Name: My Batman: Return to Arkham (Arkham Asylum and Arkham City) review
Item: Batman: Return to Arkham
Rating: 10
Author: Domagoj Raič

Just like the Bioshock series I never played the original games and I dout I ever will until I get ps now,but I still recommend and love these two masterpieces. This is a collection of easly two of the best games ever made and it's one of my favourite games ever made. This is the closest thing to two perfect Batman games will ever get. This time I will be reviewing boath games sepretly not together in the cronological way. And if you consider your self a Batman fan like me, a Batman Intusiest or if you like super heroes than these are just the right games for you. Let's get started:

ARKHAM ASYLUM 9.5/10

positives:

1.  The atmosphear is just Batman, there's no other ay to put it. The huge moon, the gargoyals, the artstille, character desines and the voice-actors it Batman in every seence of the word and it all feels so alive. It's dark, it's gothic, it's intence, it's scary and you feel like Batman in every singel movement. the locations are also the a big part way it's so fascinating and alive becouse they fit in so naturaly and they all stand out. Some of my favourites are the hospital and the mantion. The cdharacter also play a big part in feeling of the atmosphear, but there up next so I won't talk about them in this positive.
2.  the charcters are also just Batman in every seence of the word. Batman is like he's always been, badass, intelligent AF, serious, thuf, sympathetic, skilled, the Worlds greatest detective, he has a plan to deffeat every badguy he meets and ofcourse f-ing awesome. He's doun right my favourite super hero ever made I don't belive that will ever change. Every single line he has, all the gadgets he uses, hi's skills in combat and detective mode are all unforgetible moments to me. The Joker is also like he's always been and how every loves him. Insane, mysterious, smart, angry, hilarious, hyper, about equel to batman and also f-ing awesome. His plans just never get old, his jokes are so funny, his personalety and movements are unforgetible and loveble and his lines are apsolute perfectin. His in my opinion the greatest super villain of all times becouse he perfectly compliments the hero and he astablished super villains to what they are today. The other villains also have their personaletys the same as always. The stremth of batman comes half from him and half from his villains and becouse the same the villains are as they were in the beginning or when they were revolutionised makes that half of the stremth even stronger.
3.  Rocksteady really out did them selfs with the amayzing voice acting. Like first and best of all they got Mark Hamill as the Joker, they guy who voiced Joker in the legendary Batman the Animated Series and who revolutionised the Jokers voice to what it is today. There is and never will be anyone better to voice the Joker than him. And they got Kevin Conroy as Batman who voiced Batman in Batman the Animated series as well. It was defenetly the right chooice to have these as the voice actors becouse when Arkham Asylum first came out everyone thought it would be a nother bad licenced game so by hearing these two so much nostalgia wibes came and that's one of the reasons way the game got so popular. And they also got Arleen Sorkin's Harly Quinn again from the Animated Series. This game is just a joyride of nostalgia and you have too love it.
4.  Obviously the flawless combat, I mean this shit is perfect from the very top to the very bottom. You atack by useing the square button, doge by double-pressing the x button, interact with enemies with the triangle button and you use the circle button to stund enemies. What really makes it so special are the badass animations, the satisfaction of defeating someone and the fast movements that are so fiting for Batman. And like in the God of War series you can expand the simple gameplay by useing your XP to unlock new skills like doing a multi-hit combo really fast. You can also use the gadgets you get by progressing trow the game. for an example you can trow three Batarangs at ones, use the grapleing hook to get them closer to you or use the the explosive gel to stund them when they are runing at you.
5.  Thegameplay is also great too. Somehow runing by holding the x button is more fun insed of pressing the L3 joystick. you also glide by holding the x button and I think that thats a great desion becouse you feel complety in control insted of Batman gliding while you just move him around. And you aim with the L2 triger and fire with the R2 triger , you crouch by holding the R2 triger, the L1 triger activats detective mode and the R1 triger fires the hook. There are just no flaws.
6.  In termes of scale this is the smallest game in the series and that's a good thing becouse it focuses on the story more than the other games. But still the challenges and the side missions are still fun and creative. My favourites are the Riddler challenges like destroying all of the Joker teeth andthe best finding all the Riddler trophies that give you XP and Character profiles. You also get achivments by geting high combo and if your a trophy hunter like me that you'll love it.
7.  The Scarcrow boss fight is easly the best and most interessing fight in the game. You can't fight him directly becouse he sends you ina dimented World with the fear toxen and he grows in to a giant and if he sees you it's instint death. You need to walk aeound him in the destroyed buildigs with cover and and it forces you to be as careful as possible and to use all the gadgets to prossed. this is a multi-phase battle, but when you defeat him in the one phase the second on comes from nowhere. In the second phase you are somehow in Wayne manor, but it slowly turns in to Crime ally and you come back in the dimented World. This time Scarcrow sends so skeleton enemies to atack you. In the third phase the game pretends to crash and it stars all over again, but this time Batman and Joker switched places. Joker shoots Batman and you have a retry menue but when you retry the game just continues. Theseis great becouse it breacks the forth wall and gives us our biggest fear asgamers, losing all the progress and starting back from the begging. The thrid phase is simular to the second one, exept for the end. You see you defeat the Scarecrow by shining the Batsignal at him and in the firt two phases you do it ones, but in the third phas you fight more skeleton enemies and the first two singnals shine by them selfs.
8.  I love the audio lags. They remind me a lot of Bioshock and I admired the idea of an audio tape that belonget to someone and has a dark backstory and that characters philosophy. my favourites are Victor Zsas' becouse I'm just fascinated with his philosophy of by killing someone he liberates that person and his love of death. The other Villains also have audio logs that show their personalety and their charcter. This is gamings buggest sthremth becouse video games are the only media in witch you can explore and shape the full story by your self and Arkham Asylum is agreat example ot that.
9.  We are now at the best part of Arkham Asylum, the main reason way it's so fantasctic and way it was such a success, the story. This is the second best story in the Arkham franchise right behinde City and it's not hard to see way. The game beginnes with Batman taking Joker to Arkham asylum ( role credits), but Joker escapes and it's up to Batman to stop him. Veary quickly Joker takes over the asylum and sets his henchmen free. He also unleasheds a titan mutant, witch is a human who mutated in to a Hulk like monster, at Batman. Batman has to find out how that person mutated in to a titan mutant so explores the island to find out. He learns from Bain that doctor Penelope Young was working for Joker and she created titan, a cemical that turns people in to titan mutants. He goes to comfront her, but after learnd of the truth she dies in a explosion. He also finds out that Joker was making titan from the plants in the Gartends. He needs a anti-dout so he ask Poison Ivy for help. In the suwers he gets the plants for the anti-dout and makes it in the batcave, but Poison Ivy betrays him and sprets her plants all over the island, Batman ofcourse defeats her and goes to comfront the Joker. I'm not going to talk about the ending now becouse I'll be talking about it in the negatives so I'll stop here. I think that the reason this story works so well is becouse it takes advantige of all the things Batman is known for and combines it in to a unforgetible experience. The whole point of the game is to give you a fun time, not question your self or make you think a lot it just wants to give you a fun time. And you know what, that's the just right for a Batman game.
10.  This game is scary, but not to a horror level of scary just right tipe of scary for a action adventure game. Your stuck in a asylum of the most dangerous badguy and there is dangere in a lot of plases and the game dosn't need jump scares it just has relatably sycologilac fear. There is eaven a whole room of agressive and creepy lonetics that go on loose later. The game shapes the horror aspects in a way that feels like perfect for a game like this and it all fits so naturaly.
11.  The artstile is, like almost everything else in the game, Batman. The strong looking character desines, the dark lighting and a creepy enviorment it's all Batman.

Negatives:

1.  This game has easly the worst boss line up I've seen in video games. Most of the bosses are eaither too easy or to hard and most or them are titan mutants. The first boss was the imperfect titan who mostly charges at you and you have to use the batarang to stund his so hi can hit the wall. He aslo trows bodys and hits the flour when Batman is close. This is in my opinnion a fine opening boss, but things get bad when you fight Bane. He's a ripskin of the opening boss and he's too easy and underwhelming for a great villain aksep in this fight you some henchmen enter the fight. later in the gardens you fight two titan mutants at once and that is bad, but a bit more innteresting. But before the Joker fight, you need to fight two titan muants and thugs at onece. This is so unfair and hard that I actually cried and creamed becouse of how frustrating it was. But there's Poison Ivay who is the second best boss behinde Scarecrow, but she is meh. She sumonds wines of thorns and shoot pelets at you and you need to trow the Batarang at her to damege her. In the second phase she becomes more aggresive and brings in some mindless slaves to atack you, but this is near identical to the the first phase. Then there's killer crock and i don't know is he worst than the Joker fight. You cand fight him directly and you need to trow the batarang at him to stund him. the problem is that the suwers are like a maze and he can come out of any where. Your also on floting platfors under water so is you move to quick he can seece you and it's game over is he does. And at the end is the Joker fight witch I'll talk about now.
2.  This games finale is so infamously bad that it's a meme at this point to talk abou how bad it is. It beginnes with the bad titans fight and than things really start going down hll. Joker ingects him self with the titan formula that makes him super strong. Now the first problem is that the whole purpous of the Joker is for him to be about equel for Batman and his intelligence is the whole structure of his character so by making him super strong you trow that out the window and turne him in to Bain. And even from a gameplay perspective this fight really bad. the Joker swings he's claws at you and them he goes to pose in front of the news helicopter while his gons fight with Batman. And he does this three times in all the phases so there was no point for him to become super strong in the first place. This finale is just an insult to the whole game and the Batman in general.

Overall, while it has it's flaws, Batman Arkham Asylum is a fantastic game that everyone should try at least onece. Trust me you won't regret it. I also highly recommend waching GamenigWins' video on the game for eaven more great details that I can't talk at onece.

Just like the Bioshock series I never played the original games and I dout I ever will until I get ps now,but I still recommend and love these two masterpieces. This is a collection of easly two of the best games ever made and it's one of my favourite games ever made. This is the closest thing to two perfect Batman games will ever get. This time I will be reviewing boath games sepretly not together in the cronological way. And if you consider your self a Batman fan like me, a Batman Intusiest or if you like super heroes than these are just the right games for you. Let's get started:ARKHAM ASYLUM 9.5/10positives:<ol><li>The atmosphear is just Batman, there's no other ay to put it. The huge moon, the gargoyals, the artstille, character desines and the voice-actors it Batman in every seence of the word and it all feels so alive. It's dark, it's gothic, it's intence, it's scary and you feel like Batman in every singel movement. the locations are also the a big part way it's so fascinating and alive becouse they fit in so naturaly and they all stand out. Some of my favourites are the hospital and the mantion. The cdharacter also play a big part in feeling of the atmosphear, but there up next so I won't talk about them in this positive.</li><li>the charcters are also just Batman in every seence of the word. Batman is like he's always been, badass, intelligent AF, serious, thuf, sympathetic, skilled, the Worlds greatest detective, he has a plan to deffeat every badguy he meets and ofcourse f-ing awesome. He's doun right my favourite super hero ever made I don't belive that will ever change. Every single line he has, all the gadgets he uses, hi's skills in combat and detective mode are all unforgetible moments to me. The Joker is also like he's always been and how every loves him. Insane, mysterious, smart, angry, hilarious, hyper, about equel to batman and also f-ing awesome. His plans just never get old, his jokes are so funny, his personalety and movements are unforgetible and loveble and his lines are apsolute perfectin. His in my opinion the greatest super villain of all times becouse he perfectly compliments the hero and he astablished super villains to what they are today. The other villains also have their personaletys the same as always. The stremth of batman comes half from him and half from his villains and becouse the same the villains are as they were in the beginning or when they were revolutionised makes that half of the stremth even stronger.</li><li>Rocksteady really out did them selfs with the amayzing voice acting. Like first and best of all they got Mark Hamill as the Joker, they guy who voiced Joker in the legendary Batman the Animated Series and who revolutionised the Jokers voice to what it is today. There is and never will be anyone better to voice the Joker than him. And they got Kevin Conroy as Batman who voiced Batman in Batman the Animated series as well. It was defenetly the right chooice to have these as the voice actors becouse when Arkham Asylum first came out everyone thought it would be a nother bad licenced game so by hearing these two so much nostalgia wibes came and that's one of the reasons way the game got so popular. And they also got Arleen Sorkin's Harly Quinn again from the Animated Series. This game is just a joyride of nostalgia and you have too love it.</li><li>Obviously the flawless combat, I mean this shit is perfect from the very top to the very bottom. You atack by useing the square button, doge by double-pressing the x button, interact with enemies with the triangle button and you use the circle button to stund enemies. What really makes it so special are the badass animations, the satisfaction of defeating someone and the fast movements that are so fiting for Batman. And like in the God of War series you can expand the simple gameplay by useing your XP to unlock new skills like doing a multi-hit combo really fast. You can also use the gadgets you get by progressing trow the game. for an example you can trow three Batarangs at ones, use the grapleing hook to get them closer to you or use the the explosive gel to stund them when they are runing at you.</li><li>Thegameplay is also great too. Somehow runing by holding the x button is more fun insed of pressing the L3 joystick. you also glide by holding the x button and I think that thats a great desion becouse you feel complety in control insted of Batman gliding while you just move him around. And you aim with the L2 triger and fire with the R2 triger , you crouch by holding the R2 triger, the L1 triger activats detective mode and the R1 triger fires the hook. There are just no flaws.</li><li>In termes of scale this is the smallest game in the series and that's a good thing becouse it focuses on the story more than the other games. But still the challenges and the side missions are still fun and creative. My favourites are the Riddler challenges like destroying all of the Joker teeth andthe best finding all the Riddler trophies that give you XP and Character profiles. You also get achivments by geting high combo and if your a trophy hunter like me that you'll love it.</li><li>The Scarcrow boss fight is easly the best and most interessing fight in the game. You can't fight him directly becouse he sends you ina dimented World with the fear toxen and he grows in to a giant and if he sees you it's instint death. You need to walk aeound him in the destroyed buildigs with cover and and it forces you to be as careful as possible and to use all the gadgets to prossed. this is a multi-phase battle, but when you defeat him in the one phase the second on comes from nowhere. In the second phase you are somehow in Wayne manor, but it slowly turns in to Crime ally and you come back in the dimented World. This time Scarcrow sends so skeleton enemies to atack you. In the third phase the game pretends to crash and it stars all over again, but this time Batman and Joker switched places. Joker shoots Batman and you have a retry menue but when you retry the game just continues. Theseis great becouse it breacks the forth wall and gives us our biggest fear asgamers, losing all the progress and starting back from the begging. The thrid phase is simular to the second one, exept for the end. You see you defeat the Scarecrow by shining the Batsignal at him and in the firt two phases you do it ones, but in the third phas you fight more skeleton enemies and the first two singnals shine by them selfs.</li><li>I love the audio lags. They remind me a lot of Bioshock and I admired the idea of an audio tape that belonget to someone and has a dark backstory and that characters philosophy. my favourites are Victor Zsas' becouse I'm just fascinated with his philosophy of by killing someone he liberates that person and his love of death. The other Villains also have audio logs that show their personalety and their charcter. This is gamings buggest sthremth becouse video games are the only media in witch you can explore and shape the full story by your self and Arkham Asylum is agreat example ot that.</li><li>We are now at the best part of Arkham Asylum, the main reason way it's so fantasctic and way it was such a success, the story. This is the second best story in the Arkham franchise right behinde City and it's not hard to see way. The game beginnes with Batman taking Joker to Arkham asylum ( role credits), but Joker escapes and it's up to Batman to stop him. Veary quickly Joker takes over the asylum and sets his henchmen free. He also unleasheds a titan mutant, witch is a human who mutated in to a Hulk like monster, at Batman. Batman has to find out how that person mutated in to a titan mutant so explores the island to find out. He learns from Bain that doctor Penelope Young was working for Joker and she created titan, a cemical that turns people in to titan mutants. He goes to comfront her, but after learnd of the truth she dies in a explosion. He also finds out that Joker was making titan from the plants in the Gartends. He needs a anti-dout so he ask Poison Ivy for help. In the suwers he gets the plants for the anti-dout and makes it in the batcave, but Poison Ivy betrays him and sprets her plants all over the island, Batman ofcourse defeats her and goes to comfront the Joker. I'm not going to talk about the ending now becouse I'll be talking about it in the negatives so I'll stop here. I think that the reason this story works so well is becouse it takes advantige of all the things Batman is known for and combines it in to a unforgetible experience. The whole point of the game is to give you a fun time, not question your self or make you think a lot it just wants to give you a fun time. And you know what, that's the just right for a Batman game.</li><li>This game is scary, but not to a horror level of scary just right tipe of scary for a action adventure game. Your stuck in a asylum of the most dangerous badguy and there is dangere in a lot of plases and the game dosn't need jump scares it just has relatably sycologilac fear. There is eaven a whole room of agressive and creepy lonetics that go on loose later. The game shapes the horror aspects in a way that feels like perfect for a game like this and it all fits so naturaly.</li><li>The artstile is, like almost everything else in the game, Batman. The strong looking character desines, the dark lighting and a creepy enviorment it's all Batman.</li></ol>Negatives:<ol><li>This game has easly the worst boss line up I've seen in video games. Most of the bosses are eaither too easy or to hard and most or them are titan mutants. The first boss was the imperfect titan who mostly charges at you and you have to use the batarang to stund his so hi can hit the wall. He aslo trows bodys and hits the flour when Batman is close. This is in my opinnion a fine opening boss, but things get bad when you fight Bane. He's a ripskin of the opening boss and he's too easy and underwhelming for a great villain aksep in this fight you some henchmen enter the fight. later in the gardens you fight two titan mutants at once and that is bad, but a bit more innteresting. But before the Joker fight, you need to fight two titan muants and thugs at onece. This is so unfair and hard that I actually cried and creamed becouse of how frustrating it was. But there's Poison Ivay who is the second best boss behinde Scarecrow, but she is meh. She sumonds wines of thorns and shoot pelets at you and you need to trow the Batarang at her to damege her. In the second phase she becomes more aggresive and brings in some mindless slaves to atack you, but this is near identical to the the first phase. Then there's killer crock and i don't know is he worst than the Joker fight. You cand fight him directly and you need to trow the batarang at him to stund him. the problem is that the suwers are like a maze and he can come out of any where. Your also on floting platfors under water so is you move to quick he can seece you and it's game over is he does. And at the end is the Joker fight witch I'll talk about now.</li><li>This games finale is so infamously bad that it's a meme at this point to talk abou how bad it is. It beginnes with the bad titans fight and than things really start going down hll. Joker ingects him self with the titan formula that makes him super strong. Now the first problem is that the whole purpous of the Joker is for him to be about equel for Batman and his intelligence is the whole structure of his character so by making him super strong you trow that out the window and turne him in to Bain. And even from a gameplay perspective this fight really bad. the Joker swings he's claws at you and them he goes to pose in front of the news helicopter while his gons fight with Batman. And he does this three times in all the phases so there was no point for him to become super strong in the first place. This finale is just an insult to the whole game and the Batman in general.</li></ol>Overall, while it has it's flaws, Batman Arkham Asylum is a fantastic game that everyone should try at least onece. Trust me you won't regret it. I also highly recommend waching GamenigWins' video on the game for eaven more great details that I can't talk at onece.

Batman: Return to Arkham

My Batman: Return to Arkham (Arkham Asylum and Arkham City) review

Player Score

Domagoj Raič