Arkham Knight - pros and cons

[dscross]

I really enjoyed the Arkham series up until city. However, I have not got a next gen console yet, so I can't play Knight.

I'm considering getting one purely so I can play Arlham Knjght. However, I've heard mixed reviews (too much batmobile, a ridiculous amount of riddler missions etc). Is it worth the purchase in your opinions or is it better to wait until things are cheaper....

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I really enjoyed the Arkham series up until city. However, I have not got a next gen console yet, so I can't play Knight.

I'm considering getting one purely so I can play Arlham Knjght. However, I've heard mixed reviews (too much batmobile, a ridiculous amount of riddler missions etc). Is it worth the purchase in your opinions or is it better to wait until things are cheaper....

Up until Arkham City? That's was the 2nd in the series! Don't you mean that you just enjoyed Asylum? Which is clearly the best in the series, and I'd argue not only the best Batman game, but the best Superhero and best stealth game of all time.

From what I've read/heard/seen of Knight, having not played it myself, is its mixed. Gameplay problems aside, the story is like 40k levels of grimdark, there are too many characters, subplots and missions, and Batman is at peak Batman, ie a brooding asshole doing the right thing in the worst possible way. But it IS an Arkham game, and they're head and shoulders above most other games.

 

[tippy2k2]

I played it (as well as the other three Arkham games) and greatly enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd buy a system for JUST Knight but I presume you would buy other games as well...

The Batmobile is featured heavily. I personally had no problem with the Batmobile but I seem to be in the minority when it comes to that. I didn't think it was awesome but I didn't hate my time either.

As for The Riddler, it is a stupid amount of stuff you have to do so if you're a 100% kind of person, you're going to have a bad time. Personally, I didn't care enough so The Riddler just stayed free to terrorize Gotham because there's no way in hell I"m doing every Riddler thing to see the end of that side story (sorry Gotham).

The story is solid and I do like the combo of Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight as your primary protagonists. If you know about the comics enough, you might figure out who The Arkham Knight is before the big reveal. I figured out who he was before the games official reveal but I didn't think it hurt the story all that much. Personally, I thought this story was the strongest of the games but I'm not sure if that's just because I barely remember the others or what...

The gameplay is identical to the other games (with a few new stealth attacks that I had fun with) so if you enjoyed the other games, you'd enjoy this one. It's SUPER open worlded so hopefully you enjoyed Arkham City as well since it's similar mission structures but a much bigger sandbox).

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Didn't like Arkham City either but I actually enjoyed Arkham Knight quite a bit, the batmobile sections were actually fun and I never once thought that there was too much batmobile going on.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I really enjoyed the Arkham series up until city.

You're going to need to explain that if you really want a good, honest answer. Because depending on what you DIDN'T like in City, Knight either fixes it, or it's more of the same/even worse. Personally, I loved City, perhaps even a hair more than Asylum because Catwoman was a blast to play, but that's not what we're here for.

Arkham Knight, to me, lost the magic of the series. The game began, as Honest Trailers puts it, "Batman: World of Tanks". The Batmobile is used for pretty much EVERYTHING, including boss fights. Remember that amazing Scarecrow fight in Arkham? Or how about taking on Solomon G. in City? Yeah, don't get used to those, because they're gone. Perhaps you remember (if you played the game) fighting Deathstroke in a pretty sweet hand-to-hand boss fight? All of that, gone.
This constant reliance on the Batmobile just sucks a bunch of the magic and fun out of the game for me and many other people. Yes, you still get stealth sections, you still get combat sections, but the idea that the there are no epic showdowns with villains this time around makes the game feel smaller, despite being so big. It was like the developers went, "We have this new mechanic, so we need to shove it into EVERYTHING we can." It also doesn't help that the controls for the thing feel really loose, and the car itself seems to lack the weight it should have, causing you to nearly do a one-eight when all you're trying to do is power-slide. Because of this, case sections are going to be a nightmare for a lot of people, and don't even get me started on the Riddler's race course. Yeah, that's right. Instead of riddles and such, you have to race on a track. Oh, the riddles are still there, but now there's racing. On the plus side, Riddler is one of the few bosses you fight without your tank at least.

On the plus side, the game wraps up a LOT of story points, some even left over from Origins. The game outside of the car actually feels pretty polished, and a good conclusion to a lot of the lore, so if you have leftover questions from the other games, this one is worth looking in to.

Would I suggest buying a brand new console for it? No, honestly. Not unless you can get a good deal. The fact that you didn't enjoy City (unless you worded that wrong) gives me pause to recommend your purchase. If anything, see if maybe you can play at a friend's house first and ask them to show you the driving sections. Get a feel for the car, and then decide if it's worth your purchase.

 

[RJ 17]

Pro:
-Scarecrow makes for a great villain (if you ask me) and his portrayal was very well executed.
-Without giving away a spoiler, Batman has a new "side-kick" that makes the game very interesting.
-The fighting is as smooth, fluid, and fun as ever.

Con:
-The batmobile is absolutely atrocious and they shoehorn it in at every possible chance.
--This makes the Riddler sidequests a particular pain because half of them are timed batmobile obsticle courses.
-The Arkham Knight is pretty lame, and his identity is easy to guess before it's revealed.
-I need to re-visit how terrible the Batmobile is. The majority of people who hate the game will tell you it's because of the Batmobile.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

The Batmobile
The Batmobile was a fun addition to the series. I found the tank sections to be enjoyable, but the racing grated my nerves. The Batmobile is the fastest way to get around the city, and it's fun to run a guy over, pop out, and see that he's just unconscious. Apparently Gotham City is populated by meta-humans. Despite my love for the Batmobile I hated how it was used so damn often. Too much of a good thing and all that.

Combat
They actually managed to improve upon the combat, which was amazing. I enjoyed taking on the various enemies, even when it got frustrating after a while. Ninjas, brutes, shock batons, and shields? Nope.

Stealth
The stealth is also better in this game, mostly because the AI is actually a little more competent. Use a specific trick too often and they'll wise up. Dealing with them was a lot of fun for me since I'm not particularly brave when it comes to stealth. Get rid of my go to plans and I'm basically stuck.

Scarecrow
Scarecrow is wonderful in this game, but I can't help but feel like they messed up. How can they have Scarecrow is the big bad and not do the nightmare missions? The Nightmare mission DLC should have been the boss fight for Arkham Knight. The actual ending was sooo disappointing. The fact that there were almost no boss fights at all was upsetting. Deathstroke's was probably the most disappointing.

Arkham Knight
The twist was bland and everyone saw it coming. You know what would have been great? Batman gets a message from Alfred that some Black Mask goons were attacked and died from sword wounds and that Tim Drake was attacked by a man in a Red Hood. There. Jason Todd and Damien Wayne have been set up. So, who is the masked villain that assaults Gotham and kidnaps Oracle? No one. Just a puppet controlled by James Gordon Jr. The psychotic, homicidal tactician that pushes Batman's detective skills, since Riddler is too busy building race tracks.

The Clown Prince of Crime
So, yeah. The Clown Prince of Crime returns. He is easily the best part of this game because he is more a psychological presence that reminds Batman of his failures. While it is a shame that he basically steals the show, especially during that wonderful musical number, I loved every second of it.

Spoiler: This alone makes the game worth it.

 

[darkcalling]

Arkham Knight was great when I played it. Maybe a little too much Batmobile but at least it controls pretty well which helps keep it from feeling like a chore (for me at least) I played the console version which is mostly bug free or at least it was for me. I hear the PC version is still pretty broken but more playable than it was at launch (which isn't saying much).

Is it worth getting an XBone or a PS4 on it's own? Probably not but IMO no single game is. But it's a solid sendoff for the Arkham series. with a really good story (for the most part).

There IS a lot of Riddler stuff to do but you can mostly ignore them if they bug you that much.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Pros:

Gameplay is the best in the series. Amazing animations all around, and it's incredibly satisfying to get into combat encounters you sometimes ignore the story missions and just run around the city beating people up. Same goes for stealth. Even the Bat-tank sections are fun enough, though admittedly the explanations on why you need the Batmobile require suspension of disbelief.

Graphics are pretty great, if that matters to you. The game world is beautiful and incredibly detailed, if empty. They love to do that Arkham kinda thing where a story mission affects the game world in a big way and you have to travel around the world while it happens.

Characters are a mixed bag. Scarecrow is a cool villain, though he is mostly all talk. Joker is back, and is another great performance from Mark Hamill. On the good guy side, you get Nightwing and Robin as playable characters, although they do not factor much into gameplay.

Lastly, there are lots of cool moments that are best experienced on your own, most of them a result from Batman's descent into madness. I don't want to spoil them for you, but I found them so cool.

Cons:

The story! Lamest shit ever. The Arkham Knight is voiced well, looks cool, even has a good backstory, but Rocksteady outright lied to everyone when they said he is a new character. His identity is incredibly obvious, and for a guy who's name is the name of the game, he is almost insignificant in the plot.

For once, Kevin Conroy's Batman was not comepletely stellar. It's a combination of his dialogue and the worse than amateur facial animations for Batman. Batman has almost no emotions, even when there some very emotional scenes.

The game is fairly underwhelming as a whole. The game world is detailed and huge, but there is nothing to do in it. The other playable characters are sweet, but you can't free roam with them and the much vaunted Dual Play system, while every smooth and organic, can only be experienced maybe 11 or 12 times in the main game. With how many characters they have in the game, the possibilities were endless. But what we got was ultimately disappointing.


TL;DR The game is a good game, but it ultimately did not live up at all to being the last of Rocksteady's trilogy. All we really got was more of the same, except a bit bigger and shinier. If you can get it on sale, it's a good buy that should keep you occupied for maybe 20 hours.

 

[Trunkage]

It was average. Like the movies, the best thing about Batman is the villains. I remember in City the Grundy, Freeze, Two Face, Deadshot and the stupid Penguin fights. Or how Hush's storyline ended. I can't remember anything other than your side kick in Knight. The last time I played city was before Origins. I couldn't tell you if you even fought Two Face or even if you fight Scarecrow physically. It left no mark on my memory

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Pros: It Moar Arkham Batman. ANd if you're hungry for a another last helping, that's all you need.

Cons: It's just more Arkham Batman, except with Tank Battles, and some of the layouts for the predator sections I feel aren't designed very well (or the developers just assumed you've played the last 3 and are ready for a real challenge)

It's not a bad game by any means, it's just nothing you haven't seen already. They really put a lot of their faith in the Batmobile being the new gimmick to sell the thing, and rightfully so, but it doesn't live up to it's full potential.

Story too, is kinda... well you can tell Paul Dini didn't write it unlike City/Asylum. It also doesn't decide to have that much fun with the narrative as it could, like Origins (I freaking loved Origin's story)

 

[Ihateregistering1]

It's funny, I was initially really disappointed in Knight, but on a second playthrough, something about the game clicked and I found myself really enjoying it. That being said, I still think City is the best game of the series, and I maintain that Origins is highly underrated.

Pros:
-Graphics are phenomenal. I remember cruising around Gotham City, thinking how amazing games like "Prototype" would be if the city looked this good.
-It's still an Arkham game: combat is fun, predator sequences are excellent, and it's just damn enjoyable.
-I like the new upgrade system and how it integrates with the missions.
-Team-up battles are fun.
-I thought Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight were good villains.

Cons:
-Basically no boss battles. This was the weirdest and most disappointing part for me, considering both Origins and City had pretty damn good boss fights.
-The Batmobile. On 2nd playthrough, it doesn't feel quite as bad, but yeah, considering how much emphasis the last few games put on Batman basically being a Ninja, the fact that you're driving around in a supertank blowing up entire armies of drone tanks feels really weird and out of place. And when the Riddler has you doing races, I was rolling my eyes the whole time.
-If you know anything about Batman lore, you'll figure out who the Arkham Knight is WAY before the "big reveal".
-Opinions will vary on the story, but I found it kind of weak, especially because it hinges on a really ridiculous idea that I won't give away. It also had some huge plot holes.

Overall, it's a good game, but I wouldn't buy an entire system for it if you have absolutely no interest in any other games for that system.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I went into Arkham Knight with pretty low expectations, but I got it on PC when it finally went heavily discounted and appeared to be patched. Well it ran fine on my PC. Now for what you came here for:

Found the game much better than expected. The Bat Tank isn't as bad as most people say, but it is absolutely forced upon you at any given chance. Game could have been just as good if not better without it at all. Screw the riddler stuff, unless you want 100% completion just watch the rest of it on Youtube. I did all the riddler missions, but not tracking down the trophies because fuck that.

The other disappointment for me were the boss fights. Mostly a mixture of tiny amount of stealth and 90% Bat Tank sections. Seriously, what the hell. Even Origins, which got bashed by so many for its boss fights, had much better and memorable boss fights for me (except the last one, which was totally shite). TOO MUCH TANK. Even one point they tease you with a real boss fight about to start after one of the tank battles, but no. That's it.

TL;DR
Boss fights and overuse of Bat Tank. Otherwise, a pretty damn good game overall with lots to do. Even more gadgets and combos and ways to maim and disable people for the rest of their lives. Including ramming them with your Tank.

Would I BUY A PS4 for it? No. But it's a good game, and definitely worth adding to the collection if you enjoyed the first 2.

7/10, would recommend, would not hit and run with tank again.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

pros: it looks nice, and raining

cons: overuse of batmobile, terrible boss battles, terrible story, can get boring very fast. and worst of all HOW THEY SCREWED UP PC VERSION!!!.

Its worst Arkham game in series even worse than arkham origins. The original Arkham Asylum is still best by far. this series get stale even faster than assassins creed.

 

[Sonicron]

I'd say the game's worth getting a new console for, had a blast playing it. Both the technical aspect and the atmosphere are absolutely top notch. Parts of the story are very predictable, this is true, but it's so well-presented you really don't care. And there were a couple of reveals that genuinely surprised and delighted me.

 

[votemarvel]

One of the things that really annoys me, and I confess it is a small thing, is that at one point it is mentioned that the Arkham Knight thought the Batmobile was just a car.

Really?

If he thought that then why are there so many damn tanks on the street and the roof-tops barely covered.

 

[Trooper924]

I enjoyed it, though not quite as much as the other games. The combat and stealth sections were pretty solid and after I got the hang of controlling it, the batmobile was pretty fun to use.

On the downside though, the story was pretty weak. I know story has never really been the series' strong suit, but it felt extra weak this time around. Plus the villains were completely underwhelming. The Scarecrow was a complete bore, I started tuning him out after awhile, and The Arkham Knight was an annoying, unthreatening prat and the reveal of his real identity was an utter letdown.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

On the downside though, the story was pretty weak. I know story has never really been the series' strong suit, but it felt extra weak this time around. Plus the villains were completely underwhelming. The Scarecrow was a complete bore, I started tuning him out after awhile, and The Arkham Knight was an annoying, unthreatening prat and the reveal of his real identity was an utter letdown.

Arkham fans were pretty pissed that they let go of Paul Dini, who wrote Asylum and City. And the best incarnations of DC's characters ever. Knight was instead written by three people: Sefton Hill, the director of the last two games and as far as I know, someone with no prior writing experience. Next is Martin Lancaster, who wrote for Crysis 1 and 2 as well as Killzone: Shadow Fall. Lastly is Ian Ball, who I can't even find online. In other words, people who were a complete step down from Dini.

EDIT: Also, can I ask why your profile pic is Denal? Just curious.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

The game is...well...

When you're not in the Batmobile, the game is great. When you're in the Batmobile, it's extremely boring. Unfortunately for you, the game will force you back into the Batmobile every ten minutes.

I think if the Batmobile's "battle mode" was removed entirely, the game would be a lot more fun. When you're driving the Batmobile in travel mode, it's fine - it's just a standard sandbox vehicle. As soon as you get into battle mode, you go "Hey, wait...this is a real piece of shit."

The plot isn't that flash, either - Scarecrow's involvement seems like an afterthought considering that the Arkham Knight has the militia, the tanks, the anti-Batman training and the personal grudge. But he spends the entire game kowtowing to Scarecrow for...some reason, even when he doesn't need him, or when their interests personally conflict. Then he just gets shunted aside at the end so that Scarecrow can be the big villain man. Except it's really hard to take Scarecrow seriously - his big plan is essentially thwarted in the tutorial, and he spends the rest of the game gloating and insisting that Batman hasn't won. And the whole time the drone tanks are running around, I'm going "Where the fuck is the National Guard?"

There are some clever experimental plot twists in the game that I won't spoil, but any lasting impact they might have had is inexplicably and ham-fistedly undone near the end of the game by some very strained ass-pulling. I don't get why, either; they're working on their own continuity and it's the last Batman game, so they don't exactly have to worry about preserving the cast.