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Excluding a few exceptions however, Batman's foes are limited to Joker's goons, but taking them out never gets old or tedious. This is largely due to the dual focus of the gameplay. On the one hand, you get the general beat-em-up baddassery that Batman is known for. And on the other is Batman's talent for using shadows and the element of surprise to terrorize his enemies -- a crucial aspect of Batman all too often overlooked in his games. Any given room (or those rooms of importance anyway) contains generally up to seven or so goons at a time. Although it is possible to walk head long into these situations and proceed to kick, punch, and Batarang your way through them with a string of stylish, but simply executed combos, the effectiveness of this method gets thrown right out of the window if one or more of them is packing heat. In these cases, the tough guy, 'punch first, ask questions later' approach is guaranteed to get yourself killed. For situations such as these, a more deft hand is required.

Pressing one of the shoulder buttons activates Batman's 'detective mode' visor which basically alters the HUD into a kind of X-Ray perspective. When activated, Batman is able to see a number of things difficult to see or flat out invisible to the naked eye; for instance, the ability to see through walls, monitor enemies' heart rates, identify possible grapple points, locate ducts through which you can crawl, as well as easily discern who is armed and who isn't. As you can imagine, when active, cleaning out a room of unsuspecting goons becomes substantially easier.

Once you begin to understand how the system works and can execute Batman's repetoire of moves with finesse, the sense of satisfaction that comes from stalking and taking out Joker's thugs undetected and with style is indescribable. You'll realize that B:AA isn't an action game, it's a Batman simulator.

But letting your fists do the talking isn't the only satisfying aspect of B:AA. As any fan of the character can tell you, of all of Batman's many talents, his standing as 'detective extraordinaire' is perhaps his most important, and in this, B:AA does not dissapoint. In addition to assisting in combat, bringing up the 'detective mode' visor also reveals evidence that Batman will need to gather at various points throughout the game in order to help him discern what his next move should be. It's yet another aspect of Batman often neglected in his games and it's executed to perfection by Rocksteady.

When all is said and done, I find myself unable to come up with anything too critical to say about B:AA. The fact of the matter is, if we play games like this because we want to experience the thrill of donning our favorite hero's suit and taking it to the streets, then no game captures that feeling better than this one. Whether you're a fan of the character or not, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a shining example of video games at their finest and most fun. If I'm right in assuming that any future capers will be handled by Rocksteady, then we can all rest easy knowing that Gotham City is in good hands.