#COMBOS BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM PS3 SERIES#

Where the original put Batman on an island and carefully ladled out Batman’s most basic gadgets and abilities, the sequel quickly puts Batman in the center of Arkham City with the ability to traverse it at will. The basic mechanics of Arkham Asylum have carried over into the sequel, but with one major addition scale. The sound effects are mostly taken from the original game, but now, with added scale of Arkham City to romp through, they have much more space to play in. It is orchestral, broad and epic in scale, and it matches the tone perfectly. The music is also top notch, invoking much of the feel from the recent Christopher Nolan directed films. Even Nolan North manages to escape the legacy of Nathan Drake to provide a surprisingly vibrant-and British-Penguin performance. There were doubts about Arleen Sorkin’s departure from the role she defined, as Harley Quinn, but Tara Strong (who some JRPG fans might better recognize as Rikku from Final Fantasy X) manages to provide some startling authenticity.

#COMBOS BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM PS3 SERIES#

First, the voice acting manages to get a lot right with the expected pitch perfect delivery from Mark Hamill, reprising his Joker role from the animated series and Kevin Conroy as Batman from the same. The audio side also manages to maintain similarly high standards. The only real visual quirk for fans of the series might be that it seems like whoever was the architect for Gotham city seemed to have standardized the use of gargoyles throughout the interior and exterior of the town. There’s also a lot of great light, as Batman wanders through deserted or ruined buildings with a lot of interplay between light and shadow. Freeze have unique interpretations though none quite as subtly brutal as the Penguin’s thug-ish makeover. Other less iconic DC characters such as Deadshot and Mr. The characters are all modeled in that same gritty aesthetic used in Arkham Asylum with returning characters such as the Joker and Batman looking mostly the way you remember them. When Batman takes a vantage point high over the city, he can see the glimmering lights of Gotham proper with traffic visible on the roads and bridges, and clean office towers a stark, shimmering contrast to the decrepit slums he’s trapped in.

The towers of New York meet the grimy, rot of London in an amalgam that is both impressive in detail and vaguely horrifying in its presentation of an all too possible world of urban decay. However, as with the original, Rocksteady has done a very good job of keeping these instances to a minimum, and really letting the crumbling, gothic architecture of the Gotham slums do a good job of holding player attention. Those paying close attention will notice the occasional bit of screen tearing, and some of the infamous texture “pop-in” that’s so characteristic of Unreal-based game engines. Moving into the presentation, the game continues to use the same Unreal engine that its predecessor did-as do many other high profile titles like the Mass Effect and Bioshock series-but it’s been optimized somewhat to take into account the greater scale. As comic book stories go, this is definitely one of the better ones to appear in a game. The story, crafted by both Rocksteady heads and Batman: The Animated Series alumni Paul Dini, takes a lot of twists, turns and quite a few surprises before winding down to a conclusion that will definitely have fans talking. It is during this campaigning that he is arrested and brought into the facility, and, being Batman, proceeds to go to work as only he can from within the heart of the evil.

Bruce Wayne surprises everyone by throwing his money-and personal influence-into the political arena to crusade against Arkham City and have it shut down.

The former deluded head of the asylum, Quincy Sharp, has gone on to become Mayor of Gotham, with his first act to close down both Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary and create a cordoned off super-prison in Gotham’s slum area known as Arkham City. Gotham’s Time Has Comeīatman: Arkham City takes place one year after the original. Now, two years later, Batman: Arkham City has, in some ways, even more going against it incredibly high expectations, and the dangers inherent in any sequel following up a big success without falling into repetition. The naysayers and doubters-myself among them-were all proven tremendously wrong from start to finish, as the game showed itself to be not just a top quality game, but a loving, accurate rendition of the Dark Knight that just felt right to both hardcore fans, and casual acquaintances of the Batman property. Rocksteady was a largely unproven developer, and there was a long legacy of terrible games based on comic properties, with Batman himself being one of the more visible examples. When Batman: Arkham Asylum first released in the summer of 2009, it had a lot going against it.

Combos batman arkham asylum ps3