If you have played any Batman games in the past then you know that these games have a long history of disappointing fans. It looks as though the disappointment has finally ended with Batman: Arkham Asylum from Rocksteady Studios. I suggest that you throw out any bad notions that you may have about superhero games where the Dark Knight is concerned.

At first glance you can see that this game was a labor of love and time was spent to get it as close to perfection as possible in just about every aspect.

The writing is superb; the game opens with Batman racing towards Gotham’s Arkham Asylum, home for the criminally insane, with his prisoner, The Joker. The super villain called “Joker” broke out of prison a few weeks before the story begins but Batman was able to apprehend him as usual.

After getting the Joker back into Arkham, it seems as though he has set a trap. He is able to break free with the help of Harley Quinn, his twisted love interest. The evil two-some take control of the prison and set all of the inmates free.

Ok, that does sound like your typical Batman story but the game has a more adult theme. The story takes you on a fun and interesting ride with some dark and morbid twists and turns. Adding to the great storyline is excellent voiceover work done by some of the same people from Batman: The Animated Series, including Mark Hamill as the Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman. By using the voice actors from the hit cartoon series, the game manages to hold certain continuity for those fans that are religious followers of the Batman saga.
Gameplay
As for the gameplay, all I can say is that it is downright entertaining.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a third-person action game where the player assumes the role of the Dark Knight himself. You will feel a connection while playing as Batman and the action is so intense that sometimes you feel like you are actually are the superhero.

Being able to use all of his gadgets from the long-running series is definitely a one of the top reasons to play this game. Items such as the “Batarang,” grappling hook, explosive gel, zip-line and other memorable Batman gadgets, add to the immersion of the game in a delightful way. Throughout the game, you gain XP during combat, which can be used to purchase power-ups for your suit and gadgets that make them even cooler. In addition, you will be able to get special moves that make the screen when unique combat better and better.

Hand to hand combat is one of the best parts of the game and you may find it the easiest. All you have to do is point Batman towards an enemy with the mouse or joypad then press a button to attack. You are then able to do counter attacks to help block bad guys from hitting you. If you are surrounded by enemies, you can attack more than one at once. You are able to punch, kick, grab, dropkick and more.
Putting these moves together to create combos grants increased XP that enables you to perform special attacks, which are the some of the eye candy in the game. Another enjoyable move is the silent attacks; when you are crouching and sneaking up behind an enemy Batman chokes them out for a takedown. The other is where you can drop down from a gargoyle, grab an enemy, pull them up, loop a rope around their neck, let them go and watch them hang, all of which is done with one move.

Although, I wouldn’t hang around there for too long because once you do this other enemies are alerted to the area by collars that go off when they are dying, so just swing away to another gargoyle to avoid detection and then go after another victim.

Another fun attack is a gliding kick, where you fly down and end with a kick, which is great for making an enemy with a gun, drop their weapon. There are so many attack types to choose from and so many ways to plan your attacks, it really adds to the replayability of the game.

Accessibility

This is the part of the review that I really do not want to write but… it must be done. It is such a great game with so much potential but the accessibility issues in this game may keep many disabled gamers locked in the Asylum.

The main issue is with the controls, on the PC side there are too many keyboard commands, which makes it difficult to do almost anything for most disabled gamers with motor impairments and one-handed gamers.

It personally took me at least thirty minutes to remap the controls to where I felt comfortable; this was odd for me because the majority of the time it only takes approximately five minutes for the first time setup. I suggest that you try out the demo before you decide to buy the game just to see what you can and cannot do. One promising thing to remember is that I play with a mouth-controlled mouse, I type with two fingers using Morse code and I found a way to play.

On the console side, the controls can be somewhat clumsy and of course, they cannot be remapped. There are quite a few buttons combinations and both analog sticks must be used. Meaning once again, one-handed gamers in particular are going to have extreme difficulty.

For our deaf gamer friends, the closed captioning is good as hardly any dialogue is without close captioning or text input. In addition, for those that are color-blind I really found one major problem. When you are in detective mode and there is an enemy with a weapon he will be red, which makes it difficult to distinguish from those that do not have weapons. You may be able to find a workaround if you can slightly distinguish red tones. However, this is not a game stopping issue but it will make the game more difficult for you.

Batman leaves out most accessibility

Batman: Arkham Asylum will most likely be a contender for game of the year but not for the AbleGamers game of the year. The game has it all and surprisingly has a great deal of replay value; you can approach missions any way you please with no limitations.

Just as the movies have improved rapidly so has the Batman videogame franchise. Although, it does fall short in the most important area for our readers and that is accessibility. It would be great to give the game very high marks in all categories but that would only be hurting you. I say give it a try but if you don’t think that you can even play it because of the poor accessibility option then ultimately I suggest staying away from this title.