
There’s a good bit of backtracking involved though, which may turn some people off. Asylum, on the other hand, is a shorter, more contained experience featuring smaller yet distinct zones.

It doesn’t have the content bloat of the later entries and has a much tighter design that’s not to say that later Arkham games are bad, just that the open world formula can get very grating over time.

There are just enough collectibles to feel rewarding without overwhelming the player, and it’s got a surprising number of secrets related to Bat villains who don’t even appear in this game. Stealth is honestly a little easy in this game compared to the others, but I find that to be forgivable since it’s the first game. The combat and stealth mechanics are good, even if later games in the Arkham series refine the gameplay. The atmosphere is great at being unnerving and spooky when it needs to be and action oriented when it should be. Asylum is still both my favorite Arkham and Batman game.
