Batman: Return to Arkham Reviews
It’s been great revisiting two wonderful games, but the framerate drops and lighting changes take away much of the charm of playing them.
Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are two superb action games that are essential for Batman fans. The ports in Return to Arkham have good intentions but fall short of the greatness required.
Batman: Return to Arkham is a good game but and awful remaster. It should have improved the frame rate, visuals and gameplay, but does none of that leaving the game almost as it was.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While the underlying games hold up as well as they ever did, Batman: Return to Arkham as a remasterwas very disappointing — especially compared to others that masterfully retouch games like Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection or Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Of the two, only Arkham Ayslum’s remaster is worth playing through; with no additional content beyond both games’ previous DLC, I would only recommend Return to Arkham to either die-hard Batman fans or those who don’t have access to an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Two great games from the last generation, very improved in graphics but sadly still with the same frame rate.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Two classic games made to look notably worse than they did over five years ago, which is one villainous masterplan even Batman can’t foil.
There’s only so much that the excellent Arkham Asylum and Arkham City can do for this remaster collection, however. It should have been an easy slam dunk: port the game over to the Unreal Engine 4, apply some polish, maybe through in some behind-the-scenes features, and profit! Instead, what we end up with is a poorly-optimized port which sees even the older Arkham Asylum stuttering from the game’s first moments, and some odd lighting that cuts into the otherwise excellent ambiance of both games. Then there’s the glaring omission of Batman: Arkham Origins. It all adds up to feeling like an unfinished product. If you already have both Asylum and City on their original platforms, you can safely skip this re-release.
It is, at least, refreshing to say that Batman: Return to Arkham happens to be one of the better collections out there, even if it is missing the criminally underrated Arkham Origins.
Batman: Return to Arkham is a package of two stellar games and impossible not to recommend to anyone who hasn’t played them yet.
Two of the finest games of the past decade don't quite get the treatment they deserve in Return to Arkham, with Arkham Asylum in particular, suffering more than benefitting from the visual overhaul. The game’s are still magnificent love letters to Gotham’s protector though, even if these remasters don’t give the same level of respect to the pointy-eared one.
Batman: Return to Arkham isn't the greatest ever remaster, but the price offers excellent value and the gameplay of both Asylum and City still hold up. Couple two of the greatest superhero games of all time with their DLC, and you get a lot of bang for your buck here.
Batman: Return to Arkham includes the first two episodes of the franchise, of course with all the DLC and content released so far. The graphical improvements are impressive, with new models and animations.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Batman: Return to Arkham collection is the video-game equivalent of that old “You Had One Job” meme.
Batman: Return to Arkham is neither the game that Gotham fanboys deserve or need right now. Not even the dark knight can foil a plot to downgrade the visuals of two video games which defined his legend for a new medium several years ago.
On the one hand, it’s a shame that a little more love and care hasn’t been expended on making Return to Arkham the definitive edition of these two classic games. On the other, both still look fantastic and both richly deserve their existing reputation as classics of the last console generation. In fact, both in serious contention for the title of best superhero game of all time. If you have a PS4 or Xbox One and didn’t play the originals, play these. Just be aware that, if you did, you’re not getting a substantially superior experience.
Batman: Return To Arkham is a good way to experience both games if you haven't already played them previously. Returning players and PC gamers will probably be better off sticking to the original releases, which still hold up quite well, despite the technical improvements.
Perfection in remastering. Batman: Return to Arkham is something that I was hoping for since they announced Batman: Arkham Knight on the PS4. I wanted to go back to the beginning of the series without having to go back to finding my PS3 and setting it up. It's good to see that instead of going the cheap code upgrade route that a lot of PS3 remasters have gone through (I'm looking at you Resident Evil), Rocksteady decided to take the care to get the game engine upgraded and used to its potential. This is right up there with Bioshock: The Collection in terms of how to do a remastered game for this generation.
Batman: Return to Arkham is a good collection that has considerable upgrades in a lot of areas, especially with DLC and other nice value add-ons. It does fall short a bit with graphical issues and frame rate, but nothing that would detour you from playing both games again on the PS4. The two original games are still some of the best adventures out there and worth any sort of graphical trouble, especially for those who have never tried them.
Certainly anyone who missed out should prioritize this release. O
If you had been stressing over getting rid of your older game system but had been holding on because of not having these games for the new system, your wait is over. This package is a must have for your gaming library. Batman Return to Arkham is for now the definitive collection that has Batman Arkham Asylum and Batman Arkham City…. and ALL of the DLC for both games.