Finally, running around in tights is cool again!
The story starts as Batman makes his way to Arkham Asylum after Joker's daring raid on Gotham City Hall. Upon his arrival to Arkham Island, Batman is suspicious of Joker's intentions and follows him into the asylum. Without going into to much detail, Joker manages to escape custody and begins to run free in Arkham, letting loose all manner of goons and supervillains along the way to stop the pursuing Batman. Joker begins to prepare a so-called homecoming party with Batman as the guest of honor. Batman chases Joker across the island in search of Joker and what his true plan is. Along the way he will meet several other villains including Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and a few others you will need to defeat in order to learn of Joker's evil plot to destroy Gotham. The story is well paced and fits well in the Batman universe. You don't need to know much about Batman lore to figure things out and the game helps to explain things you may not understand. But that doesn't mean there are plenty of references to those dedicated Batman fans, if you look hard enough.
As Batman traverses the perilous Arkham Island, he will require an armory of interesting and lethal gadgets. Some are as simple as the Batarang to strike distant enemies and objects, to the Exploding Gel to destroy weak walls and bury your adversaries in rubble, to the Batclaw to rip the covers off ventilation shafts and yank Joker's men over the railing to a dangerous fall. Most of his gadgets have multiple uses and work very well. The gadget you will find yourself using the most is Detective Vision, which will help you to see thugs through walls, discover evidence and find useful information not seen in regular viewing mode. Sometimes, it is nearly impossible to proceed without first looking in Detective Vision and you waste the time spent crafting these beautifully rendered environments in a bluish tinge.
The combat in Arkham Asylum is simple and beautiful to watch. With the use of only two buttons, Batman can punch, kick and counter his way through whatever Joker throws at him. It sometimes feels like just button mashing, but Batman preforms a wide variety of moves with that one button. As you progress, Batman slowly adds new moves to his repertoire to make this deadly dance even more spectacular.
What I believe to be the best aspect of the game is new "Invisible Predator" mechanic. In these sequences, Batman is stuck in a room filled with multiple armed goons and the only way to get through is to pick off each goon one by one. It is these moments that make you feel Batman is the true Dark Knight. You have a range of different ways to approach the situation, whether it be silently taking down a goon whenever he is alone or exploding the wall where a goon is stand to crush him, it's all in your hands. The real beauty lies in the thug's reaction to your actions. They begin confident that Batman is nothing and will be beaten quickly. As you begin to lower their ranks, they begin to travel in pairs and call out for you to surrender. Soon enough they will shoot at any noise, look behind at any time to see if you are coming and will cower in fear if you appear from nowhere. These moments are vastly entertaining, but sometimes feeling somewhat repetitious, sometimes making it far too easy.
Even when you complete the story, there is much left to complete. One villain you never encounter, the Riddler, somehow placed 260 various riddles across the island and you, being the World's Greatest Detective, must solve them all to bring him into custody. The riddles vary from finding a particular object, destroying Joker Teeth spread across the island or finding a question mark painted in the background and they will take a keen mind to discover them all. The reward for collecting these earns you experience, character trophies and bios and challenge maps.
Arkham Asylum is a gruesome prison and Rocksteady makes it feel just so. The different parts of the island feature different styles of building, from Victorian to modern day, and look marvelous wherever you are. The character models look fantastic, especially Batman as he gains scars from the event in the game from a gash over his eye to a tear in the cape you will always remember what you have been through just by looking in a mirror. The biggest graphical achievement is Batman's cape itself. The cape is almost all you see of Batman so it is important it looks good. It moves fluidly and looks like you can reach out and feel it.
Another great thing about Arkham Asylum is the voice acting, sporting the voice of Mark Hamill, Arleen Sorkin and Kevin Conroy, the original Joker, Harley Quinn and Batman of the Batman cartoon series produced by Paul Dini and they all sound great and create a great sense of nostalgia.
Never before has the feeling of being Batman ever been captured as well as it has been in Arkham Asylum. The experience is immersive, combat in fun and simple, the environments are gorgeous and the voice acting will leave you begging for more even when you finish the game for the second, maybe even third time.