25 Best Video Games Of The 2000s

5. Batman: Arkham Asylum

The game that set the industry standard for close-quarters combat. Previously we'd had God of War or Devil May Cry's 'mash buttons to win' setup, the occasional quick-time event directing a cutscene to match a cinematic look with an engaging sense of gameplay. Rocksteady suitably said no to that, and (from the ashes of an original rhythm-based design) assigned counters, attacks, dodges and stuns to the various face buttons, before letting that form the basis for your entire repertoire. Naturally the Dark Knight isn't complete without a slew of gadgets, and that's where a subtle take on the Metroidvania formula came in, gating off certain areas until you had the requisite means to get to them. Production-wise Warner Bros. gave the studio any financial clout they needed, to which they used to recruit Batman's Animated Series' cast Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as Joker. Everything played better than any of us expected, and Batman himself had a character model befitting of artists' Frank Miller's heft and Jim Lee's definition, letting you move him with an unprecedented feeling of precision and power regardless of if that was fist-to-fist or skulking from the shadows. No game had ever let you genuinely feel like Batman quite as perfectly as this before, and it's a landmark point that not only set the bar for all future superhero games, but third-person combat in everything else going forward.