Recognized as one of the best games of 2009,
Batman: Arkham Asylum
is a single player, third-person action/adventure in which the Dark
Knight takes on his greatest challenge yet when he is trapped by arch
rival, the Joker, within Gotham City's facility for the criminally
insane, Arkham Asylum. The special
Batman Arkham Asylum: Game of the Year Edition
for PlayStation 3 ratchets the crime-fighting action up even further
with an innovative new technology which allows you to play and watch in
3D with two sets of TriOviz glasses compatible with all standard and
high definition TV sets. Also included are access to challenge maps that
allow you to play as the Joker, and four additional standard challenge
maps.
Story
Batman: Arkham Asylum features an
original story penned exclusively for the game by famous Batman author
and five-time Emmy award winner, Paul Dini, whose credits include "Lost"
season one and "Batman: The Animated Series." As the game begins Batman
is personally delivering his nemesis, The Joker, to the asylum at
Arkham Island, but he is uneasy. Although the Arkham asylum is well
fortified, he has a nagging feeling that all is not well, which proves
to be the case when seconds after turning The Joker over to the guards,
the master criminal breaks free of his captors. Even more surprising
than this quick turn of events is the revelation that it was never The
Joker's intent to escape the vault-like facility, but instead to trap
Batman there. Surrounded by an asylum full of dangerous criminals, many
of which he put there and all at the beck and call of the Joker, can
Batman survive and discover what is behind the Joker's intricate plot?
Gameplay
In
Batman: Arkham Asylum
players strap on the gadget-heavy utility belt of the Caped Crusader.
Gameplay here is a combination of both the knuckle crunching rush of
hand to hand combat as you take on the hordes of thugs that infest
Arkham Asylum, and stealth gameplay in which you must dispatch
individuals from the shadows. Players can expect an engrossing single
player campaign in which Batman continually moves forward to face the
henchmen, bosses and traps that The Joker has set for him. With regards
to opponents, in addition to The Joker who you will hear more than you
see, the dark walls of Arkham also hold familiar villains from the the
Batman criminal universe including Harley Quinn, Victor Zsasz and Killer
Croc, that you will have to deal with, but don't expect a
one-dimensional experience. As players progress from environment to
environment within Arkham they will have to use varying combinations of
muscle, detective skills, gadgetry and a certain degree of light
RPG-like leveling of Batman's skills, arsenal and physical
characteristics to survive and discover what The Joker's underlying
scheme is.
In addition to the story-driven single player campaign
Arkham Asylum
also contains various additional play modes. These include an arcade
styled combat mode where players accumulate points by engaging hordes of
thugs in a hand to hand slugfest across a series of maps, in which
Batman's physical strength and agility play a major role. The key here
is to chain together as many attacks as possible due to the fact that
with each successful combo players increase the point multiplier
associated with their actions. The game also features a time-based
stealth mode where players must hone their ability to strike silently
from the shadows. This gameplay, referred to as 'Invisible Predator'
utilizes the Dark Knight's skill with gadgets like the grapple tool,
batarang and explosives. These allow for vertical/horizontal mobility,
the ability to quickly strike from above and at a distance and to take
out enemies and create distractions, even through walls. But remember
that Batman works solo and is not superhuman. Your enemies will
congregate around trouble areas and work as a team against you, so you
must be silent, plan your attacks wisely, strike quickly and discover
the value of encouraging fear within enemies.