Batman: Arkham Knight Review

We all know Batman's deal by now - he’s the greatest, he's fantastic, wherever there is danger he'll be there... Wait, no that's Danger Mouse... Well, after a couple of delays Batman’s latest title, the final installment of Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy, Batman: Arkham Knight is here!

As a long time comics fan, I actually came to be a fan of Batman pretty late. I was staunchly anti-DC for a long time, until about a decade ago when I finally read some of the comics. I discovered, as everyone does, that Batman is freaking awesome.

Arkham Asylum and City were very good games, though I always felt quite limited in scope - I can’t comment on Origins as I still haven’t played it. City tried to be large, but the layout meant that most of your travel was obstructed by the tower in the middle. To get from the museum to Amusement Mile would only take 20 seconds if not for the enforced "I can't do that, Dave".

Batman checks the weather forcast before heading out

So, headed into Arkham Knight, which has touted itself as having the entire of Gotham City to explore, I was a little wary. Thankfully, there are very few instances of forcing you to take the long way, outside of the main mission.

Speaking of, the story behind Arkham Knight is as follows. Nine months after Arkham City, Scarecrow unleashes his latest Fear Gas upon a diner, with the promise to soon unleash it upon the rest of Gotham. So the mayor announces a city-wide evacuation, which the majority of people are happy to follow, leaving only the emergency services, criminals and certain animal-themed vigilantes. As Batman begins putting a stop to Scarecrow, he is met with resistance from a heavily-armed militia, led by the titular Arkham Knight whom has a personal grudge against the Dark Knight.

Nothing says 'Hate you!' like ripping their style

This game is very nice to look at. Gotham is moody and dark (because it’s night time), the characters are very well designed with bits of clothing that react to the wind, Riddler has left green-painted notes across any surface he could reach (and some he shouldn’t be able to)... It really does look like a city left in the grip of rioting criminals, though for a period of more than a single day.

The biggest issue I have, is that Arkham Knight seem to have taken a page from the Hideo Kojima book 'How To Make Your Game Into a Movie'. As I said, it looks great, and there are amazing looking set pieces galore - but that’s the problem. Sometimes it just feels like you go from one set piece to the next with very little interaction that isn’t fighting rooms full of thugs. Early in the game you head over to the ACE Chemical Plant (because of course you do, it’s Batman), and are greeted with a set piece. You head inside - set piece. Locate a worker - set piece. Rescue a worker - pause in action so Batman can chat on his wrist-communicator. Take a worker to the police blockade - pause in action to chat to Commissioner Gordon.

The fiercest 'stache since J. Jonah Jameson!

Batman handles well, and one thing I’m pleased with is that holding backwards will make him walk backwards, instead of turning around. He moves effortlessly both around the city and in a fight. The fight mechanics haven’t changed since Arkham Asylum, other than to improve with things such as environmental takedowns (smash lights and fire extinguishers into faces), and fear takedowns. Curiously, there is very little fear involved in those latter ones, it’s more a case of ‘these four were surprised enough to let you jack them in the face and knock them out in quick succession’.

It’s fun and looks great, but feels linear. So it’s a very good thing that there are many side quests to pursue, in the form of Gotham’s Most Wanted. At various points you need to wait for a lead to follow, or a supporting character to do something, so you have to do one of the side missions, though you can choose to do them pretty much whenever you want. There are firefighters to rescue, Penguin’s gun running to put an end to, APCs full of lieutenants to stop…

If you don't press anything, the camera will spend 45 minutes zooming into various parts

Which brings me effortlessly on to the Batmobile, making its playable debut with gusto. You can race around Gotham (literally, in some cases), chase down thugs or just use it to drive around, even when you have passengers in the rear. The controls are very arcadey, owing to the fact that all four wheels turn, and can be somewhat hit-and-miss. Especially as brake and reverse are on square, instead of L2 like 99% of other driving, so I keep instinctively hitting brake, and transforming into battle mode instead. It transforms, with a suitably Michael Bay’s Transformers-esque sound, to enable you to drive with a lot more accuracy and less speed, shoot at thugs and destroy the militia’s drone tanks that are roaming around the city. It has a 60mm cannon for those, and a minigun with non-lethal rounds - and no it won’t let you blast thugs... It’s also useful to activate puzzles set up by Riddler.

I’ll address the Riddler parts separately to the rest of the side missions, because it’s such a departure from them. Riddler has kidnapped one of Batman’s co-workers, and you have to solve puzzles around Gotham so that you can go and help them escape. You head to various locations and have to use the Batmobile in various ways to solve puzzles, then you have to go to where Riddler’s keeping them to solve a puzzle by controlling both characters. And, of course, there are many question mark statues hidden around as in previous Arkham titles. Obtaining these usually require you to solve a puzzle using the Batmobile or one of your many gadgets - usually both.

Yes, the car can shoot at thugs that you uppercut.

If you thought there wouldn’t be gadgets galore - there are totally gadgets galore. Lucius Fox, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, has definitely been a busy little inventor since Arkham City fell, not least on all of the technology behind the Batmobile, and various upgrades you can receive. Old favourites, such as the Batarang, grapnel and explosive gel, make a return and in some cases are quite improved. They are joined by new ones throughout the game such as the disruptor, which can disable weapons or just cause them to blow up, and the Batmobile remote, which is very useful in many scenarios, because it does everything as when you’re sat in the cockpit.

People were curious months ago when Arkham Knight received its rating of 18 (Mature in North America). The official rating was down to it containing ‘torture’ among other things, though personally I would have given it an 18 because of the amount of jump scares.

On another note, Man Bat is in this game

The game begins in a Fallout-esque way, with I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Frank Sinatra playing over a mechanism activating, revealing Joker being loaded into a cremation oven with the rictus grin stuck on his face, eyes closed. Right up until he burnt to dust (done by the player holding a button, to prove that he is gone for good), I was convinced he would wake up and scare me, because I don’t do very well with scary games - as Arkham Knight seems to enjoy proving with the bloody jump scares! Surprisingly few of them were due to creepy Scarecrow Fear Gas-induced levels, like Arkham Asylum’s were.

There are far too many jump scares and many twists and turns in the story for me to actually talk about the story without spoiling it. It is well written and the performances by Kevin Conroy and the others are spot-on for the most part. Commissioner Gordon is voiced by Breaking Bad’s Mike - Jonathan Banks, which I found didn’t really fit the character in some scenes. Also new to the series, Ashley Greene of Twilight fame voices Oracle - and I wasn’t a fan due to her somewhat dispassionate performance.

It's unlikely he'll forget where he parked, but he leaves the lights on regardless

Overall, Arkham Knight is the Batman game we’ve been waiting for. It has detective bits, it has crime fighting bits and it has creepy bits - just like a good Batman comic. He’s the strongest, he’s the quickest, he’s the best! Wait, that was Danger Mouse again - but it’s still accurate! Playing this makes you realise how much work goes into being Batman, the focus and commitment that Bruce Wayne shows, his willingness to do whatever it takes to save the day... It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a perfect Batman game.