The Impact Factor

Once More Into The Night

Review

Batman Arkham Knight, Rocksteady (PS4)

Abstract: Batman Arkham Knight perfectly concludes Rocksteady’s take on the caped crusader. A surprisingly exceptional story complements the game’s strong combat and exploration systems. Batman Arkham Knight’s take on sidequests are perhaps an industry-best. Batmobile sections became fun with time, but were overused in story missions. Batman Arkham Knight stumbles a little under the weight of expectation, but in the end delivers a solid experience that’s worth having.

The night is long, cold and dark. I sit perched on the edge of a time-worn concrete building looking out across rain-soaked Gotham. Pockets of fluorescence give the city its shape, as the urban sprawl all blends together into one imposing entity. Raindrops run slowly down my cowl and across the undulating geography of my suit. My communication system picks up chatter: some criminals bragging about a firefighter they’ve kidnapped. In an instant I’m swooping through the air, propelling myself deeper into the hungry maw of an angry city. When I reach the firefighter’s location I weave a tapestry of violence, downing foes with swift blows, nimble dodges and powerful tools. I then grapple back up into the dark. I look for my next task. Because, for one last night, I am the Batman.

Batman Arkham Knight, the final game in Rocksteady’s Batman trilogy, was one of the year’s most anticipated titles. It not only had to live up to the extraordinary precedent set by the previous two installments, but to also innovate and push the franchise forward. Batman Arkham Knight was the summer, capitalizing on a light release schedule and a tremendous excitement for a new AAA title to justify next gen console purchases. The game looked to continue the series’ rich legacy: many, myself included, didn’t know superhero games could be truly exceptional until Batman came around (a few notable exceptions like Spider-Man 2 aside). In nearly every regard Batman Arkham Knight delivers, living up to expectations.

If you have played the previous two Rocksteady Batman games, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, you’ll know what to expect coming into Arkham Knight. The game is a 3^rd person open world action adventure game. You play as Batman, unsurprisingly, confronting perhaps his biggest challenge yet. The story takes place one year after the events of Arkham City in a Gotham that has experienced relative peace and tranquility following Batman’s previous endeavors. The façade of safety quickly dissolves after a late-night diner massacre at the hands of the restaurant’s patrons. All signs point to Scarecrow and his weaponized fear toxin. This first attack gives way to a much larger and more sinister plot. Scarecrow has created an alliance with the mysterious and highly militarized Arkham Knight to create a fear toxin bomb so large it would envelop the entire Eastern seaboard (Gotham very much included). The city is evacuated and it’s left to a skeleton crew of police and Batman to defeat Scarecrow, discern the identity of the Arkham Knight, and to stop Gotham’s rogues gallery from taking advantage of the tumult.

Scarecrow's fear toxin remains one of Batman's most horrifying threats.

The story in previous Batman Arkham games has always been strong, but not to the extent by which it excels here. I say without exaggeration that the game’s plot is its strongest element. This is a spoiler free review, so it’s difficult to talk in any detail about why I was hit so hard with just how great the game’s narrative was. Early into the game you encounter an event that twists and distorts the player’s perception of reality. Throughout the game you’re made to question what you see and experience. The ways in which Batman Arkham Knight plays with player expectations are phenomenal, and many work uniquely because Batman Arkham Knight is a video game. Clever is the word that kept coming to mind while I was playing. Rocksteady is a master of their craft, constantly finding ways to use the conventions of both gameplay and narrative construction and turning them on their head. Batman Arkham Knight also makes smart use of mechanical storytelling, allowing your actions as a player to shape the game’s story as much as any cutscene. The successes of the game’s story go beyond this twist, though. Despite the huge cast of villains at play, Batman Arkham Knight spends a lot of time developing its titular antagonist. The core theme of finality resonates throughout your time with the game. In every regard, this feels like your last time as the Batman. This allows for a lot of narrative freedom, and gives a view of Batman that hasn’t really been seen in any of his several on-screen incarnations. It’s great.

Who is the Arkham Knight? Why does he hate Batman so much?
Where do you get the money for an entire fleet of tanks?

Batman Arkham Knight maintains the solid gameplay foundation laid down by the franchise’s previous entries. Combat is fast, fluid and skill intensive. Timing your strikes correctly can make for big damage, and knowing when to counter is crucial for success in the more difficult combat scenarios. Predator challenges are back too, tasking Batman to sneakily defeat a group of gun-toting foes. These systems are so well designed that they have become an industry standard for 3^rd person action games—something other devs have taken and adapted into various forms across various IPs. So, while gameplay comes across as “expected,” I really wouldn’t have it any other way. To the game’s credit, you’re given a large number of combat and exploration tools from the get-go, removing the often tedious grind to get new items that open up gameplay. Along the same line, Batman Arkham Knight is content to throw you into the deep end. Tough combat and predator scenarios pop-up with relative frequency, testing the player throughout the completion of the story.

 

Batman Arkham Knight's combat is more of the same. For the most part, that's a good thing.

As a sequel, Batman Arkham Knight needed to innovate. And it did. Certainly Rocksteady’s biggest gameplay innovation was the addition of the Batmobile. Batman is able to remotely summon the Batmobile at any point, providing the player another means of exploring this newest and largest playground. Throughout many of the story missions as well, Batman is tasked with hopping in the car to pull winches, destroy walls, race through tunnels or take out the Arkham Knight’s AI-driven tanks. If you follow video game coverage at all, you’ll have heard the uproar about the Batmobile. Criticism was mixed but overall negative. I expected to hate the Batmobile. And I did. At first. But then it clicked. What at first felt like driving a bulky tank on the world’s largest slip n’ slide gave way to a powerful feeling of control, speed and destructive force. I cleared races with ease, enjoyed tracking down and destroying militia convoys, and absolutely wrecked hundreds of enemy tanks. While you don’t feel like ‘the Batman’ while in the Batmobile, it did add a compelling new gameplay element. Mandatory vehicle sections were shoehorned into the main story missions too frequently, however. It could often kill the momentum of the (frequently awesome) task at hand. The Batmobile sections certainly aren’t for everyone. I can understand the hate. All I ask is that you give it a try for yourself before writing it off. You might actually enjoy it.

Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. And spent some time getting good at it.

Other small tweaks to the Batman formula were more successful. Boss fights are done away with in Batman Arkham Knight. I love boss fights as much as any other guy, but their exclusion helped to reinforce the (mostly) grounded tone of the game’s world. Their absence also reinforced the player grasping, and mastering, the game’s base systems. You don’t need to learn any special one-time boss mechanics to beat the game. It felt streamlined. Perhaps my favorite tweak was Batman Arkham Knight’s take on giving the player sidequests. So many open world games will give you a map littered with icons: go see this, go do this, times infinity. It gets overwhelming. That’s not the case here. Sidequests are discovered organically through exploration. Hear some opera music while flying over an alleyway? Go check it out, you might find something interesting. See some smoke rising from a corner of Founder’s Island? You’re the Batman, go investigate. Not only does this reward player exploration, but it also creates a connection between the player and the world that was fresh and exciting. Completionists don’t have to fret, either. If you haven’t discovered a new sidequest location for a while, Alfred will send you some intel that places you in the general vicinity of a new one. It should come as no surprise that the sidequests are all pretty great, too.

Sidequests change up how you play. They are one of the
game's many highlights.

Batman Arkham Knight does have its faults. In many ways, Batman Arkham Knight buckles under the weight of tremendous expectation and the need to get “bigger and better.” The game conveniently finds a way to evacuate all of Gotham’s citizens, once again. This leaves the grand, beautiful city you get to explore feel hollow. Gotham is bland and empty. Devoid of life and character, consequently sapping a lot of the titular hero’s intrigue. You can’t feel like Batman when those you’re protecting are nowhere to be seen. In a way, a vacant Gotham places an even stronger focus on the game-y-ness of Batman Arkham Knight. You’re fully aware you’re playing a game at all times. As the third Batman game I’ve played, this put a lot of pressure on the combat and predator challenges to keep me fully engaged for 25+ hours. For the most part, they succeeded. But I often found myself doing the laziest, fastest approach to both, wanting to just get past them. The lack of full engagement with the game systems also made Batman Arkham Knight feel long, and not in a good way. After finishing my final sidequest and seeing the “bad true-ending”, I was more than ready to put the game down for good.

Still, there is no other game like Batman Arkham Knight. The game excels on so many levels. I would argue that it’s not the best Rocksteady Batman game, but it’s easily among one of the best new releases this year. Visually, Batman Arkham Knight is the best looking game on PS4. The story is exceptional. Batman Arkham Knight is a great way to end the trilogy. For one last time, I was the Batman. One last time into the dark night. I look forward to what morning brings.

Batman Arkham Knight

4/5