You changed things...forever.
The Dark Knight
Superhero in gaming is always somewhat a niche genre. Unless you consider games like God of War or Halo as Superhero games, you can really count successful superhero game series on one hand. Infamous, Insomniac Spiderman and Batman Arkham. Batman: Arkham Asylum, released in 2009, revolutionized not only the Superhero genre in gaming, it also revolutionized action games, with its outstanding combat loop and level design. Although the ending with Joker transforming into a Bane-like monster is a little bit underwhelming, it is still a great game. It won multiple game of the year honors in a very strong year of gaming, with competition like Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, Uncharted 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. All of them are instant classics. Arkham Asylum is in some ways better than all of them. Batman: Arkham City, released in 2011, is somehow even better. With improved combat fluidity, storytelling, especially a much improved ending and a first voyage into open world design, Arkham City is one of the greats in gaming. According to metacritic, Arkham City is the sixth highest rated game across all platforms on their site. It captures a plethora of Game of the Year honors among heavy competition like Portal 2, Mass Effect 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution( If you want to know more about Human Revolution, check out my review of it here.) and L.A. Noire. Rocksteady have crafted something special, and gamers are looking forward to the next entry of the series. Batman: Arkham Origins, released in 2013 to mixed reviews., with most of the criticism centered on its similarity to Arkham City and the lackluster twist at the end.
With Arkham Origins falling flat, scepticism began to rise for Batman: Arkham Knight, and when Arkham Knight dropped on June 23rd, 2015, it was, let’s say it in a nicer way, not good. The PC port is on Fallout 76 level of atrocious. thousands of users reported major technical flaws and performance problems with the Windows version of the game, with some saying it seemed like the optimization phase of the game's development was skipped. Steam users immediately wrote scathing reviews of the game's performance, including reports of frame rate being capped at 30 frames per second (which could be raised, though with potential side effects) and dropping as low as 10 frames per second while gliding or using the Batmobile.
Even high-end graphics cards such as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 970 were unable to handle the game well, with users reporting frequent frame rate dips and stutters. Nvidia and AMD released new device drivers optimized for the game in an attempt to address the performance issues, with Steam "strongly recommending" their download.The developer, Rocksteady, issued a statement saying they were aware of the issues and were "working closely with [their] external PC development partner", Iron Galaxy Studios, to resolve them.
On June 24, 2015, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that it would suspend sales of the Windows version of Arkham Knight to work on addressing the performance issues to satisfy the company's quality standards. They also offered refunds for anyone who already purchased the game.
It’s launch is a total trainwreck that can be only rivaled by Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 76 and Diablo 3. After most players can actually play the game, multiple issues arise as well. The overindulgence of the newly introduced Batmobile and the second underwhelming twist in a row, makes some players disappointed with the conclusion to the Arkham Saga.
In my humble opinion, Arkham Knight is absolutely flawed, but I loved it. Even if something is flawed, it doesn't mean you can’t like it. My favourite Metal Gear game is Guns of the Patriots, the game which is pretty badly paced. It is the game which has a 71 minute uninterrupted cutscene, which is the world record by the way, for crying out loud. Max Payne 3’s level is incredibly linear and the lack of freedom is not a good thing, but I still think of it as one of my favourite shooters ever. Death Stranding’s first 2 chapters are incredibly boring because of the lack of things happening, but I still love it. Control’s story is all over the place and not very coherent, but I still like the game. A game does not need to be perfect for me to like it, and Arkham Knight is the perfect case.
Arkham Knight’s gameplay, tone and characters are what makes me love it, and although the game still has plenty of issues, it does not make the game bad.
Let's start with the story. Nine months after the death of the Joker during the events of Arkham City, Batman is struggling to come to terms with the absence of his nemesis and the uncomfortable feeling that the pair shared a bond deeper than either could admit. Without the Joker's chaotic presence, Gotham's citizens have never felt safer, and crime in the city has dramatically declined. However, this gives Batman's enemies, including Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, and Harley Quinn, a chance to unite with the singular goal of killing Batman. Having anticipated a new threat, Batman has continued to develop crime-fighting technology and maintain a vigil over the city.
On Halloween night, Scarecrow threatens the city with his newly created strain of fear toxin and bombs planted throughout Gotham, forcing the evacuation of the city's six million civilians. Only criminals remain in the city, leaving Commissioner Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department outnumbered.
On Halloween, Scarecrow forces the civilian evacuation of Gotham City after threatening to unleash his potent new fear toxin. Batman tracks Scarecrow to a hideout where he rescues the imprisoned Poison Ivy, who had refused to join Batman's other rogues in Scarecrow's plot. Batman meets with Oracle, who identifies Ace Chemicals as the source of Scarecrow's toxin. Batman investigates the facility but encounters the Arkham Knight and his heavily armed militia that proceeds to occupy Gotham. Batman overcomes the forces and locates Scarecrow, who has transformed the entire building into a toxin bomb. Scarecrow reveals that he has kidnapped Oracle, and exposes Batman to the toxin before escaping. Batman inhibits the bomb's blast radius before he is confronted by the Joker.
A flashback reveals that before the Joker died, his infected blood was used in blood transfusions, infecting five people including Batman; Batman, concealing his infection from others, imprisoned the four other recipients who were physically and mentally transforming into the Joker. The Joker, now existing as a mental projection produced by the infected blood and fear toxin, frequently appears to taunt Batman and manipulate his perception of reality. After Batman escapes the exploding Ace Chemicals, he alerts Gordon to Oracle's kidnapping, who angrily leaves to find Scarecrow.
Batman learns that Scarecrow recruited businessman Simon Stagg to build the "Cloudburst"—a mass dispersal device for the fear toxin. Aboard Stagg's airship, Batman interrogates Stagg and finds Scarecrow, but a dose of fear toxin allows the Joker to temporarily assume control of Batman's body while the Arkham Knight extracts the Cloudburst. Recovering, Batman locates Oracle in Scarecrow's hideout, but when he arrives she is exposed to the fear toxin, and she commits suicide in terror. Harley Quinn seizes Batman's base in the Panessa movie studio to rescue the Joker-ized patients. Batman and Robin capture Harley and the infected, but one of the patients, Henry Adams, kills the others, before committing suicide, believing that Batman will become the perfect Joker. Realizing that Batman is infected, Robin attempts to imprison him before the Joker takes control, but is instead imprisoned by Batman, who refuses to stop until Scarecrow is caught.
The Arkham Knight activates the Cloudburst, flooding the city with fear toxin. Batman destroys the Cloudburst and convinces Ivy to empower an ancient tree that can neutralize the toxin; she succeeds and saves Gotham, but the exertion kills her, while Batman's exposure to the toxin strengthens Joker's control. Batman pursues the Arkham Knight to a construction site to rescue Gordon. The Knight reveals himself as Jason Todd, the previous Robin, who was seemingly murdered by the Joker, and has been left traumatized by torture at the Joker's hands. Todd blames Batman for abandoning him, and although Batman offers to help Todd recover, he escapes. Batman and Gordon confront Scarecrow on the building's roof, where Oracle is revealed to be alive, and her suicide the result of a hallucination. Batman rescues Oracle and returns her to the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), but Scarecrow escapes with Gordon. Using the remaining militia, Scarecrow assaults the GCPD to eliminate Batman's allies. Batman and Oracle neutralize the militia, but Scarecrow uses the distraction to kidnap Robin.
To save Robin and Gordon, Batman surrenders to Scarecrow and is taken to the ruins of Arkham Asylum. Scarecrow reveals Batman's secret identity, Bruce Wayne, to the world on television, before repeatedly injecting Batman with the fear toxin to break him before the public. Batman and the Joker then battle for control inside Batman's mind; Joker attempts to weaken Batman by recounting the people who have suffered and died because of Batman's crusade, but Batman triumphs and locks the pleading Joker away in his mind forever to be forgotten — the Joker's only fear. Todd arrives and saves Batman, who subdues Scarecrow with his own fear toxin.
After Batman ensures that Gotham is safe, Gordon dispatches the police to reclaim the streets, and Batman activates the "Knightfall Protocol" to protect his loved ones. Surrounded by reporters, Batman returns home to Wayne Manor where he is greeted by Alfred. As the pair enter the manor, it explodes, seemingly killing them both. Sometime later, Gordon, now Mayor of Gotham, prepares to attend Oracle and Robin's wedding. Elsewhere, two muggers attack a family in an alley but are confronted by a nightmarish figure resembling Batman.
Talking about the story, I feel like we need to address a serious issue first. Most players couldn’t see the ending. Arkham Knight technically has three endings. The first ending is after the showdown between Scarecrow, Batman and the Joker, where Scarecrow is defeated, Batman’s true identity revealed and the Joker locked away inside of Bruce’s mind. According to Steam, 38.2% of players got to see this ending. Then, if you caught 7 of the 11 supervillains, the game would play the second ending, where Batman said goodbye to Gordon and blew up Wayne Manor with him and Alfred inside of it. Batman had seemingly died, but you can still play as him though. The final ending requires the player to 100% the game, getting every single collectable, beating every single villain, then you will get the final part of the ending, the appearance of a seemingly new Batman. Only 9.4% of players on Steam got to this point. A majority of the players left the game without seeing the real ending, which is a shame. As I think the second part of the ending is really lame. The most infuriating part is that 100%ing the game is incredibly difficult. You need to collect every single one of the Riddler’s stupid trophies and solve his riddles. There are all together 312 trophies and riddles scattered all across Gotham. The way of solving them is via solving simple puzzles. They are annoying, infuriating and utterly tedious. Its inclusion is extra infuriating as their existence effectively stonewalls the player’s progress through the story and undermines the excellent theme and tone of finality in Arkham Knight.
Many comic book sagas simply don’t end. If characters die, they will just come back. The storyline is retconned to death. If readers don’t like a certain storyline or moment, just change it afterwards. Both DC and Marvel are notorious offenders of this. Captain America was killed at the end of Marvel’s Civil War storyline. He came back 2 years later as his “death” was only a result of him trapped between time and space. The Flash of DC was resurrected 3 times. With characters’ choice and even death itself can be easily ignored, the stakes just weren’t there. Most events don’t have long lasting effects and can easily be brushed aside with a bunch of multiverse mumbo jumbo. Arkham Knight, unlike most comics and certain movies (ahem, The Dark Knight Rises, ahem, Batman v. Superman), deals with this finality very well. It hints at it at the very start, with the reappearance of the Joker being the initial climax. It is clear at this point that Batman is slowly losing his mind. Batman’s mental instability rises even further when he loses his friendship with Commissioner Gordon over his daughter Barbara’s kidnapping. The Joker which is inside of his head appears more and more often, taunting him and his failure to protect those around him. Both of his Robin was kidnapped, with Jason Todd dead at the hands of the Joker a few years prior. Catwoman kidnapped, his mentee Barbara Gordon dead. Batman’s mental instability seems to be only caused by the injection of Joker infected blood and the inhalation of Scarecrow’s fear toxin. Not really. Batman endures a lot during the three games. His father and mother’s deaths, his love interest Talia Al Ghul’ and his nemesis Joker’s death at the end of Arkham City. Arkham Knight cranks this misery to 11 with most of his support network who, either are dead, hates his guts or kidnapped. This helps to cultivate a much more dreadful atmosphere. Another factor to this atmosphere is the choice of the main villain. Batman’s rogue gallery is huge with a variety of personalities representing a challenge to the different parts of Batman. The Joker is always a mainstay but it depends on the tone of the story on which villain you put alongside him. Scarecrow is a fantastic choice in that regard. With Batman’s mental health an issue, the only villain that can push him of the cliff and make him cross the line that he wouldn’t cross. As the game progresses, you can feel Batman is getting more and more brutal. The end of the line is close and he can feel it as well. The dreadful feeling really climaxes at the final mission. Robin is kidnapped by Scarecrow and Scarecrow demands Batman to surrender himself. It is fitting that the final battle of the Arkham series takes place inside of Batman’s head. Arkham is undoubtedly one of the best Batman or even Hero related video games of all time, and almost all the best hero stories explore the inner psyche of the superhero. From darker storylines for major heroes like The Dark Knight Returns for Batman, Born Again for Daredevil, to more independent projects like Watchmen and Hellblazer, each of them explores their respective hero’s inside psyche. Arkham Knight is that. Batman initially lost control of his mind when he killed the Joker inside of his mind. With Joker in control, Scarecrow injected the fear toxin in Bruce’s body, therefore, inadvertently injecting the Joker with the fear toxin. In this moment, the game’s genre goes on a very sudden twist, from a third person action beat-them-up to a first person horror shooter like Alien: Isolation, Resident Evil 7 and F.E.A.R. The Joker walks through a graveyard and a church, seemingly the funeral of the Joker. The funeral was only attended by Harley Quinn with nobody in the city giving a damn to Joker’s death. This shows the real fear of the Joker, being forgotten, Batman exploits this and takes back control. This part of the finale, despite Batman not showing up a lot, also makes us know more about Batman. What is his biggest fear? Losing control. The chaos represented by the Joker. Joker and Batman are always presented as Yin and Yang, both of them need one another. But at this moment, Batman doesn't need the Joker anymore, by abolishing the status quo, this contributes to the finality. The defining moment of the game, however in my opinion at least, does not start until the Joker is gone. Scarecrow removes Batman’s mask and reveals his true identity to the world in front of the camera. This is something which can’t be reversed. Batman’s choice to hide his identity is because he wants to be a symbol, which cannot be tainted and is immortal, always feared, once the world knows he is just a man, afraid, the Batman cause will be completely ruined. Batman knows it as well, acknowledging to Gordon, "Look after him, Jim. Look after them all. You've been a good friend. The best I could have asked for. You were there at the beginning, and now you get to see how it ends. I've got to. It's the only way to protect them.'' His goodbye to Catwoman makes his intention even more clear. "Gotham needs something more, something worse... to defend her. She needs a new myth, a legend more powerful than I can be right now. A legend that can only rise from the ashes of the Batman." According to the final ending, the Batman-like figure is actually Bruce or should I say Batman. I think after the final showdown, the part of Bruce Wayne died inside of him, only Batman is left now. Even with his mask off, the subtitles only acknowledge Bruce as Batman, it is not a coincidence, as there are previous instances when Batman takes his mask off, and he is acknowledged as Bruce Wayne. The only way that the myth and the legend of the Batman lives on is the death of Bruce Wayne. It means leaving everything and everyone behind, his new family, his support, all gone. It is something we have seldom seen in superhero stories, the closing of a chapter is something we rarely see in Superhero stories, and although there are certainly bumps along the way, Rocksteady still sticks the landing.
Most Batman adaptations have been controversial, but especially so after The Dark Knight, a consensus masterpiece. I can only name two Batman related Adaptations that are not controversial, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, the opinion of everything else is super divided. The Dark Knight Rises, dogged for numerous plot holes and an underwhelming twist, Arkham Origins, criticized for being too similar to Arkham City and another underwhelming plot twist. Batman V. Superman is well Batman V. Superman, which has so many flaws that I can’t talk about it unless you want a review and essay that is ten thousand words long. Justice League belongs on the same train and the Snyder Cut is surprisingly the least controversial of the bunch, so that probably tells you something. Arkham Knight is no different. I have talked about the first two controversial things of the game, the terrible PC port and the tedious ways of implementing the ending, now the third reason. Arkham Knight himself. His identity is what someone who has a shred of comic book knowledge can see from a mile away. He is Jason Todd, Batman’s former Robin who is assumed dead. Arkham Knight’s reveal was meant to be a surprise to players, but it really wasn’t. As a surprise plot twist, it totally failed. As a storytelling element, I am much less certain. Did Arkham Knight add much to the story? Yes. A key part of Batman: Arkham Knight is Batman’s failure to support and his propensity to let down those he loved. From Barbara, to Jason to Gordon to the new Robin, Tim. Batman let all of them down. He let them get taken, and even though his best efforts he still fails to protect them. Jason Todd reminds Bruce of one of his failures, and It brings even more light on the relationship between Batman and the Joker, so that is good. On the other hand, the way that the knight is accompanied by is a problem. The Knight brings a bunch of paramilitary troopers to the city and is filled out with tanks. They are the faceless goons that a lot of games features. However, there are already plenty of faceless goons in the game, belonging to the various super villains in Gotham. Are they really necessary? I would rather let Scarecrow get his personal army and use more psychological methods of taking down the bat. The whole aesthetic of Gotham and the game is more gothic and sort of medieval. The very sci-fi aesthetic of the Knight’s army just doesn't fit. The implementation of the Arkham Knight can be done a lot better, but does every twist have to be unanticipated? Not really. Some twist like the one in the Usual Suspects or the Sixth Sense comes out of nowhere and they really work to surprise the audience. I don’t think a bad twist is something that can be seen a mile away. No, a bad twist, in my opinion, at least, is a question raised either unanswered, answered with an underwhelming solution or answered with something retconned soon enough. A good example is Rey’s heritage in the new Disney Star Wars Trilogy, J.J. Abrams set this up in the Force Awakens and I actually liked Rian Johnson’s answer, in which Rey’s parents are just nobodies with no special force powers. This breaks the cliche and tropes of the Star Wars saga, where being powerful is only because of heritage and nothing else, the fans hate it, so when J.J. Abrams returns, he retconned the Rey twist, and announced to the world that she is the daughter of Emperor Palpatine. The inconsistent vision of Disney’s handling of Star Wars is shown here and that lack of vision is the reason why I hate this twist. Arkham Knight’s twist did not have this problem. It is obvious to see, yes. It does not add as much to the story as Rocksteady wanted it to, yes. But it did not actively hurt the story. That’s enough for me. It can be much better, but it is not bad.
The same can also be said of the gameplay. The gameplay is the final controversial and polarizing aspect of the game. Hand to hand combat is not a problem. Arkham Asylum’s new take of the normal beat them up genre revolutionized a lot of third person action games. Players can create a lot of intrinsically pleasing action flow with very simple input and fulfill the power fantasy of playing as the Dark Knight. Arkham Knight enlarged the sandbox with more gadgets to play with like freeze bomb bat hook and etc. The newly introduced dual play mechanic is wonderful as well. During dual play, players can seamlessly switch control of Batman to one of his allies during certain events of the game: Robin, Nightwing, or Catwoman while in FreeFlow Combat, which the player enters when they have accumulated an uninterrupted combat-streak. Each successful, uninterrupted attack adds to the player's combat score, which carries over between each controlled character, and unlocks double-team takedowns on opponents at higher scores. Not only is it incredibly fun to use, but it also emphasizes a keypoint of Batman’s lore, the cooperation between various members of the Batfamily. Another new feature is the "Fear Takedown," where Batman can subdue up to five enemies simultaneously as long as he remains undetected; time is slowed after each takedown, allowing the player to target the next enemy. It is yet again, incredibly satisfying to use and make use of the thing which the game emphasises on, Fear.
Finally, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the Batmobile. The game introduces the Batmobile as a drivable vehicle. The bulletproof Batmobile can be summoned to the player's location while on foot or, if the player is airborne, summoned to meet Batman as he lands. The vehicle features the ability to perform jumps, speed boosts, rotate on the spot, smash through objects like barricades and trees, and fire missiles that can immobilize enemy vehicles. Batman can eject from the Batmobile and immediately begin gliding around Gotham City. The Batmobile is one of the coolest parts of the Batman lore and Arkham Knight somehow makes it tedious. First of all, the Batmobile has two modes, which can be switched at any time: Pursuit and Battle. Pursuit is for moving from area to area and completing specific driving challenges. In Battle mode, the Batmobile becomes more tank than car, allowing a full 360-degree range of movement, including strafing in any direction, while revealing the multiple weapon systems on board, including a Vulcan chain gun for quick damage, a 60mm hypervelocity cannon for fire support, anti-tank guided missiles for wide-ranging damage against multiple targets, and a non-lethal riot suppressor. I played on the PS4, and in order to switch to battle mode, you need to hold down the left trigger, not press it once and be done, no, you need to hold the left trigger the entire time if you want to fire your gun at enemy tanks. This design is extremely not user friendly, and I have to stop several times during my playthrough to rest my left thumb. That’s not all of the Batmobile’s issues. Another problem is simply how often it is introduced in the game. All of the Riddler’s annoying challenges revolve around the Batmobile, so a good start here. The endgame boss fight between Batman and Deathstroke was heavily anticipated, especially because of how good the Batman Deathstroke fight is in Arkham Origins. But the boss fight in Arkham Knight exists entirely in the form of a tank battle, exactly the 50 tank battles before. The Batmobile is featured way too much in the game and it becomes excruciating. It is like Rocksteady are so eager to show off their new toys that they forgot the important act of balance. The final thing is just how un-Batman the batmobile is. We all know Batman does not kill, but you can literally blow up tanks, run over thugs and destroy buildings with the Batmobile. Driving a literal tank is the last thing I imagine Batman will do, especially one that can easily run over people. The game explains that the thugs the Batmobile runs into are electrocuted and launched away, therefore, they are not killed. Okay, that's the most hilarious thing I have ever heard, that a little electricity can stop a goddamn tank from killing you. The Batmobile’s implementation in idea is fine, but the execution is seriously lacking, and as a result, it becomes one of the most glaring examples of ludonarrative dissonance I have ever seen.
Batman: Arkham Knight is absolutely flawed. The narrative is severely damaged by poor design decisions and tedious side contents. The inclusion of the Batmobile not only does not enhance the experience, it actively knocks it down a few knots. The technical state of the launch is absolutely unacceptable and should be used as a negative example for all future developers and publishers. However, can these flaws diminish the excellence of the other parts? From the very strong voice performance across the board, especially from the three main character’s voice actors, Kevin Conroy, for Batman, Mark Hamill, for Joker and Jonathan Banks, for Gordon, to the remarkable atmosphere, environment, world design and overall tone and the amazing ending. Arkham Knight shines despite its flaws. Arkham Asylum started the ascendance of Superhero games, and Arkham Knight should not only be a footnote on the side of the road. It should stand on its own, as an incredible achievement in both gameplay and narrative. And that’s something a lot of games can’t do.
All rights to the promotional material, stills and gameplay shots of Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight belongs to Rocksteady Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive
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