by Stephen Day

There’s a question to be asked, what is the best superhero video game series of all time? There's a lot of strong contenders, from the fan favourite Spider-Man series by Insomniac to the wide catalogue of LEGO games. From The Incredibles to DC Supervillains they’ve had their hand in making games for just about every mainstream superhero.

Though one superhero takes the cake when it comes to LEGO video games - Batman. He is likely what everyone thinks of when it comes to the superhero genre. With next year's release of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, it got people reminiscing about one series; The Batman Arkham series.

In 2009, the series had a critically acclaimed start with Batman: Arkham Asylum which spawned two sequels, Arkham City in 2011, and Arkham Knight in 2015. Here, we start with Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum, released on August 25th 2009, is considered a cult classic in gaming. Initially, it was going to be a video game adaptation of The Dark Knight. This would have followed in the footsteps of its predecessor, Batman Begins. This was during the time where every big superhero movie would get a video game, the most notable example being the Spider-Man franchise. For every great Spider-Man game though, you would get something subpar like Thor: God of Thunder or 2008’s Iron Man. Even the Spider-Man games dropped in quality until Insomniac revived them. It was a tough time being a fan of superhero video games.

It’s not a stretch to say that Arkham Asylum changed the perception of the superhero genre. The chilling and claustrophobic atmosphere in the story can be credited to Paul Dini, who also wrote the story for Batman: The Animated Series. The whole game feels like a throwback. Asylum has the late Kevin Conroy reprise his role as Batman, with Mark Hamill and the late Arleen Sorkin also reprising their roles as the Joker and his sidekick Harley Quinn.

When it comes to the atmosphere of Arkham Asylum, the first word that comes to mind is claustrophobic. Arkham Asylum sells itself as an open world experience. Though as you play the game and get past the opening, you realise that it’s not very open world at all but instead, linear. You do have the whole island to explore but aside from the main story, there’s not much to do except from finding and solving riddles and collecting trophies left by the Riddler.

In many ways, it’s understandable feeling a little let down from the lack of content. In other ways, though, this sells the atmosphere of the game perfectly. You’re here to do one thing only, and that is to stop the Joker. There’s no leaving until you do.

The Asylum is dreary and feels straight out of a horror movie, dim lighting on the inside and the glow of the moon on the outside. You’re exploring hallways, a mansion, a morgue. Where the games atmosphere really shines is the Scarecrow nightmare missions.

Entertainment Weekly’s 5th Annual Comic-Con was sponsored by Batman: Arkham City (2011)

Throughout the story, you’ll be encountering one of Batman’s most infamous foes, the Scarecrow. Each encounter is different. The first one is straightforward. Scarecrow will use his fear gas to make Batman hallucinate his parents in the morgue by opening body bags one by one. The third body bag you open will trigger a jump scare by Scarecrow. From here, it’s a platforming and stealth segment where you must avoid Scarecrow. You must reach the bat signal to beat the segment. The gameplay for beating Scarecrow remains the same, but the lead in is different for all three encounters.

However, the third Scarecrow encounter ups the ante in a big way. This time, instead of it being a hallucination on Batman, it’ll be on the player.

So, what do they have Scarecrow do? He crashes your game. Initially, you freak out, thinking all your progress is gone. Letting the sequence play out though will reveal that the crash was fake. An alternate opening will play instead. The game will eventually be set back on course after you beat the third and final Scarecrow mission. For a moment though, the game will prey on your fears, instead of Batman’s.

So, what about the main story? It’s straightforward, actually. As Batman, you’ve just captured Joker and are heading to Arkham Asylum to hand him over. As it turns out, this was Joker’s plan, and now you must stop him from breaking out and freeing his gang onto the streets.

During 2011’s Comic-Con International, attendees could play a preview of Batman: Arkham VR which would be released a few months later.

Throughout the story, you’ll meet many supervillains. These include Poison Ivy, the Riddler, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, and Bane. Each villain will end up getting in your way and impede your progress in stopping the Joker.

This game holds up in many ways. It’s a cult classic for a reason, and that is timelessness. Graphically, the game looks a little aged compared to modern standards, but it’s not a major distraction. Gameplay wise, it’s not as fluid as later entries in the franchise as they hadn’t perfected combat just yet. FreeFlow combat was finding its footing here and many games in the future would take inspiration from it. Spider-Man, Assassin’s Creed and Middle Earth would all take some elements from FreeFlow and weave them into their games. The story, though basic, is told in such a fantastic way that you’ll ignore the common tropes in it. Though unfortunately, the outfits of the female

characters are dated and unpractical, which makes you remember that this game was made in 2009.

Overall, though, Batman: Arkham Asylum, as a product of its time is a 10/10, but if this came out now, it would be an 8/10.

The Look Back: Arkham Asylum