4/5 ★ – Bradley5640's review of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

I had a good time. At its heart, this game is a metroidvania, and in that respect it was fantastic to see the genre re-contextualized in a Batman setting. As a Batman geek, the game just more or less “felt right”. I actually wish there was more incentive to explore more of Arkham Island itself. There’s quite a bit of trekking from location to location, but it rarely felt intimate or rich in detail. It certainly didn’t help that the game’s visuals are muddied by extreme shadow and bloom that literally left me walking into walls. Thankfully, the movement in the game is solid. While a little outdated in 2022, it is still very satisfying to become The Bat. There are a lot of movement/weapon options at play, although the design did not make strong use of its own physics. Fighting as Batman has a cathartic sense of flow, and the stealth sections are (usually) a blast. I didn’t get that feeling from most of the bosses – strangely, the footsoldier enemy fights were one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. Due to the “multiple missions” nature of the story and the wet fart of an ending, progression sometimes comes off as disjointed. “Why is this happening?” is a recurring question. Thankfully the game makes up for it with an atmosphere dripping with dread in its setpieces. I’ll be going blind into the sequels. Going forward, I really hope that the detective mode is expanded upon and the kinks worked out.