REVIEW – The newest and final entry to the Batman Arkham series has finally been released. Batman Arkham Knight picks up nine months after the death of Joker, so the main villain here is Scarecrow, who has threatened Gotham with his fear toxin bombs. Besides the usual story elements, we get some new features, and a brand new toy: the Batmobile.

Rocksteady Studios became legendary with this series, as the only other title they released was a forgettable game called Urban Chaos: Riot Response. That was a simplistic FPS in 2006 where we took the role up of a riot police. Since then the technology has advanced in the world of video game development, and so has Rocksteady Studios. If we were to put both titles next to each other, the differences in quality are night and day.

Everything is the same

Arkham’s story started in 2009 with Asylum, and since then everything has changed: the environment, the main villain, Batman’s outfit, but we can still say that the entire story is almost the same. We still hunt down villains with the Batman; we punch bad guys, and we solve the Riddler’s puzzles just like back in the old games.

What changed?

The biggest change is perhaps in the series is the use of the Batmobile. Thanks to this feature the developers had to reimagine the layout of the city. At first, they tried just to drop in the Batmobile to the existing layout. However, they quickly realized that is not going to work. Due to this, the city has been radically changed, but it still retains the old locations from the previous games. Of course, the good old gliding is still available for us to use, and in some cases, it is even faster than the Batmobile

Batman’s outfit has also changed a bit. His new armor fits the Batmobile’s, and it also gives a more menacing look to the World’s Greatest Detective. Regarding looks, even the main villains changed. Scarecrow, for instance, is now able to do more than just frightening birds away. In fact he looks like a horror movie monster with his new outfit, so he is worthy of this game’s main villain title.

Penguin did not change that much, he left his old coat in Arkham City, but still looks like an old disgusting man. Riddler got older, and that may have been to his detriment, he no longer wears the top hat he used to have. Instead, he now has glasses that are reminiscent to John Lennon’s. His old age also might have caused a lack of difficulty in his puzzles, and seems to forget some basic math. Two-Face did not change one bit, and he is still the classic mobster with a thirst for power and cash.

A lot of fans have complained that the dialogue was a bit of generic, and not the best in quality. While I do agree that there can be some issues with the dialogue it does create a perfect Batman atmosphere that every fan would love to enjoy. There is no problem with this, and the voice acting is top notch for the series, considering it has such talents as Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy.

The story

This is the part of the game that is difficult to go into without spoilers, you’ll need to live through it, it is worth it. Joker dies at the end of Arkham City. This ends up giving mixed feelings for Batman, and for its fans, as he loses his only reason to exist, and the motivation to continue fighting. Arkham Knight opens with this scene, well to be precise in a crematorium with Frank Sinatra’s Under My Skin song. I love this song, and never in my life would I have thought it would be such a great song for a cremation.

Nine months have passed since then, and crime has been at an all-time low, Batman is practically out of a job. This lack of a crime boss such as Joker tempted a newcomer in the form of Scarecrow. As we all know he works with toxins, and anyone who has a whip of it will go mad, and have endless nightmares. This toxin is threatening the citizens of Gotham, and the Bat signal is finally used again to call upon the city’s protector.

“Must be the car. Chicks love the car.”

Regarding gameplay and design, it was great to introduce the Batmobile. It Is, however, an enormous misstep regarding actual control setup for the Batmobile. Every gamer who played a racing game before knows that the throttle, break, is either R2 or L2, or X or square.

Well, this good old formula is completely mixed up because R2 is throttle, breaks are square. Pressing X and a direction provide a quickly evade movement while L2 prepares a combat mode that we have to keep constantly pushing.

Aiming is good, but I do not know why this L2 function is not a toggle button instead of the usual: hold the button down forever. Another issue is that while the Batmobile is not a racecar, it is still difficult to control it. The player can get used to it, but it will take a few hours to learn all the new button layouts on the controller.

Fistfight

Mr. Wayne’s controllability is still the same however as it was in the previous Arkham games. A bit difficult at first, but it is easy to get used to the rhythm of the movements, and once we figure it, we’ll do a bunch of cool acrobatics.

One thing that I did not enjoy is that sometimes we do not see anything from the combat. Let’s say there’s a group of thugs, and after a long brawl, we finally see that the last guy is down, and this is indicated by the slow motion camera that is focused on the thug.

It is tough to see the movements due to Batman’s long cape, and the acrobatics, as sometimes you’ll barely see anything. Besides this the combat and the Dark Knight is manageable, you can fly around the city without any problems if we upgrade our character correctly.

Another helpful feature is that the HUD is always shown which button needs to be pressed for individual actions or movements.

Batman is that you?

Yes, this is not the good old Tim Burton-esque or the old Adam West kind of show with the POW or kick moves, no this is a grimmer version of Batman where everyone is afraid of him. The main villains are scared of him, and Batman beats them to a pulp when he got the chance.

While the foes are covered in blood, and kill all the civilians, and rob everyone blindly. Personally, I enjoy this version a lot, and there are a lot of scary moments that resulted in me nearly throwing the controller away.

The Arkham Knight we deserve

I think everyone will enjoy this action packed, full of content game that Rocksteady Studios has developed. It is beautiful and action packed, never a dull moment and it is hard to put it down. Even with all its faults, it is one of the best games for the PlayStation 4.

– Dazo911 –

Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Rocksteady Studios

Genres: action-adventure

Publication: June 23, 2015.