Screen shot from Batman: Arkham Asylum (AP Photos/Eidos)
Publisher: Eidos Interactive / Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC (ships September)
In Batman: Arkham Asylum, players take on the role of the caped crusader as he escorts The Joker to that institution for the criminally insane, Arkham Asylum. (Sure, I love the Batman mythos as much as anybody, come on. but Arkham has had more breakouts than my high school chess club).
Rather than going to the bother of escaping again, The Joker just traps Batman within the asylyum’s walls and lets the inmates loose, much like what happened in the graphic novel of the same name by Gran Morrison and Dave McKean.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is practically a reunion for fans of the Batman: The Animated Series in the 90s. B:TAS producer Paul Dini writes the script for the game and many of the actors from the series reprise their roles, including Kevin Conroy and Mark Hammil as The Batman and The Joker, respectively.
The controls are very tight, and the puzzles and challenges are formidable but not impossible. The art design is incredible, and all the characters look how you’d expect them to look without looking too much like they were “on model” from Batman: The Animated Series design. Ironically, the most major redesign of any character in the game is of Harley Quinn, the one created for the animated series.
When dealing with a licensed property like this, giving the player the feeling that he is the character may be even more important than gameplay or story. Batman: Arkham Asylum exceeds at all three, but truly excels at the first. This is not just the best licensed game in years, or even the best super-hero game in years. This may be the best game in either category ever and will certainly be on many top 10 lists at the end of the year. If you consider yourself to be a fan of Batman and have a PS3 or Xbox 360 (with the PC version due to ship later this year), you owe it to yourself to pick up Batman: Arkham Asylum.
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