Batman: Arkham Knight

I'm beginning to think that Bruce Wayne and Batman are the same person

FREEFLOW ACTION MASTAPEECE

Amazing looking and feeling game, poor story execution and overused Batmobile brings it down

yea this game is just a little too bloated. Locking the true ending behind the riddler missions was the last straw for me. i aint doin all that

my favourite game of all time. such an easy 10/10. every single mission never failed to fully entertain me. so so so so so peak

Batman: Arkham Knight is a great conclusion to an excellent Arkham trilogy, but unlike it's previous entries, Knight has some glaring issues that don't allow it to be the best one in the series.

Visually Arkham Knight has received quite an impressive lift up, gone are exaggerated proportions and comic book inspired designs, instead Knight focuses to provide the most realistic depiction of Gotham and it's inhabitants, possibly getting some inspiration from Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy. Characters looks changed alot for the better, I really enjoy the new Batman's design especially. Personally I much prefer this direction than what was before, it holds up really well and still looks like a current gen video game, although lack of current gen upgrade saddens me.

Setting continues to be a logical evolution from the previous entries, starting from a claustrophobic Asylum to getting more freedom in Arkham City and now the entire Gotham is available to roam around and explore, although the fact Gotham is not populated by civilians due to the premise of the game is disappointing, making it more Arkham City 2.0 in terms of enviroment.

Narrative this time around is less consistant mostly thanks to the Arkham Knight, "new mysterious" character who's identity is blatantly obvious from the start. Scarecrow is a pretty well done villain, making me wish he would have received more focus. Joker is back again, serving as a constant presence in the mind of Batman, initially I thought it's going to be exhausting, but I ended up enjoying this premise quite alot. It's a well done conclusion to the trilogy and to Batman as a character, although in retrospective it's a shame Rocksteady decided to muddy it with The Suicide Squad backwards new lore.

Gameplay is easily the best in the series, open combat is still highly satisfying, enviromental takedowns is a fun addition, stealth has received some additions like chained takedowns that look incredible. The biggest change of course is the big elephant in the room that makes people dislike this entry in general - batmobile, provides a third pillar to the gameplay loop, although it is intrusive at times it does feel quite enjoyable to use, both driving around and in tank combat. The game does lean too much at it at times, making some story moments focused on it instead of Batman doing something memorable. Arkham Knight has an abundant number of side quests with both returning and new villain, personally I enjoyed Professor Pig the most, but I am pretty disappointed that some boss battles end up being a tank battle or a chase.

To sum up, Arkham Knight is a great conclusion that provides satisfying story resultions, builds upon already great gameplay pillars while adding something new to it, for better or worse, but some odd gameplay decisions and narrative being lacking at times does not allow Arkham Knight to be the greatest in the already excellent Arkham Trilogy, although it is an entry I enjoy returning to the most.