Batman: Arkham Knight Review

To say that Rocksteady’s final game in the Arkham series, Batman: Arkham Knight was highly anticipated would be an understatement. After being in development for years, does this final Knight (you know what I mean) in Gotham leave your knuckles raw and bloody? Lets find out! (Keeping the PC cluster-f@#k aside, this review will focus on the stable and smooth PS4 version.)

Stepping into Batman’s shoes, or the entire suit feels as enthralling as ever for the acclaimed arkham series. Numerous additions and improvements to the free flow combat makes brawling and take downs feel smooth and brutal at the same time.  The bone crunching counters and combos leave you shouting “I’M BATMAN!” And the most welcome addition, the dual combat mode where the Dark Knight teams up with his allies including Nightwing, Catwoman, and so on, ups the ante for any upcoming super hero game.

Less welcome however is the Batmobile, which handles fine but is heavily over used. It’s so over used that one fight I was really looking forward to ends up in a dull tank battle. And given that it happens after a ton of good fights, leaves a bad after taste to what could have been a mind blowing experience.

This time around its Scarecrow who is out to wreck mayhem on Gotham, with almost every worthy villain contributing to his cause. But Rocksteady handles them in an uneven style, there are hardly any memorable boss battles in the game, other than some really disappointing Batmobile sequences.

But one villain makes an amazing come back: Joker! Yes, he’s in the game and it’s perfectly done. While scarecrow means to mess up Gotham, the clown Prince of Crime sets out to mess up Batman’s mind, messing with his psyche at every step, making him question his every decision. It’s hands down the best part of the game. Other than Catwoman’s butt, that’s great too!

The story is good for the most part, but the identity of the Arkham Knight, and the fight leading up to it, feels anti-climactic.

Honestly, the last tale in the series feels unsatisfying, not because it’s bad, but because it doesn’t give that sense of closure. There’s is so much potential to this game. The city looks amazing and is the biggest rendition of Gotham yet in an Arkham game. Grappling and gliding across the city and beating down bad guys feels as Batman-ly as it can, but it keeps getting interrupted by tedious tank fights that are fun for a while, but over-stay their welcome.

It’s a great game with a great premise. Trust me, there’s a lot of things in the game that are highly enjoyable and I haven’t mentioned them for the sake of keeping the review spoiler free.

It’s a must play for any Arkham fan, but ultimately leaves you wanting for so much more the game could have been.

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