Mark Hamill is particularly great as Joker, providing an excellent foil to Batman's straight man routine. The supporting cast does an excellent job of making the world come alive, much like in the Chronicles of Riddick games, which Batman definitely pays tribute to in the extensive opening sequence where Bats escorts the Joker deep into the Asylum's complex. Part of this is down to the rendering of the characters in cutscenes, but mostly it is because of the superb voice acting. In fact if there's one thing that strikes you about Arkham Asylum it's the atmosphere, which feels perfectly dark and disturbing.

While I'm no expert on all things Batman, it definitely seems to sit perfectly in the universe the Caped Crusader inhabits. Thankfully, any question of Rocksteady borking Batman in a Joel Schumacher style can be dismissed - there's no question that Arkham Asylum will be nothing but pleasingly great. It had to be a concern when this new Batman game was first announced and, until you've actually had a chance to get your hands on it, it'll probably remain one. So Batman: Arkham Asylum could easily become the gaming equivalent of Bob Hoskins in Super Mario Bros or Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne. Stop it!Д¬reating An Immersive atmosphere is key to the success of any classic game, but never more so than when you have to capture the essence of a beloved character like Batman. Watch one of Arkham Asylum's unconscious bodies for half an hour - they're not going anywhere. He's programmed his detective-o-vision to detect fictional pulses in the corpses of the men he's beaten to death, in order to shield himself from the awful truth: that he's a murderer just as psychotic as the villains he seeks to imprison. It is violent, but in the same way that spearing a man in the chest in Mini Ninjas turns him into a bouncing fox, Batman's non-lethal takedowns are wholesome. In Arkham Asylum though, enemies fall unconscious, asleep, dreaming about being beaten up by a man dressed as a bat. If it'd been any other game, his cranium would pop open like a squeezed grape, his eyes pinging about the room like ping pong balls. His head was pinned between an immovable object and the locomotive fist of a highly-skilled martial artist. On his way down he let fly a devastatingly powerful punch, cracking once as it connected with the man's skull, and once again as his head made contact with the ornamental railing. Once, in the Records Room, Batman leapt high into the air towards a stunned goon who was standing with his back to a banister. There are thugs who might now wish they were dead, as they sit, traumatised in some grotty hospital ward while an unsympathetic nurse thrusts spoonfuls of lumpy semolina down their gob. Batman's Not Supposed to kill people, but things I've done in Batman: Arkham Asylum come close.

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