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" Also available on: Xbox 360 Developer: Rocksteady Studios Publisher: Eidos Interactive Genre: Action-adventure Release date: August 28, 2009 Few comic book characters have had as profound an influence on popular culture as DC Comics&amp;#039; Batman. From his age-old Detective Comics outings to last year&amp;#039;s box office smash The Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader has gone from strength to strength since he first emerged from the imagination of Bob Kane in 1939. With Christopher Nolan&amp;#039;s superlative movie sequel elevating the character&amp;#039;s popularity to lofty new heights, Eidos Interactive and Rocksteady Studios are seeking to capitalise on this with his latest video game offering, Batman: Arkham Asylum. Comic book characters have had somewhat mixed fortunes when it comes to console adaptations. Licenses have been utilised to great effect at times - the Marvel vs Capcom series, for instance - but for every satisfactory superhero romp, we&amp;#039;re usually lumbered with two sub-par cash-ins. Fortunately, not only is Arkham Asylum a real fan-pleaser, this dark, atmospheric adventure goes on step beyond, delivering something of near universal appeal. Featuring an original plot penned by award-winning writer Paul Dini, the game wastes no time in rehashing Bruce Wayne&amp;#039;s troubled backstory, hurling the player into the depths of Gotham&amp;#039;s infamous nut house from the off. A brief introduction sequence acquaints us with its decrepit corridors as Batman and an armed guard lead an apprehended Joker to his cell. The visual design is quintessentially comic book-esque, although fans of the Nolan and Burton films will no doubt appreciate its dark tone. After escorting his arch-nemesis through several security checkpoints, it becomes apparent that the Clown Price of Crime has an ace up his sleeve. After being breaking free with the help of Harley Quinn, the Joker seizes control of Arkham and a nightmare scenario ensues. For categorisation&amp;#039;s sake, the game is a third-person action title, but pigeonholing in this way does it no justice. There is much more on offer here than button-bashing brawls. The developers have handled the detective aspect of the character admirably and integrated problem-solving seamlessly into the mix. That&amp;#039;s not to say that there aren&amp;#039;t plenty of opportunities to get your hands dirty; the action set pieces are gratifying, but a sense of equilibrium between the two distinct gameplay mechanics is maintained throughout. Arkham is crawling with liberated inmates who would like nothing more than to see you dead. Strategy is an integral part of bettering your enemies, but when all else fails, Batman is a master of mixed martial arts after all. Hand-to-hand combat feels fluid, and while it&amp;#039;s certainly intuitive, there&amp;#039;s enough scope to the system to make the learning curve gradual and steady throughout. The Dark Knight can deliver elbows, dropkicks, parries and counters to see off hostiles. Every knockout blow you land plays out in slow-motion, which is a nice aesthetic touch. When someone takes a hit in Arkham Asylum, you really feel it.  Beating the criminally insane to a pulp may be therapeutic, but in a game of Arkham&amp;#039;s depth, this will only get you so far. The Joker is always several steps ahead, strategically placing armed guards about the place and posting groups of foes in important locations. This is where the game&amp;#039;s substance comes into play. Not only are you given the option of a stealth mechanic, known as Detective Mode, you also have a utility belt full of handy contraptions at your disposal.  When the stealth mechanic comes into play, you really feel like hero straight from the pages of a comic. The inverted takedown is a particularly rewarding attack with all the hallmarks of vintage Batman. Granted, this ability does expose a weakness in the enemy AI, but for the end result it&amp;#039;s a small sacrifice. The only other downside to these moves is their sense of automation. More often than not, it feels as though you have triggered a cut scene, rather than dispatched the enemy yourself.  Detective Mode serves as a useful ally throughout the game. Presenting environments in a neon blue hue, this perspective is essential for unearthing clues and highlighting points of interest, as well as revealing how many enemies there are in the vicinity and whether they are armed. The information yielded helps you to make an informed choice on how to approach each situation. For instance, if there are five guards in the area and one is armed, the best strategy may be to use stealth to incapacitate the one who is packing before going toe-to-toe with the others. As you progress, experience points are accumulated to unlock new utility belt items, extending your travel capacity and better equipping Batman against Arkham&amp;#039;s minions. In addition to granting access to previously unreachable places, tools like the explosive gel and grappling hook also double as weapons, placing more strategic options at your fingertips during confrontations. When you&amp;#039;re not dispatching the Joker&amp;#039;s goons, you&amp;#039;re combing the facility for clues to track your nemesis. It&amp;#039;s essential to leave Detective Mode switched on during these segments, with the obvious drawback of this being that you end up playing half the game in monochrome. Many of the objectives involve retracing your steps and backtracking, but the game manages to present previous locations in a fresh light, usually by planting new villains about the place or altering environments through in-game events. A radar would have been useful to aid navigation and eliminate the need to call up a menu screen every time you need to check the map, but this is a minor gripe. Where boss battles are concerned, Arkham drops all of the right names. Almost every major villain from Batman&amp;#039;s expansive comic book history is given at least a cameo. Some of the challenges they pose are logic testing - for instance the serial killer Zsasz must be dispatched using stealth before he electrocutes a prison guard - while other are purely reflex-based, like the thumb-blistering encounter with Bane. Many of the boss encounters are inspired - the Scarecrow and Poison Ivy are particularly memorable - while other are disappointingly fleeting. In particular, fans of the popular Knightfall story arc might be disappointed to see Bane relegated to a mere henchman. Arkham itself is a rich and expansive in-game environment, reimagined as an Alcatraz-esque island complex. It&amp;#039;s a dark and visceral labyrinth of cells, laboratories and libraries, with plenty of secrets to uncover and countless rewards waiting for you there. Much like the characters, the environments were designed with an obvious love for the source material. It&amp;#039;s the small touches, like the eerie PA system and sombre background score that really bring this nightmarish institute to life. Fans of Batman: The Animated Series will appreciate the returning voice talents of several of the show&amp;#039;s mainstays, including Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. However, anyone who runs a mile at the mention of cartoons should not be deterred as this is a thoroughly adult offering. It certainly took developers long enough to do Batman justice in the world of video games, but Arkham Asylum does it in style. Its unwavering loyalty to the source material will delight the diehards, while its skillful pace and hard-hitting action set-pieces should be enough to reel the rest of them in. This is the Dark Knight of the current console generation, and arguably the character&amp;#039;s most definitive outing since the last Nolan film.  &amp;gt;What do you think of the game? Share your views "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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