Batman: Arkham Asylum for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

Batman: Arkham Asylum borrows heavily from just about every stealth action game and then slaps Batman's face and moves over the whole experience which-you wouldn't think is awesome since you've already toyed around with ideas presented in this game in other titles-but, rest assured, this game is awesome. For the first time ever, you're in full control of Batman. His actions aren't stiff (every other Batman game), his arsenal is comprised of the best of the best (the line gun from the first Batman movie rules), and the rogues gallery is a lot of fun to catch and defeat (Scarecrow can actually be awesome?).

Everything about this game is almost perfect. Almost being the operative word. The graphics are exceptionally good, but sometimes fists or feet don't even connect to where Batman is supposedly hitting i.e. someone grabs onto their face in pain yet you kicked them in the ribs. Sometimes the connections are so bad that Batman misses the character in the animation but the bad guy flies from the impact anyways. The story is awesome and feels like a true piece of Batfiction-but it causes the game to feel short-maybe a 6-8 hour adventure. To add to the game there are a slew of challenge maps and modes and if you own the PS3 version you can run through them as The Joker as well as Batman-but I'd like to fight more of his rogues gallery and experience a much longer story than play four rounds of beat up so many villains to obtain a ranking in a square room.

Batman Arkham Asylum is an awesome game. You truly get to feel like you're in control of Batman. Even with all of the flaws presented in this game-there's still so much to love about it. Whether it's dropping down from the rafters to drop kick an unsuspecting henchman or hanging upside down from the rafters to drop down and pick up a henchman just to string them up by their feet and hang them from the ceiling. Whether it's punching a dude in the face, setting up explosive traps-whatever. Batman rules.

Ok let me just say that Im not now nor have I ever been a fan of Batman as a superhero. I think he's kinda lame cause he doesnt have any special powers...all he has is a truck load of $$$ and some smart people building his toys and costumes for him. I mean at least Iron Man is witty and he makes his own suit.
...Now that I've gotten that out the way I can impartially say…Batman: Arkham Asylum may be the best game I've ever played in my life! I mean the graphics, the gameplay, and the story were all nearly flawless. One chapter into it and even the most critical video game reviewer can tell that the developers put an unprecedented amount of detail into it. They stayed true to the essence of who Batman is, who his enemies are, and they respected both the comic book and the cartoon series. From start to finish you will be laughing at Joker's gags, annoyed by Harley Quinn's desperate attempts to gain Joker's approval, excited to see whats behind the next door, and amazed that they managed to reference SO many characters from the series without straining the story.
Some reviewers have complained about the fighting being too simplistic; they said Batman can only perform basic moves. This tells me that they didnt play very far into it before writing their reviews, cause you will quickly learn new combos and get new gadgets to use in and out of combat. The controls are easy to get used to and everything responds to the user the way they should.
Honestly, the only negative thing that I can say about the game is that it doesnt offer much replay value. But that really isnt a bad thing cause the first playthrough was so detailed, interesting, and fun that there is no void left for this game to fill. Dont get me wrong, after playing the story once, you cant just toss this game aside; theres plenty to do. You still have to solve all 240 riddles and get the highest scores in the challenge maps. I wouldnt be surprised if it won GotY; actually, I’d be surprised if it didnt!