BATMAN™: ARKHAM KNIGHT_20150625035543
In 2009 when Rocksteady released their first Batman game Arkham Asylum it was a revolutionary step and a beginning of a new era in superhero games.The genre defining game produced the familiar batman and his arch nemesis in a whole different manner,gameplay mechanics,immersive storytelling and a semi open world of Arkham Asylum island Made the game a cult.In 2011 They released the perfect successor of the previous installment Batman Arkham City.The playground of Batman is now double the map size of arkham asylum,congested streets of Gotham and one of the finest stories which gave the relationship between batman and his foes a new point of view,and now with the release of Arkham Knight the last and the finale installment of this great batman saga Rocksteady surely bid adieu with a high note.If Arkham Asylum was the beginning of a new era Arkham Knight is surely the grand curtain down and justified ending of the critically acclaimed franchisee.
Once again Gotham city is under threat as Batman’s arch enemy Scarecrow threatens to destroy the city with bio-chemical bomb.Gotham city is under threat and on the verge of a massive evacuation.City streets are looming with all the vicious villains of Gotham and Gotham’s finest are mercilessly killed by the thugs of Two-Face and Penguin.In this troubled situation only one man can save Gotham and humanity,The Dark knight.
Batman Arkham Knight marks the return of all the iconic villains from the previous games.But the highlighted part of the game is the Rocksteady created imaginary antagonist named The Arkham Knight.Arkham knight is the militarized version of Batman himself.Years of research on Batman made Arkham knight a true competitor of the the dark knight,but with more lethal equipment and a huge army to back him up. Rocksteady and DC comic book writer Geoff Johns worked hard to establish a character like Arkham knight that actually matches upto Batman in every aspect.Arkham knight sports a much advanced batsuit with a big “A” on his chest.I really liked the way Rocksteady created this character both in terms of appearance and his nature.Arkham Knight is vengeful but then again he is calm and calculative which actually allows him to top batman in many sequences of the game.Rocksteady also fueled the character with a huge army of drones and tanks which actually gives the player a definite idea of the combat knowledge of Arkham Knight.
If Arkham Knight has an army of technologically advanced drones then our protagonist also need something similar to fight them.Rocksteady finally introduced the fully drivable Batmobile for the very first time (or last time) in the finale of the Arkham franchisee.You can literally summon the batmobile anytime in the game even if you are on foot or gliding above the city of gotham.In a similar fashion you can jump out of the batmobile literally like a bullet and start gliding around the city.Batmobile features two modes in the game.One is pursuit mode which allows batman to travel between waypoints,chase down criminals in vehicles and also to do the various AR challenges throughout the city.But its the second mode which unfolds the true ability of the batmobile.The battlemode literally transforms the batmobile into a heavily armored tank equipped with a canon of 60mm caliber rounds,vulcan chain gun and we cant forget that batman vowed not to kill anyone so a non lethal riot suppressor to control the thug driven streets of evacuated gotham.Along with Batman now you also need to upgrade your batmobile as well.Along with weapons batmobile also features an EMP device which also transforms in to a drone hacking machine.I find it quite useful during some particular missions.But what actually frustrating and disappointing about the game is also happens to be the Batmobile.Yes you heard it right.In order to give the player a full batmobile experience Rocksteady simply made the biggest blunder of the game.Most of the boss fights of the game are hugely dependent on the batmobile.Boss fights are more tank fights now rather than tactical combat of Batman which actually made the previous installments a great hit among the gamers.You will feel a bit bored with too much inclusion of batmobile in almost every mission of the game.I really missed the good old batman hand to hand combat and combo chain this time.
Arkham Knight also marks the return of some iconic Batman allies such as Nightwing and Robin.One of the new inclusion in the combat is the dual combat or dual takedown.During the combat you are now allowed to take charge of multiple protagonist to take down huge pile of enemies.It is also widely known as character switching.But hold your imaginary horses as this is only limited to combat in certain missions.This is I think one of the lacks of the game.Also Rocksteady chose to give a small amount of limelight to the sidekicks of Batman (nightwing and second robin).But its definitely bigger than arkham city this time.But as I said earlier transforming big boss fights into tank battles literally demolished one of the best ideas Rocksteady ever created.A boss fight along with all the sidekicks with the new dual takedown system could have been the icing on the cake but alas,it dint happen.On the other hand I was literally thankful to Rocksteady that they managed to shed some lights on the sidekicks even in a game where the main protagonist doesnt have much to do in CQC part.Well a great idea wasted.
Batman Arkham Knight also offers a series of side missions which actually makes you engaged in the game apart from doing story mission and this time I will definitely recommend you to do the side mission simultaneously with the story mission as there is a huge surprise waiting for you at the end.One of the newest inclusion in the side missions is the newest Riddler challenges.This time its not limited to trophy hunting.New set of Riddler challenges actually test the skills of your batmobile in the most extreme conditions.Finish the challenge in time and Riddler will reward you handsomely.Rocksteady excluded the challenge map packs this time in arkham knight and yes I actually don’t complain about it.
Batman Arkham Knight is undoubtedly one of the biggest attempt and greatest experiment Rocksteady ever produced in the widely phenomenon Batman franchisee.After Arkham city Rocksteady absolutely did justice to the grand finale.I really missed the old batman combat which set the previous two games apart from every other CQC combat game thanks to force implementation of tank battles but apart from that Batman Arkham Knight is actually a huge and outstanding game in the franchisee yet and a proper ending of a widely appreciated Arkham saga.
Graphics:-8/10
Story:-8/10
Gameplay:-7/10
