Batman: Arkham Asylum has been a video game property shrouded in mystery as of late. Up until now, the only exposure the public had with the game was the opening cinematic but we were recently given some time to play through the early part of this Batman adventure in what looks like it could be the first game to finally do the character justice.
Pulling from seventy years of Batman history, the developers of Batman: Arkham Asylum had a breadth of material to pick and inevitably chose the elements they thought would work best for the game. Arkham takes a much darker tone than previous Batman games, taking some influence from the relaunched movie series.
Though not tied in to the movie, it’s hard not to see a resemblance between the character models and gritty overtones of the game and those of the movies. The game starts with Batman bringing the Joker in to custody to Arkham Island. Things go awry and the Joker escapes and in the process unleashes the other denizens of Arkham Asylum.
Director Timur Bekmambetov has found great success in both his own country and the U.S. His films, Nightwatch, Daywatch and Wanted show a decided flair for the dramatic and an aesthetic that’s both pleasing to the eye and filled with exceptional inventive style. He also knows his way around an action scene and isn’t afraid to get his characters into some tense, unusual and often deadly situations.
Score: 6.5
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