Rocksteady’s final entry in the Arkham series has been out on the shelves for a while now so I’m confident that I’ve spent more than enough time with the game to give you, the readers, a fair and honest opinion on what to expect from the Dark Knight’s final fight.
Without further ado, don your mask and get ready for a fairly long read. Better get Alfred (or whoever usually operates the kettle) to fetch you up a brew.
Story
Batman: Arkham Knight concludes Rocksteady’s trilogy of games while more or less ignoring Batman: Arkham Origins – something I’m not too fussed about. I don’t want to spoil the story, so I’ll just give you a brief overview on what lies in store for Bruce Wayne and his mates.
The game starts out unlike any other Arkham game by placing you in the weathered boots of a Gotham City cop in a coffee shop. Brave move, but nicely done. After a quick intro you’re quickly thrown into the cape and cowl of Batman and get given the metaphorical keys to the city.
Along the way you’ll meet old friend, make new allies and of course, beat the batcrap out of Batman’s deadliest foes. Oh, and their little minions who fight for them.
The main villain of the game isn’t the Joker (though he’s not completely innocent, in more ways than one) but is instead the Dark Knight. This guy’s got some serious beef against Bats and it’ll be his plots and schemes that pulls everything together and gives Bruce Wayne a reason to ditch the tuxedo and don the Bat-suit.
Throughout the story you’ll learn new things from the past and interact with numerous friends and foes. There are some rather touching moments which came quite unexpectedly, but really did show that while it may be a game based on a comic-book superhero who used to wear his knickers outside his trousers, it’s a very adult game.
I’m usually quite wary about going into open-world games as they tend to b disjointed and offer up too many side-missions that ruin the structure of the main story. However, that wasn’t the case with Arkham Knight. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself just as engrossed in tackling the side-stories as I was the main storyline. So if you’re in it for the thrills and chills of a well told story, Arkham Knight won’t do you wrong.
There is just one thing that did rub me up the wrong way – the voice acting. For the most part actors deliver their lines quite nicely and provide some real meat for their characters to work with, but there are occasions where Batman sounds bored, Alfred sounds sick of being a butler and other characters just don’t seem to care what’s going on. That said, it’s just a personal thing for me, but it’s an annoyance that does rear its head a few times too many.