The Joker is his usual insane self as he takes control of Gotham City's Arkham Insane Asylum. Batman is always right behind him in this action adventure game from Rocksteady studios, Eidos Interactive and Warner Brothers interactive.
After a foiled attack on the Mayor, Batman captures the Joker and he is taken to the Arkham insane asylum. The Joker manages to escape his guards and with some inside help, he takes over the prison. Many of the inmates are teamed up with the Joker, some just plain hate Batman and there is plenty of action while trailing the evil villan.
The third person view is highly playable with the easy to manipulate controls. You get straight into the fight scenes with very little effort so the many functions that Batman preform become second nature after just a few minutes. The full range of Bat weapons is available like the Grappling Gun, the Batarang, X-ray like vision and the cape that lets Batman glide of ledges and softly land with a kick to the back of an unsuspecting opponent.
There can be several ways to defeat the enemy, full frontal attacks are sometime the only method available, but using the grappling gun to climb and swing around the scenery gives you a stealth advantage where you can sneak up behind and silently take down the enemy with a choke hold and finishing punch without letting anyone know you were there.
The acting is excellent, some of the voices are from the Batman animated series. The entertaining cinematic cut scenes zoom backwards when you take the controls. It's almost like your controlling the next Batman film.
The graphics are the best you'd probably see for a comic book or movie adaption in a game this year. Smooth, well lit, highly detailed and fast moving shadows. The only ovious flaw is that some of the generic people you speak to (like prison guards) have the exact same face and voice. The sound is also excellent giving the whole game a dark yet exciting feeling.
Even if your not a fan of the Batman, or any comic book franchise, you'll like this. It is targeted at he mature gamer. This is not the game you'd give to your five year old child for Christmas. Normally, when a blockbuster movie is released, the video game is not far behind. Most of the time you end up with a severe let down or one of the worst games of the year. Batman Arkham Asylum is one of the rare exceptions. Defiantly worth a try.
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