The Tones's review for Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC)
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Excelente juego
De lo mejor que jugué este 2009 -
This game really surprised me! I gave it a chance, expecting a kiddish generic game... but honestly this game is fantastic! This is the best superhero and/or movie inspired game I have played till date. It has fantastic graphics, fantastic combat, fantastic storyline.. very engaging and enjoyable experience. -
This is the best superhero game i have played on any format. -
Wow. Game of the Year 2009. Seriously. Simple, yet effective. Best superhero game ever. Spider-Man 2 was good but this is barely comparable. There's no super-complicated combo system, just 2 buttons are you're ok. You can use other items but you don't even need to. It took me about 20-25 hours before I finished the game. A platformer. Wow. Sure, I did the challenges and stuff but that's what fantastic. The game lasts long. I can play again with a higher difficulty, I can get the Riddler challenges, challenge mode… -
Excellent detail, no bugs ( BIG PLUS IN THESE DAYS ), mindblowing combat system, lovely story, 11 gameplay hours moves this game far above average game, lot of Batman® gadgets, lot of villains, nice boss fights, detective mode makes the game impressively fun ... if there is something bad about this game ( not the game exactly ) it is only nVIDIA´s selfish policy which does not allow ATi users have the finest graphics. Otherwise 5/5 - more games like this, please ... -
You don't have to be a Batman fan to like this game.
Very well made.
Very good story.
Very nice stuff *to do*.
Good graphics.
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You really should check it out! -
the way a superhero game should be made. amazing controls mixed with great graphics and story, what more could you ask? favorite single player experience since bioshock. -
Absolutely a stunning game! -
At first I thought it was going to be another crappy game based on a superhero but after playing the demo I fell in love with the game. The combo System is amazing, the story is interesting (I don't follow the comics so I got to meet several characters for the first time) and it has TONS of hidden stuff. Although, the final boss was way too easy. -
Amazing!!! -
i thought it was a really good game i enjoyed it -
The best version of the best superhero game out and it doesn't require much of a rig to run it =-D -
Without a doubt the best Super hero game ever made. From the amazing voice acting and graphics to the beautiful cutscenes, and nicely varied locations this is a game that will keep you busy for a very long time to come! -
Best. Superhero game. Ever
Gameplay:
Batman plays nearly flawlessly, the game can be split into melee combat, stealthed combat and boss battles. The melee combat is very powerful and very fluid. It can be used with relative ease but mastery requires a bit of skill and reflexs. Stealth combat is suspenseful and ingenious, dropping a whole room of guys without them knowing whats going on is brilliant fun. Theres so many ways of doing it and the more gadgets you get the more ways open up for you. The boss battlers aren't quite as brilliant but still very enjoyable, most are very unique and interesting with the only negative being a bit of repetition in theme. The storyline is engaging and very well played out. You get sucked right into it, scarecrow mind battles are depicted very enjoyably. There isn't a huge amount of RPG in the game, mainly unlocking more gadgets or moves, or extra uses for gadgets, but its plenty. The collectibles in the game are the most enjoyable ever, many are accompanied by riddles, each section has its own tally and you can find maps that point out general locations, meaning you don't have to put up with the annoyance of missing 1 collectible out of 100 and and having to start all over again. The challenges are a great way to extend the gameplay, they are far more difficult then the combat in game allowing you to master the stealth and melee combat in the game. Melee challenges consist of attaining points from the battle, these come from combo's, variation, not getting hit, taking everyone down in one long combo, gettings 3 batarangs on all challenges is quite tough but its good fun. Predator challenges consist of taking down all the enemies in an area as quick as possible, all the while completeing 3 objectives, these are quite interesting and highlight alot more possibilities in taking someone down then you find out from the campaigning. For instance I never line launched through a window into an enemy before the challenges. All around a technically perfect gameplay experience, great story, great ambience, great combat.
Graphics:
Batman like many successful games makes use of the Unreal 3 Engine. The Unreal 3 Engine is great and I wish more games would take advantage of it, it means developers can focus alot more on content and story and gameplay and less about building a graphics engine, which means that we get more game for our money. As with all Unreal 3 Engine games, its looks great, high detail textures, great facial animation, smooth movement animations, doesn't suffer from much aliasing and best of all runs beautifully. Arkham Asylum made some decent use of the Physx capabilities of the Uneral 3 Engine. Enabling Physx turns on a few reasonably nice features, you get some pretty realistic fog and smoke in certain areas, as you run around bit of paper and debris float around your feet, a few bits of scenery like tiles and the like can be destroyed rather then just 'decaled' and there are quite a few banners and the like around that move as you go buy and rip when you batarang them. All in all nothing incredibly amazing, the debris floating around is hardly noticeable and when your battling and stealthing around its something you won't even notice, the breakable objects definitely is cool but I rarely noticed anything that I could break, when you take down Zaz the tiles shatter which is awesome but that seemed to be it really. The cloth like substances are also kinda cool but you often hardly notice their there, they don't really serve any function except to be there and be ripped when you throw things at them. The nicest feature of Physx is the fog and smoke, it adds a huge amount of ambience. The negative of this is that fog and smoke in the game is purely Physx based, Physx doesn't enhance it, its a necessity meaning with it off you get no smoke or fog at all which is dissapointing. I also found Physx consume a few too many system resources when I played, I have a GTX 275 which is well above what you need for Low Physx (GTX 260) but I still noticed a bit of lag in areas, reducing AA or turning off Ambient Occlusion doesn't help, possibly using seperate parts of the GPU to the Physx. High doesn't seem to slow things down much at all, nor make too much difference to the look, I think more cloth effects are present on high but that may be it. To make Physx run a bit nicer I threw my old graphics card in my second slot for dedicated Physx, it's an 8800GTS 512, when this was dealing with the Physx I was able to play with Physx on high, 4xAA all settings maxed without ever really dropping below 60 fps. Without Physx and the second card the game runs beautifully from my experience, even my 8800GTS could run the game maxed with 2xAA. So a great looker and great performance means a big thumbs up for BAA graphics.
Controls:
The controls for Batman Arkham Asylum are pretty standard, mouse for aiming and fighing, number keys for selecting gadgets to use. The control of your character however is unique, they seem to have mastered the free flow combat style really well. Your camera acts as a big aimer, meaning that when your in the middle of a big combo you attack who your pointing at, which is natural of course, cause thats who your looking at, counters seem to be very reliable all the while still depending on good reflexes. So while the controls for BAA aren't unique the control of Batman certianly is. I never experience the annoyance of dieing because the game decided to attack the wrong enemy, when I died, I died because I didn't counter at the right time, or I picked the wrong enemy to attack or not attack. The combat was far less agitating then many games like this, like the Prince of Persia series for example. The mouse also handled well with nothing affecting your aiming present.
Audio:
The game sounds great, the soundtrack is good, the quality of the audio is good, the voice acting is ok, brilliant in some cases but unfortunately not in Batman's case. Its not that Batman's voice acting was bad, just wasn't on par with the jokers, or wasn't on par with the newer movies. I really like the voice of Christian Bale as the new Batman and so in Arkham Asylum Batman just sounded a bit wimpy in comparison, its not huge though and I barely notice it, its just the ony real tangible negative I could think of with the game.
Soul:
I added this section because I felt there was something missing. The game is perfect and from what i'd said above a score of 100/100 might have been in order but I don't believe it deserves that. I recently played Brutal Legend, and throughly enjoyed it, its got alot of character, its witty, funny, takes you by surprise, the game is brilliant fun. So much so that I was starting to think of it as the best game of the year, but I remembered Batman and thought Batman was pretty damn good, but its just not the same and heres why.
Batman is technically perfect, everything is done well, the game has no bugs i can see, runs beautifully, looks great, plays great, ends well, even the achievemetns and collectibles are done well, but it feels a bit hollow. Brutal Legend on the other hand is technically flawed in many ways and lacks alot of the smoothness that Batman possess's but its has so much more character. It has funny bits, and sad bits and bloody epic bits thats you want to play again and again, Batman has a bit of this, but in compraison feels a bit stale. So thats where this category comes in, the game is technically perfect and does have character but not enough to be THE perfect game. Still, it can be ranked up there with some of the greast, such as Half Life 2 and FEAR, games that I just never seem to get tired of.
Gameplay: 10/10 - Absolutely perfect in pretty much every way.
Graphics: 9/10 - Unreal 3 Engine is beautiful, Physx is a bit wasted, no fog without Physx is annoying.
Controls: 10/10 - Works better then any other game of its kind.
Audio: 9/10 - Brilliant effects and music, great voice acting marred only by a slightly non brillliant Batman.
Soul: 6/10 - Feels a bit hollow and lacking in emotion compared to some of the greats.
My Score: 95/100 - A must have for any gamer out there, regardless of your interest in Batman, this game is stunning.