The Batmobile hurls down the waterlogged streets of Gotham City with Batman at the helm and a ghost-faced villain beside him. After a few minutes of hellish laughter, the metals gates of Arkham Asylum grind open as the black armoured vehicle ascends upon the ancient compound, built for the criminally insane.
The tale of Arkham Asylum takes place over a single night, depicting the foreseeable escape of the Joker, as he takes over the compound, releasing all of its inmates to do his bidding. Trapped in the madhouse without any escape, Batman must confront every nightmare he has ever faced to put a stop to The Joker and survive a night of hell.
The story itself is a little unimaginative, being a scapegoat just to show off the many villains in Batman’s grim past, but it is woven beautifully. Apart from the Joker, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Scarecrow and a host of many other old faces turn up for the party.
There is a mixture of both free roaming and linear action. Each event or mission will take place in different sections of the asylum, some of which will be revisited. Batman will have to enter a particular section, complete a mission, and then move to the next location. It may sound dull on paper, but it’s very hard to look at the design so blandly when the game is in motion.
Unlike Batman games of the past, Arkham Asylum is the one that nails what the Dark Knight is all about. You can either take tactical approaches towards crowds of enemies, or you could just go in all guns blazing. Some segments of the game will pit you against thugs bearing firearms, meaning you’ll need to sneak around them and take them out silently. This is also helped by Batman’s vast array of gadgets such as the Batclaw which can yank enemies from ledges, and explosive gel, used to destroy weak walls.
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 3 GHz / AMD Athlon64 3000+
Memory: 1 Gb
Hard Drive: 9 Gb free
Video Memory: 256 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6600 / ATI Radeon X1300
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Keyboard
Mouse
DVD Rom Drive
Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium D @ 3 GHz / AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+
Memory: 2 Gb
Hard Drive: 9 Gb free
Video Memory: 512 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 7900 GT
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c or 10
Keyboard
Mouse
DVD Rom Drive
