Second Look - Batman: Arkham Asylum

When I originally reviewed Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham Asylum ten years ago, I admittedly didn’t put much substance into it, partly due to my lack of experience with reviewing video games. After I did some research on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for a review, however, I felt motivated to replay Arkham Asylum with the context that it originated this game’s famous Freeflow combat system. However, it also felt appropriate to replay the game in honor of Batman Month and give it the coverage it really deserved. It helps, of course, that Arkham Asylum has aged surprisingly well and even felt refreshing.

After an attack on Gotham City Hall, Batman captures the Joker and, out of suspicion that Joker let himself get captured, personally transports him to Arkham Asylum. Sure enough, Batman’s worst fear is realized when Harley Quinn takes control of the security system and allows Joker to roam the island facility freely and hold Commissioner Gordon hostage. Joker also threatens to detonate bombs planted around Gotham City if anyone approaches Arkham Asylum, forcing Batman to work alone. As Batman fights through the asylum against some of his toughest enemies, and the hordes of Joker’s men transferred from Blackgate Prison, he learns more about Joker’s true plan, which involves using a formula called Titan to create his own army.

Harley Quinn (left) kidnaps Warden Quincy Sharp (right)
and helps Joker take over Arkham Asylum.

Even after over a decade, Arkham Asylum holds up as one of the better Batman stories out there. Considering it was penned by Paul Dini, perhaps best known for his work on Batman: The Animated Series, the story takes full advantage of the Batman mythos and features several highly memorable scenes and great character writing, with individual lines that stuck with me all these years. This time around, I also noticed some subtle, but powerful foreshadowing, like how a door is always open inside the Penitentiary while Joker taunts Batman through a TV screen. Several members of Batman’s rogue’s gallery are woven naturally into the plot, though Scarecrow admittedly feels more like a distraction for Batman, even if his segments do help explore Batman’s personal trauma in a unique way. It’s also interesting looking back at the story after all these years, since it feels like a solid standalone Batman story as opposed to the start of a franchise of its own.

Batman’s journey through Arkham Asylum is presented as a 3D Metroidvania, with him starting out with an infinite amount of Batarangs and a grapple gun and gradually obtaining other useful gadgets as the story continues, like the Batclaw and Line Launcher, all of which are easy to use and help him access places he previously couldn’t. The beginning of the game also acts as a tutorial that’s woven into the story pretty naturally and quickly teaches the player how to explore the island and interact with the environment. Even the way Batman obtains gadgets feels natural within the context of the story and shows a great attention to combining story and gameplay, even if cutscenes are generally more relied on for advancing the plot.

Perhaps the most well-known aspect of Arkham Asylum is its Freeflow combat system, which evolved from Arkham Asylum’s roots as a rhythm game and rewards rhythmic attacks and dodges, as well as skillful application of Batman’s gadgets, including Batarangs and the Batclaw, with increased damage and XP. Though the timing of rhythmic attacks can feel unforgiving at times, it’s a good fit for translating Batman’s fighting skills to a video game in a form that’s not only easy to use, but sells the weight behind each strike. There aren’t that many different enemy types, but there’s still enough variety to keep players on their toes when faced with particularly large groups and test them on their knowledge of Batman’s combat moves, including stuns and vaults.

The Freeflow combat is generally well-executed.

While this combat system would inspire those in other games, including major releases like Marvel’s Spider-Man, I found more similarities this time around with the combat system from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which had pioneered the style. Comparing the two, however, Arkham Asylum’s implementation is better balanced so vaulting isn’t so overpowered and is more fleshed out with the inclusion of gadgets and dodge warnings. Unlike The Prince, Batman can also earn XP for WayneTech upgrades that improve the effectiveness of his gadgets and combat abilities, like throwing multiple Batarangs at once, increasing his maximum health or lowering the requirements for activating combo abilities.

Batman doesn’t always fight his enemies directly, however. Sometimes, he’ll have to fight from the shadows with unique Predator gameplay focused around striking fear into the hearts of his enemies. In these sections, players must use the environment to their full advantage, be it sneaking through floor vents, performing stealth takedowns and hanging unfortunate enemies upside-down from strategically placed gargoyles. As Batman picks off Joker’s men one by one, the heart rates of those remaining will increase and they’ll change tactics accordingly, like roaming around in pairs. This implementation of stealth feels very in line with Batman’s character and challenges the player’s ability to avoid enemies in a way that other games typically don’t.

Of course, there are still traditional stealth sections, courtesy of Scarecrow. When Batman succumbs to his fear toxin, he imagines himself in a different world where he has to hide behind cover while dodging a giant Sacrecrow’s gaze until he can light up a Bat Signal. These sections are well put together, though I generally found the scenes and transitions around them more interesting. There’s actually a highly memorable one where it looks like the game has glitched out, which made me think something was wrong when I first played it.

One thing I appreciated about the game’s mechanics is that it doesn’t forget that Batman has a detective side. There’s even a Detective Mode that, when turned on, highlights all enemies and secret areas within a rather wide range. Some parts of the story require Detective Mode, mostly for tracking where certain characters went based on certain residue Batman’s suit can detect, though the mode itself is so useful that there’s no real reason not to play a large portion of the game with it turned on. As a trade-off, however, everything looks blue and people look like walking x-rays. Since this interferes with the art direction and didn’t feel like Detective Mode’s intended use, that’s likely why later entries nerfed it in some capacity.

Detective Mode during Predator gameplay.

Throughout Arkham Asylum, Batman can solve riddles left behind by the Riddler, which can involve finding hidden collectables, scanning certain parts of the environment and destroying chattering Joker Teeth. While not required to finish the story, going out of your way to solve every riddle is worth the effort, as the Riddler’s subplot has a satisfying conclusion and certain Riddler Trophies also unlock character trophies that players can view in the menu and new maps for Challenge Mode.

During Challenge Mode, players can use either Batman or the unlockable Armored Batman in a total of sixteen different Combat and Predator challenges (twenty including the DLC maps), where they can earn medals based on their performance. These medals don’t really do anything outside of increasing your game completion percentage and unlocking achievements/trophies. While you can also compare your score against others in a worldwide leaderboard, I’m pretty sure the scores were hacked, considering that as of this post, they include numbers impossible for any one player to achieve, regardless of their skill.

PS3 owners also have the opportunity to play through the same Challenge Mode maps as Joker, though he doesn’t earn any medals. While his gameplay is similar to Batman, he has his own unique animations that fit more in line with his character and his own gadgets have limited ammo, like a pistol with only one bullet. During Predator challenges, he has to resort a lot more to hiding from enemies, since he can’t grapple onto gargoyles, and his brand of Detective Mode involves selecting and wearing a pair of psychedelic glasses, though his vision is more limited compared to Batman. Playing as Joker is an interesting opportunity, though not really as fun as Batman.

Joker is an interesting bonus for PS3 owners.

I didn’t really have many other complaints about the gameplay, though the boss fights are a little lacking, especially the final boss fight against Joker. While I liked that Rocksteady designed the game around avoiding loading screens, area transitions use doors as cheats and, as such, it’s still possible to reach the door too fast and see a loading icon in the bottom right corner. Due to how I played, I noticed these a lot more this time around.

While later Batman: Arkham games would improve in graphical fidelity, Arkham Asylum’s smaller scale lets it have a much clearer identity through the island’s gothic architecture, which helps it hold up pretty well. The attention to detail in each of the buildings helps the island feel lived-in, which, when combined with the lighting, gives the game a great and consistently dark atmosphere. In particular, the first-person POV that the game adopts when Batman enters the Intensive Care area immediately makes the game creepier and stuck with me since my original playthrough. Smaller details also add great flavor to the game’s events, like how the Batsuit gradually takes more damage throughout the story and how the force Batman applies to different vents depends on whether or not he needs to be sneaky. Rather notably, however, the rain effects are inconsistent in this version of the game, since they only really show up at the beginning and while you’re in one particular building (the PS4 and Xbox One remaster would fix this issue).

This time around, however, I did notice a couple blemishes. When loading a save or checkpoint, there's some minor texture loading, though thankfully any further loading isn't noticeable during regular play. I also ran into a couple glitches, one where Killer Croc's entire character model briefly flashed while using the Line Launcher over a portion of the sewers where he hid underwater and another where Batman got stuck in the environment after grappling up to another platform in a specific spot and couldn't escape (reloading the checkpoint fixed this).

Arkham Asylum has a strong identity.

What also helps the presentation is the all-star voice cast, including returning voices from Batman: The Animated Series. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill do incredible work as Batman and Joker respectively, while Arleen Sorkin is great in one of her final roles as Harley Quinn before she was replaced by Tara Strong. Batman’s other villains also have incredible talent behind them, like Steve Blum as Killer Croc, Wally Wingert as the Riddler and Dino Andrade as the Sacrecrow, among others. While I might not remember most of the score, certain pieces still stuck with me over the years, including one that plays during Predator sections. Certain bits of audio also stand out, like the noise for the PA system and the audible impact of Batman’s attacks.

Over a decade later, Batman: Arkham Asylum proves itself as a must-play title for any Batman fan. Its solid writing works hand-in-hand with great gameplay to provide a memorable experience that can be enjoyed entirely as a standalone game or as the first part of an exploration of the Batman: Arkham series.