We've been getting more and more superhero games each year from Lego title games to Insomniac Games version of Marvel Spider-Man; 10 years ago this month one game in particular took the world by storm and this was before Uncharted 2 was released a few months later, which won quite a few Game of the Year awards, especially on the PlayStation 3. Batman: Arkham Asylum was one of those games that changed the way we see single-player games with that third-person perspective when it comes to gameplay where later games that came along that line like Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Mordor, Batman had the idea at first with a mix of stealth and action at the same time.

Back around August this month during the year of 2009, a lot of people were pretty hyped about Arkham Asylum on either platforms released on both PS3 and Xbox 360 it did get a release on PC a few weeks later. The North America release was August 25th 2009 and UK/Europe was released on August 28th a few days after, which was right around the same time as the Bank Holiday for anyone in the UK. I didn't pick up the game on release, which I wasn't in a hurry, just yet, it wouldn't be until December I got around to buying the game at a good price of £20 being on offer at HMV.

I didn't know what to expect on Arkham Asylum after purchasing it only read the odd reviews in magazines and managed to avoid spoilers when it came to the main story. For a video game based on the comic book franchise I was easily impressed and amazed how great this game was, yet it reminded me of both Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns when it came to the dark torn setting. After both movies were released it really did feel like the Batman franchise was going in the right direction thanks to Tim Burton even the animated TV series was dark and gritty impressive at the same time.

I don't remember the animated series that much in the 90's having Kevin Conroy playing the role of Batman was a excellent choice same goes with Arleen Sorkin who would voice Harley Quinn. The biggest star of the show or game as you want to call it was Mark Hamill known for Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars franchise, Mark Hamill is very well known for voicing The Joker, which just sounds perfect for a psychopathic villain even hearing the voice right now you are thinking of Mark Hamill's version of The Joker.

For the main story takes place in Arkham Asylum just after you capture The Joker, he easily escapes and traps everyone, including Batman in Arkham Asylum and letting loose all of the criminals and villains that are loose in the Asylum. It's up to Batman to stop the villains and stop The Joker from plotting up something that will take over Gotham City.

With the gameplay having both stealth and action you did had the choice on how you wanted to play the game where certain sections of the game you could easily fight all enemies at once of carefully sneak around taking out enemies one by one. You also had gadgets and abilities as well like Detective Vision which helps you solve puzzles, see enemies through walls and footprints knowing which way certain characters or enemies have gone. Another gadget is the batarang which is a boomerang that can temporarily stun enemies or trigger remote devices. If you wanted to take a break from the main story there is a challenge where you can solve riddles where The Riddler would leave riddles around Arkham Asylum some are easy to find and a few were a challenge where you would need to think outside of the box on getting those riddle trophies. The memorable moments were the bosses where some of them just reminded me of Metal Gear Solid based on the boss fights and figuring a way to defeat the boss easily one of the memorable bosses would be against Scarecrow, where you'll throw in fear toxic and everything just feels messed up at the same time it's one of the most memorable moments in the game just like Metal Gear Solid it just reminded me of the AV TV as you start the boss fight your TV goes black thinking that the screen is broken nope just a trick to mess up your mind and having to plug the controller into port 2.

Ten years later I would admit that the graphics and visuals still hold up on both platforms, I had a lot of fun playing this game on Hard mode from what I can remember and trying to put the game down was no challenge the more further I went into the main story I was easily drawn by the atmosphere and wanting to know what will happen next to Batman. Arkham Asylum did get the remaster treatment along with Arkham City for both PS4 and Xbox One back in 2016. The reviews were positive all leading to a 9 and 10/10 from critics for both magazines and websites, after the success of the first game, a sequel was released in 2011 being Arkham City, a prequel being Arkham Origins in 2013 taking place five years before the events of Arkham Asylum and a third game released in 2015 being Arkham Knight.

I still need to play Arkham City at one point overall Arkham Asylum still holds up and I would recommend it if you haven't gotten the chance to play it yet, especially if you are a fan of the Batman franchise or a comic book fan.

Have any favourite moments in Arkham Asylum?

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