Mufasa Stiggs Reviews: Batman Arkham Asylum

Meh.

To be honest, I probably would have never played the game if I didn't receive it as a Christmas gift. But hey, what the hell, right?

So, I get into playing it, falling in love with the Joker at first sight. In fact, I think it's safe to say that the Joker is my favorite character in the whole game. But let's get on to why I loved the Joker. He seemed to be the only one in the entire game that seemed to enjoy the game. He almost seemed to even know that he was in a game. I even found myself at several points thinking to myself: "You know, at this point, if I was batman, I'd go: 'For sure Joker! I'll join you!'"

To be honest, after a while, playing the game, and getting past the pretty long intro sequence, I was very disappointed. I probably should have realized from the title, but I was hoping that you'd actually get to Gotham City. I mean, part of what makes playing as Batman so fun, is that you can run through the streets of Gotham, beating up on random criminals while wearing a kinky suit. Sadly, that was not to be. You're stuck on a small island with really nothing to do but beat up on dudes, do the storyline and beat up on more dudes, or beat up on more dudes to get stupid Riddler trophies that have no real purpose.

Yes. Arkahm Asylum seems solely focused on the Combat. Good thing that the combat is good then. It is fun to beat up on criminals, trying out different methods. My favorite points are when you dangle stupid grunts from statues as their companions freak out and watch. Then running away to do it all over again.

The boss fights are fucking lame though. Generally, you'll either be beating up a bunch of grunts, and then hitting the actual bad guy ONCE and then go on a grunt fight again, or you'll fight a steriod junkie, or, you'll fight a steriod junkie and a bunch of grunts. There's not much too the boss fights, so things can kinda get dull.

The story is....well, it's comic book writing. So you can't expect much from it. But if you accept that it's Batman, it works.

But I have to say that despite some blandness, I enjoyed Arkahm Asylum. It wasn't bad enough for me to hate it. But I wouldn't play it again. I do actually look forward to a sequel though, since it's impossible that they're NOT going to do a sequel, cause I would like to be able to run around Gotham City. Less emphasis on the combat would be nice too. Let's try hide and seek. Or investigating. Batman is know for his detective work, and all the detective work in Arkham Asylum is done in cutscenes. Let ME work at it somehow. Have ME find some guy and intimidate the information out of him. That's what I hope out of the sequel.

BUT good did come out of this game. Since 'The Dark Knight' I felt that the Joker was a lot lamer than he actually was. The Dark Knight made the Joker into more of a murderer than what he actually is.

The Joker has a twisted sense of humor before ANYTHING else. In 'The Dark Knight' the Joker seemed to be going out of his way to just kill. For no particular reason. The Joker in this one, is more about actually joking.

In more than one case in Arkahm Asylum, there will be a bomb, or a gas, or something that the Joker will say: "YOU BETTER RESCUE THEM WITHIN A MINUTE!! LOLOLOLOL!!!" And as he would count down, I would be inches away from saving the hostage as the timer reaches: "5!" He'll count down, I'll see that there's no way to rescue them, jump out of the blast zone to try and save myself, fail, and then watch as a clown comes out of the box, while a sign says: "GOTCHA!" and then hear the Joker laughing his ass off in the background.

My point is, The Joker in 'The Dark Knight' is a poser. The Joker in Arkham Asylum is the real deal. And I'm glad that his character wasn't dropped in favor of selling out to the Heath Ledger fangirls and fanboys.