Batman Arkham Knight (Video Game review)

Yes. That was in the game and I can't stop singing it.

BATMAN! ARKHAM KNIGHT!

Holy crap! I have been waiting for this game to come out since last year after playing Arkham Origins. And now, Rocksteady is ready to conclude this awesome series with a bang. And boy, did it. Let me tell you right now that I am a huge Batman Arkham fan. I have been playing these games since 2009 with Arkham Asylum and I couldn't put the controller down when I started playing. It's so fun, intense, exhilarating and very breathtaking. Mind you as well that I read the Batman comics and these games are what got me into comic books so I have a really good knowledge of Batman lore of the DC Universe. But this game... Ah man, this game. Enough gushing! Let's talk about it.

Story
The story starts off with Batman's late nemesis, The Joker, being cremated by Commissioner Gordon. The Joker died due to Titan poisoning back in Arkham City. Nine months after the Joker burned to ashes, crime in Gotham dropped tremendously and the citizens were beginning to freshen up their lives. But deep in the dark corners of the city, war was coming. The Scarecrow re-emerges in Gotham and poisons a public Diner with Fear Toxin, causing anyone caught and breathing it to hallucinate and see violent images of their deepest and traumatizing fears. Scarecrow plans to unleash an even deadlier toxin in Gotham and 6.3 million people of Gotham were evacuated from the city. The ones who stayed behind in the deserted Gotham are the GCPD, the criminal underworld, Militia mooks and of course: Batman, who is Gotham's last hope for survival against Scarecrow's threat.

During the events of the game, Batman will engage several encounters with his enemies and allies in order to take out Scarecrow, as well as exploring his deep inner morale. Batman is one of the most tragic superheroes in media and the game really likes to revisit some of the evil that has been caused in his life. Batman will also face the circumstances with the Joker playing around in his head and a new enemy calling himself the Arkham Knight

Presentation
This game looks... BEAUTIFUL! (On PS4 anyway) Gotham is even bigger and larger, making traveling this open world feel so much lively. It's too bad that none of the other parts from Arkham City return but it's great to see some new and refreshing environments. And the art direction for this game is quite fantastic. The characters look more realistic than comic book like. Not that it was a bad thing, but it's a pretty neat design. And the voice acting. Phenomenal! Kevin Conroy has never sounded more awesome as Batman than before. We also have Jonathan Banks (Mike from Breaking Bad) voicing Commissioner Gordon and John Noble as Scarecrow sounds really menacing and dark, and it really fits the persona of the character.

Seeing this is an MLP site, Tara Strong as Harley Quinn is both menacing, crazy and all around deranged. Harley has really been driven to the edge of insanity when the Joker died and it makes her an even violent foe to Batman than ever before. And *spoiler alert* Mark Hamill is back as Joker which I'll get to in a moment.

Quality and Gameplay
The gameplay in Arkham Knight has improved from it's exploration and combat. Batman is now rocking a new Bat Suit that allows him to make Multi-Fear takedowns. And they are helpful in Predator combat modes if positioned right. And the combat has new features, such as Batman being able to grab a melee weapon and use it against the baddies and doing environment takedowns. New enemy variants have emerged as well. Big goons are now wielding arm blades and Medics can engulf another enemy with an electric shield. Rocksteady has made combat more harder and frustrating with these kinds of variants as enemies can now lock you in a bear hug and you had to mash the punch button to break free. The combat is all over the place that I lost track with what's going on around me and quick-fire gadgets play more important roles in combat.

The newest addition to the series is the Batmobile; Batman's signature vehicle of transportation. I swear, every time I summon the thing I always have "TO THE BATMOBILE!" in my head. Sadly... ssssss... the Batmobile is my least favorite thing in this game. Don't get me wrong, the Batmobile controls like a dream. I sometimes like cruising around Gotham with the Batmobile and the chases and races included make me feel like I'm watching a Batman movie. The one gripe I have with it are that there too many times that I had to rely on the Batmobile to do. Like, getting it on top of a building. The Batmobile can also switch into battle mode which transforms the car into a tank machine. It fires missiles with a 60mm cannon and Vulcan gun. The only times you can go into this mode is when it's necessary to use the power winch on certain objects and when you have a lot of Militia drones to fight off and these are my least favorite of the game. Fighting drones with the tank is both cool and frustrating, even in the most awful battlegrounds you are set upon, these drones will corner you and blast you to bits if you're not quick enough to dodge their fire sight. They are so annoying that I kept getting angry because I kept getting killed by these things. You've got blast drones, missile drones and aerial drones that keep picking you off and I find that rather annoying.

Both the combat and Predator sections are also more harder as I said. Minigunners now roam the Predator maps making it harder to beat the mooks around, and goons with medic packs that can heal an unconscious goon. And mooks with packs that can track my Detective Vision signal whenever I use it and I gotta say that's a clever way for gamers to stop abusing Detective Vision a lot. There are also mooks who use remote drones that fly around the secured area. Thankfully you can even the odds a bit with gadgets like the Remote Hacking Device, Freeze blast and a new gadget Voice Synthesizer; causing goons to follow whatever the fake voice of their commander to do and that's also useful. Despite Predator mode having harder qualities, Combat mode is even harder with more goons to beat down but the big goons keep wearing you down, not to mention how hard it is to beat down the swordsman goons.

At some sections, you will come across Batman's allies such as Catwoman, Nightwing and Robin and they unlock more capabilities to Batman. He can perform dual takedown moves and dual silent takedowns. And everytime those happen you can switch from Batman to the ally. It's really unique function Rocksteady put together.

As with every Batman Arkham game, there are always Riddler sections. Yeah, remember that guy who taunts you everytime? Guess what? He's an even bigger pessimist as he challenges Batman to even more difficult to solve puzzles. Thankfully I got through these puzzles with the power of my brain but I will soon be needing that online guide to help me beat the Riddler. As always, Riddler Trophies are scattered throughout Gotham as well as riddles and breakable objects. Completing them gets you closer to the Riddler my god it's gonna be a pain to find all 243 riddles in Gotham. Thankfully, I'm an Arkham completionist. I'll get by.

Aside from that, Gotham has a boat load of missions to complete. Such as capturing classic Batman villains like Penguin, Two-Face, Man-Bat, Firefly. Saving firefighters from street thugs. Disarming bombs with the Batmobile (the reason I hate the tank sections), destroying watchtowers, and training Azreal to be your successor. Along with the main story, I did find it disappointing that there were few boss battles in the game and most of them involved the Batmobile. But I played The Last of Us! Boss Battles don't need to be integrated if they didn't want to. The only on foot bosses I fought was Nightwing in Harley Quinn's story pack and the Arkham Knight in a Predator battle.

Also, yes. I did saw that plot twist coming with the reveal of the Arkham Knight. But to be fair it fits the tone of the game.

Verdict
And that's basically it. I really loved the amazing writing and story being told in this game. I haven't completely unlocked the secret ending but I'm looking forward to it when I reach it. Overall: Batman Arkham Knight is a much appreciated successor to the Batman Arkham series. I cannot say which one was better, Arkham City or Arkham Knight. Both games have challenging aspects but I really enjoyed Arkham Knight with all of the story elements and frightening moments it contained. As a long time Batman fan, I fully appreciate this game as one of my favorite PlayStation 4 games of all time and being the Batman was so satisfying than ever before.

Final Score: 9.3/10
+Being the Batman
+Intense Story
+Superb Comabt and Predator
+Gotham is Huge
-Battle Mode sections

Play this game! You'll won't regret it! Anyway, it's getting a little weird and it's getting a little wild. She ain't from 'round here, she's from another dimension and that's my cue to go! SEE YA!