My thoughts on Batman: Arkham Knight [PC Version]

 Never thought I’d reach 100% completion

[Originally written on 25th Mar 2020]

I have no words for this game. When I installed it long ago, just to check if it would run on my system, I was taken aback by its amazing graphics. The textures looked unbelievably real and the models, life-like. I was in the middle of completing Sekiro at that time, and so, this game took the backseat, but it still kicked a leg or two in the general direction of my driver’s seat, urging me to drop Sekiro off somewhere along the highway and give Arkham Knight a try.

When I finally did start playing Arkham Knight, the foremost thing that impressed me was the rain, and the way droplets fluttered off Batman’s wings when he dived off a building to start gliding. Time and again I made him do this just to see that effect, and it satisfied me more and more every time I beheld it.

I don’t even know where I should begin with this game. What should I talk about first? The graphics? The story? The gameplay? I have no idea. Its experience has accompanied me to bed and woken up with me ever since I started guiding the caped crusader over the streets and buildings and skyline of Gotham city.

Okay, let me start with the aspect I noticed first – the graphics. Amazing, breathtaking, awe-inspiring…and that is in great parts due to the textures. They interact with the environment and reflect lights so well that you don’t feel you’re in a game. The concrete of roads and the patterns of pavement look like they’ve been picked straight from outta your house and placed inside the game. And you know the graphics are good when the player stops in his tracks just to admire how well the rain-soaked pavement reflects the moonlight and even takes a screenshot. A screenshot of a pavement, just because it feels too real to be in a game. Kudos to the graphics team.

Before I fill this page with heaps of admiration for the graphics, let’s move on to something else. The gameplay. Smooth, sometimes choppy, but overall it really puts the player in Batman’s shoes. Gliding is the most exciting part, though sometimes it can get slow and boring. Like all the other Arkham games, combat in this entry was satisfying too, though when I watched an Arkham Asylum video yesterday, I felt that it had the best combat sequences of all the four games, probably because it didn’t change the camera angle when Batman administered the final blow to the thugs, thus allowing for a more seamless following of his moves.

The story. Far, far better than all the other games. If I had to rank the stories I’d go with Knight, Asylum, maybe City and then Origins. The element of suspense kept the game interesting throughout. It was easy to follow, not too convoluted, and the design and graphics of the game actually helped in providing an immersive experience. I can safely say I lived the story. At the beginning you get to know that Scarecrow is going to be the main villain for this outing, but it is with the entry of the Arkham  Knight  that things get really interesting. Who is this Arkham Knight? How is he so familiar with the Batman’s way of thinking? Does he know him? Can it be…Joker behind the visor? But how? The very first thing the player does in the game is to incinerate his dead body! How then…? These questions keep the player driven to reveal the Knight asap. Before starting the game I thought Arkham Knight was some new avatar the Batman has taken. A more badass, cruel, modern avatar. But presenting him as an adversary freshened the experience for me.

A particularly nice touch was to show how Batman is coping with the death of his arch-nemesis Joker, who died at the end of Arkham City. Not well, clearly. The Joker keeps popping up in Batman’s way, voicing his anguish, his duality; an appropriate incarnation of the conflict going on inside Batman’s head. In a way he’s still the antagonist in the game, an inner battle for Batman, a demon that needs to be put to rest.

The last act of the game is especially strong, and it’s really a lesson in how a game should culminate. The scenes in this act are definitive with strong, significant repercussions. So strong, in fact, that the final criterion to end the game doesn’t seem worthless to pursue. This final criterion is to capture 5 of the most wanted criminals of Gotham, give the city some semblance of safety before…well, before ending the game. But even after doing so, the ending that unfolds leaves the player with a furrowed brow and even more questions than they had before the unmasking of Arkham Knight. What just happened? Did it really happen? But…why…how? What now?

And this…is where the game pulls the chair from beneath you. Apparently, you have a chance to get all your questions answered. Turns out what you just saw was only a partial ending. You can reveal the full ending, but you gotta work for it. Your task is to capture all of Gotham’s Most Wanted. Once you do that, you can sit back in your chair and savour the fruit of your hard work.

Now, at this point I had completed 96% of the game. This was a new personal record. I’ve found most other games to have a 60:40 ratio between the story and the collectibles. This held true for the previous entries in the Arkham Franchise too, but this one was special.

Like the previous games in the series, this one had side missions too. I would never have bothered with them, like I didn’t in the previous games, if they hadn’t been so exciting and fun to solve. The side missions in this game were, most significantly, easy to find. Other games, I would toil around for two, maybe three minutes before deciding to throw in the towel and moving on with the story. Arkham Knight’s side missions feel rewarding once you’ve solved them. Sure,  a couple of them do look like forcibly stitched pockets on what is a near-perfect dress, the others are worth solving. For instance, there’s this one where Batman finds bodies pinned to walls and scans them on various levels (dermal, muscular and skeletal) to find a common link between them and finally finds out who the perpetrator is. The backstory that follows is satisfying and worth reading.

For the first time in my history of playing Arkham games, I completed ALL the side missions. I wanted to capture all the most wanted criminals and I did, except one. His was the most tedious side mission of all and I had absolutely no intention of completing that one.

The Riddler.

Now Riddler, or Mr. Edward Nigma has hidden his trophies, clues etc. all over Gotham City,  like all the previous games. His side mission starts with the news that he’s holding Catwoman captive in Pinkney Orphanage and in order to free her, Batman needs to go all over Gotham, completing his challenges, most of which are Batmobile races –

Oh! Did I mention you get to drive Batmobile  in this game?! We’ll get to it in some time.

-So racing around in Batmobiles, and then once you’ve won the race, Riddler provides you with a clue that you can use to lead Catwoman to a key which will unlock one of the locks in the collar that Riddler has tied around her. If she steps out of the orphanage, or if Batman leads her to the wrong key, the collar explodes. I ignored the Riddler trophies and clues, which are 243 in total, as I always have, and freed Catwoman from Riddler’s clutches. Quite sure that I would defeat him and throw him in jail after the final confrontation, I waited for him to get through another of his monologues before landing a punch or two on his face. What he said, however, instantly turned me off on the idea of defeating him.

“You want to finish this, detective? Then you must earn the privilege!” he said from inside the control chamber of his mechanized exoskeleton before jumping through a crater to hide under the grounds of Pinkney Orphanage.

This “privilege” of fighting him could be “earned”  by collecting every single one of his trophies, breaking each of his breakable objects, and solving all his riddles strewn around the city. “Sheesh! So much toil for just a fight! No way I’m doing that.” I had thought upon hearing his words. “Let one most wanted criminal be free. He’s underground, anyway; won’t do much harm.”

And so I left him be, captured all the other ones, completed the game to  96% and reached the ending, only to be cliffhung.

I wanted the complete ending. I wanted answers to my questions. And for that, I had to capture all of Gotham’s Most Wanted.

Including.

The Riddler.

This meant I would have to meticulously scour the city for his trophies and everything. All 243 of them! I was still skeptical about it, but I reached a decision after about half a day.

I’d do it. I’d complete this humongous task, by myself or through online help, but I’d defeat him and watch the complete ending.

So I set about it, searching for his informants to interrogate and reveal his secrets’ locations. Bit by bit, working day and night, I got closer to my goal. Fighting waves of frustration, impatience and mental exhaustion I swam, and finally, close to midnight of 24^th March 2020, 5 days after revealing the partial ending, I collected them all, defeated Riddler, kissed Catwoman and watched the shit out of the complete ending.

The ending didn’t answer my questions, at all. It didn’t reveal much, and certainly not what I was hoping it would reveal, but it left plenty of scope for speculation until the next game comes out and lays bare all the events that happened after Arkham Knight ends. I hope it’s not a flashback entry like Arkham Origins. I can’t even imagine what the fans must have gone through, waiting to see what effects Joker’s death would have on Batman and Gotham, only to get a prologue to Arkham Asylum.

After completing the game I sat through the end credits hoping for a post-credit scene, hungry for more explanation. All I got was a photo of the team over at Rocksteady Studios that developed this awesome game. Thumbs up. When I was returned to the main menu, an immense wave of euphoric satisfaction washed over me when I saw ‘Continue Story – 100%’. Scrolling down, I found that all showcases and concept arts had also been unlocked. I wish I could keep this progress forever, to watch the 3D models of different characters in the game with gleeful eyes and a watering mouth; but I’d have to uninstall this game one day to make space for others.

It’s a heavenly feeling to see that 100% in your story progress. Arkham Knight is a game worth completing a 100% of. You quit the game knowing that you’ve played it as much as you could, seen everything there was to see, did everything there was to do, that there’s nothing left to do. But I don’t feel that way. I’ll still happily glide high above the Gotham buildings, drive on the streets, just to take the city in, donning different Batman costumes, playing as different characters. And until I’ve consumed the whole Gotham City down to the littlest of its alleys and the highest of its vantage points, I’m not going to let go of Arkham Knight.

And you can drive the Batmobile in this game! You can watch eagle-eyed as it turns 360 degrees on its spot, drift extraordinarily, and shifts and adjusts its parts to transform into an attacking tank from a stylish car and vice-versa. Its animation, movement, everything is flawless. It’s a character in itself. And it’s used amply, from defeating the Knight’s drones to using its cannon to destroy walls that conceal Riddler trophies, you actually feel how indispensable it is to Batman.

Batman: Arkham Knight released on the 23^rd of June 2015 with the promotional tagline “Be the Batman”. It lives up to the claim, and delivers an experience that can only be topped by Rocksteady Studios themselves. Go play this game.