After months of patiently waiting, the time to put on the cowl one more time has come. Rocksteady delivers with one of the greatest Batman games available right now. When this series was first introduced all the way back in 2009 with Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady changed the way hand to hand combat I never. This is a game that truly makes you feel like Batman, with the addition of the legendary Batmobile, more gadgets, a more open Gotham and more characters from Batman’s long history, this is what it’s like to be the knight.
Arkham Knight takes place roughly a year after the events of Arkham City, the city has recovered and crime has actually gone down. Well, that is until the dreaded Scarecrow unleashed his plan to release a bomb filled with his fear toxin all across Gotham and the rest of the coast. Scarecrow has teamed up with Gotham’s most notorious villains, including Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler, Harley Quinn, and other faces that are new to the Arkham world. Along with these faces comes a mysterious masked character, the title character of the game the Arkham Knight, a militarized, anti-Batman who has brought in an army of militia and unmanned tanks to help take out the Dark Knight.
Through his battles, he teams up with Robin, Nightwing, and even Catwoman to help defend his city against the threat. The entire story is dark and brooding just like Batman, it’s filled with scenes that are directly from the comics, and others that are great nods to events throughout the history. The story is great in that it really shows just how dedicated the villains are to trying to end Batman’s reign over Gotham, and it explores the relationship between characters very well, and they do it in a way that fans of just the game, who may not have read the comics, don’t feel left out.
Arkham Knights Gotham is broken up to three islands that you can explore, making it the biggest Arkham game. Each island can be explored the traditional way of gliding around, dive bombing, and gliding some more, or with the new addition of the Batmobile. The Batmobile’s controls at first feel a bit off, when you first take control of it, you’re more than likely to slam into a couple of walls, but after a bit behind the wheel, you’ll learn the movement’s and be able to drift around the streets of Gotham, mowing down fences, concrete barriers and thugs alike. The Batmobile also features a Tank Mode, which is used as the combat feature, engage tank mode with just the touch of a button and you’ll be taking out drones and enemy tanks with ease, as you dodge the missiles they fire at you. Now at times the Batmobile does feel a bit overdone, many of the side quests and riddles require you to use it, but it wasn’t enough to stain the game for me in any way. What would a Rocksteady Arkham game be without the return of their revolutionary combat system? The combat system is relatively the same from past games, yet they found a way to make it feel even smoother and added in new abilities such as kicking off of objects to land attacks, picking up a downed enemy and throwing them, to even more gadget usage in combos. This is the combat system that has changed the hand to hand fighting mechanic in gaming today.
As is famous within the Rocksteady games, there are easter eggs galore, from nods to Batman villains, to events within the DC Universe to even nods to other DC characters such as Superman, Lex Luthor, Green Arrow, and even the Flash. Some of these show up in landmark buildings, overhearing conversations from thugs around the city, and even some pop up as challenges from the Riddler. If the Easter eggs aren’t enough to make this game even more fun, Arkham Knight features an amazing voice cast. Kevin Conroy returns as Batman, John Noble gives Scarecrow his most terrifying performance yet, and you’ll hear familiar voices return as well from Tara Strong’s iconic Harley Quinn, Wally Wingert’s Riddler, and another voice that I don’t want to spoil, returns that’ll leave you grinning ear to ear when you hear it. Along with the talented Troy Baker who voices the Arkham Knight, along with a couple other characters. The music mixes in well with the grim setting, similar to that of the music from Arkham City.
This game is filled with enough hours of game play that’ll it will keep you busy for quite some time, from everything to the main story, all the side missions, to even the new and improved AR challenges that will test your Batman abilities. If the rumors that this is to be the last Arkham game, then Rocksteady leaves us with one great ending. I personally hope this isn’t the end, but if it is, I’ll be happy with the finale. Arkham Knight is a true Batman game in which you feel like you are a part of that world.
This game has it all, scenes that will shock you, make you smile, and some may even terrify you. Some may ask if the dark tone in the game is necessary and I say yes, because it really suits the overall theme of the game, not to mention it does take place on Halloween, a Long Halloween nod perhaps? My only complaint about the entire game is that the insanely fun boss fights from the previous games aren’t in this game as much as I had hoped, some of the “boss fights” felt cheap and as if they just missed their mark. Other than that, I truly enjoyed every bit of this game enough to say that this is my favorite within the series. If you’ve been on the fence about this game due to the mixed reviews over the Batmobile, but were a fan of the past games, I say play this, not only does it add more to the story, but it’s quite fun if you enjoy a good tank style battle. This is the Batman game we’ve wanted, and this is the Batman game we deserve, so lace up your boots, put on the cowl, and dwell into the city of Gotham.
REVIEW CODE: true true A complimentary code was to Brash Games for this review. send review true true. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.
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