The Batmobile is, of course, the biggest new addition and it doesn’t disappoint. The design team really struck gold with their fight dynamics back in 2009 and haven’t done anything to muck it up, only adding to the fist-smashing joy with some great new additions like a team-up fight dynamic that brings Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman into the fold for some satisfyingly ridiculous rounds of fisticuffs. Yep, it’s going to be a long night, so buckle up. So there’s another mystery Bats will have to solve, and to make matters worse, he also gets infected with a touch o’ the fear gas at the start of the night, meaning that hallucinations pop up on the regular and an old friend thought long-gone starts to natter in his ear about all sorts of insanity. Unfortunately, in addition to Two Face, The Penguin, The Riddler and the rest of the usual cast of colourful scumbags causing a ruckus in the commotion, a new villain appears known as The Arkham Knight, who seems to have all of old Batty’s skills and fashion sense, but lacks his interest in justice and disinterest in murder. This time, though, he’s got the Batmobile, which should help.
That means that the city is completely in the hands of the criminal element and as usual, only that Batman guy can set things right. Obviously, mass panic ensues and anyone in Gotham who is even kind of a nice person skips town. Scarecrow has developed a new fear toxin that kills off a few city blocks through random acts of violence when he takes it for a test drive and then he announces plans to cover the entire city with it. So, the game takes place in the worst and longest night of Batman’s life (boy, that poor guy has a lot of those, doesn’t he?). Sure, there are flaws (mostly the same flaws shared by the rest of the series), but the developers got so much right that it’s hard to complain about anything that went wrong. For anyone who has a special place in their heart for the most psychologically damaged of all superheroes, it’s hard not to feel waves of respect and gratitude while rollicking through the game. The open-world Gotham City is absolutely beautiful, the story is compelling, the mythology is treated with reverence while also filled with risks, and the batmobile…god damn. It is quite simply the Batman game that anyone who obsesses over the caped crusader always dreamed would exist. Arkham City satisfyingly expanded on the model, Arkham Origins was a thing, and now we have the grand, next-gen finale in Arkham Knight. After years of disappointing and lazily tossed-off superhero games, here was one that didn’t just get the source material right, but was also a genuinely brilliant game in its own right. At this point it’s difficult to remember what a pleasant surprise it was to play Batman: Arkham Asylum back in 2009.
0 kommentar(er)
