Batman: Arkham Knight
PlayStation 4
I have always been a fan of the Batman: Arkham series. The original game in the series, Arkham Asylum, caught me completely off guard the first time I played it. It blew me away. The graphics, the setting, the characters, the action, the atmosphere, all the hidden things to collect - everything was top of the line. It was far and away the best Batman game I had ever played.
I really wanted to love its follow up, Arkham City. I did enjoy it, but to me it was not as good as its predecessor. Then I played Arkham Origins, which I did not like very much at all. It seemed clear to me that the series was on a steady decline. That had me worried about Arkham Knight.
Before playing the game, I had read a lot of mixed reviews about it. Most of the people who did not like the game tended to focus their hatred on one thing: the introduction of the Batmobile into the series. I read that the game was too Batmobile-intensive and that it completely killed things for a lot of people. I heard the game called crap or trash quite often. There were positive reviews out there too, but you know how negative people like to drown out the positive ones.
I came into this game with an open mind, however. I really, really did not like Arkham Origins. There was no way this game could be worse than that, right? Turns out I was indeed right! I ended up liking this game a lot. I'd probably put it right behind the original Arkham Asylum as my favorite game in the series. If that game didn't hold such sentimental value for me, Arkham Knight may have even surpassed it.
Arkham Knight is the fourth and supposedly final game in the series. I have heard rumors that there may be another prequel in the works, ala Arkham Origins, so that is why I say supposedly. In the timeline of the series, this game is set after Arkham City, which was the second game released in the series. It had been a very long time since I had played Arkham City (7 years to be exact) so I didn't really remember how things ended. Spoiler alert: it ended with the Joker dying.
The Joker has always been a big part of the series, so I was curious as to who was going to carry the game in his absence. Turns out I didn't have to worry long - Batman is haunted by visions of the Joker throughout the entire game. He randomly appears and starts talking to you as you play. This happens quite often actually. In fact, it is one of the few complaints I have about the game. At first it was a fun novelty and a nice way to get the Joker involved even in death. But they take it a bit too far in my humble opinion. You barely get five minutes of silence in the game when he is not talking to you.
With the Joker dead, the Scarecrow takes the reigns as the game's top villain. The premise of the story is that the Scarecrow has threatened to flood Gotham City with his fear toxin. The city's civilians evacuate. This leaves the whole city open for all of Gotham's thugs and villains to use as their own personal playground. The police stay behind to try and keep some semblance of order, but it is clear that they are not enough. Enter Batman.
If you have played any of the past Arkham games, you should know what to expect here. With the exception of a few added wrinkles, combat is essentially the same. Zip lining around the city is essentially the same. There are some detective mode puzzles. As usual, Riddler trophies pepper the entire game map. You "level up" as you go and gain access to new abilities and new technology. Don't expect any drastic differences from past Arkham titles.
The game's biggest change is the addition of the Batmobile. The Batmobile is very fast and allows you to get from point to point much faster than you would zipping around the city. Although admittedly, I did find myself zipping around more than driving. You can see and discover a lot more from the game's rooftops! The main purpose of the Batmobile aside from transportation is to engage in tank battles. The Batmobile is equipped with rockets and a machine gun. Instruments of death, which doesn't seem very Batman like, The game sidesteps this issue by making the enemies that you fight unmanned tanks and drones. So by blowing them up, Batman really is not killing anyone. When you fire at enemies on foot, the game switches your ammunition to rubber pellets which simply knock your foes unconscious.
The tank battles are the main source of criticism that I have seen directed at the game. I personally like them and thought they were a nice change of pace. Kind of like mini-games within the main game. They are quite frequent though, so I can see why people would not like them. The Batmobile is also used for a lot of puzzles in the game. One of the subplots of Arkham Knight is that the Riddler has captured Catwoman. You need to complete a series of challenges to free her. Often you must use the Batmobile to solve these challenges. Certain challenges include using the Batmobile's winch to rappel down walls. Other challenges include moving the vehicle around to place on pressure pads. There are a lot of races you have to complete to move on. Kind of out of place for a Batman game. There are also a lot of boss battles that involve the Batmobile too. Again, I didn't mind it. But I know a lot of people took exception to the fact that you have to use the car for SO much in the game.
The game introduces a new villain into the fold: the Arkham Knight. While Scarecrow is the main villain, the Arkham Knight is nearly his equal. This mysterious character looks and sounds a bit like a robot. In fact, he reminded me quite a bit of Gray Fox from Metal Gear Solid. If you have played that game before, you will know exactly what I am talking about. Much of the mystery of the game revolves around the Arkham Knight's secret identity, and why he hates Batman so much. I was expecting some big reveal, but it turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment in the end. Unless I just have a really bad memory, it is someone who up to this point had not been relevant to the series.
The main goal of the game is to take down Scarecrow, the Arkham Knight, and the Riddler. But this is the Arkham series. Expect to see most (but not all) of the game's previous villains make appearances here. Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn are the first to immediately come to mind. There are a lot more. I was happy and surprised to see Man-Bat make his Arkham series debut. The sidequest where you have to take him down is one of my favorite in the game.
Speaking of sidequests, there are a lot in this game. Notable ones include disarming surveillance towers, destroying patrol drones, eradicating troop squadrons, rescuing captured fire fighters, and disabling mines and explosive devices. Any time you disable one of these bombs it triggers a massive tank battle. Be ready for that! Also, there are Riddler trophies galore to collect.
To me, the game's biggest flaw is that you can not complete the story mode 100% until you have collected all the Riddler trophies. You can defeat Scarecrow. You can defeat the Arkham Knight. You can see the "kinda" ending that the game gives you for finishing up these quests. But if you want to see the "real" ending, you have to collect all 250-ish Riddler trophies. This is absolutely absurd and I refused to do it. I just watched the ending on YouTube. Even collecting as many as I could while I played through the game, I only had 25% of the trophies at game's end. I was NOT going to waste my time collecting them all. Even with online guides and YouTube strategies, it would have taken me hours and hours to do this. It was not worth the time. That was the game's biggest flaw to me. Not the Batmobile. Not anything else. It pissed me off, to be honest with you. Especially considering that this is the game's final installment. It felt cheap and dishonest to me.
But thank the maker for YouTube. Unless you're a collector or completionist I'd advise you to do the same thing I did!
We are almost to the end of this review and I haven't even touched on the game's graphics, which are incredible, or the game's voice acting, which is equally amazing. Mark Hamill returns as the voice of the Joker, and Kevin Conroy as Batman. While they are the two best voice actors in the game, that doesn't mean anyone else is a slouch either. From top to bottom there was not a single performance I was unsatisfied with. I guess if I did have to nitpick I would say that the constant radio chatter of the game's street thugs was a bit annoying. But it was not enough to make me mute the TV or anything. I am just nitpicking.
All in all I found this to be an excellent game. It is extremely addicting. I don't know if I have been this addicted to a game in a long time. Every time I would tell myself I was done playing I would seek out "just one more" mission on the map. There is so much to see in this game and so much to do. The quality of the game is top notch. Graphics, sound, storyline, presentation, missions, collectibles, combat, and so much more. I even enjoyed the controversial Batmobile segments of the game. There is very little the game does wrong. This is a very fitting conclusion to the Arkham series.
I just wish you didn't have to get all the Riddler trophies to see the real ending.
Overall:
A
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