Batman: Arkham Asylum

I know this game has been out for a while, but I just picked it up this weekend and was very surprised to find no thread on it in the Arena. I've been gobsmacked by the quality of this game so far, even though I've only played it for a few hours. Great graphics and artwork, superb voice acting, and superb gameplay. The combat in particular is some of the most enjoyable, and satisfying, that I've ever experienced in a game. Usually I'm not a fan of console games that get ported to PC, but this appears to be a major exception.

Anyone else played this? Any opinions on it?

I absolutely loved it, definitely ranks in my list of favourites, which is quite something considering I've never really been a fan of either comic-inspired games, they're always so shoddily made for the money.

I think that the combat was great, really encapsulated the whole style of Batman, and the manner in which they encorporated the shadows and stealth aspects were fantastic, particularly with the wide array of gadgets and how they tied into both dispatching enemies and eluding them. The story and voice-acting was great, especially Bats, Harley and the Joker, though I was told that those three were all voiced by actors who've done those roles for years, such as Mark Hamill. There was also plenty to do off the beaten path, so to speak, as you went around and looked for riddles, glyphs and such.

The only feature of the gameplay I ended up disliking was those steroid-pumped guys... fighting them in the same generic way every single time grew tiresome and potentially detracted from the otherwise excellent combat system.

Nice and all but I am STUCK, dropped than candalier, saved guards NOW WHAT, LOOK AT ME

Yeah Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin have been voicing Batman, the Joker, and Harley Quinn in various projects since 1992.

Played it back in October. Liked it quite a lot, despite not caring for Batman and knowing next to nothing about his world. All of my Batman knowledge comes from playing Lego Batman! IIRC I did have a chunky post on the game; the new search system doesn't want to let me search an individual forum only so I can't find it. Batman's a very popular word on the org, it seems.

It's a glossy, high value product with a lot of care in it. Bats himself is a solid feeling presence, capable and strong and yet just vulnerable enough that there's always an edge to any encounter. If you're in perfect control it's easy to dance through encounters without a scratch, if you slip it's easy to die in seconds. The gameplay's overall decent with some moments which stand out nicely. I really liked the varied uses of the cowl, enjoyed the stealth, loved the metroid-esque progression of power up gadgets, had fun solving all of the riddles ... and disliked certain parts of the game enough that I'm put off the idea of replaying it although I'd rather like to. Certain fights were downright annoying due to things like overly enclosed spaces and poor camera angles. I'm talking about 2 or 3 sequences of the game, that's all. Pity that such a tiny portion to puts such a damper on the overall.

You owe it to yourself to climb to the highest point of the asylum and then jump off, gliding all the way down. Fun.

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Originally Posted by Fragony

Nice and all but I am STUCK, dropped than candalier, saved guards NOW WHAT, LOOK AT ME

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IIRC you

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

drop down the hole made by the chandalier, disarm something (bomb? Trap?), and then there's something nearby to pick up. IIRC again the cowl-view trail picks up again at that point.

The combat is what really has me drooling at the moment. It's so... satisfying. The mix of stealth, tactics, and twitch-gaming are very well arranged. I really, really look forward to the giant melees against unarmed opponents... the more the better. I get downright gleeful when I see a group to 6+ unarmed baddies standing around; 10+ has me frothing at the mouth. It's got a very similar feel to the hand-to-hand combat in Escape from Butcher Bay. I do seem to have a bit of difficulty pulling off the 'special' moves after I chain enough combo hits, but perhaps I'll get better at it with some more practice.

I'm usually terrible at "twitch games" but after a few hours even I was pulling off 30+ chain combos, special moves and all sorts of various cool stuff.

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Originally Posted by lars573

Yeah Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin have been voicing Batman, the Joker, and Harley Quinn in various projects since 1992.

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Totally loved Harley Quinn. :P

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Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

Played it back in October. Liked it quite a lot, despite not caring for Batman and knowing next to nothing about his world. All of my Batman knowledge comes from playing Lego Batman

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Hahaha, pretty much the same as me! I love the Lego games, might seem childish but they're really addictive and fun... the Batman release is one of the few games I've got 100% achievements on. xD

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Originally Posted by TinCow

The combat is what really has me drooling at the moment.

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I love that little flip he does which puts him behind his opponent; kinda a combination of evasion and getting a better attack position, t'is a great move.

Got the candalier bit, but where's the good doctor it's dead end

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Originally Posted by Fragony

Got the candalier bit, but where's the good doctor it's dead end

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http://www.gamespot.com/features/6216207/p-17.html

Walkthrough. Apparently you need to exit through the same second floor door you came in through.

What's supposed to happen isn't happening, odd