License games are not always garbage!

But Batman: Arkham Asylum has proven that also license games can be terrific. Eizelheiten:

* The graphic: Top, the Unreal Engine 3 can literally play the muscles and still looks great.

* The story: Even class; you realize really that people have dealt with the issue that really have knowledge of the matter. And with Paul Dini as a scribe to Rocksteady have one of the best known - brought Batman writers on board, so at this level go nothing wrong COULD - and best.

* Gameplay: Great. The perfect mix of open combat and stealth action. The so-called "FreeFlow" combat system works perfectly. However, it clearly belongs to the category "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master", is to say, one does have relatively fixed figured out how it works (basically you only need the button to attack, to the Dodge and to stunning, to win the game, while the rest (Counter, special attacks) is - in theory - no need), but it takes quite a while to get every gimmick of quite complex - but not complicated - has intus control and effortlessly every opponent! knocks out mercilessly and counters into nirvana. But if you after one or two hours of play has the hang of it, makes it - anyway both visually and playfully very successful - fight twice as much fun; then you would be even scuffle with up to 30 opponents.

But the stealth functions are well integrated into the game and make at least as much fun as fighting. After all, you also play yes the "Dark Knight" and thus the hero for creep and undercover operations. Thanks to Batman's rich arsenal of weapons and gadgets (remotely-detonatable explosives, grappling hook, diverse batarangs ...) makes it incredibly fun, the opponents of the most insidious traps job and then turn off individually at rest. Especially nice: The AI ​​of the opponents. These are, after having sent some sleep their comrades, namely slow panic and shoot sometimes fearful wild around in the area. It's always nice when the AI ​​opponents shout "That's Batman! He's here! Oh, God, we are lost!" and they themselves really as Gotham's Dark Knight feels.

The only drawback: The boss fights are really quite bleak and run down like boss battles since the dawn of video game history: tactics to find out, Tackling, Dodge, from the front. Here Rocksteady would have been able to try harder; However, that's not too jetz major flaw.

The staging: Great, just great. The architecture in their dark art deco style is exactly as they were from the comic and - genius! - Animated series knows her; the subtle influence of slow-motion effects (eg at the end of a struggle) gives many scenes which some drama. Everywhere are hidden tapes with the recordings of the conversations between the inmates of Arkham and their psychiatrists. This increase on the one hand the already oppressive atmosphere, but on the other hand they also provide a good deal of background knowledge. So if you have always wanted to know me, how the dreaded Harley Quinn was from Dr. Harleen Quinzel and what are the eating habits of Killer Croc - here you can learn it. And then there's little loosening of the game flow, such as the mystery of the Riddler, one can solve to unlock new gadgets and game modes. This change - fortunately - not detract from the great atmosphere but are quite entertaining and relaxing, especially if you even want to gain some distance from the Crime :)

* Synchronization: Here I have a small gripe. Although in the German version of the voice actors from Christian Bale speaks the part of Batman, the translation but does not come close to the English original. Especially for the villains Rocksteady could many spokesman for the - as I said, INGENIOUS! - Undertake animated series, most notably Mark Hamill as The Joker! Yeah, exactly the Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill, many thought he would be gone bankrupt long ago and has managed a HUGE comeback as a voice actor since the nineties. Although Heath Ledger fans will disagree: 'nen better than Mark Hamill Joker does not exist. At least no one with a better Joker-pool.

To squeeze my ramblings in a Conclusion: Batman: Arkham Asylum is a thoroughly enjoyable game that I highly recommend to anyone gamer who wants to do himself and his PC or his console something good.
However, I would again point out that you should give yourself ds game necessarily English, since the English translation just lost too much of humor goes