A recent classic. My first time experience the Arkham series in 2024 so no previous knowledge or expectations.

Pros:
- Graphics still look good, feels like grimy/dark games tend to carry age a bit better and there is basically no light here.
- Uses a very comfortable old-school Zelda approach. Go into a dungeon, find things you cannot do, get a new item, do some of them and come back later when you have even more items.
- Despite being quite small the Asylum manages to fit a lot of areas into a small space, makes it feel like you spend more time in the actual areas and not just traveling between them.
Average:
- Combat felt amazing WHEN it worked, a lot of the time counters did not feel responsive and the lack of i-frames on your dodge but not when vaulting over enemies creates a really weird fight flow.
Cons:
- The bosses are sadly really bad. Despite having some cool concepts with Ivy and Bane every single fights difficulty watered down to having to fight a bunch of generic enemies while fighting the boss. Felt like they did not know how to make the bosses hard on their own so they had to throw in basic enemies to distract you.
- Controls feel really dated and a lot of buttons have to be pressed in combat that are way too far apart but you cannot be slow either since you will lose your combo.

really not as good as i remember, unfortunately. this game has not aged that well at all, but i give credit where it's due on solidifying a solid combat system many games would try and replicate - albeit a very bare bones start for it that isn't that satisfying.

the narrative initially was really good, but it's soured on me a little. the haunting atmosphere of arkham asylum remains, but not as prevalent when compared to other games. i feel like i've played way creepier games with a much more haunting aura than this.