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Submit Your Comment On Batman: Arkham Asylum's Second Half For The Deepest Dive (Patreon)

Published:
2021-03-15 13:13:58
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

We're finishing off the best, most thorough discussion about Batman: Arkham Asylum on the internet and we need your comments! The panelists are Ben Hanson, Kyle Hilliard, Bryan Vore (formerly from Game Informer and 2K), and Easy Allies' editor-in-chief Brandon Jones (@trailerjones).

For this week's discussion, we're covering the game's second half. Everything from when you get the line launcher to when credits roll and beyond.

Submit a comment below on Batman: Arkham Asylum's second half and please get specific. Don't write a long review, please keep your one comment to around the length of a tweet. We want to get to as many comments as possible. Let's talk about your favorite moment, line, combat strategy, room, tool. The more specific you are, the higher the odds of us reading your comment during the discussion. We'll finish collecting comments on Tuesday morning.

You can watch us record The Deepest Dive live on Tuesday evening if you're at the $10 Backstage Pass tier on Patreon. The link will be in the Backstage Pass tier on the Discord. Thanks for your support.

Files

Comments

Hunter Sax

Hey hi hello, thanks for stopping by, It'll be the most common comment and I'm going to gladly dogpile. Not only the Joker fight but the Ivy fight, for me personally do in fact bring the quality severely down. The game ends in one of the most limp wet farts of a boss fight. THATS HOW THE GAME ENDS. It's pretty bad and does in my opinion make the rest of the game weaker.

Joseph Dowdy

Was anyone else disturbed by Batman gnawing a rat right before the third Scarecrow encounter?

Brainfreeze

I'll try to edit my comments down way shorter this time (lol) but I'm still excited so here's a few more individual thoughts: A) We see inmates building the wooden Joker face at the entrance to the party hallway at the beginning of the game (with a unique hammering animation), and more of it is built each time you return to the area. I didn't want to mention it last time to avoid spoilers, but it's amazing the way the island changes over the course of the game - it's probably the thing Asylum still does the best when compared to its sequels. B) When you go to enter the party and the one inmate checks to see if you're on the list or not, you can zoom in on the clipboard and see that it just says "batman" in large sharpie lol C) When talking to Joker before the final fight, he talks about each of the bosses you've defeated so far, including: "Slapping around Harley - my hobby, by the way!" The way that came off actually felt like the darkest line in the game to me. D) The end of the game is super boss heavy (Scarecrow straight into Croc straight into Ivy straight into Joker), which is fun, but it doesn't end super strongly on a replay. The bosses are all fun ideas that are pretty basic to beat once you know what to do. E) Just a suggestion: Game Maker's Toolkit put out a video on cameras in games recently that had a segment talking about Arkham Asylum, and I was thinking about it all game. It made me realize just how creatively this game makes use of its camera and I appreciate the game even more for it now. I highly recommend it!

Dragonhunter

The one thing I will never forget about this game is that awesome scene where the game is "crashing". Using Scarecrow to evoke one of the biggest fears of a gamer was just so perfect. When it happened I literally panicked. I was so close to turning off my 360. But then it continued and I was just left confused still wondering "was this supossed to happen? Why is Joker driving the Batmobil now?"

John Scovic

My prediction for the Most Common Comment is the final Joker fight. Even this comment is about that! When I first played this game in 2009, it was all in one sitting at a friend's house overnight. Playing it again, it struck me how many little inside jokes and references that started from that playthrough that I could still use and have that friend know exactly what I'm talking about. A couple highlights- -Calling the dramatic forced-slow-walk sequences in games "8-year-old Bruce Wayne" sections -Batman doesn't use stairs, that's lame. For every single bit of stairs in the game we either grappled up or double tapped A to leap down them. -We still refer to every boss that summons henchmen/minions to fight you instead of fighting you themselves as "And My Boys!" fights, referencing Joker in this game saying "Just you, me, and my BOYS" when he jumps up and summons enemies for you to fight. Some people may argue whether Arkham Asylum's greatest legacy is counter-based combat or Detective Vision, but for me its greatest legacies are dive rolling down stairs to stay in character and "And My Boys!" boss fights. Thanks for giving me an excuse to relive good memories!

Quenton Cassidy

Those plant pod enemies are the worst! Unless I was missing something, you just punch them and inevitably take a hit or two each time. At that point in the game I wanted to start on the outdoor riddler trophies but they totally dissuaded me

Erin T.

[loudspeaker theme] DUH duh duh duh - hello Minnmates! I love this game, but I found the second half to be much weaker than I remembered it being. The emphasis on boss fights really showcased some of the elements that felt “missing” from the game in relation to what came after it. While having to swap between the line launcher and Batarang during the Killer Croc section, all I could think about was how much I wished this game had the standard “radial weapon wheel that slows down time when you pull it up” - did other games at the time have this feature? P.S. - gun to your head; please tell me what the Joker’s ultimate goal here was. (Create an army of super soldiers? For...what? Just to do it?) All in all, still a monument to great game design - thanks for another awesome Deepest Dive!

Rory Sublett

I think the boss battles are Arkham Asylum’s weakest part. Poison Ivy and Killer Croc are the only really unique boss fights, all of the others are some variation of the Titan fight, or Scarecrow repeated. The Croc encounter is my favorite simply because of the tension it can build, also I love at the end when Croc says “You can’t run from me!” and the game replies by telling you “Hold A to Run”

Starkiller

Since this is the Deepest Dive I wanted to point out a very minor, but important thing. The first name in the credits is "Batman created by Bob Kane." This is always a big deal for us Batman fans because Batman was actually co-created by Bill Finger. Bill Finger had been notoriously screwed out of creation credits on all Batman stuff for a long long time, even though he is the real reason Batman and his extended cast have persisted through pop culture. He was responsible for the looks and stories of many Batman mainstays such as Catwoman, Robin, Joker, Scarecrow, Penguin, Two-Face, Riddler, Calendar Man, the name Bruce Wayne, Gotham City, Commissioner Gordon, the Batmobile, and the Bat Cave. From Wikipedia: 'Finger's contemporary, artist and writer Jerry Robinson, who worked with Kane from the beginning, said, "[Bill] had more to do with the molding of Batman than Bob. He just did so many things at the beginning, ... creating almost all the other characters, ... the whole persona, the whole temper."[59] Batman inker George Roussos, another contemporary, said, "Bob Kane had rough ideas, but Bill was the man behind Batman."' DC finally started crediting Bill Finger officially in 2015, so now any credit reads "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger."

Pelicanman

I can’t quite explain why, but the slow dripping of water droplets when you’re in Killer Croc’s lair is maybe the single scariest thing I’ve experienced in a video game. The sound design is unbelievable, with all the other effects, ambience, and music we’ve gotten used to being turned off completely, leaving us just with the dread of the dripping.

Ryan Schindler

I have to say during the whole last hour of the game it seemed to fall apart. The Poison Ivey fight was painfully easy, and they forgot to change the color palette, if you notice when Batman's going through the hallway leading to her the color palette has tons of reds and blues along with the greens and the scene seems lively and eerie, but once you get to the door and the cutscene loads the color palette instantly shifts to straight greens and blacks and it makes for a very jarring and stark change in tone and was extremely noticeable and seemed like the cutscene was a after thought hastily stuck in at the last moment. The Joker fight part was pretty weak and seemed rushed. The fight with the 2 titans and the goons was just kind of there and felt like padding. Then Batman takes a needle to the chest and just decides to not let the venom work on him, how the hell is that even remotely possible? If you get injected with something you can't just brush it off, it's in your blood stream lol. Also more notably there's no transition from when The Joker injects himself to how he got Batman subdued and Gordon tied up in the chair. It just happens. And how is Gordon already up in the chair before Joker and Batman get up there? And didn't Batman just fight 2 super titan guys plus like 20 weaker guys, couldn't he of just fought Joker right there and probably won? And the actual ending once you beat The Joker is extremely short and just kind of ends. Again seeming like they didn't really know how to wrap everything up nicely. The more I think about it the more I get let down by it, the main chunk of the game was fun but the ending just feels half baked and not really thought out.

Empiric Unicorn

It's funny how well the source material works in video game context, like how having room after room with indoor gargoyles that allow for stealthy takedowns seems totally normal for a place like Arkham. What's your favorite game mechanic that feels natural simply because you're Batman?

Ryan Schindler

I will legitimately say the Scarecrow part where your screen freezes and glitches freaked me, I had a GPU go out last year and when it did the screen glitched like this did so I immediately thought my PC was dying lol!!! I was just about to restart my PC when it resumed with the game, definitely a cool part that got me 100%. That whole part was really cool and nicely done.

Zach Killian

Just a quick comment. I've been playing the Return to Arkham version on PS4 and I just like how more detailed the batsuit is when it gets damaged as the story progresses in the remastered version.

ProcyonNumber6

During the second scarecrow sequence I noticed the prisoner-batmen aren't wearing capes. I never thought anything of this until last discussion realizing that some guy spent 2 years making the cape look cool, he must have passed on the opportunity to make a batman-eating-a-rat-cape

AnotherRobot

I'm trying to distill what I like about this game. In 2009 I thought it rocked. The combat felt satisfying, the Batman universe was captivating, the story was awesome. I. Was. Hyped! After playing it in 2021, I don't know if it entirely holds up to that much enthusiasm. It's kind of a classic beat-em-up with a dash of Zelda and Metroid. I'm just running around punching dudes. Now for me, I think the game is 50% Batman universe, 30% traversal/exploration, 15% combat, and 5% story (really, more of a scenario). How would you divvy up your enjoyment?

Joel

Hey Ben, I just wanna say that you are not alone, playing Batman also makes me sick. I cannot not play more than 1-2 hours at a time without feeling nauseous. I don't know why, but it also happened to me when playing Life is Strange. Over-the-shoulder third person games, maybe? Sorry for my english, loving this Deepest Dive!

WUMBOL0GY

A lot of people say the Joker fight is disappointing because it's just another titan fight. While it is definitely a lame fight and boss fights are thankfully a huge improvement in later games, it's definitely different than the other titan fights. It's also a good way to beat up Joker without it feeling like a mismatch since normally he's a scrawny weirdo. It's so satisfying to beat him up and that final explosive gel punch is so amazing that it seems obvious they chose the titan project plot so it could lead to this one moment.

Stephen Hammond

It was mentioned in the first podcast that Arkham Asylum would make a good basis for a movie and the hosts were skeptical. I think if it was done similar to The Raid: Redemption or Dredd it would actually make for a great movie. Obviously it would need changes, tweaks and a lot of cuts but that tower assault genre would be a good fit.

Greg Kettering

Thanks to this Deep Dive it got me to once again replay this great game. It was first time I felt like I was playing as Batman in a game and not just a reskinned brawler. What I don't think gets mentioned a lot with this game and the franchise in general is how the events of the shows its toll. From Batman's suit getting more and more damaged, to the whole island getting wrecked by Ivy's plants. Now onto my question for the panel. I love the Riddler trophies in this game. This is the one where I always have to get all of them even in replays. Its where all the fun nods exist, and really leans into the metroid style mechanics. I felt with City and others there got to be too many items and too cryptic at times. Where does the panel stand with the Riddler trophies in this game? Are any others addicted to catching them all?

Joshua Duperoy

After being reminded just how much I loved this game and Arkham city back in the day it made me want to go back and play Origins which I skipped back in the day. Playing through Origins it really made me appreciate Asylum even more so. While I enjoyed my time with Origins it definitely feels less distinct than Asylum in every way from its generic and sterile looking menus to its sub par riddler collect -a-thon missions. All this Batman love has led me to start up Knight as well and 4 hours in I’m already adoring the game, even the often maligned bat mobile sections. Anyways, wish me luck with the rest of my play through, bye!

Gabe Brandolino

The Joker challenge rooms are just as absurd as I remember them. They replace the goons with guards, and will even through in the occasional Jim Gordon as a combatant. The predator rooms, while on the surface being much harder due to a lack of tools (x-ray glasses for detective vision that you can’t move while using, a single shot pistol, and an explosive set of clattering teeth), you can easily cheese them by firing your pistol, hiding, and then killing ever guard investigating the noise with the explosive teeth, finishing the challenge room in 10-20 seconds.

Bread

I want all of you to be honest, who else beat up all the thugs welcoming Batman to the "Party" at the end of the game? You even get an achievement called "Party Pooper" for doing so, It's one of the funnier achievement pop ups in gaming, especially considering the first time I earned it was because I assumed I had to beat them all up to proceed to begin with.

Rigglz

Hi Ben & the Bartmans, I wanna talk Scarecrow. I love how when you find his hideout you realize the Asylum is his domain. All of the pictures of Batman and footage from the cameras make Scarecrow a more calculated villain instead of the "stumbled upon" villain in the Asylum. While Joker was the king of the castle, Scarecrow was the monster in the walls. This leads into my favorite small detail. When you are about to do a Scarecrow segment, Batman coughs. It isn't referenced in anyway but it is a cool detail that Scarecrow already got to Batman.

TInh Nguyen

Hello Ben, Bryan, Kyle, and Brandon Hope you guys are doing great, but if not a minmax Deepest Dive will get you out of your slump. Poison Ivy I want to take a second to talk about Poison Ivy. Though that character is portrayed in a sexist way, but I like how Rocksteady kept staggered Poison Ivy and kept her in the players mind throughout the game. She is not the normal super villain and the most threating – in this game at least. As Batman, you would think dealing with situations he would use brute force, but when it comes to Ivy you can see that he does not want to interrogate her because he knows that her intentions are not about hurting people just because she can. She has values that Batman respects and knows that the situation here at Arkham Asylum can depend on her and her abilities. When Batman ask Ivy to help him out to ultimately save her plants in the Asylum, he thought she could be an asset, a vastly different approach to the other villains. Another note is how organic the transition was from the original Asylum into a cornucopia for vines and spores. The spectacle of it was amazingly done. Not only does it look like a new environment Rockstead adds a new enemy with those stupid spores. Though the game takes place in one place the whole game, the evolution of Ivy and the changing of the environment is a nice change in scenery. It would take weeks/months to create a new environment, but Rocksteady was so smart about it. To give the player a new sight to see with the familiarity for the original design was just genius on their end.

TInh Nguyen

Playing as Joker When I first experienced the glitched transition I thought it glitched out for real. I did not think this would be a thing in video games for at least another 1 or 2 years, at that time. But it was a cool transition, but right after that was something I did not expect – YOU PLAY AS JOKER. When I first saw this it shook me, just because I did not think that the player will also be playing as Joker. Seeing the revered roles from the beginning of the game (Batman this time on the chair as Joker brings him in) made this moment that much more memorable. Something I noticed was Batman struggling and fighting in the chair which Joker was calm and collected at the beginning. As the sequence progressed, more of Batman’s mental integrity came to light. After getting shot by Joker, you come to light and see different versions of Batman in a jailcell. You see one that is rocking back and forth, another one trying to find something on the ground pacing back and forth with nothing to find. Seeing these aspects of batman really made me empathize with Bruce Wayne more, not Batman. Storytelling like this was just not a thing, getting to see the weak side of the player and protagonist was not the norm back in 2009. Batman Arkham Asylum’s world building and storytelling were pioneers for writing a great world and story that we see so many games adopt today.

Tommy Carver-Chaplin

How on earth was Ivy talking to Batman and the Joker in and around the Asylum? Did I miss something obvious?

Brady Easter

This is a great game and it was great playing again! I've got a VERY quick thought, very quick detail and a question. Thought: The disappointing Killer Croc fight was just whack-a-mole with tense music. Detail: Multiple NPCs (like Aaron Cash, for example) will comment on Joker's fireworks if you talk to them before heading to the final fight. Cool! Question: After collecting all the Riddler trophies, I was really let down by it not unlocking anything cool, which made me miss all the different suits and whatnot you could swap to in subsequent Arkham games. What do you all prefer--do you want the clean cut simplicity of Asylum or do you (like me) want all the unlocks you can get, breaking immersion be damned? ~~ Also, I want to take a quick moment to thank Brandon Jones. My love for gaming (and now my kids' love for it) can be traced back to my college roommate introducing me to a little site called Game Trailers. I've been enjoying everything you do well over a decade now and can't thank you enough, not only for the content you create, but the communities that have grown up around you and the other outlets (like MinnMax) that I've found by embracing this awesome hobby that you introduced me to. You're awesome. Thank you. Brady Easter Edmond, OK

Matt Rogers

Maybe I’m just too much of a scaredy cat, but my heart was racing during the Killer Croc encounter in his lair. I had recently played through Resident Evil 7 and the jump scare I’d get from him coming out of the water was worse than anything in RE: 7. Having never played Arkham Asylum before, this was a surprise!

Sandshrewd

Love, love, love that Croc section. Not many areas have made me feel so tense. Nothing worse than hearing the music of him charging you and frantically spinning around because I can't see him. The arm reaching out of water when you use the line launcher is just icing on the cake. One of the best sewer sections ever. Also, the after credit scene shows an arm reaching out of the water grabbing a crate of titan. It's either Scarecrow, Croc, or Bane. I remember reading theories on game forums on what triggers each arm, but as far as I know it turned out to be random. I got Scarecrow this time. Who did you guys get?

shades42

Hey MinnMaxers! Did anyone play the game on hard difficulty on their playthrough? I found that once they introduced the inmates with guns, the game slowed down really quickly since I could be taken down with 2-3 shots even with full health. I think the addition of a gradual health recovery or any health recovery of any kind would have helped the game immensely especially on high difficulties. What do you think about adding that feature or would it break the game in some ways?

James Baldwin

Couple of random thoughts: Use the middle stick to dodge Joker's gun fire I know the boss fights were criticized at the time, but even still the Poison Ivy one feels like such a relic compared to how well most other aspects of the game have aged. Others have mentioned but the party entrance was great. I was consistently impressed with how many enemies the game was able to handle at one time but that really took it up a notch. Poison Ivy's homing bubble things are just bad. I hate how much the lock-on to you and I don't even enjoy taking them out. Moving right on to City now (I've played them all before) the combat and movement is SO much improved. Combined with the much improved (and surprisingly emotional) story, I don't see how anyone could prefer Asylum honestly. But then again I think Knight might be the best one so...

Dunder

Hello Minnmates, Did you know the post-credits scene where a villain reaches out of the water and grabs on to a floating box of Titan formula is one of three random selections? It was speculated the scene was tied to how many Riddler trophies you had collected, but it seems the player is randomly assigned a scene with Bane, Scarecrow, or Killer Croc. Back when it released, this led to a lot of speculation regarding the sequel. Which scene did you get?

Jeorin

Hi friends! I want to talk about some glitches I experienced during my play. Early on during the first Scarecrow sequence, I had a couple of crashes when transitioning between rooms. The first time, the game locked up completely and I had to force close it, and the second time I had a crash to desktop. When the game 'glitched' for the the third Scarecrow sequence, I totally panicked. Well played. The next glitch was right at the end. When Joker injected himself with Titan and his eyes went all crazy, the game immediately transitioned me straight into the final boss arena. Joker was frozen in place on the ground. I could punch him, but to no effect. I ended up unlocking the 40x combo achieve from this, then gave up and restarted from the checkpoint. This took me to the cutscene showing police choppers, and the proper transition into the fight. At least one other member of the community had this same bug happen. Very odd. Did any of the crew experience any strange (unintentional) glitches or problems running the game?

KnockingNick

Did you guys have any trouble with Poison Ivy's bulbous plants that shoot poisonous orbs at you? This is atleast my fifth time playing through the game (first time beating it on hard difficulty, yay me!), and I've never not been hurt by them. Is there anyway at all to get the jump on them without triggering their orbs of death?

KnockingNick

I really enjoy your 'warm' welcoming at Joker's party at the end. I also love that you can get a trophy/achievement for pummeling all of the henchmen!

Kris Calkins

Just something I think about when I play these games but why would anyone want to live in this city where the authorities are inept at keeping these super villains locked up and the masked vigilantes who supposedly operate outside the law refuse to kill them. I'm on Jason Todd's side in this universe.

Charles Bean

What did Croc do to deserve a cool lair as a prisoner? Special treatment much??

The_Smak

There are a bunch of ominous Latin phrases written all over the penitentiary. Presumably put there by Amadeus Arkham to cement his transformation from healer to executioner. Below are the phrases as well as there translations: - On the walls of the Main Cell Block: Nemo Est Supra Legis - No one is above the law Mors Certa,Hora Incerta - death is certain, its hour is uncertain Actus Non Facit Reum Nisi Mens Sit Rea - An act does not make one guilty unless there is a criminal intent - In huge letters on the 2nd floor of the Cell Block: Non Compos Mentis - Not of sound mind Homo Homini Lupis - Man is a wolf to man - At the entrance to The Green Mile and Ivy's cell Liberate Me Ex Inferis - Free me from hell

Andy H

The last Scarecrow section followed right away by the Killer Croc section was epic. The building tension throughout was almost too much.

Bdun912

There is a lot to like about the last Scarecrow section—the glitch, the role reversal of the opening scene but for me it was the fake game over screen. I went from confusion to irritation to admiration in a matter of seconds when you realize what is happening and Batman is coming up out of the grave. Great stuff—and while I obviously remembered this moment, I didn’t remember exactly when it happened so the glitch got me a second time all these years later.

Brendan Regan

Killer Croc put up a good performance, but I think we can all see through his charade. He was definitely on the side of justice. He stopped Scarecrow from poisoning the water supply, was growing the plant that was used for the antidote in his lair, and opened up pathways to help Batman navigate his lair. To help sell his "bad guy" schtick he made it look like he was attacking Batman, but it's obvious there was no real danger as he clearly telegraphed his moves and gave plenty of time to react. Through his valiant actions Croc proved that he is the hero Arkham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.

The Krispy Kreme Lemur

Couple things I enjoyed about the gadgets in this half: Yanking off vent grates with the improved batclaw felt like cracking a fresh can of pepsi compared to the furious button mashing required in the first half. Also, so much fun how Batman will kick at enemies while slipping by them on the line launcher.

RiskyChrisP

Hey Divers, I just wanted to comment on a fun, fourth wall breaking bit of dialogue Riddler says as you near the 100% mark of his challenges. He accuses you of looking them up on the internet! He obviously isn’t talking to Batman, because no one on the internet there would be able to tell him the locations or answers, so he must be speaking directly to the player. This had a special impact on me because playing asylum for the first time I took pride in the fact I didn’t look anything up because it was going to be my first platinum trophy. Also, in case no one else mentions it, Sharp’s secret room is still in the game on the PS4 Return to Arkham version, though it did take me quite a few tries to get the placement of the explosions correct. I’d love to hear if it is somehow missing from the Xbox version for some bizarre reason.

Shawn Mills

Hi Minnmaxers, Let's talk about the true villain running Arkham Asylum, Scarface. You first see him in a case in the warden's office where you can take a picture of him as a riddle solution where he looks like his normal self. He next shows up during the third Scarecrow scene as the warden for Arkham Asylum doing the announcements as Joker is bringing you in and he mentions that the Joker cut a smile on his face. Finally, Joker is shown arguing with him when you finally reach him at the end and Joker has cut a smile on his face. How did Joker get the doll from the warden's case and how did Batman know that Joker was going to cut a smile in its face before it happened? Also how weird is it that they included Scarface but there isn't any reference to the Ventriloquist? Either way I like that such a minor villain has so many different cameos in the game, I wish he had come back for City or Knight.

Benjamin

Hey, anyone notice just how big the moon is? It's like Melancholia sized. It's wild.

KaijuWill

Anyone else "defeat" the Riddler? -- Spoiler -- Once you find the second-to-last trophy, a message shows up which shows that Batman knows the Riddler's location, and it looks like he sends it to the police. Once you find the last one, the Riddler calls you, and in the background, you hear the cops busting in and arresting him--presumably the time it took you from when you found the second-to-last trophy and the last is how long it took the cops to get to him. It felt so good listening to a bit of audio that showed how he got taken down.

Steven Sell

Did anyone NOT beat the crap out of the hallway of guys on the way to "the party"?

Matt Lynch

I thought the poison ivy fight was really cool visually. It reminded me a lot of late game resident evil boss fights. I wish it wouldve been something more than just spamming the quick batarang though.

EJ Crough

I first played the game on an old plasma tv me and my roommates went in on on craiglist when I was in college. When the last Scarecrow bit happens I was convinced that the TV had imploded. It really got me!