Batman: Arkham Asylum for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I can honestly say that I wasn't very excited when I picked my GameInformer out of the mail months ago to find something called "Batman: Arkham Asylum" on the cover.

I stand corrected, having played the game. "Batman: Arkham Asylum" is on the most polished games I've played in a long while. The game looks fantastic, making great use of the Unreal Engine. The games visuals seems to be trapped in a purgatory between hyper-realism and the fantasy comic book world, and works so well for this game.

The game-play is solid in it's two forms. The first being combat. Batman effortlessly moves from thug-to-thug with the advanced combo system. You are rewarded for pulling off bigger and better combo's, combining all of Batmans combat based attacks ranging from light punches, parries, stuns, dodges, to the harder moves like quick-tossing Baterangs and grapples. The second form of game-play is the "predator" missions in which Batman must stalk and take-down several gun-wielding thugs without drawing attention to himself. This mode of the game hits dead-on the target as well, and is a nice reprieve from the "I'm going to bash your face in" game-play.

Moving away from the great game-play, the rest of the game is just as polished. The story is amazingly well thought-out, being a combination of tons of Batman comics, but not focusing on any one in particular. The voice acting is where this game really won through for me. Mark Hamill plays the voice of Batmans nemesis, The Joker, so well that you'll be looking forward to the next time he decides to taunt you over Arkhams P.A. system!

My one problem with this game is that there is NO replay value. The challenge rooms are nice bonus, but they feel tacked-on and don't hold you're interest for more than a few hours. Had they given me something else to do, once I've defeated all that "Batman: Arkham Asylum" had to offer this game would have easily got a 10, instead of a 9.

What can I say, this game has surprised me in many ways. Everything looks great and the fighting presentation that this game offers in remmarkable. I like how you can focus on more then one person when your in a group fight and the sneak attacks are crazy. Finally, a batman game that uses more gadgets then a simple batterang. The controls are simple but it's nothing to complain about. One click of a button and your gliding down to kick someone in the face or hanging a goon upside down and letting him fall and smash his face. The A.I. is pretty decent, not the brightest bunch, but that was to be expected. There wasn't to much to complain about when it comes to this game. It has marked it's territory as the best Batman game that has ever graced a game console.