“Batman: Arkham Knight” is the fifth game in the Caped Crusder’s Arkham series, and the final chapter produced by founding studio Rocksteady Games.
This is a franchise that took the entire gaming industry by surprise with “Arkham Asylum” in 2009, and took a great leap forward with “Arkham City” just two years later. No other game series in history has come close to their visceral fantasy of vigilante justice, and “Arkham Knight” ties up the series with a sharply polished package that, while occasionally flawed, is sure to thrill “Batman” fans of any level.
The Dark Knight himself is a man of many tricks: a master of martial arts, the world’s greatest detective, and a ninja that lives in shadows. “Arkham Knight” touches on all of these facets over its storyline, as well as inside activities that populate the open world of Gotham. This makes “Arkham Knight” a jack of many trades, but master of none.
Flying over rooftops with the cape and grappling hook feels magical, though often unwieldy. Combat encounters often offer the opportunity to pursue stealth, alongside a lengthy utility belt of gadgets to deceive foes. However, the levels don’t present themselves with clear solutions. Rather than carefully planning an attack, improvisation tends to be the best course of action. That strategy will often lead to hand-to-hand combat.
The simple timing-based system of attacks, stuns, and parries became an industry standard when Rocksteady introduced it in “Asylum”. But in the six years since that innovation, the original has started to feel a little stale.
All of this is old cowl to fans of past “Arkham” games, but “Knight” does bring in one major new feature: the Batmobile. Batman’s iconic ride has been transformed into the monstrous hybrid of a supercar, tank, and hovercraft. It’s also easily the worst aspect of the game, hindered by a confusing control scheme and fairly boring array of weapons. Traversal has never been an issue in this series (gliding from point to point is already fast) making the Batmobile mostly useless for open world exploration.
You’ll mostly find yourself using it for an array of fights against endless waves of tanks, or in a series of consistently uncreative physics puzzles in the main campaign.
While all of this may sound like a subpar experience, the magic of “Arkham Knight” is in the presentation. This game is absolutely stunning to look at, with industry-leading character animation, captivating art design, perfect animation, and an open world polished with next generation visuals. Rocksteady’s interpretations of Batman villains (both new and old) are visually creative with unique plot lines, and all boast impressive vocal performances. These touches make the campaign an absolute joy to play.
The story of “Arkham Knight” picks up directly off of “City”, but you shouldn’t worry yourself too much about canon. In-game character bios & backstory make it easy to catch up with the events, and it’s no more complex than your average summer superhero romp. Any fan of the genre should be able to see the big plot beats coming from a mile away, but it’s hard to care when they’re this well told.
One subplot in particular runs throughout the narrative, and builds to one of the best final sequences in recent gaming memory. Side missions will have you tracking down various villains, and a handful of them are every bit as engaging as the main campaign. The Riddler’s plotline, in particular, revolves around a massive “Saw-esque” series of puzzles that go in some fantastic directions.
“Batman: Arkham Knight” is the ideal summer game. Its story will keep you up into the longest hours of the night, kept awake by a pressing sense of protection for gotham. The constant variation and lengthy list of side-missions, high-score challenges, and collectibles will keep you coming back for weeks to follow.
This is a fitting end to Rocksteady’s “Arkham” legacy, and one that sets a very high bar for whatever follows.
Follow Chris Berg on Twitter @Mushroomer25

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The Batmobile is a slightly less luxurious experience for passengers.