Since it came up, the Batman Arkham franchise turned into one of my favorite games of all times, giving me the experience of become the cape crusader and help Gotham City by defeating his darkest and dangerous foes with all the cool gadgets and the serious and unstoppable force that he represents in his universe. The first game was great, it was unthinkable how the mystery that involves The Joker at the beginning grows exponentially until it turns into a complex web of actions and enemies with the porpoise of putting Gotham City in danger. The baleful ambiance of the Asylum worked perfectly to combine the full action fights with the spine-chilling tension of and island full of mentally unstable criminals.
After that, the second game appears and showed how the city was a symbol of corruption and crime, giving us even more freedom as the bat than before, putting us, the player, in some of the more interesting conspiracy plots that we’ve ever seen. The way that we can explore, find points of interesting, meet other characters of the DC universe that are directly involved with Batman and find more than just an enemy to chase, give us the sensation of actually protecting the city. In the situation of Batman, who was poisoned by the Joker at the start of the game, we see how desperately he is to save the other people that are in risk and beyond that, save the city from Hugo Strange, Victor Szasz, The Riddler and more. We even fight as Cat woman in the DLC, exploring a whole different plot against Two Face. The Gameplay was better than the previous game, the map was larger and better, the plot was excellent and the whole experience was some magnificent way of pleasing all kind of Bat-Fans. But then, why I put in doubt which is better? Because a single element that makes difference, the fear.
In the asylum we have a full experience that involves an uncertain mystery and a breakout of the most dangerous individuals in Gotham, all of them free in a little island with lots of criminals and psychopaths. Also, thanks to the Joker’s command, there are plenty of places decorated as a carnival which gives the uncomfortable feeling that something bad is going to happen, like the cases of the gift boxes with extremely violent patients inside; and of course fighting against other villains we find Killer Croc, who is trapped in the sewers of the Asylum. Which make Croc so scary in particular is that you cannot beat him, you only can be silent and move cautiously or he will show up and give us an aggressive and savage instant kill. The whole mission we are paranoid, trying to not making sound, avoiding Croc and his blood lust. We also fight against the Scarecrow, who is the most terrifying foe in the game. He is not the strongest or the smartest, but he makes us to hallucinate in ways that we can’t be truly sure, are part of the game or not. Thanks to his, a 4th wall break in the form of a fake crash of the console, the fear in the players is at the highest, not being enough he makes you think that Commissioner Gordon is dead and make you experience a long and realistic flashback about the murder of Bruce’s Parents.
The state of decay in the asylum is a sing of the illness of the city which Batman fight every night, but somehow, with the right ingredients, this occasion is more risky and dangerous. All the Easter eggs in the island like the murder scenes of Victor Szasz and the investigation about Amadeus Arkham’s ghost makes it even more of a interesting place to explore even when the game is finished. This element of latent terror is a characteristic element that even was repeated in the Arkham Knight through the constant hallucination about the joker and foes like Man-Bat and the strong riots all over the city make its way to get close to what the asylum did. Even that, the refresher air brought to us by the Asylum made its way to the right amount of power, skill, ambiance, music and style for a game of the Dark Knight. Maybe it’s not the perfect game or superior to its sequel, but has a unique essence that makes the whole experience special and self-sufficient above all the other games in the franchise. Exploring the Asylum and see Clayface, Harley Queen, Poison Ivy and the Joker was, for all the fans, a dream come true with a console controller and, personally, I’ve finished like ten times and always get the same feeling.
The feeling that I’m am BATMAN!
