Batman Arkham Knight Review

Developed by Rocksteady

Publisher Warner Brothers

Platform PS4, Xbox One & PC.

Release Date Out Now.

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Now before we get into our review I would like to address the elephant in the room. We are reviewing the Xbox One version below, we have the PC version installed but it was unplayable. We made the call to simply not feature the PC version at all. We don’t need to go over that whole debacle again, WB have now suspended the sale of the PC version to allow time to go back and work on it, and we may return to it at a later date, but for now let’s crack on with the console review.

It doesn’t seem like all that long ago (but it was actually way back in 2009) that Rocksteady brought the comic book hero back to life with Arkham Asylum. A game that really captured the essence of the darker side of the Batman series. It was visually stunning and introduced a unique combat system that was easy to start with but difficult to master. In 2011 Arkham City took this ground work and built on it, taking the series from a single location and opening it up to allow free roaming around the whole city area that really made you feel like the Dark Knight swooping over the city line, dropping in and kicking ass then vanishing into the night.

Rocksteady wraps up the epic trilogy with their best game to date. Arkham Knight gets the welcome boost thanks to the increased power of the Next Gen machines. This allows for even better visuals and improvements to gameplay. On top of all that the city has expanded dramatically again to include three different island regions. Not to mention a whole host of new Bat Gadgets to unlock not least the Bat Mobile which is playable this time.

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A full play through of the main campaign runs at around 12 hours, and is without doubt Rocksteady’s best effort to date. After the opening prologue that sees Scarecrow clear the city under the threat of his toxic gas it is left to Batman to once again save the day, although he does get some help from Robin and Barbara Gordon (Oracle).

Several of Batman’s oldest enemies have teamed up to finally kill the Batman. You will face off against Two-Face, Firefly, and Penguin along with many other familiar faces. A new mystery villain that Rocksteady have been heavily promoting keeps the story interesting. Each of the different Villains has their own style of mission which allows the game to stay fresh despite some of the missions being very similar. As with all open world games the missions do get a little samey so the key is to spread them out and keep them engaging.

The most fun I had outside of the main storyline was finding all the Riddler trophies around Arkham city and trying to solve his riddles in each location. The Riddler has also created several Riddler challenge rooms that require the Batmobile. There are also some challenge missions involving Catwoman, and as always there are the random events that you encounter as you travel across the city.

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The voice acting in batman is top notch Kevin Conroy as the voice of Batman. John Noble delivers a chilling version of the scarecrow, and the iconic voice of Mark Hamill as the joker. We have several major voice actors appearing such as Nolan North and Troy baker to top off a stellar cast.

The combat is essentially the same but has been refined enough to warrant mention. It does feel much more fluid and does a much better job of bringing gadgets into combat with greater ease. New to the series is a “double team” approach where you fight alongside a sidekick, high level combos now unlock double takedowns and let you control the sidekick that gives you different abilities and moves.

The Batmobile plays a much larger role this time, for the first time it is actually playable. This opens up new options for car chases and what can only be described as tank battles. The Bat mobile itself is pretty indestructible and can be called in at anytime with the press of a button.

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There are a whole host of new upgradeable options within the new combat abilities, for the Bat mobile’s weapons and amour. The upgrade system is a tier level in a hex format, one section will be health the other will be armor or increase critical strike allowing you to select how to balance it to suit your own style.

Overall: We made a distinct effort to stay away from the story as it deserves to be discovered on its own. I think at this stage people know what to expect from the series and only really want to confirm that is as good if not better than the previous two outings especially after the let down of Origins. We can confirm that it is really good.

The scale is incredible, it looks amazing and plays really solidly. What else can we say you do need to play this.

Check out or First Fifteen Batman Arkham Knight Video below.

SCORE 4.5/5

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