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Batman is back, in this, the final entry in the four-game Arkham trilogy.
Hang on a mo - four games? Yes, because while games developers Rocksteady were responsible for Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, Arkham Origins was produced by another games studio, and apparently isn't considered part of the series. Warner Brothers were apparently not happy waiting four or so years for the next game in the series, so shoehorned Origins in.
But was Arkham Knight worth waiting for? Sort of. It's the first proper Batman game to be released on the current generation of consoles, not getting a release on the 360 or PS3. It got a PC release, but that was such a massive buggy trainwreck, it's been pulled by the publishers. This time around you play as Batman - no surprise there - who is again voiced by Kevin Conroy who's been voicing the character since the days of the nineties animated cartoon.
What is surprising is that the game is once again devoid of any civilians. The excuse this time is that Scarecrow has threatened to flood the city with fear gas. This leaves the city as Batman's personal playground, which I suspect is what he's wanted for ages. One of the things that instant appeals to me about Arkham Knight is that it underlines the fact that he's a bit of a nutter. After all, Gotham City only contains thugs and criminals and yet he's content to hang about punching people in the face. And they say the Joker's a loony?
You're given the freedom to roam around the whole of Gotham City, and can drive or swing about the city, though when the enemies come out in force you're better sticking to the rooftops. You don't quite have the freedom of movement you did in Spider-Man 2, not least since Batman has no actual superpowers. But you can rather satisfyingly grapple across ledges, hang upside down and so forth.
The latter comes in particular handy when actually have to fight enemies. While you can spend time swinging around the city, or driving the Batmobile, you'll want to fight bad guys eventually. You can fight them fist to face - not a good idea if they're heavily armed - but sneaking up on them, or dropping down on them, then grappling away is far more entertaining. The bad guys in this game are mostly working for The Scarecrow, or Arkham Knight, a 'new' character introduced for this game, though you do sometimes to get tangle with other big bad guys. The combat system is actually pretty good, meaning that hammering buttons randomly won't guarantee your success.
So so far, so good. But then there's the Batmobile - which has been mentioned by several reviews as being one of the game's big negative points. It's pretty cool to be able to roam around the streets in the Batmobile or, at a stretch, transform the vehicle into a tank and take on other vehicles. However, the game forces you to do this at several points through the main storyline. I even considered giving up on game's Axis Chemical level, because the game kept forcing me to open gates to get the Batmobile through.
It's not like the Batmobile hasn't featured in other games, comics and movies, but it's rarely been so heavily featured. Here it feels like you're using the Batmobile about half of the time.
Also, other Batman characters don't feature in the game too much. Joker is dead, but most other bad guys feature only in side missions. Catwoman, usually an interesting character, spends most of the game stuck in an old warehouse. Harley Quinn is kind of fun and gets her own short story but it too is fairly brief.
So is it worth buying? If you only have a PS4 or X-Box One then, yes. The graphics are superb, and the locations are suitably dark and gloomy. PS4 owners also get a bonus Adam West Batman skin which is fun to use - you don't get his voice, sadly. And it is fun to play, just not as much fun as Arkham City. So if you have a PC or other console, play Arkham City first and then tackle this. Good, but not great.
Score: 7 out of 10
Pros: It's fun to play.
The graphics are excellent.
It feels like you're playing as Batman.
Cons:
Some of the characters are sidelined.
The Batmobile sections are a chore.
Hang on a mo - four games? Yes, because while games developers Rocksteady were responsible for Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, Arkham Origins was produced by another games studio, and apparently isn't considered part of the series. Warner Brothers were apparently not happy waiting four or so years for the next game in the series, so shoehorned Origins in.
But was Arkham Knight worth waiting for? Sort of. It's the first proper Batman game to be released on the current generation of consoles, not getting a release on the 360 or PS3. It got a PC release, but that was such a massive buggy trainwreck, it's been pulled by the publishers. This time around you play as Batman - no surprise there - who is again voiced by Kevin Conroy who's been voicing the character since the days of the nineties animated cartoon.
What is surprising is that the game is once again devoid of any civilians. The excuse this time is that Scarecrow has threatened to flood the city with fear gas. This leaves the city as Batman's personal playground, which I suspect is what he's wanted for ages. One of the things that instant appeals to me about Arkham Knight is that it underlines the fact that he's a bit of a nutter. After all, Gotham City only contains thugs and criminals and yet he's content to hang about punching people in the face. And they say the Joker's a loony?
You're given the freedom to roam around the whole of Gotham City, and can drive or swing about the city, though when the enemies come out in force you're better sticking to the rooftops. You don't quite have the freedom of movement you did in Spider-Man 2, not least since Batman has no actual superpowers. But you can rather satisfyingly grapple across ledges, hang upside down and so forth.
The latter comes in particular handy when actually have to fight enemies. While you can spend time swinging around the city, or driving the Batmobile, you'll want to fight bad guys eventually. You can fight them fist to face - not a good idea if they're heavily armed - but sneaking up on them, or dropping down on them, then grappling away is far more entertaining. The bad guys in this game are mostly working for The Scarecrow, or Arkham Knight, a 'new' character introduced for this game, though you do sometimes to get tangle with other big bad guys. The combat system is actually pretty good, meaning that hammering buttons randomly won't guarantee your success.
So so far, so good. But then there's the Batmobile - which has been mentioned by several reviews as being one of the game's big negative points. It's pretty cool to be able to roam around the streets in the Batmobile or, at a stretch, transform the vehicle into a tank and take on other vehicles. However, the game forces you to do this at several points through the main storyline. I even considered giving up on game's Axis Chemical level, because the game kept forcing me to open gates to get the Batmobile through.
It's not like the Batmobile hasn't featured in other games, comics and movies, but it's rarely been so heavily featured. Here it feels like you're using the Batmobile about half of the time.
Also, other Batman characters don't feature in the game too much. Joker is dead, but most other bad guys feature only in side missions. Catwoman, usually an interesting character, spends most of the game stuck in an old warehouse. Harley Quinn is kind of fun and gets her own short story but it too is fairly brief.
So is it worth buying? If you only have a PS4 or X-Box One then, yes. The graphics are superb, and the locations are suitably dark and gloomy. PS4 owners also get a bonus Adam West Batman skin which is fun to use - you don't get his voice, sadly. And it is fun to play, just not as much fun as Arkham City. So if you have a PC or other console, play Arkham City first and then tackle this. Good, but not great.
Score: 7 out of 10
Pros: It's fun to play.
The graphics are excellent.
It feels like you're playing as Batman.
Cons:
Some of the characters are sidelined.
The Batmobile sections are a chore.
pete_21 wrote:
I've had a bit of a go on this now and I reckon it's alright TBH, it doesn't seem to be straying too far from the old tried and tested formula of the previous games to me. So far I've found the batmobile bits to be OK, perhaps as I get into the game a bit more I may start to tire of them?
BTW I presume the review was supposed to state that the game was not available on 360 & PS3 not PS4?
Doh, yes! Fixed - it's not available on 360 or PS3.
I've had a bit of a go on this now and I reckon it's alright TBH, it doesn't seem to be straying too far from the old tried and tested formula of the previous games to me. So far I've found the batmobile bits to be OK, perhaps as I get into the game a bit more I may start to tire of them?
BTW I presume the review was supposed to state that the game was not available on 360 & PS3 not PS4?
Doh, yes! Fixed - it's not available on 360 or PS3.
pete_21 wrote:
I've had a bit of a go on this now and I reckon it's alright TBH, it doesn't seem to be straying too far from the old tried and tested formula of the previous games to me. So far I've found the batmobile bits to be OK, perhaps as I get into the game a bit more I may start to tire of them?
You might, as I said it seems that the Batmobile has divided opinion. I've started more and more to see it just as another "bat- toy" to be used like the line launcher, grappling hook or smoke bombs.
It does add some new challenges, and it's also allowed the game devs to give "free roam" access across the entirety of Gotham on foot without allowing you access to all quests/ storylines immediately; sometimes you need the Batmobile to proceed, but you can't get past the raised bridges with it...
I've had a bit of a go on this now and I reckon it's alright TBH, it doesn't seem to be straying too far from the old tried and tested formula of the previous games to me. So far I've found the batmobile bits to be OK, perhaps as I get into the game a bit more I may start to tire of them?
You might, as I said it seems that the Batmobile has divided opinion. I've started more and more to see it just as another "bat- toy" to be used like the line launcher, grappling hook or smoke bombs.
It does add some new challenges, and it's also allowed the game devs to give "free roam" access across the entirety of Gotham on foot without allowing you access to all quests/ storylines immediately; sometimes you need the Batmobile to proceed, but you can't get past the raised bridges with it...
I've had a bit of a go on this now and I reckon it's alright TBH, it doesn't seem to be straying too far from the old tried and tested formula of the previous games to me. So far I've found the batmobile bits to be OK, perhaps as I get into the game a bit more I may start to tire of them?
BTW I presume the review was supposed to state that the game was not available on 360 & PS3 not PS4?
BTW I presume the review was supposed to state that the game was not available on 360 & PS3 not PS4?
I think we may have pretty much covered the "buggy trainwreck" conversation on here already, but I'll say it again; the PC version is NO WORSE than previous Arkham games on release, and FAR BETTER than many other titles that remained on sale despite their flaws (AC Unity for example).
The Batmobile does seem to divide opinions somewhat, I loved it to start with, then hated it, now I love it again. I don't find the tank battles particularly tiresome, I quite like chasing down bad guys at high speed, assisted takedowns are cool (admit it, you loved those, didn't you?), but the Riddler races... ugh!
With regard to Batman's enemies, isn't the balance about the same as previous Arkham games? you had one or two "main" villains, core to the story, while the rest comprised some side elements or a single defined part of the main storyline.
What I do like in AK is the parts where I get to fight with a sidekick; Robin, Nightwing, Catwoman...
And, let's be honest, this is far better balanced than Origins was!
The Batmobile does seem to divide opinions somewhat, I loved it to start with, then hated it, now I love it again. I don't find the tank battles particularly tiresome, I quite like chasing down bad guys at high speed, assisted takedowns are cool (admit it, you loved those, didn't you?), but the Riddler races... ugh!
With regard to Batman's enemies, isn't the balance about the same as previous Arkham games? you had one or two "main" villains, core to the story, while the rest comprised some side elements or a single defined part of the main storyline.
What I do like in AK is the parts where I get to fight with a sidekick; Robin, Nightwing, Catwoman...
And, let's be honest, this is far better balanced than Origins was!
Batman is back, in this, the final entry in the four-game Arkham trilogy.
Hang on a mo - four games? Yes, because while games developers Rocksteady were responsible for Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, Arkham Origins was produced by another games studio, and apparently isn't considered part of the series. Warner Brothers were apparently not happy waiting four or so years for the next game in the series, so shoehorned Origins in.
But was Arkham Knight worth waiting for? Sort of. It's the first proper Batman game to be released on the current generation of consoles, not getting a release on the 360 or PS3. It got a PC release, but that was such a massive buggy trainwreck, it's been pulled by the publishers. This time around you play as Batman - no surprise there - who is again voiced by Kevin Conroy who's been voicing the character since the days of the nineties animated cartoon.
What is surprising is that the game is once again devoid of any civilians. The excuse this time is that Scarecrow has threatened to flood the city with fear gas. This leaves the city as Batman's personal playground, which I suspect is what he's wanted for ages. One of the things that instant appeals to me about Arkham Knight is that it underlines the fact that he's a bit of a nutter. After all, Gotham City only contains thugs and criminals and yet he's content to hang about punching people in the face. And they say the Joker's a loony?
You're given the freedom to roam around the whole of Gotham City, and can drive or swing about the city, though when the enemies come out in force you're better sticking to the rooftops. You don't quite have the freedom of movement you did in Spider-Man 2, not least since Batman has no actual superpowers. But you can rather satisfyingly grapple across ledges, hang upside down and so forth.
The latter comes in particular handy when actually have to fight enemies. While you can spend time swinging around the city, or driving the Batmobile, you'll want to fight bad guys eventually. You can fight them fist to face - not a good idea if they're heavily armed - but sneaking up on them, or dropping down on them, then grappling away is far more entertaining. The bad guys in this game are mostly working for The Scarecrow, or Arkham Knight, a 'new' character introduced for this game, though you do sometimes to get tangle with other big bad guys. The combat system is actually pretty good, meaning that hammering buttons randomly won't guarantee your success.
So so far, so good. But then there's the Batmobile - which has been mentioned by several reviews as being one of the game's big negative points. It's pretty cool to be able to roam around the streets in the Batmobile or, at a stretch, transform the vehicle into a tank and take on other vehicles. However, the game forces you to do this at several points through the main storyline. I even considered giving up on game's Axis Chemical level, because the game kept forcing me to open gates to get the Batmobile through.
It's not like the Batmobile hasn't featured in other games, comics and movies, but it's rarely been so heavily featured. Here it feels like you're using the Batmobile about half of the time.
Also, other Batman characters don't feature in the game too much. Joker is dead, but most other bad guys feature only in side missions. Catwoman, usually an interesting character, spends most of the game stuck in an old warehouse. Harley Quinn is kind of fun and gets her own short story but it too is fairly brief.
So is it worth buying? If you only have a PS4 or X-Box One then, yes. The graphics are superb, and the locations are suitably dark and gloomy. PS4 owners also get a bonus Adam West Batman skin which is fun to use - you don't get his voice, sadly. And it is fun to play, just not as much fun as Arkham City. So if you have a PC or other console, play Arkham City first and then tackle this. Good, but not great.
Score: 7 out of 10
Pros: It's fun to play.
The graphics are excellent.
It feels like you're playing as Batman.
Cons:
Some of the characters are sidelined.
The Batmobile sections are a chore.
Hang on a mo - four games? Yes, because while games developers Rocksteady were responsible for Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, Arkham Origins was produced by another games studio, and apparently isn't considered part of the series. Warner Brothers were apparently not happy waiting four or so years for the next game in the series, so shoehorned Origins in.
But was Arkham Knight worth waiting for? Sort of. It's the first proper Batman game to be released on the current generation of consoles, not getting a release on the 360 or PS3. It got a PC release, but that was such a massive buggy trainwreck, it's been pulled by the publishers. This time around you play as Batman - no surprise there - who is again voiced by Kevin Conroy who's been voicing the character since the days of the nineties animated cartoon.
What is surprising is that the game is once again devoid of any civilians. The excuse this time is that Scarecrow has threatened to flood the city with fear gas. This leaves the city as Batman's personal playground, which I suspect is what he's wanted for ages. One of the things that instant appeals to me about Arkham Knight is that it underlines the fact that he's a bit of a nutter. After all, Gotham City only contains thugs and criminals and yet he's content to hang about punching people in the face. And they say the Joker's a loony?
You're given the freedom to roam around the whole of Gotham City, and can drive or swing about the city, though when the enemies come out in force you're better sticking to the rooftops. You don't quite have the freedom of movement you did in Spider-Man 2, not least since Batman has no actual superpowers. But you can rather satisfyingly grapple across ledges, hang upside down and so forth.
The latter comes in particular handy when actually have to fight enemies. While you can spend time swinging around the city, or driving the Batmobile, you'll want to fight bad guys eventually. You can fight them fist to face - not a good idea if they're heavily armed - but sneaking up on them, or dropping down on them, then grappling away is far more entertaining. The bad guys in this game are mostly working for The Scarecrow, or Arkham Knight, a 'new' character introduced for this game, though you do sometimes to get tangle with other big bad guys. The combat system is actually pretty good, meaning that hammering buttons randomly won't guarantee your success.
So so far, so good. But then there's the Batmobile - which has been mentioned by several reviews as being one of the game's big negative points. It's pretty cool to be able to roam around the streets in the Batmobile or, at a stretch, transform the vehicle into a tank and take on other vehicles. However, the game forces you to do this at several points through the main storyline. I even considered giving up on game's Axis Chemical level, because the game kept forcing me to open gates to get the Batmobile through.
It's not like the Batmobile hasn't featured in other games, comics and movies, but it's rarely been so heavily featured. Here it feels like you're using the Batmobile about half of the time.
Also, other Batman characters don't feature in the game too much. Joker is dead, but most other bad guys feature only in side missions. Catwoman, usually an interesting character, spends most of the game stuck in an old warehouse. Harley Quinn is kind of fun and gets her own short story but it too is fairly brief.
So is it worth buying? If you only have a PS4 or X-Box One then, yes. The graphics are superb, and the locations are suitably dark and gloomy. PS4 owners also get a bonus Adam West Batman skin which is fun to use - you don't get his voice, sadly. And it is fun to play, just not as much fun as Arkham City. So if you have a PC or other console, play Arkham City first and then tackle this. Good, but not great.
Score: 7 out of 10
Pros: It's fun to play.
The graphics are excellent.
It feels like you're playing as Batman.
Cons:
Some of the characters are sidelined.
The Batmobile sections are a chore.