There have been some pretty good superhero games over the last few years, and the genre feels like it’s pretty much on solid ground now. That wasn’t the case in the ’90s and early 2000s, especially with Batman. As with other games featuring famous heroes of the time, there were some good ones, but they didn’t fully capture the essence or appeal of the character. Spider-Man and the X-Men were Spider-Man 2 and X-Men Legends II, But the Dark Knight Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The game was released on August 25, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and Rocksteady Studios and Warner Bros. went all out to market it as the definitive Batman game for the medium. It was not based on the movies or classics, but instead featured an original story and universe. animation series, along with the show’s writer Paul Dini and voice actor trio Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Mark Hamill. exile All seemed well, and at the time, that was indeed the case. It received critical and commercial acclaim, winning numerous year-end awards and a Guinness World Record for being the highest-rated superhero game of all time. Not even some bad boss fights could steal its popularity, and it remains one of (if not the) best superhero games ever made. of) The best superhero game ever.
Some games released during the PS3/360 era are timeless, while others are outdated. Arkham Asylum Definitely the former. I’ve been playing the game again over the last few weeks (thanks, Return to Arkham!), and it’s just as great today as it was back in 2009. You’d never guess this was Rocksteady’s second game. It’s surprisingly confident. Right from the get-go, the pacing is pretty good. The blend of combat and stealth still works well, and it’s always satisfying to clear a room or pick up a new gadget that expands the asylum a little bit. I’m biased, but yeah. Batman: Arkham Asylum It’s a truly fantastic piece of work, and aside from the boss battles and the outdated designs of Harley and Poison Ivy, it still holds up 15 years later.
Arkham Asylum It was released at a key time in the brand’s history as a character. The Dark Knight It will be one of the biggest Batman movies of all time. Batman: The Brave and the Bold The first season aired on Cartoon Network. He’s always been a popular character, but his profile definitely increased in the late 2000s. Batman fever was on the rise again around the world, and Rocksteady’s Arkham The series has become a key part of that effort. (There’s even a subreddit dedicated to the non-existent fourth mainline game.) Its influence on the source material may not be as easy to map as the 2018 post-game Spider-Man, but even just the appearance of Tara Strong replacing Harley Sorkin from the 2011 game is enough to make it stand out. Arkham City Onward shows the waves these games were making.
In the broader video game context, exile Nearly every action-adventure game of the last 15 years, major or minor, has had Arkham AsylumThe fluid counter and stun-heavy combat, the vision mode that lets your character see through walls, and the ability to sneak up and silently take down enemies all share DNA with Rocksteady’s series. The most obvious example is Insomniac’s Spiderman The game is well-done on both a mechanical and intentional level. Arkham They are contemporaries and the monolith Middle-earth: Shadow Two-part series. Even in the recent Batman games. Gotham Knights And Rocksteady himself Suicide Squad: Defeat the Justice League This year’s items are: Arkham games, but with far fewer benefits given.
Despite subsequent imitators, Arkham Asylum And that larger series holds its own entirely on its own. It’s not that the game lacks atmosphere, there’s a constant sense of unease as he progresses through the mental hospital, despite Batman being Batman. In its best moments, when everything goes well, the game feels like you’re reading a chapter of a really good comic book or watching a series of episodes. Somehow, no other superhero game has borrowed my favorite part of these series: the Game Over screen, where the villain taunts you after you die. It can be frustrating when you fail, but sometimes it’s worth dying just to see these taunts, and they go a long way to selling the immersive feeling of being Batman.
There is no new mainline Arkham Games since 2015 Batman: Arkham KnightRocksteady is Suicide Squad Throughout its first (and probably only) year, WB Wonder WomanThis series is Camouflaj’s Batman: Arkham Shadows—Meta Quest 3, the sequel to 2013’s underrated predecessor Arkham OriginsBut beyond the spinoffs, the future is unclear. Batman never stops. Whether it’s from Rocksteady or another studio, when Warner Bros. pulls the trigger, we’ll be living in Batman’s world again.
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