Corey Krull wrote an excellent review of “Batman: Arkham Asylum” (http://www.ablegamers.com/pc/batman-arkham-asylum.html) last year when the game was released, but primarily focused on the PC version. With that in mind, please remember that this review focuses ONLY on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Since Corey described the events in the game, there isn’t much reason to repeat them here, except to note that this is indeed the best game based on a comic book to date. Paul Dini, a long-time writer for Batman comics, penned the script for the game (which also seems to borrow a bit from Grant Morrison’s renowned “Arkham Asylum” graphic novel) and it truly captures the dark, brooding feel of both Gotham and the criminals that populate the city. Furthermore, the combat sequences capture how many of us imagine that Batman would fight – constantly flowing from kicks and strikes to counters and takedowns without stopping until all opponents are down. The graphics for the 360 version are very well rendered, and provide a gritty feel which does a fantastic job of establishing the dark world Batman inhabits. Depending on how much you explore, the game can be finished in 10-15 hours, although I spent about 20 hours on my first playthrough because I wanted to solve all the puzzles and collect all of the Riddler trophies, etc.

Accessibility Issues / Concerns

First and foremost, it appears that a demo version of “Batman: Arkham Asylum” is still available through the Xbox 360 marketplace – before buying or renting the game, I would strongly suggest downloading and playing the demo to make sure it works for you; while all reviewers do their best to analyze a game and explain where it is and is not accessible, accessibility varies for individuals with different concerns; in this case, you can try it before you buy it and make sure it works for you.

“Batman: Arkham Asylum,” on its easiest difficulty setting, appears to have been designed for a casual gamer which, in this case, improves accessibility. In Corey’s review, he mentioned that there are quite a few button combinations – while this is true, it’s also possible to finish the game using little more than the X button to strike. In some events, you’ll need to dodge a charging enemy, but the game usually reminds you of the command to dodge while you’re playing. In my case, I rarely used more than glide kicks, which require being perched on a ledge or gargoyle and pressing a button, basic striking and batarangs, which require using both triggers. Much like “Bayonetta” on the 360, the combat commands can be as simple or as complex as you like, but will not prevent you from finishing the game. Furthermore, if you lose a boss fight, the game restarts at the beginning of the event, making it significantly less frustrating. However, there are no options to remap the controls which may make things more challenging for some gamers.

The game is reasonably well subtitled, but only subtitles character dialogue. It does not specify which character is speaking, nor does it subtitle ambient noises or sound effects. Considering that the atmospheric effects are part of the haunting mood at Arkham, and that you can often hear enemies before seeing them, this oversight is both an aesthetic and practical problem for deaf gamers. Luckily, Detective Mode offsets that by allowing you to see through walls with thermal scanning, identifying how many enemies are in the next area and how many are armed. Still, the Joker broadcasts a significant number of taunts through the Arkham public address system and it would have been nice to see those subtitles included. A final concern with subtitling, as is true for other games, is that it’s difficult to read on a standard definition television screen and there is no way to adjust the size, color or font for subtitled text to make it easier to read.

Color blind gamers will likely have an issue with Detective Mode in that it displays armed enemies in red. Later in the game, a cryptographic tool uses colors from orange to a shade of green to indicate how close the player is to hacking an electronic lock – the tool also displays progress using a wave like you would see on an oscilloscope screen so this difficulty is offset somewhat. However, “Batman: Arkham Asylum” does not use green and red at the same time – it is always one or the other, hopefully making it easier for color blind gamers.

For gamers with precision concerns, there are very few timed events, and in the event a player does not successfully complete the task, the game restarts at the beginning of the task. While there are some puzzles that depend on having a proper vantage point to solve them (namely lining up The Riddler’s question marks), it doesn’t seem that a gamer needs to find the exact pixel to do so. Combat does not rely on precision – facing an opponent and pressing the X button on the controller is enough to fight. Grappling and other movement typically snaps to a point defined by the game; in essence, the game automatically selects the proper location to grapple to, meaning that gamers don’t really need to worry about whether a point will hold them – if it won’t, the game won’t let you grapple to it. Even climbing and leaping is largely automated, meaning that the primary concern the gamer has is unraveling The Joker’s plot, not trying to figure out which pixel is safe to land on.

All things considered, “Batman: Arkham Asylum” feels like a significantly accessible game which is open to a wide variety of gamers with accessibility concerns; perhaps more importantly, it’s a game which feels significant accessible that is also a LOT of fun to play.

Details
Precision: You may need a small amount of precision to play the single-player campaign, but the game is highly forgiving. When grappling from location to location, the game targets for you. When targeting enemies with a glide kick, the game will target them for you. While you generally need to be facing an opponent to fight them or perform a ground takedown, the game seems to provide a significant amount of leeway, especially when set at the lowest difficulty. I cannot recall anything about this game with respect to precision that would present problems to gamers with motor function concerns. Recommend rating of 8 out of 10.

Deaf Gamers: The game is substantially subtitled, but omits sound effects and ambient noise. It also doesn’t note which character in the game is speaking at any given time, and it can be difficult to read on a standard definition television screen. Recommend rating of 7 out of 10.

One-handed: The game frequently requires the use of both triggers, one to aim and one to use a gadget, whether a grapple gun, a batarang or some other device. It also makes use of both sticks to control the character and view. Furthermore, it does not offer an option to remap controls. While I’m sure it’s possible to play and complete this game using only one hand, it would be difficult. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10.

Subtitled: The subtitles can be difficult to read on a standard definition television screen. Sound effects and ambient noises are not subtitled, and the speaker is not identified. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10.

Color Blind: In Detective Mode, a way to view objectives, opponents, items that can be interacted with, etc., enemies with weapons are red, which may present problems for gamers with color blindness. Furthermore, a tool uses colors from orange to a shade of green to indicate how close the player is to hacking an electronic lock. The game also uses waves – much like an oscilloscope – to indicate how close the player is to success which may offset the use of color in that instance. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10.