It goes without saying that Batman is a well-known franchise, the Lone Crusader having become a household name only in that special way that superheroes with the suffix "-man" to their monikers can. Unlike Spider-Man and Superman, however, the Batman universe is also well known for its darker, more grotesque style in both looks and content.

Given the distinct atmosphere and franchise's fame, there was a lot of speculation about whether or not British developers Rocksteady Studios (with only one title to their name at the time) could meet fan expectations. But that is precisely what they did; and then some.

The story begins when Batman, whose cape you'll be wearing for the duration of this game, captures his arch nemesis Joker and returns him to Arkham Asylum. If you're not familiar with Batman lore, the asylum (located on its own island) is the home for the city's most dangerous criminally insane; basically, a super-villain prison.

But for some, a day without blood is like a day without sunshine, and surprise, surprise, not all goes according to plan. Joker breaks free and locks down the entire prison with the help of some inmates that he had managed to get transferred to the asylum beforehand. He also grabs Commissioner Gordon just to keep things interesting.

And so it's up to you to restore order and kick a moderate amount of insane arse.

Batman: Arkham Asylum goes for the dark and gritty in terms of imagery and sound. In addition to the haunting visuals, the game designers put in some subtle touches that help define the setting even further. For example, as you make your way through the island, you have the chance to pick up tapes of the establishment's previous patients (Joker being one of them), which adds a welcome layer to the game.

And that brings us to the next important point of the game's presentation: voice acting. While all character's voices are on par, Mark Hamill as the Joker steals the show. Mark Hamill is almost as famous for being the voice of Joker as he is for killing Darth Vader in the Star Wars movie. Listening to him is an absolute blast.

The game consists of a healthy mix of stealth and action, the stealth part usually an option, not a must. As Batman makes his way through the asylum, his attempts at apprehending The Joker are countered by enemy goons at every other corner. The fight mechanic is easy to get a hang of, and looks as brutal as you can get without splattering blood all over the screen.

These fights (sometimes with up to a dozen baddies) are all about timing, and if your timing's right, Batman unleashes devastating counter-attacks on his opponents. The controls are fairly intuitive, and these counter-attacks both look and sound realistic enough. Sometimes the game goes in slow motion just to show off more violent impacts. This is done with good merit, however, and doesn't distract from the game.

My only concern here is that when you get a number of combo hits in succession, Batman gains unrealistic speed and starts jumping from one foe to the next (like a rabid cat in a cage full of ferrets). While this can look cool on screen, it distracts from the otherwise "realistic" setting of the game, making it fairly obvious that you're playing an arcade beat-em-up hybrid.

The stealth segments come in handy when you reach areas so filled with enemies that taking them on head-on is certain suicide. Despite his impressive physique, Batman is quite the acrobat, so you get to guide him as he picks enemies one at a time – wall to ceiling, ceiling to gargoyle, gargoyle to a floor grate, that sort of thing.

Another nice touch is that as the enemies' numbers dwindle, they get visibly more nervous, muttering curses and (quite literally) firing at shadows. This adds an additional dimension to the feel of playing as predator rather than prey.

Apart from the actual plot-line, you're also given a number of optional bonuses. An example would be finding the audio interview logs of the island's inmates mentioned previously. Some are solving (relatively easy) puzzles scattered throughout the game, and some are simply finding hidden tokens. These then work towards increasing your points and unlocking additional game content. And for a single player only game, the developers packed a lot of bonus stuff into the title.

As fun as it is to punish Joker's contract employees, more enemy variety wouldn't have hurt. There are your basic grunts, then there are grunts with guns, and then there are grunts with knives or stun batons. Each require a separate approach, but the core mechanic is the same – dodge, then connect your Batfist with their faces (or other exposed body parts). There are some instances where you get to fight off mutated grunts, which are twice as big and thrice as strong, but, as fun as these fights are, these are few and far between.

Then there are the boss battles. Unfortunately, these are hit and miss. There are at least a couple of battles (including the final boss fight) in the game that were disappointing in terms of both originality and story impact.

Batman wouldn't be Batman without his gadgets. You do get to play with quite a few of these in the game, probably the most significant of them being the Bat Vision tool. With a press of a button, the screen turns blue, and Bats can see through walls, get enemy counts, weapons reports, important items, and so forth. Say hello to X-Ray eyes.

Like most of the game, the execution is great, with the only drawback being that it's much easier to play through most of the game without ever switching the mode off. Thankfully, the game's pretty enough to make you want to play in normal vision mode just to admire all of the work the artists put into it.

Other gadgets include three types of Batarang, explosive gel that can be remotely detonated, a grappling hook that you can eventually use to pull enemies off ledges, and a few other cool things. Almost each action you take in the game, from a good combo to discovering hidden content, grants you in-game points, and these gadgets can be obtained and upgraded by spending these points.

This game does many things right, but it's the atmosphere and setting where the game developer's skill, talent, and dedication to their product shows most. Arkham Asylum runs on the Unreal 3 engine, the game a testament to how great the engine can look when handled properly (see Legendary for a counterexample).

There are some intermissions from the game's main story line when our hero's drugged and forced to fight through a wicked version of reality that his intoxicated brain traps him in. These segments break up the pace and are wonderfully done. The level design, the pacing, the lighting - everything in the atmosphere department feels just right.

The game's not without its flaws, but it does stand high and above most other representative of the third person action genre. You don't have to like or care for Batman to enjoy it. As long as you enjoy games of this type, this one should be on the “Must Buy” list.

Yes, Mark Hamill's Joker is in fact much more exciting than the titular hero, and yes, the enemies and boss battles could've been better, and yes, the ending sort of sucks (spoiler: Batman wins) but in the end, it doesn't really matter.

It doesn't really matter because this game is clearly a product of love; of hard-coding video game designer programmer love. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

- Max Salnikov