“From the ashes of Arkham, Gotham will burn. And you, you
will burn too, Batman”. – Azrael, Arkham
City, 2011
The final entry in the Rocksteady Batman trilogy
(quadrilogy, including Warner Brothers Montreal’s Arkham Origins), and my
primary reason for buying a next-gen console, is finally here. With a hefty
standard to live up to thanks to both of its predecessor’s universal high
scores from critics, this story-closer adds incredible new gameplay elements,
such as driving the Batmobile around an insanely detailed Gotham City and dual
play with allied characters, to the already solid foundations of the series.
Without Bat-legend Paul Dini (writer of Batman: the Animated
Series, and both ‘Asylum’ and ‘City’ entries in the Arkham franchise) writing
the story, some have doubted whether Arkham Knight can cement the legacy of the
Arkhamverse alongside the greatest Batman stories.
So, were those concerns proved valid?
1. Main Plot
The game opens with Commissioner Gordon (voiced by Jonathan
Banks – Mike from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) narrating the fallout from
Arkham City. In essence, with the Joker dead, Gotham waited for a massive crime
war for control of the city, which surprisingly never came. The reason being
that with the Joker’s unpredictability now out of the way, Scarecrow has
convinced the villains to team up and launch a coordinated attack on Batman, in
order to finally end his meddling. With Gotham evacuated due to Scarecrow’s
threat of a chemical weapon being launched, the bad guys get to work
dismantling Batman’s grip on the city, enhanced by the presence of a mercenary military
force led by the mysterious Arkham Knight.
As usual with the Arkham games, the story is fantastic.
While the identity of the Arkham Knight is unfortunately the most obvious thing
in the world for any Bat-fan worth their salt, the way the character is
presented and the build up to the reveal is executed masterfully. With a deep
personal hatred of the Dark Knight coupled with extensive knowledge of his
tactics and allies (for example, telling the militia to aim for the shoulders
and the places where the plates separate on the new Bat-suit, rather than the
extra-armoured Bat symbol on the chest), there is a tangible sense that maybe the
Arkham Knight could actually defeat Batman, which makes for an intense story.
The other main villain, The Scarecrow, was one of the
highlights of the first instalment of the series, and he’s a defining attribute
of this game too. While some might say another character – who I won’t spoil –
steals the limelight, Scarecrow is absolutely terrifying and personifies the
theme of the game perfectly. Voiced hauntingly by John Noble and given a
hideous redesign, one of Batman’s most underrated villains enacts a near-perfect
masterplan to destroy the Dark Knight’s allies and legacy in a story that pulls
no punches.
1 Mark
2. The World
Gotham City is amazing. From the opening credits where you
walk into a Bioshock style diner on a neon-lined street, to gliding past gargoyle-decorated
skyscrapers; this is Gotham City from the comics. There are plenty of
references to other DC characters in the overheard dialogue from thugs at
street-level (as well as a fun answering machine message or two from a certain
bald Metropolis resident) and story-twists that incorporate Batman’s actions
from the previous games, all of which help to establish the Arkhamverse as its
own unique setting while also hinting at a wider world with even more
characters.
As you’d expect from a next-gen only game, the graphics are
incredible. The water out on the port looks violent and real and Batman’s cape
has never looked as good as it does when soaked with rain and opened up for a
glide across this Gotham skyline. The Batmobile is pretty nice too…
Characters have been redesigned – the Scarecrow in
particular looks much more terrifying in his new hooded garb after he was
savaged by Killer Croc in Arkham Asylum. Part way into the game, Batman has a
new Batsuit dropped out to him – which is the one featured in all the
promotional material – which takes obvious inspiration from the Christian Bale
Batsuit, with the cowl a separate detachable piece. The idea behind that is the
new armour enables faster movement while enhancing protection from attacks, but
in reality it’s just because it looks really cool.
1 Mark
3. Side Missions
With a rogue’s gallery as vast as Batman’s, the side
missions in Arkham Knight almost overshadow the main plot – or they might if
not for one particular fault in them I’ll get to in the Gameplay section. The best
side missions range from halting Two-Face and his gang’s bank robbing spree, to
tracking down Man-Bat (whose reveal will make you poop yourself), to using your
detective skills to hunt down a serial killer who has left a trail of bodies
around Gotham in almost ritualistic poses; the guessing which villain is responsible
is half the fun.
Firefly was one of the eight assassins hired to take out
Batman in Arkham Origins, and makes a return in this game as a side mission
where you come across burning fire stations before initiating a cross-city
chase sequence in the Batmobile. I prefer using the Batmobile in its primary
function, as opposed to the tank battle sequences, so these chase missions were
quite fun for me, even if the plot thread wound up a bit anti-climactic.
Unfortunately, some side missions were just too quick –
Deacon Blackfire for example, an intriguing and unique villain from the comics
who broke Batman mentally in the ‘The Cult’ storyline, only had one sequence
where you find him and incapacitate him after beating up a bunch of his
followers. Those of you who played Arkham City will remember the Identity Thief
side-story, where you had to track down a serial killer who was carving up
people’s faces – that plot thread resumes in this game, and sadly was very
underwhelming. That particular villain was one of my picks to turn out to be
under the Arkham Knight mask, but winds up being a mere quick-time event.
Upon completion of the main story, you have the ability to
complete the side missions to reach 100% and unlock the full ending to the
story (which sort of annoys me – a trilogy closer should have a definitive
ending to a story we’ve followed this long), and once you’ve slogged through
the militia based plot threads – lots of destroying outposts, incapacitating
commanders and disarming roadside bombs – you decide to push through the
Riddler challenges. Once you’ve done all the silly races and solved all of the
surprisingly fun Dual Play rooms with Batman and a captive Catwoman, you’ll get
the full ending, right? Nope. It looks that way initially, before you’re told
to bugger off and collect TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE Riddler trophies
scattered across a Gotham City which is five times bigger than the map of
Arkham City.
Think I’ll just pop over to Youtube and watch the 100%
ending instead. Didn’t think of that, did you Riddler?
Three-quarters of a
Mark
4. Gameplay
The gameplay in general has been as strong as the story in
all of the Arkham games – even Origins added new features to the combat and
detective side. In Arkham Knight, the combat has somehow been made even better
with additions such as the Fear Multi-Takedown (where you can drop in on a group
of unaware enemies and jump from opponent to opponent before they even have
time to raise their fists), mini-gun wielding opponents that require their own
unique Takedown, auto-turrets that make remaining incognito more challenging, and
the ability to carry on hitting a bad guy once they’re on the ground, rather
than being forced to initiate a Ground Takedown.
My personal favourite additions to the combat is that a
slow-mo sequence is triggered when you are spotted by an armed enemy – giving
you a few seconds to decide on an escape plan rather than being shredded
immediately – and the enemies wearing special armour than renders them dulled
when observed in detective vision, which makes sense given the Arkham Knight’s
knowledge of Batman’s equipment and serves to challenge the player to not be
over-reliant on the thermal imaging feature.
Another fantastic addition to the gameplay is the Dual
Combat segments, where you fight as both Batman and an ally. For example, one
sequence has you making your way through an abandoned movie studio as Batman
with Robin tagging along. Once you reach a room full of enemies, you’d wade
into them and build up a combo-meter before being prompted to press L1 to
trigger a Dual Takedown, where maybe Batman would lift an opponent up and Robin
would jump in and smash the guy in the face, and you then control Robin until
the next Dual Takedown where you’d switch back to Batman, and so on. It’s a
brilliant feature that allows for the player to experience the other character’s
fighting style, with their own gadgets and manoeuvres, and it’s a shame it’s
not utilised more often.
But now, for a gameplay, mechanic that can’t possibly
complain about not being used often enough: the Batmobile. Imagine the tank
from Grand Theft Auto was given the speed of the fastest cars from that game
and placed in a destructible environment – that’s the Batmobile. Thugs speed
away in fear, pillars crumble underneath you, pedestrians get zapped and thrown
back by the non-lethal electric force field if they get too close and the
handles as smoothly as you’d expect from a car driven by Batman. The combat
sequences involving the Batmobile involve you initiating Battle-Mode before
firing missiles at and/or hacking unmanned drones. A common complaint is that
the Batmobile is overused, and I’d have to agree. There are a few too many tank
battles and some boss fights, which you’d expect to be hand-to hand (especially
after the ingenious Mr Freeze boss battle from Arkham City) are Batmobile only
missions.
This bring me to my other complaint, and one which let down
the side missions aspect of the game: the lack of boss battles. For a property
like Batman, where there are so many great villains to fight, Arkham Knight
doesn’t really let you actually fight any of them. This may be because the only
real problems with the previous entries were that the boss fights weren’t as
good as they should have been – most of them were formulaic and uninventive.
However, with the aforementioned Mr Freeze fight from Arkham City, as well as
the Deathstroke and Bane fights in Arkham Origins, it appeared the boss fights
had been brought up to the standard of the rest of the gameplay. Perhaps to
avoid the ‘still got crappy boss fights’ criticism, Rocksteady chose to make
all of Arkham Knight’s key battles either chases followed by a quick cut-scene,
predator sequences where you have to take out armed enemies before the final
boss Takedown, or flat-out tank battles – even against expert hand-to-hand combatants
like the Arkham Knight.
But, you know:
5. Re-playability
Admittedly, I haven’t gone back and played New Game Plus yet
(where you replay the story but with all your upgrades from the get-go, but
more difficult enemies and no hints), as I did Arkham City, which is probably
down to my apathy at the tank battles more than anything. But thanks to the
magic of Youtube, I do know that the opening of New Game Plus is slightly
different – and again, as with Man-Bat, it will make you poop your pants.
I’ll get there eventually, the plot is just so good and the
gameplay and graphics fully utilise the PS4’s capabilities. I’m also pretty
intrigued to see what a fully upgraded Batmobile is capable of, and there are
plenty of unlockable new skins to use – I’m thinking of decking everyone out in
their New-52 garb this time around, unless I can find a way to play through the
story in the Arkham City suit which is my personal preference over the new
Batsuit. Hopefully, we’ll get a Ben Affleck Batsuit skin at some point, too.
In terms of add-ons, anyone who bought from Game will have
the Harley Quinn and Red Hood story packs to play through as well, which I
haven’t got to yet but have heard that they’re only around ten-to-fifteen
minutes long each, which is disappointing. But then again, there is a DLC piece
which will be released soon called Season of Infamy, and included many more
side missions and villains to fight – including Ra’s Al Ghul and Mr Freeze,
from what I’ve heard. So while not technically part of the game at the moment,
it does sound like a very expansive add-on.
Three-quarters of a
Mark
While an overuse of the new Batmobile mechanic and the lack
of boss fights may hold Arkham Knight back from the perfection of Arkham City,
the trilogy-closer is a more than worthy sequel and, in my opinion, contributes
to a series that is as close to the ideal portrayal of Batman and his world
that any product in any media – comics included – has given us. Hopefully
Warner Brothers Montreal will be allowed to produce two more prequel games, now
that the Batmobile and dual play have been introduced, and we can have two
trilogies which when combined tell the complete story of the Dark Knight.
Final Score: 4.25/5
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