Batman: Arkham Knight

[Mani-Man]

To this day, IMO the best thing about AK was the combat and the graphics. I love how you could see skins in the cutscenes and each skin was uniquely designed with specific textures. They pushed the limits of how good things can look.

I would have liked a bit more Cinematic combat, but yeah...the way it flows and feels...Free Flow is so much fun.
Graphics quality wise...2022 still absolutely incredible.
But i have to say that i didnt like the Artstyle, it was too much Nolan and too little comicy IMO.

One thing i find underrated and hardly talked about, is the Race Tracks.
And i mean specificly the Batman 66 and Burton Tracks.
It is such a cool idea to give the player unique tracks based on the movies/Tv show.
Would have loved to see a Batman the Animated Series track and stuff.

Arkham Knights has so many great ideas and all...its one of the many reasons why i keep saying that i need more of this, more Batman games following the Arkham blueprint.

 

[Brother Jack]

To this day, IMO the best thing about AK was the combat and the graphics. I love how you could see skins in the cutscenes and each skin was uniquely designed with specific textures. They pushed the limits of how good things can look.

It's honestly astounding how well Knight holds up graphically. It's seven years old, made at the beginning of the previous gen's lifecycle, and it still looks better than a lot of games coming out now. However you feel about the game's story or the batmobile, it's kind of a masterpiece visually.

 

[Mani-Man]

Ive been going down the rabbit hole with the series and saw some mods...it reminded me that WBM did far more work for Origins than people notice.

Like they used many new moves for joker in this short 30 second fight you can play with him, they did a fully working Robin and of course Deathstroke.

 

[psylockolussus]

It's honestly astounding how well Knight holds up graphically. It's seven years old, made at the beginning of the previous gen's lifecycle, and it still looks better than a lot of games coming out now. However you feel about the game's story or the batmobile, it's kind of a masterpiece visually.

It is.

Its also one of the first few games I played on Ps4.

 

[The Joker]

Arkham Knight was the main reason I got a PS4.

 

[Drizzle]

Arkham Knight was the main reason I got a PS4.

Same. I got it on Christmas 2014 and I didn't really play it much until Arkham Knight came out that following summer. The PS4/Xbox One generation had some great games but it took a little while to gain traction.

 

[The Caped Knight]

The finale was bittersweet it had its moments of joy and excitement, but it also had its share of problems. That being said it still a hell of a run.

 

[TheVileOne]

The finale was bittersweet it had its moments of joy and excitement, but it also had its share of problems. That being said it still a hell of a run.

I've been replaying Arkham City from Return to Arkham, and that's still the peak of this franchise. It's aged remarkably well over the last 10 years. Just peak in terms of gameplay and overall execution, execution on the vision that was promised with Arkham Asylum.

 

[Mani-Man]

The Most frustrating to me.
So much potential wasted on bad design decisions sadly.

Dont get me wrong, not in terms of the Gameplay...the gameplay is godlike.
They still managed to top City in terms of it.
This Free Flow Combat system is the greatest Hand to Hand combat gameplay ever done.
Predator wasnt really touched that much sadly, but stuff like the fear takedowns are just so cool.
The new suit is glorious and the Batmobile is cool.

Thats all fine, but then the frustration starts.

Like the new part of Gotham you can explore, is so dull.
Nothing that is really unique, the map feels like it barely fits the Batmobile...it feels way too small for the whole of Gotham imo.

Then you get the heavy focus on Batmobile stuff that just isnt working.
Like i love the Batmobile in this game, but so many Missions that require the Batmobile...and the tank battles, oh god the tank boss battles.

You have a incredible looking game that still in 2023 can stand toe to toe with some of the best looking new games out there.
Games made with UE5 and all, and yet Knight can still keep up in terms of the Graphics.
But that comes with a price.
The game isnt as comicy anymore, things are less vibrant and more realistic.
For which i dont really care to be honest.
I liked the more comicy style the other games had just that much more.

And the story...oh the story.
On a basic level a great story, ruined imo by again shoving the Main Villains aside for Joker and no real build up to the Arkham Knight reveal.
The idea of Scarecrow as the big bad is cool, but then he becomes third fiddle behind Joker and the Arkham Knight.
Looking back at it, dont get me wrong, the Joker/Batman stuff is so incredible...especially the end part of it...but again the game had more to offer than Joker vs Batman.
Yeah the whole Joker/Batman story of the Arkham series is cool, but when you see what could have been outside of this and isnt...its a bit sad.
Like i said, there is so much good Joker and Batman stuff already out there, so i will always be sad that they didnt took the chance to do with this series more for the other villains.

It sounds more negative, but i wouldnt say its a bad game.
In terms of that, every arkham game imo is a Good game, there is no objectively bad Arkham game imo.
They all are incredible and i will never get tired of playing them.
Even Knight, i cant wait till i reach Knight with my current Batman Arkham game Marathon.
Also because of the DLC skins and stuff.

The imo Weakest Arkham game, but still a incredible good Video Game.

 

[TheVileOne]

The problem is that none of the previous games ever mentioned Jason Todd at all.

 

[Mani-Man]

The problem is that none of the previous games ever mentioned Jason Todd at all.

Yes, you had absolutely no connection to this character at all.
No relationship outside of the sudden 20 minute or what in Studio that suddenly should make you care so much and tell you that Bruce took Jasons death so hard and all.
But you dont feel it because there was no work done before and those 20 or what minutes of build up, just arent good enough imo.
I dont even think the comic tie-ins ever did mention Jason outside of the ones that came out for Arkham Knight.
And not too many have read them.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Personally I found Arkham Knight the best. The side missions were great and broke up the main plot nicely. I loved the combat inside and outside the Batmobile. And there were actual consequences to the story.

I actually found City the worst. Very big Meh when it ended for me.

 

[Filmfreak]

What can I say? I love them all for different reasons.

 

[antsman41]

Still burdened that I never finished AK due to the second atrocious Batmobile leve.

When, the three previous games - I beat within 3-5 days, each.

 

[zeptron]

When I beat the first three Arkham games, I pretty much replayed them right away. However when I first beat Arkham Knight, I was in no hurry to replay it. And that was mainly because of the over reliance on the Batmobile.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Main problems with the story and the writing:

Barbra and Tim are dating out of nowhere.

Joker shoots Jason Todd in his heavily armored suit and sends the tape of it to Batman, who just takes it at face value that Jason is dead (even though The Joker is the ultimate trickster villain in the DC universe).

Jason's entire motivation is that he's angry at Batman for being a moron who thought he was dead (and fair play, I would be pissed at him too), but its not a very compelling motivation or story compared to the Red Head animated movie where Bruce and Jason have different points of view on the War On Crime.

The Joker's uniqueness as a villain is weakened because five randos were infected with his blood during Arkham City and they all do bad impersonations of him. How does getting infected by someone else's infected blood cause you to take on their personality traits?

Not only can't Batman see right through Joker's ruse with the Jason tape, but he also can't figure out that Arkham Knight is Jason, even though he's seeing memories of his "death" and Knight has the same hot headed whiny ***** personality that Jason had. At what point does "World's Greatest Detective" become false advertising?

 

[Mani-Man]

I dont really mind the Barbara/Tim thing, most of the time i forget its a thing because it serves absolutely no purpose at all.
Yeah as comic fan its just weird even thinking about it, but in this case its more that i has absolutely no value to the game.
Even that one cutscene in the main game where Bruce tells Tim she is "dead"...like that could have worked like this without making them a couple.
Its a utterly pointless decision that serves no point at all.

As for the Jason thing, it bothers me less because of logic and more because of the lack of Emotion behind it all.
Because we have no Relationship with Jason prior to the sudden Movie studio scenes and stuff.
There is no emotional weight for me to care.

The Joker blood "turning people into joker" plot i found super weak and at times feels like they forced it in pretty late into Development.
I could maybe deal with it if City didnt already had a Joker blood plot that back then was killing people.
I do like that the infected were kind of different aspects of Jokers character and we got 3 unique ways to deal with them...but overall im not fan of that part of the plot.

 

[Slick]

I've been replaying Arkham City from Return to Arkham, and that's still the peak of this franchise. It's aged remarkably well over the last 10 years. Just peak in terms of gameplay and overall execution, execution on the vision that was promised with Arkham Asylum.

Playing on the last half of Arkham City from the Return of Arkham collection with small few side quests to complete then moving on to Arkham Knight’s main game and DLC. Trying to finish before Suicide Squad: KTJL comes out but seeing that doesn’t release till late May I got plenty of time.

 

[TheVileOne]

Playing on the last half of Arkham City from the Return of Arkham collection with small few side quests to complete then moving on to Arkham Knight’s main game and DLC. Trying to finish before Suicide Squad: KTJL comes out but seeing that doesn’t release till late May I got plenty of time.

Unfortunately, it's looking like that might spoil the experience of Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League even more.

One thing that's been fun replaying Arkham City for Return to Arkham this time, I've been focusing more on leveling up before I progress. It's more fun that way . I always like being over-leveled and having better upgrades. So basically do as much side-questing, riddled trophy farming, and thug beatdowns as much as possible.

When I first played the game, I didn't realize I could farm XP in Arkham City and that thug groups would gradually respawn. I was just trying to progress. So by the time I got to the end of the campaign, I was disappointed I wasn't fully upgraded. Not anymore.

 

[The Caped Knight]

 

[DeadlyWest]

****ING WHAT

 

[The Joker]

Wow. 8 years later and they're still adding content. That's fantastic.

 

[Boom]

Not on the XBox store tho.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Crazy that they took the time to add this. We should have had two more Batman Arkham games since Knight. From WB Montreal at least.

Greenlighting Suicide Squad will always seem crazy to me.

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

I think The Suicide Squad game is going to effectively kill Rocksteady as a studio.