks jacked, no homo. His costume reaks of bad assness and through out the game you see the tears and the cuts on what turns out to be a desperate Batman who continues to make attempts to stop the Joker. The Joker himself is a spot on version from the comic books and actually 1ups Heath Ledger's Dark Knight Joker being a lot more clever and menacing. Also showing that the smile that Heath Ledger sported with the weird cuts around the mouth actually came from the Arkham Asylum Joker and not The Dark Knight. All other villains are included to this as well. Such as the scary Scarecrow...ok it doesn't sound that scary when you say Scarecrow but his encounters in this game are very memorable and make you want to wet yourself at how well he messes with your mind. Other included villans are Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Killer Croc, giving a very solid stacked roster of Heroes and Villains.
The Story
Comic book writers are one of the best writers in the world. They capture the comic book presence very well. You start off just Driving out of Gotham and you have captured The Joker really easily. And your bringing him to Arkham. Turns out though The Joker got caught on purpose and has now trapped you in the Asylum with him and many of the other villains who wouldn't mind getting a piece of you. But you don't have to worry because you are Batman. You go running around trying to reclaim every single building of the Asylum that Joker has reprimanded. Along the way you get upgrades that help make traveling through the Asylum a lot easier. Along the way you also find a lot of recordings of interviews with the villains and the doctors, which is a great side story because there is a lot of villains and even for The Joker you learn what cause this who debacle and why everything happening there is happening. Don't wanna spoil it. One recurring thing that happens in ever map you go to is The Riddler. He oh so graciously left a bunch of riddles lying around Arkham and you must cleverly find all of them. There is a lot to find and some are ingeniously smart and some are kinda silly leaving you guessing what? Most of the time though they will range from you killing these chattering teeth that The Joker left behind, finding Riddler Trophies, finding Arkham Tablets and Scanning areas with the riddles on them. A great side mission if you ever get lost, which for me in my personal experience, and I have already beaten the game only got lost twice because the map and detective mode was really helpful. It was a little short if you ask me though and I beat it within three days of some what non-stop game play.
The Gameplay
This game could not be better executed on the control scheme. Combat is a breeze to learn and it doesn't feel like a button mashing fest because the enemy knows how to fight back and you can counter them. Not doing so and getting hit will ruin your hit streak and a possibly for higher EXP. That is right the higher your combo the higher the EXP you get. With more EXP means more upgrades for you and your gadgets. With better gadgets means a better experience for the game. The gadgets are plentiful and not hard to fumble through. They can be perfectly accessed simply and on hand through the hot keys like in a FPS. Each one has a unique feature and help you progress easily through the game. The explosive gel helps breaks through walls. The Batclaw helps grab things and breaks walls at a distance. It is how you use these gadgets in the game that play through your experience. I found ways of using gadgets in ways that the game developers may have not even thought of. the detective mode is pretty handy as well although it doesn't look that pretty when you go into detective mode. It shadows a big blue layer over everything and doesn't look that pretty. But it helps when you feel lost. The boss fights are very engaging but when you find out what to do it can be a real breeze.
Extras
For the Ps3 owners we get the lucky privilege of getting to use the Joker. His challenge mode stages are extremely fun and different from the ones Batman have. Challenge mode keeps everything fresh as you try to compete against the clock and the opponents trying to do it either as fast or rack up the combos and get online recognition keeping re-playability alive. There is a lot to collect and the background character bios are in deep detail.
Overall
This game was really engaging and feel in love with all the puzzle solving platforming this game had to offer to progress through the story, and the stealth missions are a blast to do because they also involve the same puzzle solving platforming. The characters felt like how they were supposed to be and you just knew that they were them. The voice acting is terrific an overall you just knew this was well made. Only wish it was a bit longer.