If you're too loud killing an enemy or moving around, enemies will hear you and run to your position. Thugs might split into groups to avoid being attacked or split up entirely, and occasionally they'll even flank you. The levels are designed in such a way that you can easily lay out elaborate traps or distractions, and the enemies' generally clever AI will keep you on your toes with their unpredictable movements. Combine this with Batman's many gadgets, such as exploding gel that can be sprayed and detonated at will, Batarangs and a grappling hook and you've got tons of ways to be creative with your kills. Batman can crouch and silently attack enemies from behind, hang from gargoyles and grab them as they walk by, or sit and wait for an unsuspecting thug to walk close enough to get a boot in the face. The main aspect of Arkham Asylum is its stealth gameplay. In addition to that there are also some character bios to unlock which give you some cool info on Batman characters. These are extremely interesting, and some of them even tell the story of Harley Quinn and The Joker. The story is fleshed out by audio recordings of patients talking with doctors.

After all, this is a pretty serious game, so having The Penguin waddle around sending penguin minions at you would probably hurt the atmosphere. Some of the villains get referenced to every now and then but never actually appear in the game, which is probably a good thing.

Basically, Batman captured the Joker and has brought him to Arkham Asylum, but before they can lock him up, he breaks loose and releases a ton of villains, including legendary characters like Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Scarecrow. The story is rather simple, but it's told well due to the game's great voice cast, good dialogue and great pacing. The Scarecrow sequences are some of the best parts of the game. The stealth is handled brilliantly, the combat is simple but slick and the exploration offers plenty of incentive to keep playing once you've finished the 20 hour story mode. The result is a game that's not only a fantastic Batman game, but an incredible achievement in its own right. But Arkham Asylum has abandoned the generic, repetitive beat-em-up structure that made other games in the same universe so dull and has instead opted for an experience that's part stealth, part action and part exploration. The best thing you can say about the Batman games is that some of them are decent. Batman doesn't exactly have a good history when it comes to video games.

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