Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum

R E V I E W

Batman has always been one of the most looked up to super-heroes of all time. He has had many different TV shows, movies, and video games. Arkham Asylum is very different from the rest of anything else Batman. The introduction to Arkham Asylum reads: “Its going to be a long night… After a seemingly random attack by The Joker at the Mayor’s office, Batman is returning his greatest nemesis to Arkham Asylum, Gotham City’s institute for the criminally insane. But The Joker has a plan and escape is only the beginning. By the time the sun rises over Gotham, he will have turned Arkham Island into his twisted playground, and broken the Dark Knight himself. Can even Batman survive a night locked up with ALL of Gotham’s freaks and madmen?”

G A M E P L A Y --- Wow, there is so much to say about Arkham Asylum’s gameplay. Being partially made by Square Enix, it HAS to be awesome! Arkham Asylum was the most critically acclaimed super hero gave EVER as of 2011! The graphics of Arkham Asylum are just amazing. The graphics of human faces are some of the best ever! Everything in the game looks almost just like real life. The design of the game is very dark, but awesome all the same. The sounds are very well designed, placed, and collaborated. The controls are easy to pick up, and fun to use. There are so many different tools to use and things you can do! You can use the Batarang, the grapple, the Exploding jelly and many more. This game is of good length also. Not short at all, but not so long that you need to play no other game but that for months to beat it. It is also very addictive! There is no real “stopping place” since there are particular save points. The game auto-saves every time you enter a new area or room, so you have to tell yourself when to quit. There is an excellent variety of enemies also. You really have to think when you play Arkham Asylum. Its not one of those games where what to do is obvious. You actually feel like you are Batman while you are playing it. One thing that is a very cool feature is the Riddler challenges. The Riddler has set up an excessive amount of challenges all over Arkham Island. These are very fun to find, but can be very tricky as well. There is a challenge mode you can play as well. There are many different challenges split up into 3 different categories: Combat, Predator, and Infinity (ones that go on and on until you loose.) If you get the Game of the Year edition you also get 4 new challenges and 3D play capability, even if you don’t have a 3D TV!

O F F E N S I V E  M A T E R I A L --- Sadly, there is much offensive material in this game. Let’s start with language. The box says “Mild Language” which is correct for what is in the game, but just barley. I didn’t count the curse words used, but this is the list of them in the order of how frequent they are used: d***, h***, b****, a**. H*** is used by Joker in one of the four rounds of the Combat challenges. The thugs you fight use h*** and d*** a lot also (especially in the Predator challenges). Some very mild language that you may or may not be offended by that is used are freak*** and cra*. You can, however, miss a good deal of this language by turning the character speech volume down if you wish. I did not hear anything sexual in the game, but Harley Quinn’s outfit is very revealing, and Poison Ivy doesn’t have much of an outfit at all. Poison Ivy is the second to the last boss in the game and wears what is basically a one-piece swimsuit with a thong. Alcohol is only referred to near the beginning of the game. One of the guards that you have to find you have to trace through particles of whisky, after you scan his whiskey flask lying on the ground. Tobacco reference is basically the same Commissioner Gordon is almost always carrying a cigar and at one point you need to trace someone by scanning his pipe on the ground and using particles of tobacco to find him. As you can imagine, The Joker uses a lot of crude humor. Pretty much the only blood in the game is when you are in the hospital you can see blood in IV bags. The violence can be pretty graphic at times. When you use Batman’s automatic takedown ability he either breaks the enemy’s arm, leg, or neck pretty graphically. Also some of the finishing moves Batman uses on bosses can be graphic. *SPOILER ALERT* When Dr. Young gets killed she is blown up and afterwards you can still see her body on the ground, which may be disturbing to some. *END SPOILER* At one point Oracle mentions that Joker has sent pictures of dead babies as a threat to Dr. Young, which could be disturbing, but you never see anything of the sort.

O V E R A L L --- Overall, The JMRS gives Arkham Asylum a B+. I would recommend this game to anyone 15+. There is a good deal of offensive material that could be inappropriate for people of a younger age. Also since the game can be pretty hard at points younger players might not be able to beat it. It is a great game though, lots of fun for anyone who plays it. Also, in the Game of the Year edition for PS3 you can play as The Joker in challenge mode, which many people would enjoy. Finding all the different Riddler challenges is rewarding. If you don’t look any of them up on the internet you get even more of a sense of accomplishment (since The Riddler accuses you of doing so)! Pick it up at your local GameStop for under $20, an excellent price for a game this good!

Batman: Arkham Asylum (360, PS3, PC, MAC)

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