


The Knight is a huge fan of autonomous warfare, so you can have constant non-lethal drone fights. You remember Firefly, right? How could you forget your old pal, Professor Pyg? While you’re busy trying to put names to faces, the game begins setting up the ideal Dark Knight playground: a bizarre place where everyone can be hurt and no one can die.Ī supervillain’s plot has driven out all of Gotham’s law-fearing residents, leaving only gang members, an Arkham Knight "militia," and other people that you can beat up with impunity. We’re just lucky its madness is so much fun.Īrkham Knight’s story assumes a surprising amount of Batman lore knowledge, with dozens of characters showing up like old friends at a surprise birthday party. And it is completely insane - narratively, mechanically, and thematically.

It introduces a new enemy: the mysterious Arkham Knight, a masked man with a personal vendetta against Batman. Arkham Knight introduces more structure into the huge world of Gotham. Last week, developer Rocksteady concluded its series with Batman: Arkham Knight.

Its setting was by turns delightfully open-ended and frustratingly overwhelming, eventually leaving players with no real motivation except collecting hundreds of trophies to complete 100 percent of the game. Like so many other open-world games, though, City struggled to balance a consistent story with the freedom to explore. With a few design tweaks, it introduced the subtle but fascinating theme that Batman wasn’t just morally ambiguous he was a complete monster. The sequel, Arkham City, gave players far more of the series’ best features. You were in a full-fledged martial arts battle (loosely) inspired by comic genius Grant Morrison, you controlled the outcome, and you looked great doing it. Its stylish brawling and methodical stealth sequences required real skill, but the outsized rewards - a complicated array of gadgets and fighting moves that broke the laws of physics - made you feel like you were doing more than just pressing buttons. But sometimes, a “cinematic” game can truly capture the feeling of being inside an epic spectacle, and one of the best examples is the 2009 Batman: Arkham Asylum. Big-name games are sometimes criticized for feeling too much like Hollywood blockbusters.
