Batman: Arkham Asylum 10th Anniversary

[The Laughing Fish]

By the end of the month, this great game will be ten years old. How time flies. Truth be told, I played this game three years after it came out, and played Arkham City a few months afterwards.

What are your favourite memories of the game? In terms of gameplay, I loved completing my first freeflow combat as soon as Batman encounters the escaped convicts the first time, jumping around from one gargoyle at a time to perform takedowns on armed convicts and going around scanning clues to unlock character bios. In terms of story? My favourite moments are everything to do with Batman suffering effects from the Scarecrow's fear toxin:

• Getting hallucinations of Gordon's death that lead to more creepy visions of his parents' reanimated bodies blaming him for their deaths. No doubt hinting at his survivor's guilt.
• Walking down the library hall and then everything suddenly turns into Crime Alley and relives the echos of his parents' murders yet again. On top of that, Batman suddenly transforms into his grieving child self.
• The little trick the developers pulled that scared players everywhere, as the game appears as if it suffered a fatal bug when you walk back into Intensive Treatment and it replays the first cut scene of the game. Until once you realise the scene reverses roles, with Joker driving the Batmobile and Batman is taken into custody towards Arkham and it is revealed he is suffering yet another Scarecrow hallucination. I remember getting a huge sigh of relief when I learned my game wasn't broken, haha!

All the Scarecrow boss battles where quite intense, but I love how Batman's willpower allows him to survive every encounter, leaving a shocked Scarecrow asking "What ARE you?". Great moment.

Out of all the patient interview tapes I remember collecting, my favourites are the Victor Zsasz ones. Very disturbing. A special mention goes to the last Scarecrow tape where Batman comes to the rescue and stops Dr. Crane's attempts to take over Arkham with his fear toxin, and taunts him for his failure.