Batman: Arkham Knight Review (PS4)
THE GOOD
+ The graphics. The game looks absolutely wonderful. The character models and the environments are incredibly detailed with every texture looking crisp and detailed. The water is also incredibly realistic.
+ The game world. For the first time ever, you actually get to roam Gotham, you're not fenced in like in City and Origins. It's fun to explore the grim (sometimes full of neon lights, though), torn city and while no civilians are in the streets, there are a lot more people (militia, thugs, rioters) out there, and cars too.
+ The core gameplay still rocks. Yes, the free-flow combat is as enjoyable as ever (and you can and should make it even better with WayneTech upgrades) and the Predator encounters still make you feel like you're Batman. One new useful addition is the Fear Takedown in which you can smack up to five enemies unconscious in one swift attack which makes it easier to even the odds when you're up against many armed enemies.
+ The story. Rocksteady really knows what makes a great Batman story and Arkham Knight is no exception.
+ The atmosphere. Even though a sense of closure and finality is always present, Arkham Knight's sorrowful atmosphere really impresses.
+ The tank battles. While simple, they are fun. The Batmobile is easy and fun to maneuver and destroying militia tanks is just so satisfying.
+ New mission select and gadget select. The new mission select screen makes it much easier to get to your next objective. There's really no reason to navigate the map at all. And the new gadget selection is also an improvement over the previous Arkham titles.
+ Voice acting and the sound overall. The background music always fits the mood and the voice acting is once again phenomenal, with Kevin Conroy returning as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker.
+ The character roster. It's so diverse. The usual allies like Gordon, Oracle and Alfred are of course present, but so are memorable villains like the main villain Scarecrow, the mysterious Arkham Knight, The Joker (but not how you think), Penguin, Two-Face and a few rarer ones like Azrael, Deacon Blackfire and Hush.
+ The amount of content. A good 15 hours worth of story mode and over 200 riddles, a lot of militia watchtowers to destroy, bank heists to stop, firefighters to rescue, crimes to solve and a lot more.
THE BAD
- Too much Batmobile. Yes, it's fun to drive and brings a breath of fresh air into the franchise, but too much is too much. Almost every single puzzle utilizes the car in some way and in the end, I'm not sure if I spent more time in the Batmobile than on foot. While I mentioned earlier that the tank battles are fun, enough is enough, there are just so many of them and the atmosphere in general is a far cry from the sophisticated Bat-action of Arkham Asylum.
- Going overboard with the enemy types. While variety is good when it comes to enemy types, too much is too much, again. Having too many different enemy types attack you at once just takes the fun out of the combat. To hell with those stun stick guys!
- Lack of memorable moments. Yeah, Arkham Knight is supposed to be the epic conclusion which it damn near is, but after completing the main story, I just don't remember that many individual moments that made me go "wow!" like the previous Arkham titles did. Everything just feels a bit flat.
- No boss fights. Why take them away and replace them with tank battles? Arkham Origins had the best boss fights in the series, they should've built upon that.
- Hidden ending. Don't want to spoil anything, but you don't get the full ending when you complete the main story which is down to stupid logic.
THE VERDICT
Batman: Arkham Knight is the almost epic conclusion to an amazing game series. The overuse of Batmobile brings it all down a good bit, but this is still gaming at its finest.
Score: 9.1