Some spoiler-free Arkham Knight opinions.
I’ve been talking about wanting to play Batman: Arkham Knight on the podcast for a long time. I was a big fan of the first two games in the series and I was quite eager for Rocksteady to take the reins once again and finish their trilogy. So when it finally arrived on launch day (I really have to stop pre-ordering physical copies of games), I popped the first of five installation DVDs into my PC and got things rolling. Gotham needed me and I was eager to answer the call. I am the Batman!
In order to avoid major story spoilers, I’ll leave my critique of the story for another article. I have plenty to say about the game mechanics here.
Yes, you read that correctly, I played through Batman: Arkham Knight on the PC. At this point, it’s nearly impossible to talk about this game without addressing the looming, glitchy gorilla in the room. After the somewhat lackluster (if we’re being generous) launch of Batman: Arkham Origins, I was hoping that having the franchise back in the hands of Rocksteady would mean a smoother play experience all around. However, as many PC players (and the game playing community at large) are aware, this one hasn’t gone too smoothly either. It’s been so poor, in fact, that WB suspended PC sales of the game the day after launch. Despite WB attempting to run a bit of damage control by asking that PC players turn down their settings, a large number of people wanted to join the gangs rioting in Gotham’s streets.
Thankfully, the game ran relatively well on my system with all available settings turned up as high as they’d go. Since I’ve been gaming for most of my life, I can remember a time when breaking 30 fps was the exception, not the rule. It gives the game a kind of cinematic feel for me. There were only very minor hiccups during game play like the occasional stutter, but nothing game breaking.
I play these games on PC largely because I prefer the keyboard and mouse approach to them. I feel like the combat really benefits from having the attack, counter, and stun buttons on the mouse while leaving the keyboard available to double-tap number keys to activate gadgets. Everything was going swimmingly in my crusade to clean up Gotham’s streets right up until the Batmobile entered the scene. I tried to drive it for a while, but fuck that. I had to connect a controller just to drive that monstrosity. So for 55 hours, I ended up swapping back and forth between control types to deal with the various challenges in the game.
Mechanically, my least favorite part of the game had to be that Batmobile. Most of the time it felt like trying to drive a refrigerator around an ice rink. It was a great idea, but driving it was rage-inducing and usually ended with me yelling some combination of obscene phrases. The Riddler challenges that required driving were the absolute fucking worst. Not only were the underground challenge race tracks infuriating, but there was also the matter of the timed races to collect trophies on the various islands. I know Batman doesn’t kill, but couldn’t we make an exception for Nigma just this once?
Everything that the dark touches is your domain.
As for the rest of the game, this thing is really expansive. Batman: Arkham Knight provides a huge playground with plenty of things to do. It took me 55 hours to finally achieve a 100% completion rate, though much of that was from tracking down and completing the 243 Riddler challenges. Even so, there are eleven villains to capture and a lot of story to go through as well as teaming up with other characters at times. There’s going to be a lot to keep most players busy between planned DLC launches. As a bit of a time saving hint: check your electrical charge gun out of the GCPD evidence room (with your fist) and pick up the freeze grenade from the main room of the Panessa movie studio as soon as you can. I probably could have shaved some time off of my Riddler ordeal if I’d had those with me earlier in the game.
My favorite part about the whole Arkham Knight experience was the cinematic use of horror elements. Jump scares abound throughout the game. I expect to see bad guys pop out and try to get the drop on Batman; I don’t expect it when people are appearing out of thin air. But more than that, the game uses Scarecrow’s fear toxin as a device to pull off physically impossible and unnerving scenes. Scenes like having rooms change as soon as the area I was looking at moved off screen so that it’s completely different when I turn back around. It’s creepy as hell and kept me on edge at just the right points in the plot.
Rocksteady did a lot of great things in Batman: Arkham Knight. Sadly, the plot writing wasn’t one of them. I could have been happy without the Batmobile, but swapping to a controller made it somewhat palatable. Hopefully the kinks in the PC port get ironed out soon and my fellow PC users can enjoy the final installment in Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy. The scope of the adventure was quite ambitious and manages to pull it off rather well even if one night lasted 55 hours for me. Gives new meaning to The Long Halloween.
