Batman: Arkham Asylum

Alright, instead of posting a 'how to' guide, I'll toss out some general tips and tricks I found useful on the journey through hard.

You can die very quickly if you're in a battle with multiple enemies, even if you're excellent with the counter button. A couple hits is still enough to take you down. Therefore, I highly recommend armour upgrades first. Second, you probably want to grab the multiple batarang upgrades, then the proximity upgrade for the plastic explosive (you get the weapon as you progress).

There are a few moves you need to master. The counter button (Y) in a fight is essential and it will take time to get it down right. Another is the RT+Y attack when a guy is down - it finishes him off. The second you have a group dazed on the ground, try and finish a couple guys ASAP. The third is double tap A (the dodge) - this will be your saving grace against large groups of goons, armed goons, titans and Poison Ivy.

In Gargoyle rooms with armed guards, there are two strategies that help. When facing 5-7 guys, make use of the Inverted Takedown. It's quiet and won't startle anyone. Also, make use of your plastic explosives and multiple batarangs, they are your saving grace - a well timed explosion or great 3 batarang shot will down a group, allowing you to swoop in and KO all 3 before they can get up. The armed goons take you down almost instantly, so you have to be incredibly careful.

As far as boss battles go...

Bane isn't too difficult if you can time your dodges and you can tap LT (the quick release batarang) - you'll catch him every time and send him crashing into the wall. The guards that help him are damned annoying, try and avoid them by running away until one or two are isolated and you can take them safely.

Scarecrow (x3) is basically a platform mini game and you'll figure out quick that going into the light is your end. Difficulty is irrelevant on this one as it's as simple as getting caught or not.

Poison Ivy gave me fits. The first half of the battle is relatively easy, make sure you use the dodge button a ton, avoiding the vines in the ground and the plant ions she fires at you. Once you blow the protective shell once, you get a save (thank god) and it's the same thing over again, just with tons of goons. I planted explosives at points and made sure to target goons near the edge as to knock them off. Basically it's an exercise in multitasking to focus on the vines as well. When she begins to shoot at you, simply keeping tapping A and LT to keep diving but also quick shooting the batarang - Batman is incredibly accurate. It IS hard but doable.

Joker is incredibly easy compared to Ivy. He's basically like a titan who doesn't charge and the battle is essentially you being able to beat up guards. Make sure to kick any close to the electric fences into them for insta kill, as well as target any guards who go for the guns. This really tests your combo skills which by now, should be good. Use the bombs Joker lets loose to your advantage - lure a group of enemies near one, trigger it and it'll stun all of them.

All in all, I found it on the same par difficulty as Ghostbusters - very challenging at points, mostly doable for the rest of the way and overall, an awesome playthrough. If you're familiar/a fan of the Assassin's Creed combat system, you may find this one to your liking/have an easier time getting good at it.

Good luck!

this guide is going to be short and to the point

use detective mode whenever possible

get the upgrade where you can do a combo takedown ASAP

save one health upgrade for the end (i used it when i had to fight the titan in the elevator shaft, but if you get through that use it during the battle with poison ivy, and be sure that your health is low when you use it otherwise it will be a waste)

when you get to the end, dont fight the guards waiting for you to go through (although i did)

and in the mansion when you see around 20 guards, use hit-and-run tactics (knock out a few, leave the building, rinse and repeat.)

if you need any help just send me a message on xbox live telling where you are and i will get you through it as best as i can. but for now ill only be online during the weekends. so ill let you know when i can

A few more tips nobody else covered:

- The hardest part for me was fighting the titan and massive waves of convicts in the elevator shaft area after shutting down the pumps. A few tricks here are helpful. First, if you go into the little room the Titan burst out of, you've created a choke point to avoid being surrounded and can use the multi-hook to pull three enemies toward you, then combo in a straight line right out (this hook strategy is a great go-to strategy for yanking a few guys out of a crowd). If that doesn't work then just keep evading your way over enemies' heads back to safety. Second, titans won't charge you unless they can face you without having to turn for awhile, so just running in circles around the room won't work. You can either stand in the mass of guards countering repeatedly until they charge, or evade over their heads, though. Third, the moment the battle starts (before the titan emerges) put a couple of explosive gels down by the elevator where the guys are going to come out. You'll have peace enough to get the titan almost to the 2/3 mark before you even have to throw a punch at a normal mook.

- Remember that you can throw baterangs around corners if you do a corner cover (pressing A by the edge and leaning around a corner - you had to use that move with Zsasz). This is really helpful when you're clearing rooms and enemies are keeping in close packs - with the multi-baterang you can take out at least three at a time.

- If you're evading Ivy's vines often won't damage you, even if you were standing right in the middle of them.

- Putting a bunch of explosive gel down at the beginning of most battles often helps you knock everybody out for a second and get two or three easy takedowns. Food for thought. For example, when Joker stops swiping at you and runs back over to the platform, putting a gel down to the left or right knocks down pretty much all of the mooks right away.

- Without the counter indicators, my brain sometimes seized up and I'd start button mashing or forgetting controls. If there aren't any special enemies going after you, you might want to mash counter for awhile in these situations until you get your bearings.

This is for beating the game on Hard Difficulty, which will also unlock the achievements for beating it on Easy and Normal. You have the play the entire game on Hard, you cannot start at a lower difficulty and change it to Hard at the very end.

Hard is called this because you have no indicator when enemies are about to hit you (on Normal and lower they'll get lines over their head before they're about to hit you) and their hits take more of your health, so as long as you have a decent grasp of the countering system and pay attention to enemies' body language this really isn't that hard.

Something I haven't seen any guides mention is that when you use the Health Upgrade it instantly refills your health to full, so you should NEVER upgrade health until you're in a boss battle when you really need it.

What I highly recommend is when you start the game, go out of your way to get all the collectibles you can to get large amounts of experience, which you should in turn use to upgrade all your combat abilities and not health.

With your combat abilities upgraded to the max early on, it'll make Hard mode much easier as you'll be able to dispatch enemies quicker thanks to the Critical Strike ability and the Instant Takedown.

If you get all the collectibles you can, you'll likely have maxed out abilities and at least one available health upgrade by the time you get to Bane, which is arguably the hardest part in the game and where you will likely need to use your first Health Upgrade/Instant Full HP.

I recommend saving your remaining three health upgrades for:

-the Titan battle after you clean all three water tanks. This is tied with Bane for the hardest part in the game due to how small the arena is

-the Poison Ivy battle. Luckily you get a mid-battle checkpoint here but the second section is still very long and you will likely take too much damage

-the Double Titan battle before you face the Joker. This one isn't too bad but the level design will cause you to take some cheap hits. If you can pass this section without upgrading you'll have extra insurance in the final Joker battle