It's been 10 years already. Who would have thought Rocksteady would have made such a great beat 'em up / detective game prior to its release. To be honest, this game simply wasn't on my radar during its development or even when it came out. It took me a solid 6 months or so after its release until I decided to purchase it due to all the praise I've heard about it. And man, what a great game it was.
The combat system, while being very simplistic, was still very fun. There was nothing quite like it when it came out. The whole punching / countering went smoothly af. Add all the upgrades and bat tools you could purchase and you had a very compeling system.
Then you had the graphics. While they weren't anything new since it used UE3, they were still spectacular and delivered the superb gloomy ambiance the game deserved. The dev artists really did a good job at making the game feeling both claustrophobic and moody whenever needed. I really appreciated all the little details spawned along the game too.
I know I've mentioned this already, but I really enjoyed the upgrade system. The asylum was great to explore, with new zones completely different than the others, but the light rpg system really made the game compelling to me. I enjoyed upgrading Batman abilities, learning new powerful moves as well as new tools that added further depth to the combat system, but also for exploration.
Talking about exploration, let's talk about level design. Arkham Asylum managed to take the great metroidvania concept and not screwing it up. It wasn't anything new, but outside of Metroid Prime, I don't think there were that many 3D games that managed to take that concept and be this well rounded at that time. I'm sure there were a few, no doubt about it, but Arkham Asylum mastered it.
I must say I also very much enjoyed the boss fights. The game had a rather good selection of them and some were imo very cool to experience, such as the Scarecrow.
Finally, one aspect that left a sour taste in my mouth at release but then felt awesome when I played it is the detective mode. I really enjoyed tracking all the clues and learning what happened in the asylum. I just wish you didn't have to rely on it so much. At time, it felt like Detective view was just too useful for its own good, making it the default view for some extended sessions.
All in all, I'm planning to replay the game this week because why not. Such a fun game and I haven't played it in a while. Hell, I didn't even experience its remaster on PS4. Does anyone know if it's available on PC? The remaster, that is.
Yes, I really enjoyed posting all these gifs lol
