The last edition in the Batman Arkham series by Rock Steady Studios concluded on a high note. The latest in the series is the Batman: Arkham Knight, and there are a number of improvements and additions in the new game.
Batman: Arkham Knight can be played on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and also your PC.
Batman is a superhero with a troubled past and the Arkham games have never shied away from exploring the dark side of the caped crusader – Arkham Knight is no exception. It expands on Arkham City’s open world with a larger, more detailed version of Gotham city.
While the first edition of the Arkham series, Arkham Asylum, from Rocksteady Studios had a sense of a fresh beginning for superhero action games, Batman: Arkham Knight has a sense of finality.
The New Batmobile
For the first time in the Arkham series, the Batman can leap into the Batmobile and zoom down the streets of Gotham.
Driving the Batmobile is pretty slick. And there is no beating the incredible rush of using your line launcher to fling yourself through the sky.
Plus, if you press the left trigger for long enough, the Batmobile turns into a tank and can blow up battle drones.
It gives you quite a similar feeling to what you must have experienced while watching Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, where ‘the Bat' (the Batcopter) was blowing up the tumblers (the Batmobiles) being operated by Bane’s goons.
Batman’s Sidekicks and Villains
Arkham Knight’s approximately 12 hours of story mission comprehensively explores the long history between him, the three Robins, Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara (Batgirl).
However, the storyline dwells a little too much into the supernatural at times as the threats he faces aren’t always, even remotely, grounded in reality.
The co-antagonist Arkham Knight looks great as he teams up with Scarecrow; the mystery of his identity fizzles out.
But strong performances from John Noble as Scarecrow, Mark Hamill as the Joker and Batman himself (voiced by Kevin Conroy) stand out like always and give a cinematic experience.
Enhanced Combat Play
If you like beating bad guys to a pulp with your bare hands, you will love Batman’s new strike-and-counter brawling.
The game designers have upgraded several powerful new mechanics when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.
In the stealthy predator fights, the surprise multi-takedown move helps you to knock out up to five unsuspecting targets in one go while the voice synthesizer gadget lures thugs into traps.
You can also now pick up a dropped baseball bat or a club during brawls against enemies with shock batons.
Meanwhile, the number of enemies has drastically increased, not just in number but also because now there is a medic who can protect his allies with electric fields and revive the ones you manage to knock out.
In fact, I had to change my entire style of combat, since now, if you use Detective Vision of Batman for too long, thugs can detect you and hunt you down using tactics like firebombing ground vents, controlling hovering drones and deploying landmines.
Final Verdict
Arkham Knight is the biggest Batman game till date, and not just in map size but also the variety of game play options, the collection of diverse characters and, of course, the edition of the Batmobile. It is definitely the most badass Batman till date.
Batman: Arkham Knight: 4/5 Quints.
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