Batman: Arkham Asylum

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It's baffling that we've yet to see a game that does Batman justice, given how easy it seems to put all the right pieces together. Batman: Arkham Asylum is taking a stab, and aiming for the stars with its wholesale raiding of Gotham history. It may drop all the right names, but does it amount to anything more than a pale imitation of the Dark Knight?
The game begins with a tense stroll through Arkham's ragged halls. The Joker is restrained, under armed guard, and within spitting distance of Batman. But there's something behind his cackle. He let himself get caught, and Batman knows this. Cue the epic Arkham jailbreak.
Not long after the game starts, The Joker is running the place. With Harley Quinn, among other crazies, doing his dirty work, he's hatching up a scheme that will reverberate throughout Arkham and beyond. It's ground that's been well-tread in the comics, perhaps, but as a means of mustering Batman's immense rogues' gallery, the trick works brilliantly. You won't fight the whole cast, mind you, but expect many fleeting cameos, and one particular show-stealing--yet disembodied--supporting role.
The story is in total service of the game. It's obtrusive with the cutscenes when it needs to be--that is, when it wants to punctuate an important event with a cool cinematic. Most of the time, the story has a softer touch, delivered via radio chatter, PA system, or inmate interview tape. It's these little details that truly bring Arkham Asylum to life, filling the dreary place with substance and character. The deeper you delve into the plans of Joker and his cohort, the crazier things get. Be prepared for some surprises that we won't spoil here.
For a game that's often about retracing your steps, it says something that the story makes all the backtracking feel exciting and imperative.
The name of the place might evoke a rickety mansion, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Arkham Asylum is located on an island, and the game gives you the run of the place. The setup is straight out of Metroid, with gadgets you unlock extending your travel range, and, of course, all the respondent backtracking. Still, Arkham Island is a big place, with several medical facilities on top of the penitentiary, as well as a botanical garden, a vast network of caves and sewers, and the fabled family mansion. Batman's even managed to hide a secondary Batcave on the asylum's ample grounds.
Despite you visiting all these sites numerous times throughout the game, they feel different each time you set foot. The game is just real good at rearranging its sets as the story progresses, in some cases by simply placing gangs of thugs in your path, in others by literally altering the nature of the environment. Even the most mundane cases turn an otherwise boring retread into a delightful game of cat-and-mouse. Like, say, when a sniper is occupying a previously-vacant tower that happens to be smack in your path. The game also confounds your expectations when it comes to pacing. Boss battles and set-pieces, both of which Arkham Asylum completely nails, will often take you by surprise. The result is an organic, driving pace that persists throughout the whole game.
Detective mode, which simulates Batman's keen deductive abilities, is how you make sense of the dizzying number of secret passages and hidden collectibles sewn into the world. Turning it on lets you see bad guys through walls, and highlights pretty much everything you can interact with. It can feel like information overload at times, but it's incredibly useful, especially during fights that require stealth and precision. As a result, you'll seldom turn it off. This is kind of a bummer, since it basically amounts to playing the game wearing x-ray glasses--a surefire way to dampen some of the cooler vistas that the game wants you to see.
There is a whole lot to explore in Arkham Asylum, but you soon find that an earnest scouring of the grounds takes you off the critical path. It seems that The Riddler wasn't about to let The Joker have all the fun, so he's hidden a bunch of trophies, tapes, and artifacts throughout the island, plus some scavenger hunt style clues in every area. If you're diligent in finding them all, you'll get access to stuff like character profiles, gallery models, and challenge mode missions.
After you're done with the story, you can bring your expertise to the challenge mode. Each challenge mode level tasks you with either beating down waves upon waves of thugs, or clearing a room of rifle-carrying guards, predator-style. Do well, and you'll rank on the leaderboards. By now, other games have explored all the elements that we'd expect from a proper Batman experience. Arkham Asylum puts them together, and all the discrete parts work together brilliantly. There's a multitude of gadgets to unlock and upgrade--batarangs, bat-claws, explosive gel, and the rest--and in most cases, they aid in combat as well as traversal.
Batman is economical with his beatdowns. The philosophy here is little input for maximum feedback, but that doesn't mean you can sleep through fistfights. On the contrary, you want to stay alert so you can counter incoming attacks, and rack up greater combos, with numerous brutal finishers. Armed enemies, as well as heavily mutated ones, require you to switch up your game. When you straddle a big one and guide him into a crowd of his smaller buddies like a flailing bowling ball, you know you're doing things right.
When your enemies are strapped with guns, you have to be more careful. Batman is tough, but after a few seconds under fire, he's done. In these fights--and they're frequent--it's all about gadgets and stealth takedowns. This is when you'll truly feel like Batman. There are plenty of ways to pick off a pack of strapped guards, like using gadgets to lure them into explosive foam, or stunning them with batarangs, but the most iconic is the inverted takedown. As luck would have it, there are plenty of gargoyles throughout Arkham to set you up. And if you're spotted, losing the guards is as easy as zipping from perch-to-perch for a minute. It's a little absurd that these guys can't see you up there, pneumatic and cables and draping cape and all, but what's the alternative? Probably a more frustrating game.
Though it's challenging, Arkham Asylum is hardly ever frustrating, even during the most difficult boss fights. This kind of expert pacing is one of the hallmarks of a great game, and Arkham has got it down.
Arkham Asylum fires on all cylinders, delivering a production that complements the wonderful experience. Kevin Conroy, an old hand at voicing Batman, stands in for the Dark Knight, with none other than Mark Hamill as The Joker. Given how much you hear the latter jaw throughout the game, it's a good thing the performance is on point. The soundtrack is somber and understated, swelling with the action, and frequently accented by the off-putting sounds of a maniac screeching, or the ominous paging of Arkham's PA system.
And Batman certainly looks the part. Even when he's fighting, his movements are spare and precise, making the way he brutalizes his enemies look effortless. Though the environments are appropriately dark and desolate, you'll marvel at all the little details, and more so if you remember to turn off detective mode once in a while.
Though it'll take you in the neighborhood of 12 hours to play through, Arkham Asylum feels like it's over in a heartbeat. This is a testament to its magnificent pacing, and the care that went into making every moment feel important. Regardless of whether you know or care what a Killer Croc is, know that this is a game worth playing.