Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4)


Thinking back, two of the games I most enjoyed collecting every trophy (including the platinum) are Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Simply put, I thoroughly enjoy the minute to minute gameplay in Rocksteady's Batman games. Traversing through the map, taking down bad guys, and playing detective feels great and most importantly is great fun. Thankfully, all that has made the Batman games great is back and even better in Batman: Arkham Knight.

When Arkham Knight was announced, I was most excited to see that it was not coming out on last gen consoles because this was going to be one of the first games to truly be built from the ground up on current gen consoles so everything could be turned up to 11. After the game has come out, that's largely true.

One thing I really appreciated about the game is that (at least on hard mode) there was no tutorial what so ever. The game wastes no time and jumps right in. The graphics are a delight. Combat feels even tighter and is expanded on further (dual combat takedowns never get old). And traversing through the map has never been more thrilling with the addition of the Batmobile. Oh, and Batman can basically fly now.

I found this narrative to be the best of any of the games. It's well written and performed by a great group of vocal talent. While often predictable (really just the identity of the Arkham Knight) the story often kept me from completing the many side missions found in the game, which also take interesting turns. Luckily, the main story will sometimes have breathers which encourage you to explore the side missions while Lucius or Alfred process or create something (of course if you'd like to press on, to my knowledge, the main story is never held up by side missions).

Also, I thought the Batmobile was an enjoyable addition. It's not as overly used as I anticipated. Driving through the city is great especially since with it being a tank, the Batmobile plows through everything and rarely clips on anything in the city. I came to enjoy the battle mode sections after upgrading the Batmobile further. There were a few times in the game where I died plenty (car and hand to hand combat), but that was largely due to forgetting to use my upgrade points and/or failing to distribute them usefully. One thing that must be done is changing the Batmobile controller settings to Battle Mode Toggle.

Overall, this is a fantastic game. I look forward to reaching 100% completion and collecting the platinum. A definite must play to returning fans and new comers alike.

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