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Games of the Decade #5/Blog a Day #26

Hello everyone, how are you?

Licensed Games can be a mixed bag, you never know what you're gonna get. Not all of them are bad as there are a number of gems out there but unfortunately get overshadowed by the bad ones. But once in a blue moon comes a developer who truly understands the property and what they are working with. Take Rocksteady for example, they have done a tremendous job with their Batman games and for #5 we'll be taking a look at Rocksteady's "final" Batman game known as Batman: Arkham Knight.

 

                                             Music really matches the tone of the game ♥

Backstory time: It was 2014 and I was watching Playstation's E3 Conference and they showed footage of Arkham Knight and I was really excited for it. The problem was that I didn't have a PS4 at the time so I had to pass up the game. It was 2017 and I was finally able to get a PS4 and my first PS4 game was Arkham Knight. So many years of waiting and dodging spoilers had come to an end. But was it worth the wait?

Arkham Knight takes place 11 months after the events of Arkham City, the game prior to this one. Scarecrow launches an attack on Gotham City which causes panic and causes a citywide evacuation of all its citizens. Not only that but Scarecrow has teamed up with numerous villains and the titular Arkham Knight to finally destroy the Batman once and for all. It's up to Batman to put a stop to Scarecrow's plan and uncover the identity of the Arkham Knight, which seems to know a lot about Batman.

In the game you take control of Batman in a third-person perspective and if you've played any of the Arkham games then you know what to expect here. For those who haven't, you must use Batman's combat prowess, detective skills, stealth, and an array of gadgets in order to proceed throughout the game and take back Gotham City from the villains.

 

                                          Batman is not messing around this time

While proceeding throughout the story you can also do various other things like side missions that are going on during the story. A number of these involve helping the Gotham City Police Department like rescuing cops to checking out disturbances and other missions involve a number of villains from Batman's Rogue's Gallery. There's also collectibles to collect scattered throughout Gotham if you are the type to collect pointless trinkets as well as challenges to complete. There's no shortage of things to do.

Gotham City in this game is huge and is divided into different districts each with their own theme. The biggest addition to the game is the inclusion of the Batmobile. You can use the Batmobile to drive through pretty much everywhere in Gotham and you can summon the Batmobile from almost anywhere so as long aa there isn't any wireless interference. But the biggest flaw with the game is the Batmobile itself, the game relies too much on it unfortunately.

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" Well if you want to give the game a go then you can get it on the PS4 or Xbox One. Either one works but avoid the PC version. I hear it's really buggy, I have no idea if the game has been patched since but get the game on either console to be on the safe side. The game also has an expansion pass that adds even more content to the game which includes various costumes for Batman and the other playable characters to different Batmobiles. The pass also includes 4 extra side missions that take place during the events with one of them changing the weather permanently in the game. There's even a separate story that has you play as Batgirl that takes place before Arkham Asylum.

                        You can go around Gotham and beat up random thugs silly

Final Thoughts: I love Arkham Knight, it is a culmination of the best of all the games in the series put together into one refined package. Combat feels great and as exciting as ever and the stealth segments got improved too thanks to Batman's new moves and new gadgets. I will say that I absolutely loved the Batmobile. I always wanted to drive it ever since I saw it in Arkham Asylum and has been such a tease since. I will say that the Batmobile could have been done better since the game relies too much on it. There was a particular bossfight I was so excited to try coming from Arkham Origins but was really disappointed with it in Arkham Knight.  Another thing I do love about the game are the side missions, majority of them lead to one of Batman's infamous villains at the end and that was such a delight. I also that you can team up with Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman in some of those as well and you can switch seamlessly between those characters during fights.

It took me a little over 2 years to finally play this game and dodge spoilers till I tried it out for myself. It was my very first PS4 game and I will say the wait was well worth it. I'm not one for graphical fidelity in games since I always put gameplay over graphics first, but the game is really visually impressive. The gameplay is really great too so they found a perfect balance for both, since now these days developers are so focused on pushing the graphics of a game rather than making sure the game is fun to play. Or actually worked right outside the box. This game really impressed me so much that it's most likely my most favorite PS4 game for the moment. I have played a lot of great PS4 games since but no game has impressed me as much as this one, hence why it is so high up on the list. Maybe in the future it might change but Arkham Knight left a really strong first impression on me so we'll see.

If I had my way I would have put Arkham Asylum on this list since it's my favorite of all the Arkham games, but that one released in 2009 so it doesn't count. Arkham City would have been here too but I went with Arkham Knight due to it being the conclusion to the Arkham games. It had a huge role to fill with it being the last Arkham game and I feel like it succeeded for the most part. It delves into the psyche of Batman himself and why he does the things he does like his no-kill rule. Could it be his guilt, or his antiquated sense of morality that makes him do what he does? To quote Batman on why he doesn't kill: "But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down that place... I'll never come back."

 

"I'm willing to put my life on the line to do what I have to. But it has to be mine, no one else's"

Rocksteady has set the gold standard for games based on licensed properties and a number of games have tried to emulate these games but have had mixed results. Thing is what is Rocksteady working on next? I would love for them to work on an original game of their own to see what they could come up with. But if they are keen to return to make another Batman game, may I suggest a Batman Beyond game? There is no way they can continue this series after Arkham Knight so maybe it's time Batman Beyond got a new game and called it Batman Beyond Arkham. Whatever they are working on, I hope it's really surprising. I really enjoyed the game for what it was and like the tagline it allowed me to "Be the Batman".

And that's all for now. I'll be back soon with 4 as soon as I dish out some justice.

 

*All images except the first one wEre taken by my copy of the game and my PS4*