REVIEW -- Batman: Arkham Knight

Batman: Arkham Knight is a 2015 action-adventure video game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the successor to the 2013 video game Batman: Arkham Origins, and the fourth main installment in the Batman: Arkham series. Arkham Knight was released worldwide on June 23, 2015.

Written by Sefton Hill, Ian Ball and Martin Lancaster, Arkham Knight is based on the franchise's long-running comic book mythos. Set one year after the events of 2011's Batman: Arkham City, the game's main storyline follows Batman as he confronts Scarecrow, who has launched an attack on Gotham City, causing a citywide evacuation. Scarecrow, with the help of the mysterious Arkham Knight, is also able to unite Batman's greatest foes in an attempt to finally destroy Batman.

Setting

One year 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, Two-Face, and Harley Quinn, a chance to unite with the singular goal of killing Batman.

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. Anticipating a new threat, Batman continues to develop crime-fighting technology and maintains a vigil over the city.

Arkham Knight's Gotham City is approximately five times the scale of the open-air Arkham City prison in Arkham City. The game takes place in the center of the city, which is split into three islands: Bleake, Founders, and Miagani, with various districts such as the neon-tinged Chinatown, and the industrial shipping yard. Bleake Island features shorter buildings, disheveled areas, and abandoned docks, while Founders Island is a modern development of skyscrapers built on the ruins of Gotham slums, and Miagani Island is an older metropolis with Wayne Tower at its center. Oracle has set up her communications headquarters in the Gotham clock tower, which also houses a makeshift Batcave.

Plot (FULL Spoilers)

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. 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 the world around him. 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 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 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.

No lie, the Arkham Knight's costume was pretty bad ass... Too bad the reveal to his identity wasn't a big surprise...

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 strain 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 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. Gordon, now Gotham's mayor, prepares to attend Oracle and Robin's wedding. Elsewhere, two criminals attack a family in an alley but are confronted by a nightmarish silhouette resembling Batman.

Gameplay: 

Batman: Arkham Knight is set within Gotham City, which is open to the player from the beginning of the game, allowing them to travel freely anywhere within its boundaries without any loading transitions. Many of the gadgets and the gameplay elements from the previous Arkham games return, including the grapnel gun, line launcher, batarangs, the countering system, Detective Vision and the Remote Hacking Device. The Disruptor receives upgrades from previous games, becoming a rifle that can be used to disable or detonate enemy weapons and drone turrets, booby-trap weapon crates to shock enemies who attempt to arm themselves, and tag vehicles for Batman to track. The remote controlled batarang is similarly upgraded to include a scanner that can be thrown out to gain information on the surrounding area. New gadgets include the Voice Synthesiser, which can be used to imitate other characters' voices such as Harley Quinn and the Arkham Knight to direct thugs into traps.

The player can fly Batman throughout the city using his cape, with gliding now allowing for faster, longer sustained flights, steeper dives, and higher climbs. Batman can use some gadgets while gliding, such as batarangs or the line-launcher. The grapnel gun can now be used to instantly switch directions during a glide, as well as being fired twice while in the air to chain grappling moves together.

The game's 'FreeFlow' combat system allows for basic attacks including strikes, counters, and dodging which can be combined to keep Batman attacking while moving between enemies and avoiding being attacked himself. Basic enemies include enemies armed with shields and shock batons, while others are armed with guns which significantly damage Batman. These enemies can perform a charge and tackle attack only used by larger enemies in previous games; precision timed dodging, and a batarang can instantly defeat some charging enemies. The system adds the ability to combine attacks on prone enemies without interrupting a combo streak. Batman can counter enemy attacks and throw them into other enemies for increased damage. Batman is also capable of disarming enemies wielding items like baseball bats and using the acquired weapon on several foes before it breaks. Arkham Knight introduces "Dual Play", in which players can seamlessly switch control of Batman to one of his allies: 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.

Arkham Knight introduces enemy medics who can shield enemies in electrified fields and revive unconscious ones, sword-wielding enemies, and brutes who are resistant to damage and must be stunned before they can be attacked; brutes wielding Gatling guns, tasers, and blades require additional steps to defeat. Enemies are capable of employing tactics to counter Batman's various skills, including deploying landmines, controlling hovering drones, disabling vents if Batman is found using them, and detecting his location if Batman uses Detective Vision for too long.

Throughout the city, Batman encounters enemy watchtowers, guard posts, aerial drones, and explosive mines embedded in the city streets. Some drones can be hacked and turned against their allies by using the Remote Hacking Device. Arkham Knight introduces 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. Hazardous items such as power generators can be used in combat for environmental attacks. Combat is rewarded with experience points, which are used to unlock gadget abilities, combat moves, and health upgrades. Batman can now access grates from afar, allowing him to roll forward and immediately get under the grate if in range instead of having to be right on top of them, while also initiating multiple takedowns from within them. Some enemies carry devices capable of blocking Batman's Detective Vision.

Arkham Knight features side missions, known as "Most Wanted" missions, which can be attempted at any time and feature prominent characters from the Batman universe. One such character, the Riddler, provides 243 optional "Riddler challenges" to solve. These challenges consist of collecting trophies hidden throughout the city, through the use of gadgets or Batman's car, the Batmobile, to disable traps and barriers, and completing timed races. The player can mark Riddler trophies on the in-game map once found if they do not initially have the necessary equipment to complete the puzzle, and learn of additional locations for collectables by interrogating the Riddler's henchmen.

Batman can investigate crimes such as murders, using his Detective Vision to reconstruct the crimes to locate clues and identify the perpetrators, or use his Tissue Scanner to investigate a victim's skin, muscle, and bones for clues. Completing the story mode unlocks a New Game Plus mode, enabling the player to replay the game with all of the gadgets, experience, abilities, and Riddler collectables that they have obtained. The completion of some tasks is reflected in the Gotham City Police Department, with thugs and supervillains becoming incarcerated, and criminal memorabilia from missions and previous games being collected in the evidence room.

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 assists and takedowns were cool the first few hours of the game, but got REALLY old quick.

Most enemies will flee at the sight of the vehicle, eliminating the need for Batman to fight them, and enemies attacking the car can be subdued by its automated taser defenses. Like Batman, the Batmobile can be upgraded with new abilities. Riddler challenges also feature objectives requiring the Batmobile, such as timed races in tunnels beneath Gotham City, where the environmental obstacles change during each lap, and invisible question marks that must be revealed using the Batmobile's scanner.

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.

Additional upgrades to the vehicle include an EMP device, which releases an electric pulse used to temporarily stun enemy drones; and the "drone virus", which allows the player to override the weapon systems of enemy vehicles and cause them to attack each other. The Batmobile can also be controlled remotely, driven in indoor locations, and used in solving the game's puzzles, such as lowering an inaccessible elevator with its attached winch or obtaining a Riddler trophy. The Batwing is used in conjunction with the Batmobile to deliver upgrades.

The Verdict: 

Narrative

Let's just get this out of the way. I lost a LOT of respect for Rocksteady with this final act in the Arkham series. During all of their press events and interviews prior to the launch of this game, they cited repeatedly that the Arkham Knight was a completely new character and was NOT Jason Todd/Red Hood. Low and behold, when you finally confront the guy it is revealed that he IS Jason Todd. It's not like the game did a good job of making you believe that it could have been anyone else but Todd anyway, given from the numerous flashbacks and dialogue from The Joker's narration within Batman's mind. All of that hype and dragging it out for a lackluster reveal like they did in this game, but it still doesn't get where Todd got all of his resources and equipment from to fund this militia that he was leading to help Scarecrow with. 

Having Mark Hamill reprise his role as The Joker within Batman's subconscious was a nice touch as I think we all appreciated Joker's humor and wise cracks as his own unique commentary on everything that was going on in the game. My issue with The Joker here is that he ends up stealing the show (like that musical number) again, much like he did in Arkham Origins when the League of Shadows was supposed to be the focus.

I was scratching my head wondering where it went wrong on the narrative and then I found out (after some research) that Paul Dini (one of the creative minds behind Batman: The Animated Series) had ended his involvement with this series after Arkham City, so naturally that's why the narrative quality had declined.

I have to ask this question too. How come no one has asked why hasn't Batman/Bruce Wayne tried to cure himself after the events of Arkham City? It just seems like this is something he's been ignoring the whole time since that game when we saw him cure himself at the end of that game.

Let's go back to something about the main two antagonists for this game though... Out of everyone they could have brought back to be the main villain for this final chapter in the series, they couldn't have brought back someone like I dunno, Ra's Al Ghul for Batman's last hurrah? I could have easily bought into him as the Arkham Knight more than Jason Todd. He's already got the resources, connections, and motivation (Talia's dead, thanks to Batman's actions in Arkham City) - plus he knows all of Batman/Bruce Wayne's secrets. But no, they went with Scarecrow of all people... Even with the heights of what his fear toxins could drive people to do, I honestly can't buy into Scarecrow herding all of the Batman rogues together and answering to him of all people? Two-Face and Penguin should be calling the shots over Scarecrow. Explain to me why is Harley Quinn is reduced to being a grunt and errand girl for most of this game after how things went down in the Harley's Revenge DLC from Arkham City? She established herself as being capable of dealing with Batman herself - to an extent, so you would think her insanity, combined with her despair over her Puddin's demise would have driven her to a darker edge. It's just things like that I can see that the folks at Rocksteady who were writing this crap wasn't even thinking about the last game at all and how to resolve everything.

In terms of references to the previous games and tying up some of the loose ends, I have to applaud them for the Evidence Room in GCPD's headquarters. I thought that was a pretty sweet trip down memory lane. I know I felt fucking stupid when I realized that you could just break the glass and take the REC gun back and pick up the Freeze grenades from the desk at the base underneath the Amusement Park. The mini-BatCaves set up at the Clock Tower and at Wayne Towers were a nice touch and something I wanted to see in these games since the original, but it's cool that we got to see this stuff in a large scale like this since last-gen hardware couldn't crank out a city this massive for exploration.

I suppose the last thing we should touch up on is the game's ending, along with the 100% Completion "Knightfall Protocol" True Ending. I honestly felt that the initial ending was rather a big disappointment. Why is it that Scarecrow gets to be the last adversary in this series that is the one pulling all of the strings when it's all said and done who gets to unmask Batman and expose his identity of Bruce Wayne to the masses? While I didn't mind the trippy journey into both The Joker and Batman's minds to see whose will is stronger and who actually has no fear, it really didn't hold any weight to it when the player doesn't actually defeat Scarecrow. Everything after the point where you are forced to give up your devices and equipment and go with Scarecrow to save Gordon and Robin is out of the player's hands for this lackluster finale. It's just more bread crumbs that Batman is following into a rather obvious trap and he's still not bothering to quarantine himself until a cure to The Joker's infection fully corrupts him. No, but with this ending the player is supposed to believe that Batman defeated The Joker mentally so that cured him from being corrupted by Joker's infection forever? Sorry, I'm not buying that one. Even if Batman overpowered the fear toxin and what-not, why should exposing his identity to Gotham not be a bad thing? They should be thanking him after everything that went down tonight, especially after Batman went out of his way to recapture all of the Most Wanted criminals. The Knightfall protocol made even less sense since that Bruce Wayne/Batman's demise wouldn't have resolved anything if someone was able to deduce that Robin, Nightwing, Oracle, and his other allies were tied to Bruce Wayne. I just felt like that addition made the ending a cheap knock-off of what Christopher Nolan attempted to do with The Dark Knight Rises. We all know Bruce Wayne isn't actually dead as it looks like Batman was using some type of fear toxin on the thugs that tried to mug that family that strangely resembles the Wayne family. If his purpose was to leave a legacy, then he should have done what the comics have failed to do on MULTIPLE occasions and just allow the Bat-Family to continue on without him in his untimely demise. This includes actually allowing Nightwing to take his place as Batman.

That honestly kills me as a Batman fan. The guy is mortal and I get that people weren't too keen on Gordon taking over in the comics for a short while recently, but it would've been cool if we somehow got a pseudo Battle for the Cowl storyline in a future game, but no dice now after how Rocksteady ended things here. Hell, I don't even want to see that rumored prequel with the Court of Owls as that has like no remote ties to this universe. If the Owls existed in this continuity they would have had a bigger impact on the Arkham Asylum and City storylines - even Origins too for sure, so they can't just shoehorn them in now.

Gameplay

When it works, this game plays just as great as all of the previous outings of the Batman: Arkham series. Fear Multi-Takedowns are a new interesting concept added to Predator Combat and it felts a little overpowered at first, but for the fact that I played through the entire game on Hard (been doing that since the original Arkham Asylum) it was harder and harder to set up as the game went on. I don't know whether these issues that I had on PlayStation 4 was exclusive to that console, but I ran into a lot of instances where the controls would "lock-up" and I would be unable to move or act. As a result, I would get killed in the process only to repeat this ordeal over and over until either a soft reload of the checkpoint or reboot of the game would correct the issue. I have played the last three outings of this series on Xbox 360 and never had anything remotely close to that - the fact that I didn't run into something like this in that glitch-filled mess that was Origins was a godsend, so it was rather annoying to run into some glaring issues like that on here.

The game is visually beautiful and amazing to look at in action, with my personal favorite thing about the game being the "dynamic" camera angles to highlight and capture the action at the apex of the excitement levels, such as Batman stylishly dropping into the Batmobile to knocking enemy vehicles off the road with brutal precision. Seeing shots like that never gets old.

It's just a damn shame that a lot of the gameplay elements get old really fast. Most side quests and Riddler Challenges are mostly the same thing: fight off a few waves of enemy tanks in the Batmobile, sneak around and dispatch a group of militia troops in Predator Combat, chase a target in Pursuit mode in the Batmobile and knock them off the road, alternatively, use the Batmobile in Pursuit mode to navigate throughout Gotham or a race track within the allotted time, or team-up with an ally (either Nightwing, Robin, or Catwoman) in Dual-Play (see below) and take down a group of adversaries. Of course, there's Riddle Trophies to find and riddles to solve, but there's not much actual riddles than there are actually puzzles. I give the game props for thinking outside of the box on a lot of the puzzles this time around though. I'll give them that much.

I did enjoy stopping the bank heists involving Two-Face's men, as that was something I wanted in all the way back in Arkham City as a DLC post-game chapter. I was saddened to see that traditional challenge rooms were scrapped for the AR Challenges scattered throughout Gotham City that were unlocked with progression throughout the game. Is it too much to ask for these challenges to be in their own separate menu like they were in the previous games? Driving around to find these challenges is a bit too much of chore, much like 80% of the side quests for this game. 

Freeflow Combat

My biggest issue with the combat in Origins was that WB Montreal literally broke the system with the Shock Gloves. This gadget (once activated) ignored enemy shields, armored thugs, stun rod users and even dispatched Titan/Venom-powered thugs with ease, essentially making freeflow combat completely brain-dead and mindless devoid of any strategy outside of powering up the gloves. That's well and good for less combat savvy players of these games, but something that veteran players appreciated was the challenge that freeflow combat provides from the strategies required to take down every enemy type. Here, it seems like Rocksteady took feedback from the previous two games (Asylum and City) and really set it out to improve on everything that was already a great combat system. They strapped the Quickfire Explosive Gel for just a Remote Mine that Batman tags onto a random enemy (a glaring issue within this game in terms of the Quickfire gadgets never seeming to target the proper enemy in front of Batman).

I understand that I was playing the game on Hard difficulty, but I thought it was strange that the game would throw new enemy types at me with no explanation on how to deal with them. Even in the previous games, they would give you an idea on how to deal with new enemy types right off the bat, but here, I wasn't treated with a hint until multiple game overs and reloaded checkpoints. Still, that's a very minor gripe with the in-game combat here.

Freeflow here is as good as it has been in the previous outings, thanks to the removal of the Shock Gloves (unless they come back in a DLC add-on that I'm not aware of) to give these hand-to-hand skirmishes a sense of drama and urgency about them. I was glad that concept returned here as none of these encounters were the same and you had to tackle them all differently.

I should take a moment to discuss the Dual Play mechanic that was introduced in this game. I am going to shed some light on this, but it's not as revolutionary to this series as fans were led to believe. Rocksteady actually had this feature in development around the same time Arkham City came out, but was scrapped at the last second. I fondly remember a German trailer featuring gameplay footage of Batman and The Joker being shown off facing a group of thugs in freeflow and they would "tag" off like this in the EXACT same manner. It's cool that they finally let you play as multiple characters in freeflow and didn't muddle the waters with the possibility of another human player screwing up your timing, but at the end of the day, if you watch closely your AI companion is mostly mirroring your actions to an extent. They aren't going to stand around and do nothing, but they have enough brain cells to counter and do basic actions to keep themselves alive. I thought it was an interesting concept for sure, but I can't frown on this too much as there's only so much freedom you could give the AI partners/allies in this mode without them doing everything for you in Freeflow combat. I think this definitely satisfies the thirst for more playable content with Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman outside of challenge rooms that was missing from Arkham City, even though their skill sets feel like they are lacking as much as they were in that previous title - at least to me anyway. 

The F'N Batmobile

The biggest feature/new addition that was revealed as the staple gameplay mechanic that this game revolved around was the Batmobile. We saw it briefly in the introduction to Arkham Asylum, (along with the fact that it's a DLC skin for the Batmobile if you shelled out the extra cash for the Season Pass) but after the events of Arkham City, Batman had to bring out the big guns (literally) to deal with this militaristic threat. I enjoyed the Batmobile for the first opening hours of the game, but by the end of the game I absolutely HATED it. In Pursuit/high speed chase mode, it slides around too much on turns and power steering to the point that you rarely feel like you have full control of it at all times, even though you can't deny that bad ass feeling when you run enemy cars off the road with side swipes or with the immobilizer rockets. What I don't get is why you can't use the Battle Mode on enemy vehicles in chase sequences. That would make a lot of those encounters a lot easier. Speaking of Battle Mode, there's no way in hell that Rocksteady can sell to me that Batman isn't killing people with this thing. Even when it's shooting "non-lethal rounds", you can still run over thugs and militia guards at high speeds, only for them to bounce off the hood but there's no way they should be getting back up from that. I think the Cobra tank sections were the worst though as the game literally forced you to stalk those tanks from behind where their weak points exposed until you got a lock-on. It would have made more sense and be more fun if you could just take the shot from behind instead of in front.

While this is a very minor oversight that they could have corrected later with an upgrade, but I hated the fact that once that the narrative forces you to get the "back-up" Batmobile that has all of the subweapons that you didn't take from Lucius Fox and/or Alfred the first go-round. That made the battle against Scarecrow's army of tanks such a damn chore as a result, despite Oracle's help. Speaking of that, I don't get why so much of the latter half of the game is restricted to these boss battles in the Batmobile. I thought we were playing a Batman game and not a simulated MechWarrior spin-off? The chase against Arkham Knight in his drill machine, the fight against the army of militia tanks with Ivy's plants assisting you, the army of Scarecrow's tanks storming on GCPD HQ, the fight against Arkham Knight in his Cloudburst tank and the 6 Cobra tanks, and so on... it was too fucking much focus on the Batmobile at this point. You know it's bad when you're forced to spend more of your experience points on upgrading the Batmobile than actually upgrading Batman's gadgets and combat skills. I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen the bulk of Batman's skill tree in action just from devoting so many skill points to the Batmobile. It's a darn shame too as I'm sure most players won't experience that as well.

One thing is certain though, whenever you're driving the Batmobile, there's always a sense of how much power that you're packing at your fingertips that hasn't existed in these games until now. It's a crazy adrenaline rush that really keeps you within the moment of the action. I guess that's what makes controlling this monster of a machine even more frustrating as it's so easy to lose control with so much power at your disposal.

Downloadable Content

I dunno about anyone else, but my copy of the game only came with the Scarecrow DLC, the pre-order DLC skins, and the Harley Quinn DLC. There wasn't nothing in the box mentioning Red Hood. Oh well...

Harley Quinn's Story Pack

I can't speak on the Red Hood and other various DLC Arkham episodes (yet), but from what I played of the Harley Quinn episode, that was a complete waste of time and could have been part of the actual campaign. I feel sorry for anyone who actually put down any extra cash for that. I started one of my streams of this game on PS4 with this DLC and finished it in less than 30-40 minutes. I don't know why I'm surprised at this stage when they half-assed the Deathstroke pre-order DLC too for Origins. Harley's campaign wasn't bad, but it's a far cry for anyone who was looking forward to playing as her in a lengthy fashion. It's over as quickly as it begins and you don't get a sense of her abilities/skill set until it's over anyway, so it feels like a complete waste of an opportunity. I did enjoy her twist on Detective Mode with her conscience as Dr. Harleen Quinzel trying to talk sense to her in her from prolonged usage though.

I know I'm going to get heat for saying this, but I hope Tara Strong doesn't quit her day job(s). Playing Harley Quinn is not her forte in this game at all, with every line she has in this game I'm hearing either Bubbles (Powerpuff Girls) or Clare Brewster (Beetlejuice). She's not even trying to sound remotely like Arleen Sorkin anymore and just coasting on the same recycled tone/voice she does for roughly every other character in animation she plays nowadays. 

Play It or Don't Bother?

Finish the fight... You've played these games this far. You might as well see the story to it's end.

If you have played all of the other entries in the Arkham series up until now, then you owe yourself to finish the trilogy. That being said this isn't a polished adventure as much as the acclaimed Arkham City was. Sure, you got a MUCH bigger city to explore and traverse and it's definitely simply gorgeous to see in action, but a lot of the actual gameplay gets redundant rather too quickly for my taste. I initially loved the addition of the Batmobile, but after how the main story campaign forces its use onto you so heavily throughout the game, I found that aspect to be a chore after a while. Just be prepared to little to no "real" boss fights this time around and more emphasis on Predator Combat and maneuvering the Batmobile around the city.