Batman: Arkham Knight

Playtime: 65.3 Hours

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this game. Keep in mind, in terms of gameplay, this is the best Superhero action-packed experience you can get.

I was never bored while playing this game, and that is something crucial every game needs. I really appreciated being able to travel around Gotham, (although I do prefer Origins layout), that being said, this game is incredibly more detailed, and despite being 10 years old at this point, it is still visually stunning, and definitely holds up til this day.

I have 100%'d this game. Like I said the gameplay is fantastic. The Arkham series has always had phenomenal Stealth sections that always keep you on your toes. Sure, you are able to see every enemy, you know whether or not there is consequences if you attack an enemy, and it is quite easy to escape. That being said, there is still tension. Especially on Knightmare Mode where you'll likely die if you get caught.

The combat is something I really love, and I also love the arena challenges the game has as well. If you want to get better at this game, these arena challenges are so good at providing that fix. Your options of attack are items on your utility belt, dodge, counter & attack. But you are rewarding for not spamming enemies. There is a perk where your attacks do DOUBLE DAMAGE when you sync your button presses to the attacks on screen. Just spamming attack negates this. You are rewarded for building up combos with instant takedown attacks and being hurt yourself breaks this chain. This system was so well done & utilized, it eventually inspired the combat seen in Marvel's Spider-Man game. And while that is really good as well, I believe this one is done better.

The Batmobile is also playable this time around! And while I think the driving sections of this game is excellent, I do think the combat sections aren't nearly as fun. It's a point, shoot, done, deal. And I have my own issues with the idea of them being 'unmanned.' But that's a story-related issue, and I will get to that later.

In the meantime, I also really appreciate the level-design for this game. You are rewarded for exploring different methods of taking someone down. Whether it be through vents, grates of explodable walls. As I said earlier, Gotham looks so beautiful, the lighting is spectacular, and I love being able to go from the highest point in the city and glide all the way down. The grappling hook is such a great tool that allows for the smoothness of travel and again, you are rewarded for well timed jumps with greater speeds and heights.

However, while game is brilliant in terms of gameplay, what it falls short on, is the story. The story & characters of this game are so terribly done that it pains me. Sure there are a few that's still good. Azrael, Jim Gordon, Barbara, Tim, and a few more. But there is so much more on the other side I'd like to talk about.

I could go one-by-one explaining why they are done so poorly, instead I'm going to focus on what I consider to be the most jarring.

Deathstroke is a joke. An utter joke. Wasted on this game. He was done so perfectly in Arkham Origins. That boss fight felt like two masters slowly picking and prodding to wear the other down. Deathstroke is confident, he is arrogant, but he is skilled. A master of one-on-one combat.

In this game he is a whiny child. A whiny child that makes other people fight for him. And when you finally get to face him, he is down in one attack. They completly changed how the character acted between Origins & Knight, that I would have just preferred that he wasn't in the game.

The Joker is in this game. Which shouldn't be surprising considering this is a Batman game. But the Joker died in Arkham City, we saw Harley grieve and continue to grieve in this one. That aspect is done really well. But he shouldn't have came back, even if it was just a hallucination in Batman's mind. By the time Arkham Origins rolled around, we wanted a new villain to take the stage. Now, the Joker in Arkham Origins is a fantastically well done character, and the dynamic between him & Batman in that game is my favorite dynamic in the series. But there is a sense of loss when Joker dies in Arkham City, that dissipates knowing he comes back in this one. I think it wasn't something that should have been done.

However, that doesn't even bring us close to the travesty that is the Arkham Knight. The Arkham Knight is the worst written character in the game. Now, I love Jason Todd. Under the Red Hood is my favorite Batman movie. Everyone knew the Arkham Knight was Jason Todd because who else could it have been? It was a stupid marketing campaign, and I would have much preferred if they started with Red Hood from the very start.

So Jason has actually been through a lot more physical and psychological damage from the Joker than the comic-book counterpart. And even if you didn't know about Jason, it becomes very clear he is the Arkham Knight when you start seeing

him show up as hallucinations.

So it was thought Jason Todd was dead. We learn that he wasn't. He was being held captive by Joker for a little over a year, and was manipulated by Joker to thinking Batman didn't care for him, and replaced him with Tim Drake.

Now what makes this story confusing, is that he isn't talked about AT ALL, in the previous Arkham games. He is only indirectly mentioned in City, so him being here in the first place leaves a lot of first time players wondering when Batman had a second Robin. Even a scene or so, where Nightwing, Tim Drake or Barbara said something like "I wonder what Jason would have done," while looking at an old Robin suit, would have made this adjustment feel so much more natural. He is being shoe-horned into the fourth game in series, and it hurts me that it is done so badly.

So Jason wants to kill Batman because he betrayed and replaced him with Tim. Now what this could have led to, is some interesting interactions with the two, with Jason wanting to kill off the replacement or something. This does not happen, the two don't interact at all. That being said, there is good audio logs that can be found with Barbara and Jason, but it doesn't satisfy the itch for me.

There was so much wasted potential, that it does hurt me. There isn't a scene with Jason learning that the Joker is dead. Or briefly thinking that Batman 'killed' the Joker, because the Joker 'killed' him. The premise is faulty from the start.

The game went too over the top with remote tanks. If there were people inside the tanks, there would be a lot less reason for Batman to shoot them. It would mean he couldn't just blow them up because of his no-kill rule, he'd need to think things clearly true. Instead, the developers decided to swarm Batman with tanks he can shoot without remorse, and at the end of the day, it doesn't improve the story or gameplay, it just gives a reason to for the most destructive route as possible.

I just feel like this aspect story could have been much more simpler, removing a lot of the unnecessary spectacle along the way. That being said, the scarecrow storyline is better done. And the ending of this game is well-done. This game is good but it could have been so much better.

And that is the biggest tragedy of this game. It was on the cusp of being a brilliant game. Arkham Knight is only a great game, and that really sucks.