Graphics

With the Unreal Engine 3 sat behind it, Batman: Arkham Asylum automatically holds plenty of promise in graphical terms and it certainly doesn't disappoint, making full use of the engine to deliver a sumptuous game world and beautifully detailed characters - I'm not a huge fan of the Batman franchise personally, but even I couldn't help but be impressed by the way in which Batman, The Joker and company were brought into this game, facial expressions and all.  Indeed, Batman's character model in particular is well worth noting, if only for the way that it changes throughout the course of the game - From a pristine batsuit at the start of your journey through the asylum, you start to notice cuts and tears in both Batman's cape and his suit itself as you move further into the game, and even Bruce Wayne's stubble becomes more pronounced after a long night of fighting off various lunatics.  It's these little items of attention to detail which manage to keep you immersed so totally in the game world in a way that I don't really remember experiencing with any other PC title in a long time.

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Despite being somewhat limited by the setting of the game, Arkham Asylum also does its best to deliver as many varied game locations as it can, taking Batman not just through the asylum itself but also the adjoining Arkham mansion and the gardens and caves which make up the estate.  There are sections of the game where you'll need to double back on yourself, but even these moments are usually spiced up by the introduction of some new enemies or other changes to locations you've already visited, cutting down on the times where it feels like you're trudging through old ground for no reason other than to reach your next destination.

The one time when Arkham Asylum breaks its feeling of total immersion within the game world is in its occasional switch to video-based cut scenes.  While most of the cut scenes simply use the game engine to render what's going on in real-time, at certain moments you'll find yourself regaled with some pretty low quality video to progress the story instead.  These moments jar against the visual beauty of the rest of the game and seem simply unnecessary - Why not create all cut scenes in-game instead, even if it means being a little less ambitious with what those scenes show?

Luckily this criticism is the only real blemish on a game that is otherwise a visual feast, with the PC treatment of Arkham Asylum naturally benefitting from the availability of higher resolutions and anti-aliasing, while also boasting support for NVIDIA's PhysX technology.  We'll be looking at the difference PhysX makes to this title in both performance and visual terms a little later on, but it's fair to say that it's easily the best use of PhysX that we've seen thus far, surpassing even the PC version of Mirror's Edge in adding to the immersive nature of the title.  Sure, there are no interactive physics that actually effect the way you play the game, but the deployment of papers which blow around and move underfoot, walls and structures which collapse and break up realistically, fog and smoke that billows around you as you walk through it and cloth banners which move and tear all add some pleasing visual polish to the title as a whole.

The downside to Rocksteady's close work with NVIDIA on the PC version of the title is that it leaves non-NVIDIA graphics board users a little short changed - Physics effects when PhysX is disabled are pretty poor while other visual effects are missing entirely, which is understandable in some cases but simply look a little lazy in others, while the game also unhelpfully informs ATI graphics board owners that their card "doesn't support multi-sample anti-aliasing, which is simply untrue.  Thankfully enabling anti-aliasing from ATI's driver control panel does the trick, but I felt my eyebrow twitching at such a misleading message.

All in all though, everything about Arkham Asylum is beautiful to look at, and I'm almost tempted to label it the best Unreal Engine 3 title in visual terms that I've seen yet.

Audio

While the audio track of most games tends to be a cherry on top rather than a make-or-break part of the experience itself, you could easily argue that Batman is an exception to that rule - With such recognisable characters on show who have had such recent Hollywood outings, there's no room to skimp on the voice acting employed by the game.

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Skimp is what Rocksteady most certainly haven't done here however, with Batman and The Joker voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill respectively.  Not only is this the same pairing responsible for voicing these characters in the recent Batman animated series, but they most certainly don't phone in their performance here - Hamill's Joker in particular is probably the best piece of video game voice acting you're likely to find, full of the vibrant insanity you'd expect from the character and another big step in the creation of such a compelling game world.

The supporting cast doesn't disappoint either, putting in solid performances that keep up the slick feeling of quality which oozes throughout the game, while the various other audio effects do everything you would expect in both keeping the player appraised of what is going on around them and keeping their attention focused upon the game world.

Conclusions

As I've already mentioned in this review, I'm not exactly what you'd call a big fan of the Batman franchise, and thus my reactions during the development period of Arkham Asylum were more that of curiosity than actual excitement - Even when I got a chance to see the game in the flesh prior to its release at the MCM London Expo earlier this year, "oh, that's pretty cool" was my response rather than allowing my jaw to tumble to the ground with amazement.

However, having played the finished product on the PC from beginning to end, it has to be said that Rocksteady have accomplished something truly astonishing here.  While the game isn't perfect, it should surely be held up as a template for the future of "cinematic gaming" in terms of the way it handles itself, not so much in simple visual terms (although it is a beautiful game to behold, admittedly) but in the way it sets out and develops its story while still creating a title that's actually enjoyable to play.

In terms of pure gameplay, Arkham Asylum almost perfectly balances its mix of straight-up action and stealth, while also managing to mix things up with what could almost be described as timing-based platform sections and basic problem solving in such a way that you'll never be left bored or frustrated by feelings of repetition.  Yes, there are moments that don't work quite so well - Some of the boss fights feel a little too arbitrary and almost a little pointless - But no matter what you're always left both feeling that progress is around the corner, while more importantly the narrative and layout of the game leaves you wanting to progress and push on at all times.  In that sense, both the length of the game and the size of its world are perfect, proving that you don't need a sandbox the size of Russia to have fun in a modern title.  Add to that the addition of experience points, perfect use of Batman's arsenal of gadgets that walk the fine line between gimmick and necessity and lots of unlockable content for the perfectionists, and you have yourself by far the most enjoyable game I've seen hit the PC this year.

Visually the game is a treat from the off as well, with detailed characters which bring out the best in those comic book heroes and villains throughout, and levels and scenery that never get too boring despite the relative limitations of the game's asylum setting.  Of course, we PC gamers get the best of this title's visuals as well with the ability to run at high resolutions and with anti-aliasing enabled, while NVIDIA graphics board users also get the best use of GPU-accelerated PhysX in a game to date.

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Once you add some truly brilliant voice acting to this concoction, you're left with a truly outstanding game that well and truly deserves all of the plaudits that it's received.  If you're a fan of the Batman franchise then buying this game was probably already a no-brainer, but even if you have little interest in the Dark Knight's adventures you'd still be crazy to miss out on the fantastic, all-encompassing gaming experience that is Arkham Asylum.  Sure, it isn't perfect, but damn does this game come close to reaching those stratospheric heights.