It’s sometimes easy to forget that, in the beginning, Batman was the hero.
No, not like that: We’re all obviously familiar with the myriad ways he took it to the Joker and blew through the Scarecrow’s fear gas, saving Gotham from a fate worse than Killer Croc eating up all the meatball subs at the local Quiznos. But back in 2009, the year Rocksteady Games rolled Batman: Arkham Asylum onto our now last-gen consoles, both superhero and Batman video games were deader than Rick Santorum’s presidential chances. Arkham Asylum’s then-groundbreaking combat system — a nimble scheme that rewarded quick responses to visual cues with fluid combos that turned a 15-on-1 fight into a stack of unconscious clown-goons in a matter of minutes — saved the day and spawned an army of slavish clones.
Six years and three sequels later, it feels like the Dark Knight gets both his next-gen due and his hard-won reward in Arkham Knight, a sprawling adventure that brings the series to a logical and satisfying conclusion, gives us an even bigger and more detailed Gotham City to grapnel around and turns Bruce Wayne into a...tank commander?
More on that last one in a minute. Let’s start with the good stuff, like the fact that Gotham’s been supersized (three islands!) and so has the cast (three Robins!). It feels like every sidekick and villain in the entire series — even the dead ones — play important and meaningful roles here, and that’s in addition to the new titular antagonist, who packs the occasional thrill but isn’t quite mysterious or interesting enough to vault to the front of the rogue’s gallery.
The big new addition is, naturally, the Batmobile, an essential asset that gives our hero an alternate means of speedy transport and a way to both fry and pancake slow-moving thugs at the same time. (Actually, it feels a little like Rocksteady took lessons from Criterion’s Burnout series, in that the Batmobile can rocket through and destroy just about everything.)
In some places, Batman’s biggest toy is bloody brilliant: It’s a stone-cold blast to remotely maneuver the thing behind enemies and pick them off while they’re gleefully surrounding you. In others, like when you toggle to convert the Batmobile into a tank, it feels like a forehead-slapping misstep. We want to feel unstoppable when we’re driving the car every fanboy dreams about controlling, not kludging around like we’re about to fail our driver’s test again.
It doesn’t quite turn Bats into Michael Dukakis, but shooting things and moving platforms from the confines of a Bat-tank feels about as Batman-esque as the Dark Knight engaging in a Dance Central dance-off with Two-Face. It’s a rare blemish on an otherwise epic experience.
The unfortunate, show-stopping problems with the PC version of the game have been well-documented, and that version’s been yanked back the drawing board for a major retool. Console Nation, on the other hand, needs to slap on the cowl and crush some thuggish skulls immediately.
Arkham Knight, rated Mature, is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and, once the bugs get crunched, PC for $59.99.
