Batman: Arkham Knight - Part 3

[jonathancrane]

I'd demand a refund if the Arkham Knight was a hallucination.

 

[Jick]

Then prepare yourself. I think it's either an hallucination of himself, agreeing that he belongs to Arkham (hence the name of Arkham Knight) or it's a descendent of Amadeus Arkham.

There must be a link to the name Arkham. Why would anyone related to Batman, hero or villain, use the Arkham name and call himself a knight? Think about it.
Batman or descendent.

 

[hafizbat]

I definitely agree that there is more to the Arkham Knight than meets the eye...they wouldn't name the game after him if he's just a regular baddie.

It's also intriguing to me that Batman himself is deserving of the "Arkham Knight" title...

 

[Nathan]

I like that idea, but all the hype just for another illusion would not be a good idea. That may not go over well with most people.

I think it's no worse than hyping up Hugo Strange and Black Mask, and then making the games all about Joker.

 

[Two-Face]

If Arkham Knight is Joker I will be disppointed but it won't stop me from playing million time like I did with AA and AC.

 

[jonathancrane]

There is a possibility that Arkham Knight is an Arkham, as they retconned Amadeus Arkham in the New 52, and replaced him with Abraham Arkham in one of the annuals.

 

[Hunter Rider]

What do the numbers on the visor mean?

To reiterate, I love this design!

 

[TheFirstAvenger]

I think it's no worse than hyping up Hugo Strange and Black Mask, and then making the games all about Joker.

It isn't, but doing it three straight times is to much.

 

[Jick]

Well, I'm not expecting Scarecrow to be the final villain. Never was. Maybe not even the AK, but most likely not Scarecrow.

 

[The Joker]

Since Scarecrow is seemingly the main villain he should at least be in the finale.

 

[zenith16]

hmmm I have two articles here

What If Batman Arkham Knight Isn't The Best Game Ever Made?

Here are a few things about Batman: Arkham Knight that I want to nitpick.
more


and


Batman: Arkham Knight Doesn’t Trade Puzzle-Solving For The Batmobile. June 17, 2014 . 1:04pm

The demo I played started with Commissioner Gordon meeting with Batman on a bridge to a chemical plant, which is promptly destroyed by the Arkham Knight and his armed helicopter.

Batman: Arkham Knight is shaping up to be quite the game. It’s just too bad the titular Arkham Knight himself is a naive punk that lands somewhere between Gears of War’s Cole Train and an angry kid.

The demo I played started with Commissioner Gordon meeting with Batman on a bridge to a chemical plant, which is promptly destroyed by the Arkham Knight and his armed helicopter. Batman walks to the end of the bridge where the Knight’s helicopter is hovering and stares his Gatling gun in the eye without so much as batting an eyelid. The Arkham Knight says that this is the end of Batman, but is stopped by a voice that tells him “he has nothing left to fear,” and orders him to pocket his revenge for now. Gameplay started here.

Overall, my favorite thing about the new Batman game is the Batmobile. You can perform Batmobile-assisted takedowns where an enemy is punched into the air and knocked unconscious by a riot suppressor (rubber bullet), cross obstacles like a tank when it enters combat mode (by holding the left trigger) and perform donuts. The Batmobile can also be called to your location, controlled remotely, be used to store enemies/allies in the back as needed, and it can even be used to eject Baman high into the air for surprise attacks or reconnaissance.


All of these abilities plus the new Batmobile Remote only further the Legend of Zelda-like puzzle-solving that is one of the Arkham series’ staples. Criminals shut down an elevator you needed to ride? Bust the wall open, grapple onto the pulley, and lift it yourself. You don’t need no stinkin’ buttons. Incidentally, the mission we were tasked with completing during E3 involved using the Batmobile’s entire arsenal to find and transport hostages to safety.

Bats’ new ride isn’t his only new gadget, though—I also used a modified boomerang called a Bat Scanner to search for hostages in the chemical plant. As you’d use the left stick to scan for noise, you’d pick up chatter from various enemies, including the Arkham Knight himself. Of course, when you go to find them, you’re bound to run into enemies, and there are more ways to take them down than ever.


There’s also a new option called “fear takedown,” which lets you chain instant knockouts when you’re in groups of enemies that are in close proximity. Hits are sharp—fast and hard-hitting—and Batman doesn’t pull his punches this time around. At times, you can even use the environment to your advantage, dropping light fixtures on criminals’ heads or throwing metal boxes at them from a distance.

When they revealed Batman: Arkham Knight, I wasn’t excited—Ishaan can attest to that. Seeing Arkham Knight in action, though, has piqued my interest. The stealth elements weren’t compromised by the combat-crazy Batmobile segments. That’s why I now feel Arkham Knight’s worth looking into, even if its new antagonist sounds like Robin’s dark inner-conscience.

Food For Thought:

1. I can’t decide what looks better—Batman, Metal Gear Solid V or The Witcher III. They each have incredible visuals and a unique approach to storytelling.

2. Oh, I completely forgot! The blimps with search lights that make an appearance in the iconic Batman: The Animated Series intro are seen floating over Gotham in the distance. Judging by my brief time with the demo, of all the Batman games to date,


this one feels the closest to capturing the spirit of that show.

source:

GI & Siliconera
​

 

[TheFirstAvenger]

hmmm I have two articles here

What If Batman Arkham Knight Isn't The Best Game Ever Made?

Here are a few things about Batman: Arkham Knight that I want to nitpick.
more


and


Batman: Arkham Knight Doesn’t Trade Puzzle-Solving For The Batmobile. June 17, 2014 . 1:04pm

The demo I played started with Commissioner Gordon meeting with Batman on a bridge to a chemical plant, which is promptly destroyed by the Arkham Knight and his armed helicopter.

source:

GI & Siliconera
​

He give some pretty good reasons for being worried, nice counterpoint.

 

[The Caped Knight]

I say Meh, because regardless as soon as you start playing you'll be to busy not to care about these nitpicks.

This whole frenzy nitpick about a weaponized Batmobile is absolutely ridiculous, considering every Bat-vehicle (Batmobile, Batwing, Batboat, Batcycles etc..) in the comics, film, animation has been weaponized for the past 75 years .

Batman has always been equipped and prepared to deal with the criminal element he'll potential face. He'll uses these weapons to disable and incapacitate his adversary own weapons or vehicles.

 

[Oscorp]

Since Scarecrow is seemingly the main villain he should at least be in the finale.

I truly hope so!

 

[TheVileOne]

Here is a more critical preview of Arkham Knight by Metro:

http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/17/batman-arkham-knight-hands-on-preview-batmobile-gaming-4764369/

GameCentral gets to play the first next gen-only Batman game and get behind the wheel of the brand new Batmobile.

We’ve no doubt that Arkham Knight is going to turn out to be one of the best games of next year, but we’ve already given up all hope of it being the ‘ultimate Batman game’ that developer Rocksteady originally promised. Which creates an interesting question: does it actually matter how much a title diverges from its source material if it still ends up being a great game?

The answer to that is unequivocally ‘no’. But we feel the point is worth raising because as good as Arkham Knight appears to be it’s absolutely not what we were expecting from a next gen sequel. Our biggest qualm continues to be the fact that you still don’t really get to explore Gotham City under normal conditions. The whole city is now in the game but it’s been evacuated and there are no ordinary civilians left, just criminals and the odd unlucky public servant.

Unfortunately there wasn’t really anyone to interrogate about this at E3, with director Sefton Hill reportedly not even present at the show. Instead we ended up talking to lead animator Zafer Coban (literally everyone at Rocksteady has a name like a Star Wars bounty hunter), who was perfectly nice but was clearly not the one calling the shots. Although we did manage to drag some comment out of him.

‘I dunno if it will actually create much gameplay, in terms of how you want to drive it forward’, he said. ‘Like, we want to put in as many key figures, iconic figures, heroes and villains in the mix, that keep it really interesting. I think people would be more interested in seeing Two-Face or whoever, as opposed to, like, random Joe’.

We’re not sure why you couldn’t just have both though, since it means that through all three games there’s never been a point where Batman can just go on patrol as normal and do his bread and butter work of stopping muggings and bank heists. Instead Arkham Knight fills the city with criminals and the titular villain Arkham Knight… who not only has his own private army but a fleet of sci-fi style helicopter drones and tanks that have to be blown up with the Batmobile’s minigun.

At times it’s only Kevin Conroy’s voiceover that reminds you this is a Batman game at all. And the inclusion of these shoot ‘em-up elements not only seem to go directly against Batman’s whole ethos but are a clear extension of the sort of dudebro (Batbro, if you will) version of the character, that has become progressively more dehumanised as the series goes on. This is emphasised in the art design too, with even Commissioner Gordon having biceps like a silverback gorilla and the villains appearing to lack any ounce of humanity or vulnerability.



And even as we say all this we’re nowhere near the world’s biggest Batman fans, we just like the animated series and appreciate the complexity of the main character and his supporting cast. We’re just worried that none of this really seems to be showing through in a game that appears more interested in cramming in as much noise and explosions into every minute of gameplay.

Still, they are very well orchestrated explosions and at E3 we got to watch a hands-off demo and then continue on from where it left off on our own. The demo seems to be from fairly early on in the game, where Batman is trying to track down the Scarecrow – who it’s revealed is not only targeting Gotham but the whole of the US eastern seaboard.

This section of the game is set around the Ace Chemicals plant (a nice little nod to the comics) and starts with Batman throwing out a special batarang that flies around the area and scans for captured civilians (which Batman monitors by using his wrist computer, as his eyes go white in the process – another nice node to his comic portrayal).

Early on it looks like the action is going to play out much like any of the other Arkham games. The graphics are a clear step forward though, with some of the best rain effects we’ve ever seen in a game and an absurd level of detail that is obvious everywhere you look. (According to Coban this is why the game was delayed until next year, and we see no reason to doubt him – especially as the slowdown problems evident during the reveal seem to have disappeared.)

But as Batman drops into a group of thugs it becomes clear that the Batmobile is even more integral to the gameplay than we first assumed, with a special finisher move allowing it to attack enemies while you’re fighting. There’s also a neat new dragon punch for Batman, which looks slightly silly but proves hugely entertaining to use when we have a go afterwards.

The hands-off demo ends with the appearance of the Arkham Knight, who’s brand new and was created just for the game. He looks and acts like a militarised version of Batman and the angry-at-your-parents style dialogue will instantly have everyone assuming he is Robin (or one of them, there’s been a few in the comics). We just hope the game isn’t that obvious, but the fact that Rocksteady are this time writing the story themselves leaves that aspect of the game as as unknown quantity.

When it’s time for our go the action picks up straight after Arkham Knight has been sent packing by a missile barrage from the Batmobile, and we’re left trying to rescue the remaining civilians – although most of them seem to have already been killed. Here again the Batmobile’s importance to the game goes up another notch, as we discover it’s also involved in many of the puzzles.

Batman: Arkham Knight - tanks for nothing
Batman: Arkham Knight – tanks for nothing
Batman has his explosive gel and detective vision as usual, but at several points he has to use a grapnel on the Batmobile to pull out a section of pipe that’s blocking his way, and in another section there’s a lift’s counterweight that has to be pulled up so that you can get through and down a lift shaft. The Batmobile can be controlled by remote control at any time and from any location, and we defy anyone not to let out a sigh of geeky satisfaction when they try it for the first time.

All the more so because controlling the Batmobile is such fun. As already revealed it has two modes, with the default handling like a normal car and coming equipped with a turbo boost to jump over various handily placed ramps. But hit the shoulder button and the car transforms into sort of anti-gravity gun platform that is hugely entertaining just to slide around the game world. (We’re not actually sure it’s anti-gravity per se, but it feels like it – we’re assuming it’s not on shopping trolley wheels anyway.)

According to Coban around 60 to 50 per cent of the game will involve the Batmobile in some way, which is in danger of overshadowing Batman himself. Although turning on the turbo boost and setting off the ejector seat to soar through the air is arguably the coolest thing in the game, especially as you can now glide for much longer than before.

Just as we’re beginning to think all our concerns are unwarranted though we get to a part of the game where we’re basically just gunning down bad guys with a minigun. Sure, they’re supposed to be rubber bullets but we’re still shooting enemies with a gun, who never get back up again – which seems a very non-Batman kind of a thing to do. (No, you can’t run them over, they just get knocked back by an electric shock put out by the Batmobile’s chassis.)

From there though things just get even stranger with a face off against a dozen remote control Arkham Knight tanks, which is so oddly out of place it seems to have been beamed in from some Sega arcade shooter. It’s also extremely simplistic, as you shoot tanks with low powered rounds in order to charge up a Panzer Dragoon style multishot missile barrage.

Batman has been through so many interpretations over the last several decades that there is no definitive version of the character and his universe, and certainly he’s done things far more out of character than this before (we suspect the whole rubber bullet thing was inspired by The Dark Knight Returns) but it still doesn’t sit right with us. Not when this is supposed to be Rocksteady’s last outing with the character.

Perhaps it’s just being taken out of context – E3 demos are notorious for focusing only on action, whether that’s representative of the final game or not – but from what we’ve played we get the impression Rocksteady has lost interest in Batman’s universe and are just doing their own thing now. We’re sure that’ll result in a great game but we’re not sure it’ll be a great Batman game.

 

[TX85]

I expected AK to be brooding and serious like Batman..But he's just an angry cocky guy!?..Anarky!?

 

[TheVileOne]

He's like Jason Todd as Red Hood. Not saying he is Jason Todd, but that's just who he resembles.

 

[hafizbat]

Here is a more critical preview of Arkham Knight by Metro:

http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/17/batman-arkham-knight-hands-on-preview-batmobile-gaming-4764369/

Meh, sounds like the writer is just looking for something to nitpick about...There is absolutely nothing in that article that concerns me. This is Rocksteady, people. They know Batman.

 

[TheVileOne]

Well look, people complained about similar issues with Arkham Origins.

Fans wanted a fully populated Gotham City, and honestly for this game series, I just don't think it's feasible.

In Arkham Origins, which was not Rocksteady, the excuse was a CURFEW. And random crooks are all over the place on Christmas Eve. It's a little weird and unbelievable.

Now in Arkham Knight, the whole city has been evacuated. Now honestly, would a villain like Scarecrow and the other rogues even care if the city was evacuated or not?

 

[Grievous]

I really hope Scarecrow truly is the main villain. I really want him and the Arkham Knight to be the main focal point of the game.

 

[zenith16]

Well look, people complained about similar issues with Arkham Origins.

Fans wanted a fully populated Gotham City, and honestly for this game series, I just don't think it's feasible.

In Arkham Origins, which was not Rocksteady, the excuse was a CURFEW. And random crooks are all over the place on Christmas Eve. It's a little weird and unbelievable.

Now in Arkham Knight, the whole city has been evacuated. Now honestly, would a villain like Scarecrow and the other rogues even care if the city was evacuated or not?

lol it wasn't CURFEW. it was a storm warning to stay in doors. in places like where I'm at or Chicogo when that happens you do stay in. And Chicogo it can be colder then in most places in the north east. it was stated in Guinness book of records too.

 

[Jick]

I really hope Scarecrow truly is the main villain. I really want him and the Arkham Knight to be the main focal point of the game.

I want the same, but I learned better with the two previous games. I'm not keeping my hopes up. I'm going in knowing that someone else can take the role of final villain.

 

[zenith16]

I say Meh, because regardless as soon as you start playing you'll be to busy not to care about these nitpicks.

This whole frenzy nitpick about a weaponized Batmobile is absolutely ridiculous, considering every Bat-vehicle (Batmobile, Batwing, Batboat, Batcycles etc..) in the comics, film, animation has been weaponized for the past 75 years .

Batman has always been equipped and prepared to deal with the criminal element he'll potential face. He'll uses these weapons to disable and incapacitate his adversary own weapons or vehicles.

lol you haven't been on this site long enough. lol Any way they are valid points and we might see that it wasn't mr. Dini that was the problem. well those that still continue to blame him and he had two supervisor over him that allow to see launch ( which those peep's say not a thing about)

Any way I never really joined in on that. I took what got from the games they were noticeable but I never harped on it. yeah it could have been done better. but there isn't just one person to blame there.

 

[TheFirstAvenger]

The 'battle mode' is really the only thing that concerns me.

 

[zenith16]

The 'battle mode' is really the only thing that concerns me.

How so?