Well, its yet again revisitation time for one of my previous posts and the post in question is my original review of the action video game, Batman: Arkham Knight and I decided to revisit because I currently replaying it again.
So, I figured I would update my review with additional stuff and thoughts on the game some 4 years after its initial release and it also just happens to be Halloween today, so I figured reviewing a Batman game is not a bad choice!
So, with that said, let's suit up and take another look at Arkham Knight....
STORY
So the story begins with Gotham city being evacuated after the game main's villain, Scarecrow (voiced by John Noble) intends to launch his new fear toxin on Gotham. Batman in an effort to stop Scarecrow rescues Poison Ivy from a secret Scarecrow hideout as she refused to join in on the villain's plan. Batman also recruits the help of his technical aide, the wheelchair bound Oracle (Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara Gordon) who identifies Ace chemicals as the source of Scarecrow's toxin, which Batman infiltrates and he confronts Scarecrow. However Scarecrow reveals that he has captured Oracle and he then turns the whole building into a toxin bomb which overwhelms Batman with the toxin. As a result of exposure to the toxin, Batman sees a projection of the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) which taunts Batman throughout the game.
Batman then meets with Gordon and tells him that Barbara has been captured and she had been working with Batman, which leaves Gordon outraged and he storms off to try and find Scarecrow. Batman then soon learns that Scarecrow had recruited businessman, Simon Stagg to build a massive dispersal device called the cloudburst, which Scarecrow intends to use to spread the toxin throughout the city. Batman interrogates Stagg and then confronts Scarecrow onboard Stagg's airship but Scarecrow again escapes by temporarily using the toxin to take control of the Joker's persona over Batman. Batman soon recovers and then locates Scarecrow's hideout where Oracle is being held trapped inside an enclosed room, he disperses toxin into the room which torments Oracle and forces her to commit suicide, leaving Batman devastated. Batman then vows to find and stop Scarecrow once and for all in carrying out his evil plan......
THOUGHTS
As a continuation of the series, Batman Arkham Knight is a very enjoyable and solid game which has plenty going for it and it makes up for the somewhat uneven Arkham Origins, which was more to do with Batman in his early days when he was known morely as a vigilante wanted by the police. But here we get back to the essentials of the series where Batman is established as the Dark Knight and it features a good mix of its familiar foes and plenty of good action aswell as a intriguing plot, which features one or two twists.
GAMEPLAY
As for the gameplay itself, well it follows pretty much the same formula as the previous games with Batman being able to travel freely throughout the vast environments of Gotham city.
And this time around however there is a new inclusion in Batman's method of travel as you know get to ride in the Batmobile, which is pretty cool in itself and it appears a pretty armoured tank-esque car, which kind also transform itself into a battle mode where Batman can fire canon guns and missiles at its targets as you will frequently up again remotely controlled enemy tank drones. The Batmobile also can be used to fire a line launcher to grapple with hooks of structures to creates ramps or open doors. The Batmobile also has an overdrive feature which gives the mobile a speed boost to jump over bigger distances and is handy in certain moments.
The gameplay also features many of the previous elements that appeared in the former games that include the grapnel gun, line launcher, remote hacking device, explosive gel, batarangs, aswell the disruptor. Batman also has his usual detective vision which he uses to scan areas for clues or to detect how many enemies maybe in an area and their condition and whether they are armed or not. A new device however is the voice synthesizer which Batman can use to imitate the voice of other characters and is used in the game's story when Batman uses it to imitate Harley Quinn's voice. And regarding some new moves, Batman can also in addition to his ability to dive bomb while flying through the air he can when equipped with his lighter batsuit fire his grapnel grun and use a speedboost so he can travel fast through the air and quicker over larger distances, which is pretty handy in itself.
As for the combat system the game again is pretty much similar as before but there are also some new enhanced features that include the FEAR takedown in which Batman can take down multiple enemies at once by targetting them one after another but is only effective if he remains undetected. Batman can also perform the usual combo moves and critical strikes aswell perform silent takedowns on single enemies or even inverted takedowns where Batman can take out an enemy by hanging from above. Also as usual as Batman fights he gains more experience points (XP) which gains him access to various upgrades that could for be weapons, combat or even the Batmobile.
The game also features not just the story mode it also incorporates a series of side missions aswell as Batman is fed news by Alfred or other sources of other crimes happening in Gotham that are known as "Most wanted" and feature a variety of Batman's most notable enemies particularly the Riddler and Two-Face.
GRAPHICS, MUSIC AND VOICE ACTING
As for the game's graphics they are excellent and on the PS4 where you see just how rich and detailed the game's environments are. The character models however by today's standards do look a bit dated but they are still pretty good. But Gotham city is what stands out most and it looks superb and its expansive environment remains one of the game's most impressive aspects especially as Batman travels through the skies over the rooftops.
There were however of course technical issues with the PC version of the game on its initial release, so I would probably suggest getting it on console for PS4 or Xbox one would be a better move, although I'd imagine that the issues with the PC version are hopefully ironed out by now.
As for the game's music it features another fine score by Nick Arundel, who had previously worked on Arkham Asylum and Arkham City and this time he is aided by Ron Fish and David Buckley. The score however does not stand out as well as Arundel's score for Arkham city, which for me remains one of the very best video game scores out there but its still worth a listen although I wouldn't really want to listen to it as a stand alone soundtrack it works better within the game itself.
And lastly regarding the voice acting well its excellent as you would expect and it sees the welcome return of Kevin Conroy in the role of Batman and for me vocally he is the best man for the job as Troy Baker who did the voice in Arkahm Origins didn't quite fit the bill. It also sees the return of Mark Hamill in his role as the Joker and the two of them could almost be said to be inseparable as Conroy he was not so keen to return to the voice role but he got onboard when he heard Hamill was cast and together these two are the standouts in the cast.
But the voice acting cast features some other fine performances particularly Jonathan Banks (most well known as Mike from Breaking Bad) as Comissioner Gordon and John Noble who provides a chilling vocal performance as Scarecrow. Troy Baker also provides some good voice work in various roles such as The Riddler, Two-Face and the Arkham Knight and Ashley Greene (who is pretty hot in real life!) as Oracle/Barbara Gordon.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may refer to spoilers!)
As for the Arkham Knight's flaws.....well yeah OK it has some and for starters I think one of the game's biggest problems is to do with the Batmobile and its not so much the Batmobile itself but the near endless tank drone battles Batman get's drawn into throughout the game. And to be fair to start I didn't really mind them but its not long before they start to become really tedious particularly when the Arkham knight unleashes the Cobra tanks which can destroy the Batmobile easily with a few hits and you have to target them from behind to destroy them.
In fact further to that point it seems pretty daft that such big powerful tanks would still have one major weakness such as a vulnerable port in its rear side, which sort of reminds me of a very popular sci-fi movie from the 70's! And to top that off its funny how Batman can destroy them with one clean hit from the Batmobile's canon which makes it quite convenient in that respect although its a pain in the ass trying to target them accurately as they turn corners it can be easy to lose track of the target. So basically I think tanks and Batman are not a good mix and I don't really see the point of these tank drones being in the game other than giving target fodder for the armoured Batmobile.
Another issue I have with the game is that while the main story campaign is very good it also feels just a bit too long and drawn out as Batman really is sent one big wild goose chase after another to try and locate and finally take down Scarecrow. And the game does that usual thing of setting things up like you can take out the game's main villain quite early on when in fact its all just a deception and you have to go through a whole series of missions, side-missions, fights, battles and traps before you get to finally end it all! And this is definitely true of the game's ending, which takes AGES to complete! So personally I think the game could have benefited from having trimmed the length of the campaign a little to keep it tighter but at the end of the day the game from that point of view still does offer good value for money.
I also think that perhaps the game also overwhelms the player with such a vast variety of different moves, new features and upgrades that you are most likely not to going to use most of them especially as I usually find myself tapping the usual buttons for combat and takedowns! ;-) These new features are bound to be of some use but in the end the game seems to bombard you with so many options you are surely never going to use them all! In the end its a game that packs in so much and in fact maybe just a bit too much.
There are also some very frustrating moments in the game, such as the one where near the end (SPOILER!) where Batman takes down Scarecrow's thugs, who are trying to hack into the GCPD's systems and there are LOADS of them yet Batman is expected to take them down on his own! The guy has Nightwing as one of his sidekicks, who could have easily helped him out here but nope, Batman always insists on doing things solo! So, yeah there are times where the odds are really stacked overwhelmingly against Batman but the game still insists (as does Bats) that it all has to be done on his own!
Another issue was to do with some of the game's dialogue as it get's a bit tiring and repetitive, especially regarding the Arkham Knight as he keeps taunting and berating Batman at every turn and shouting the same lines over and over such as "Face me, you coward!" and "Come out and fight me!!". Not only that but the Arkham Knight towards the end even get's the Scarecrow's goat up a bit as he keeps telling the Arkham Knight to back off Batman as he will be dealt with in good time but AK ignores him and keeps persisting with his attempts to kill Bats.
I felt also that the ending of the game really marginalises its secondary protagonist, who the game is named after, the Arkham Knight as he doesn't really bother reappearing till the very end and when he does its a fleeting moment! So, I really felt that they didn't handle the Arkham Knight's character arc all that well in the end as there is no sense of closure or finality to it.
There are also some very frustrating moments in the game that leave the player second guessing where they are to go next as quite often you can wander around places forever trying to follow the directional HUD arrows and metre gauge showing the distance to your next objective but they aren't always clear as to where they lead! And this happened several times throughout the game for me, especially in one sequence where I was trying to locate one of the key characters (Stagg) onboard one of the airships only to eventually find out I was on the wrong ship as there are two! Further to this, you sometimes get some audio cues from Batman telling what he must do next but they are at times they are all too vague and not helpful and its not long before you have to look at a Youtube walkthrough video to suss it out!
WARNING: SPOILER OF SORTS COMING UP!
And last of all, I had a big issue with the ending of the game (well one of them as there are three possible endings if you go for 100% completion) which could be the standard one if you haven't completed the game 100% by doing all the side missions. And the problem I have with it is that on the ending I got, Batman tells Alfred to initiate a protocol called "Nightfall" in order to protect his family and friends but it is never explained what this protocol actually is! So, I'm guessing you would need to go through the massive and probably rather tedious task of completing the game 100% to fully understand what this "Nightfall" protocol actually is! So, again the game's vagueness here is another frustrating flaw of the game for me.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up Batman Arkham Knight is very enjoyable and solid entry in the Batman video game franchise, it features plenty of good combat action and getting to use the Batmobile at last is pretty cool it has to be said. The graphics are also excellent and its features a fine score aswell as some excellent voice acting from its cast particularly Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker respectively.
The game does have some faults that are mainly to do with its tedious tank drone battles and also that the game's main campaign is just a bit too long winded and it begins to wear out its welcome near the end. However if you are willing to forgive all that then this is still one game that is certainly worth checking out.
So, that's it for now folks and I will be back soon with another post.
Till then have a happy Halloween!
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