Games based on movies, TV series and comics are frequently very disappointing. It seems that most of the money is spend on the rights and the resemblances of the main characters, but none on the gameplay. After a favourable review in the c’t magazine I decided to buy the PS3 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum nevertheless.
The game is based on DC Comics‘s Batman comics and not on the recent movies. If you like the dark atmosphere of these comics you will really enjoy this game. Excellent comic-style graphics, brilliant animation and the voice actors from DC animated universe bring the story to life.
Your job as Batman is to regain the control over the Arkham Asylum and stop Joker‘s plan to create an army of Bane-like creatures. Besides Batman’s formidable skills as a fighter you can also use his well known gadgets like batarangs or the grappling gun. But even those won’t help you much against a group of Joker’s henchmen with automatic guns. You need to plan carefuly, attack from the shadows and silently take out the bad guys one by one. Between the fights you have to solve puzzles to gain access to the next area or to find hidden extras.
If you want to know how it feels to be Batman this game is as close as you can get without getting up from your sofa. 😉