The fourth and final (so far) entry in the brilliant Arkham series, Batman: Arkham Knight sees the Dark Knight face his greatest challenge yet. Not only is Scarecrow promising to launch a city-wide attack with his fear-inducing toxin, Batman also faces a new threat: a Batman-like figure called the Red Hood, who holds an insatiable hatred for the Caped Crusader and has an entire army of mercenaries at his beck and call. (If you’ve ever read the ‘Under the Hood’ series, you’ll get an idea of where this is heading.)
While Batman: Arkham Knight garnered a fair amount of bad press at its launch, due to a number of glitches and poor performance on even the most powerful of PCs, I’m glad to say this is no longer the case. Whatever issues were there at launch are there no longer, and the game runs like a dream. Like the previous entries in the series by Rocksteady games, this one builds on and improves upon everything that came before. Where Arkham City saw you gliding and swooping around a walled-off, city-like prison, Arkham Knight gives you full reign over Gotham. Put simply, the place is huge, and even with the ability to grapple and glide (improved from the previous games, and allowing you to transverse the city at quite a rate), it’ll still take you a long time simply to get from one side of the map to the other.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go everywhere by foot (or even by cape): for the first time, you get your hands on the Batmobile. More of a suped-up tank than a car, and able to be called to your location, the Batmobile positively bristles with weaponry, including machine guns, cannons, electronic warfare devices, missiles, an electrified outer-shell (great for when baddies touch the car) and non-lethal projectile launches (helping you take down foes while you are engaged in fisticuffs). Good thing too, the Red Hood has brought a seemingly endless supply of unmanned tanks to hunt you down. Tearing around Gotham in the Batmobile is a delight all by itself. Of course, you wouldn’t include the Batmobile without giving players a chance to also race it, and there are plenty of opportunities, both in the campaign and the numerous stand-alone challenges, which allow you to do just that.
The Predator mode – wherein Batman aims to stealthily take down armed foes (even Batman’s not bullet proof) – has been perfected. While more enemy types – including foes armed with sensor jammers, infra-red vision goggles, and minigun-wielding heavies – and environmental hazards certainly add to the challenge, the new F.E.A.R. Multi-takedown makes you really feel like an absolute terror. Courtesy of his new, light-weight armour, Batman is no longer limited to stealthily taking out one foe at a time. Instead, up to six heavily armed foes can be taken out before they have time to react.
It’s also a terrific way to launch into a punch-up, allowing you to tear through the mobs of villains which inhabit Gotham’s streets (with nearly all honest citizens having fled the city following Scarecrow’s announcement). Combat has also been enhanced. At its core, it still the same brilliant system developed in Arkham Aslyum and improved upon in Arkham City [read the review of the original Batman: Arkham Asylum for more detail – or even better, fire up Youtube and watch a video of it in action]. However, it now features environmental take-downs (such as cutting a hanging light-fitting and bringing it down on your opponent’s head), the ability to not only disarm an opponent, but take their weapon and turn it back on them (provided it’s non-lethal), and, of course, even more enemy types.(Such as the hulking Brute – sometimes equipped with a fancy, high-tech Exosuit. Getting walloped by one of these guys hurts. A lot.)
The list of playable characters is also expanded. While Arkham Aslyum lets you play as Batman, and Arkham City gave you Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman to play with, Arkham Knight adds Azrael to the mix. Plus, if you own the DLC (which you really should), you can also add Red Hood, Batgirl, and Harley Quinn to the mix.
This is also by far the prettiest game in the series, and it looks spectacular. Neon lights illuminate the detailed facades of Gotham’s buildings, rain glistens on Batman’s carbon-fibre-like armour, and even the Batmobile’s disc brakes glow red-hot when the brakes are applied. Not only are the visuals insanely detailed even by today’s standards – the artistic vision behind it makes for some truly spectacular and memorable scenes (I won’t spoil it for you, but seriously, play this game).
No Arkham game would be complete without a suitably dark story, and brilliant voice-acting, and Batman: Arkham Knight delivers in spades on both counts (I don’t want to spoil the story, but it’s very dark, and very engaging). Voices include the deep and impressive Kevin Conroy (Batman), the delightfully insane Mark Hamil (the Joker – and also Luke Skywalker, but obviously not in this game), the Twilight films’ Ashley Green (Barbara Gordon/Oracle), and John Noble. While some may recognise him as the unhinged Steward of Gondor from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies, here he plays the seriously creepy Scarecrow.
Like the other games in the series, you don’t feel so much as you are playing a game, but playing your way through an interactive movie. Thankfully, this also avoids a common flaw with open-world game missions. If something is urgent, it’s your focus. There’s none of the jarring and ridiculous ‘do this urgently, oh, but you can take time-out from this really super-important task to do whatever side-missions you wish’ (I’m looking at you Wolfenstein II: Shadow of the Colossus).
While the base game is brilliant, you really should get the Season Pass as well. Well worth the price of admission, this includes all the post-release downloadable content. Including: a ton of challenge maps (everything from combat arenas to batmobile races); numerous playable characters; dozens of character skins; new missions for the main campaign; as well as stand alone story missions featuring Batgirl, Red Hood, Catwoman, Nightwing and Harley Quinn.
In every way, shape and form, this is the pinnacle of the Batman: Arkham series. By far the greatest super-hero game out there, it is also, simply put, one of the greatest games ever made. ■