Batman Arkham Knight is the most immersive, intensively rich and a quality open world experience where i can almost do anything i want. Rocksteady has raised the bar once again. Finally batmobile is now playable and that’s a dream come true for any batman fan, now i can ride in a Batmobile, glide out, beat up some thugs and then pose dramatically i can gaze across Gotham City’s skyline. Arkham Knight is full of moments like this – scenes that recall the best bits of the Dark Knight from across the character’s history, brought to life in an extraordinary open world. It consists of a lot of closest characters to batman, a lot of new moves, a lot of enemies; it basically expands Arkham City open world with at least three times larger, more detailed version in other words; it introduces a new fully playable Batmobile and makes it an important part of the action and puzzles but however attempt to weave the Batmobile into the series’ existing game design creates its own problems.
This is the final game in Batman Arkham Trilogy and it is probably the largest in terms of playground than you saw in Arkham City, now under siege from the Scarecrow and a somewhat annoying, whining mystery enemy known as the Arkham Knight. In size, Gotham feels like three Arkham Cities put together. You can scale Wayne Tower and jump off again with no restrictions. This is a breathtaking, grim world that feels handcrafted for the ultimate Batman power fantasy, and is absolutely the reason to buy Arkham Knight.
So basically playing with batmobile around the city seems like a pretty intriguing add on for the series, because it is big and it is badass, it is a monster of a machine that tears through a surprisingly large number of concrete walls and pillars, rocket boosts between rooftops like the Tumbler from the Dark Knight movies, and slingshots Batman into the air for a glide boost or pre-emptive attack. It’s a lot of fun to just drive around Gotham City. Unfortunately, Rocksteady over-complicates it beyond that purpose and does a lot more harm than good. The combat system in batmobile is not good at all. The Batmobile assumes a battle mode position where it can move precisely in a 360 degree space, using the main cannon to take out these unmanned drones. Rocksteady treats this as a third pillar to the existing predator and freeflow combat sections of the series, affording it a dispiriting amount of time in the main story, but it seriously lacks that feeling of progression beyond a couple of special moves and weapon improvements.
While batmobile can be a bit of turn down, the game’s very own stealth and crunchy meele combat system lives up to its reputation. It is pretty much the same but with a lot of improvements which can help a player implement new strategies and tricks. One of the new predator tools is a device that imitates the voice of Batman’s villains and can order guards to investigate specific objects or places, breaking them from the pack and allowing the player to land an easy stealth knockout. In freeflow, contextual attacks mean the Batman can drag a guy’s head into an electrical box (which somehow doesn’t violate his rule of not killing people), or bring a light fitting down on top of some poor bastard. He can also throw batarangs while gliding, and with the Batmobile in close proximity, use its blank bullets to spam an enemy out of the air as a winning combo finisher. Another new option is the tag team attack, which sees Batman pairing up with a number of his closest allies to perform deadly finishing moves, switching between two playable characters.
The story consists of mainly 12-14 hour campaign, playing up the long history between Batman, the three Robins, and Jim and Barbara Gordon. While the mystery of the identity of the Arkham Knight (a militarized anti-Batman who serves as co-antagonist along with the Scarecrow) fizzles out, there are other surprises to fall back on that kept me engaged in the twisting story. The sidequests in the open world are almost universally fantastic, even if they’re just repackaging existing parts of the game with villain-themed stories linking them together. The citywide takeover by Batman’s rogue’s gallery gives Rocksteady an ideal excuse to check them all off. There’s a decent sense of variety between them. A trio of bank robberies by Two-Face turn into thrilling and tricky predator sections on a time limit, while a subplot involving the Penguin’s weapons supplies brings out a few genuinely great character moments between Bruce and his former Robin, Nightwing. The Riddler challenges bulk out the city with plenty to do, and he’s a bit more involved as a story character this time around, even if his underground Batmobile races are beyond silly. There are also a few excellent sidequests that offer narrative surprises on the level of Hush or Mad Hatter from Arkham City. They’re not all winners: rubbish arson-happy Arkham Origins villain Firefly returns via three terrible chase sequences around the city that made me swear a lot, and others are just repetitive fetch quests with little flavour, but there’s plenty of game to keep you exploring this gorgeous city.
When I stopped hating some of the campaign problems and batmobile issues, i tried to focus on sidequests and other parts of the game such as hanging around Gotham and beating thugs up or doing as i please. I really started to love this game. It is clear why players just dipping in and out of this world forever, jumping in the Batmobile to chase down some criminals, visiting the villains in the lock-up at GCPD, gliding from an airship onto the LexCorp building; just being Batman in this worthy depiction of his universe. Arkham Knight basically offers an unparalleled interactive superhero experience that’s as rich as any fan could hope for – this is one of the best open worlds I have ever had the pleasure of exploring, and the game itself is not that appealing but not bad either.
Verdict
A top notch open world experience with quality content and good detail. Excellent game mechanics but a bit of lousy story and less batmobile combat would have make a huge difference. But still an attainment for Rocksteady and a good ending of Arkham trilogy.
8/10
