4.5/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of Batman: Arkham Knight.

What an amazing game. There is so much to say about it, whether it be regarding the story, the moment-to-moment gameplay, or even how influential this series has been to other superhero games. After probably close to 32-hours with the game, I can easily say that this game is the most quintessential Batman game that has ever been created. This game is a complete evolution from Arkham City; this is a true open world, with a number of side-activities to chase down throughout the course of this game. And, what an open-world it is. For a game that came out in 2015, nearly a decade ago, at the time of writing this, it's easily in the top-10 prettiest games of all time. It is such a beautiful game to boot into. Between the lighting, textures, models, shaders, all of it adds together to create an amazingly cinematic experience. It's a dark game, taking place on Halloween night, with rain covering everything in sight. It has so much atmosphere that it makes other games pale in comparison, even the studio's latest entry pales in comparison. The story-telling on display here is peak Rocksteady. They are at the top of their game here, and while I didn't love every story beat, and I think they are trying to do too much at times, the story moments are still pretty solid, and at the very least well-told. I will avoid spoilers, for the most part, but this is a Joker story. There is a part of me that loves that. It's awesome to have a trilogy (4-game series if you are counting Origins, which you probably should) that is really focused on the relationship between Batman and Joker. It creates some really surreal moments. In this game, Bruce is essentially experiencing psychosis the entire run-time, and it really makes you question his reality, even though you know he is steeled and steadfast in his mission to stop the Scarecrow. Which brings me to one of my main complaints, if I can articulate it properly. While I love the focus on the Batman and Joker relationship, I really wish there was some more motive and exposition happening for the Arkham Knight and the Scarecrow. The Arkham Knight story makes sense, and I do feel like they did a really good job on that story, it just lacked any surprise, and was entirely too predictable. Which, maybe that's fine for the type of story that it was. It was still really well told. It's with Scarecrow I have a main problem with. I really wish they gave Scarecrow's motives more room to breathe. It really felt like they were trying to tell three separate villains stories at once (in addition to all the side-mission villains), and it makes Scarecrow feel like just a guy that is bad? But, not in the same way that Joker is. Joker is bad for bad's sake, but ultimately he works, because of his embodiment of chaos, and his long-term tumultuous relationship with the Dark Knight. Scarecrow says that he wants to get revenge on Batman for the Arkham Asylum incident, and that he wants to completely ruin Batman's legacy. The motive definitely works, but I feel like they could have spent more time with Batman and Scarecrow building tension with their relationship. Despite that motive mostly working, there are times throughout this game that Scarecrow just feels like another villain. And, while he carries this Doctor-Strange-like aura, as he is checking in with Batman throughout the city, it still feels like there is something missing from their dynamic. Regardless, Scarecrow looks absolutely menacing here. And, he plays with the concept of fear a lot (I know that is his whole schtick, anyways). If there were a theme that is lined up throughout the game, from start to finish, it would be fear. Batman is afraid of the folks he cares about. Joker is afraid of being forgotten. And so on. Every character plays into this theme somewhat. It works well. There is one big story twist, that worked, but did make the game feel like the stakes were lower than what they were prior to the twist happening. I didn't hate this twist, but it did make how climactic this game felt, and how dire Batman's situation was, less-so. It really undercut the high-stakes for me. Combat is the best it's ever been here. Fighting is more cinematic than ever, with more gadgets at your disposal to take down enemies. There's so many enemy types, that combat almost always feels interesting. Stealth is vastly improved here as well, with gadgets being more well-though-out to ensure proper utilization of them throughout encounters. And, the new "Fear" takedown mechanic creates moments that look like they are straight out of the Christian Bale or Robert Patterson Batman movies. They are awesome to execute. The Batmobile. I know this was a controversial mechanic at the time of release of this game. I see why, but I don't agree all the way. I think the car is a great addition, and actually adds to what this game sets out to do, which is create the most well-rounded Batman game. Speeding through the streets feels great, and seeing all the destruction looks as marvelous as ever. The tank combat is also really good. The combat almost flows as if it's a RTS game, but still keeps the action pretty in-real-time. I wish there was maybe one more layer to it, to add a bit more depth, but it is alright for what it is. My biggest complaints with the Batmobile are the chase sequences, and the stealth-tank battles. The chase sequences needed some more variety to spice them up. It feels a bit on the rails when you are chasing APC's down. It feels like you can't catch up to the APC no matter how fast you start going. The stealth-tank battles were so annoying. They weren't hard, but I just found them not fun at all. They aren't believable, and even though they only show up twice, I didn't like either implementation of them. The first time they show up is with a battle with the Arkham Knight. Then, they show up during the boss battle with Deathstroke. I hated that they turned him into a tank battle, especially after his boss-fight in Arkham Origins was so well done. It's items like this that hold the game back. This leads me to another complaint, all the different boss-battle variety that existed in the previous two games, is missing from this game. Now, the game has a shit-ton of variety, and it's a bigger game, so it makes sense to some degree. I just wanted to note that I do think that it's missing something in the boss-battle department. However, all the side-missions are a step above just being side-missions. They are given a lot of story and exposition, and almost always lead to a cool villain encounter. They make sense in the story, so it was a blast to complete them. Also, what an awesome detail to have the GCPD slowly fill up as you sweep the streets of Gotham on Batman's last night. It's details like this that make these games so immersive to playthrough. The visual damage is also back this time around, specifically on Batman's outfit (and the Batmobile). It's equally well done as in the previous games (even though I had a really weird cape-texture bug while gliding throughout almost the whole game, where the cape looked un-touched). They did a great job with slowly adding details to the outfit, though I was kind of hoping that they went one more step further with it, like have one of his ear pieces get blown off or something, I don't know. Either way, the immersion of this game is top-tier, and probably it's one of it's greatest strengths. Also making a return, are the Riddler trophies. . . boooooo! There are too many fucking Riddler trophies. Even though there are only 243 trophies this time around, instead of the 440 in Arkham City. Still too many, and not fun for me to collect. It's extra annoying, because the 100-percent ending is locked behind collecting them all. I think the puzzles are fun and well thought-out, but there is just something about the task that feels like pulling teeth for me. So, I got the normal ending, and looked up the 100-percent ending on youtube for my head-canon. I also played the six Arkham Episodes that were released as DLC, and they were fine. They definitely lack a level of polish that I have come to expect from this series. They also are all about 30-to-60-minutes long? Which makes them all feel like conceptual demos of playing as different characters. Playing as those different characters was fun, but the story that surrounds them lack any other detail to really give them any sort of foundational weight. Playing through this game, in particular (this also applies to the series as a whole), made me realize how much the Insomniac Spider-Man games are inspired by this series. The combat, gadgets, and mission structure are all mirrored. I just wanted to note this, because I never noticed it before. The Spider-Man games definitely feel a bit more refined as a whole, but it's hard to ignore the influence. Also, playing through this series made me realize how much I prefer in-game cutscenes. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City both had pre-rendered cutscenes, and while that's not a deal-breaker for enjoying a game, they look so compressed, and present more opportunities for inconsistencies to arise between cutscenes and gameplay (i.e. player models looking different). I know it was a sign of the times, and a technical limitation, but I am so glad that everything in this game is in-game. The game flows better, and the cutscenes look better than ever. There is so much else I could go on about. What a great game. It's far from perfect. It takes many steps forward for the series, but it ends up being more of a refinement of the Arkham-formula. It's a huge and ambitious game, with an equally ambitious story, and because of that, it becomes vulnerable to issues that the series was able to avoid prior. I love that this game takes place over the course of a single night (even though it's hilarious that, depending on your playtime, that night could last 25-hours-or-so). Regardless, this game is a triumph for Batman fans, superhero games, and video games in general. I will always, but especially after playing this game, lament Rocksteady for going in the direction they have gone. But, I will always remember how many great moments this game has, and how awesome it feels to play as the Dark Knight here. Console Played On: PC (Steam) Game Played: 01/2025 - 01/2025 Review Written and Published: 01/10/2025