Batman: Arkham Knight
Producer: Warner Brothers
Release Date: June 23, 2015
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Rating: Mature
Genre: Action/Adventure
Judgement Knight
Written by Jesse Seilhan
It is difficult to remember what video games were like before Rocksteady’s revolutionary Batman franchise started in 2009. Nearly all third-person action games have lifted, copied, and straight-up ripped-off their nearly-perfect fighting system. Much like Modern Warfare’s influence on all first-person shooters, the Arkham series created a blueprint for how nearly every game within its genre should perform. But somehow, with each new release, they raised their own bar with quality game after quality game, culminating in the final piece of the trilogy, Batman: Arkham Knight. This last jaunt for our caped crusader is the longest and darkest of his journeys, where he must face both external threats and the evil that lives within himself.
For those that have played the prior games, the set-up is fairly familiar: evil maniac does something evil, the townspeople must evacuate, and in their place come all the thugs and criminals hired by the baker’s dozen of super villains. This time, however, Joker is out of the picture, having met his demise in Arkham City. Instead, Scarecrow handles the heavy duty villainy, imposing his fear toxin on Gotham and Batman himself. This causes Bats to become a bit more vulnerable than usual, including massive hallucinations that result in the dead Joker’s appearance. He lives on within Bruce Wayne’s psyche and randomly pops up from time to time to taunt and antagonize Batman. His appearance keeps from becoming too gimmicky and actually helps serve the story, as his dialogue helps unpack a lot of the narrative that Batman himself never seems to want to talk about.
Describing the combat and moment to moment action is unnecessary at this point, as the games are some of the most popular in the world. But the newest wrinkle is most certainly the Batmobile. It is used as more than just quick transportation, as plenty of the game’s main and side story missions make full use of the many facets of Batman’s favorite ride. The Riddler, in particular, has plenty of new trophies and corresponding challenges, and the toughest of those require plenty of driving skills. The racing and driving sections are not that bad, especially once you spend some upgrade points in making the combat easier, but too much time and pivotal moments are spent in the cockpit, instead of face to face with an enemy. At the same time, your batclaw has received an upgrade that allows for way more flight time, meaning you can spend as little time in the car as you’d like.
Arkham Knight does a great job of being about more than just Batman. Nearly every villain, sidekick, and important Gotham personality makes an appearance, and while not all are used fantastically, fans of the deeper Batman mythology will get a kick out of the depth of characters. Barbara Gordon, Robin, and Nightwing all have a much bigger role than before; with the latter two teaming up with bats during combat for some double beatdown fun. With the press of a button, you switch from Batman to either the Boy Wonder or Nightwing, take down an opponent, and immediately continue your combo. These moments are brief, but they are pretty fun and mix up the standard combat mechanics. And without spoiling the game’s final moments, Rocksteady should be applauded for the gigantic risk they take in the final minutes. Both mechanically and narratively, they go places nobody could have expected and it works way better than it should.
With this game, Batman is confronting potentially the end of his legacy and mythos, eerily similar to Rocksteady itself. The biggest question after finishing Arkham Knight isn’t “When’s the next Batman game?”, it is “What is Rocksteady going to do next?” This last offering to Batman fans and loyal gamers is nearly as good as their first entry into the series, but unless they either figure out the Superman problem (that is, making a compelling video game starring an unkillable god), they are going to have a huge level of expectation. What do they do with a clean slate and no established lore? Only time will tell, but at least they can sleep well knowing that they wrapped up their beloved franchise in nearly the best way possible.