Batman: Arkham Knight is the final derivative of a non-linear climax: the milestone marked by Batman: Arkham Asylum was followed, to convince even the last skeptics, by the excellent Batman: Arkham City. The third episode - Batman: Arkham Origins, which as the title suggests is a prequel to the saga - has curbed the enthusiasm of fans by combining an excellent plot on paper with a too obvious series of glitches and small development defects that, added together, they have resulted in a videogame product not able to continue with its head held high the path traced by its predecessors.
Since the announcement Batman: Arkam Knight demonstrated the iron will of the developers of Rocksteady Studios to make people forget the mistakes of the past: starting from where the Arkham City narrative left off, this new last chapter of the saga was immediately conceived as a titanic project in which plot, gameplay, photography and artistic direction had to give the maximum for the ultimate Batman experience. In short, the premises were all there and they were more than good: read on to discover our impressions on the new adventure of the Bat Man.
We would like to clarify that we are well aware of the serious problems affecting the PC version, but the review is based exclusively on the versions we tested, namely those for consoles, PS4 and Xbox One.
The day Batman died
The incipit of Batman: Arkham Knight paste immediately to the screen: some time has passed since the tragic ending of Arkham City, but the city of Gotham has not yet known its darkest hour and, this time, to save it Batman will have to die. We all know that the Joker is not the only mortal danger to threaten the city of Gotham: this time the Scarecrow will start the dances (in a renewed and terrifying horror version), which in terms of madness is certainly not second. to the fearsome disfigured clown. With a few milligrams of his new toxin Jonathan Crane - so does Scarecrow at the registry office - pushes the patrons of a diner to kill each other wildly.
This small demonstration is enough to throw Gotham into chaos: the population leaves the city and the streets, now semi-deserted, are soon inhabited only by the underworld and the brave policemen who remain. It is at this point that the Bat-signal stands out in the sky, lit once again by Commissioner Gordon: despite what happened with the Joker, the police force still needs the Bat Man, who promptly answers the call and promises to fight again. once for his beloved Gotham City.
From here the narration continues unabated with a fast pace and without skimping on continuous twists. The Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy and The Riddler are just some of the antagonists shown or interacted with in the first few minutes of the game. Moving on to the allies, no one is missing: always without exceeding the first hour of the game you will meet Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara (as always in the role of Oracle), butler Alfred, Lucius Fox and Robin, with many others who will be added with the hours go by. Stuff to make comic fans dilate and cry with joy as well as those who have come to love Batman with only the Arkham series, because the feeling we had throughout the game experience is that Rocksteady decided that if it was a swan song, then things had to be done really big.
One last thing, making sure you avoid spoilers: you will quickly discover that the Knight of Arkham - or theArkham Knight title - it's not Batman himself as everyone expected, but a new and mysterious character. Going in search of him will force Batman to fight against the demons that, from the tragic ending of Arkham City, grip the heart of the man behind the mask of the Bat: in Arkham Knight Bruce Wayne is more true than ever, and it is perhaps this aspect of storytelling that most of all makes the obscure issues dealt with interesting. Add to this an almost infinite series of subplots that, with the exception of the real side missions, intertwine and forage the main plot of details and you will have the complete picture.
If you are wondering how all this narrative material can be in a story that lasts only one night, believe us, we too have asked ourselves without being able to give us a real answer; we simply realized that we were faced with a work where even the smallest detail was artfully created to fit into the sea of events that, as the title of the paragraph, according to the narrator of Commissioner Gordon will lead to the death of Batman . We obviously leave to you the task and the pleasure of discovering how it will really turn out.
Finally the Batmobile
One of the most anticipated novelties in the gameplay of Batman: Arkham Knight is the Bat-mobile, a vehicle that has always been present in the imaginary world of the Bat Man. The Bat-mobile that offers us Rocksteady in Arkham Knight it is in several points inspired by the one seen in the film trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan: a real heavy tank capable of knocking down any obstacle, the use of the car in the game will coincide with decisive variations of the gameplay until now known by fans of the series. Let's start immediately by saying that using the car for simple movements around the city soon turns out to be boring: the inaccurate driving system and the Burnout Paradise-style post burner do not adapt to the narrow streets of Gotham; While it may be interesting to drive from time to time instead of flapping from roof to roof with hood and grapple, for the most part the second and old method will still be the fan favorite.
The speech changes considerably when it comes to using the Bat-mobile in assault mode: the car transforms and maneuverability increases, allowing lateral strafe and evasion maneuvers useful both in combat and in solving simple puzzles, such as modification of the road surface to create a ramp to be used to reach otherwise inaccessible areas by car. Some sections reminded us of the historic Ghost in the Shell for PsOne mixing it with modern Transformers, all incredibly without distorting the spirit of Batman and paying homage to the military Bat-mobile desired by the aforementioned Nolan.
This is a breath of fresh air not indifferent, which adds to all the tactical possibilities and gadgets that we have already seen in the previous chapters: batrang, explosive gel, detective mode - in a new revised and corrected incarnation that allows you to investigate the scenes of crime even more in detail - obviously the grappling hook and all the other gadgets will be very useful to the player to overcome the fights unscathed and to solve the numerous environmental puzzles that will appear in front of him from time to time. Lucius Fox will not fail to provide Batman with continuous upgrades for both the Batmobile and the suit, in order to make the experience always varied with the gradual inclusion of new actions that can be performed. Notice to new players: initially you may find yourself a bit confused by the infinity of gadgets available, but we assure you that with a little experience you will know how to master the control system and the use of Batman's war arsenal will give you great satisfaction on the battlefield.
Small refinements also for hand-to-hand combat, which in any case remains the one as simple as it is deep already tested in all the episodes of the Arkham series: the attack button is only one, to which are added the commands for the counterattack, or stun and some spectacular environmental knockouts. To the melee in melee must be added all the ko in stealth mode, to be performed hanging from the ledges or hidden behind cover. Another novelty of this chapter, the knockout terror: once a group of enemies has been taken by surprise, it will be possible to select which targets - we obviously recommend focusing on the armed opponents - to hit first and then continue the fight against the enemies left with the traditional mode . There is really a lot of meat on the fire, and it's all of excellent quality: if in the first minutes of the game we had the feeling of being in front of the same game of the Arkham series, in less than an hour of play we had to change our minds - and we did it with a smile on our lips - after being literally bombarded with all these little news that we assure you will be able to rejuvenate the gameplay without distorting it, thus making it fresh but leaving historical fans the feeling of being at home.
Full HD (or almost)
The technical department of Batman: Arkham Knight is to be commended for two reasons: first of all for the fluidity and care of the animations, especially as regards the protagonist and all the actions that he can perform with the Batmobile and with the gadgets available, including the numerous suits with different characteristics and increasingly fascinating design. Secondly, for the inspiration in the direction of photography, able to recreate a Gotham City that has a lot to do with the Rapture of the first two Bioshocks: immense and decadent, as dark as the knight who swore to protect it, Gotham terrified of the Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight, she is so much alive that she transmits the fear of the remaining inhabitants and makes the player feel the annoyance of the pouring rain that falls on the roofs throughout the adventure. Let's admit that we are in love with this Gotham City, treated even more in detail than that of Arkham City, which already at the time had left open-mouthed for the glance of the setting.
Wanting to be objective, let's admit that graphically gimmicks like rain or anti-aliasing were used by the developers of Rocksteady also to smudge the image on the screen a little, hiding some graphic inaccuracies when the engine - the still excellent and never too acclaimed Unreal Engine - would not have been able to manage all the characters and moving objects on the screen. These are notes for fanatics of perfection though: we say to them that if on Playstation 4 the game runs in full HD, on Xbox One the resolution is only (so to speak) of 1600 × 900, but in saying it we also underline that according to us the difference is not such as to justify a penalty of the version for the Microsoft console. For those who are not interested in mere graphic detail but, as we have always done, were a supporter of the technical sector in favor of gameplay, know that Batman: Arkham Knight is really the peak of the entire series also in terms of graphics and that the genius of Rocksteady in mixing the reality of Nolan's films with the Batman of the comic creates a perfect balance that will send any Batman fan into a jujube soup.
Cinematic, even in audio
We do not usually dedicate a separate space to the audio sector, but for a realization of this caliber we cannot avoid: in no uncertain terms, the audio level work for Batman: Arkham Knight is really to be commended. Let's start by telling you that all the dialogues in the game are dubbed in Spanish with a much higher quality than the industry average and, while not at the levels of cinematic video games, the dialogues are well acted and consistent with the situation in which the characters they are in that moment. Obviously, Batman's voice is always the same, which will make fans of the brand and of the numerous cartoon series released from the 90s onwards happy. The localization has been taken care of down to the smallest detail: Batman can interact with any character he meets simply by pressing the action key next to him, and he will respond with small phrases from time to time different based on the situation or what was said previously.
In addition to this, moving around the city the Bat-suit will detect the radio frequencies of the police and enemy soldiers, all dialogues that are perfectly and entirely localized in Spanish as well. The same goes for the messages of the Riddler and for all the dialogues with the secondary characters, from that relating to the main plot to the most infinitesimal whisper of a secondary mission. Obviously, the sound effects are no less, specially recreated to give a sense of the heaviness of Batman's fists and Bat-mobile's weapons: we were already used to this, so here we only point out a greater depth in terms of variety of effects, which turn out to be as neat and well crafted as in the past.
Batman: Arkham Knight was conceived from the beginning as the final chapter of the Arkham series and, as such, was made by Rocksteady with the ambition to be the most incredible in every respect. For our part, we take note of how the developers have succeeded in the Nintendo, giving birth to what in our humble opinion is the best Batman game released on the market since Batman Returns for SNES. Of course, detractors will always be able to say that graphically more could be done, that the Batmobile's driving system is clumsy and that all in all we are faced with the refinement of an already proven formula in which Rocksteady has done nothing but file the defects of the previous chapter. We, as fans of the world of Batman and as gamers, we limit ourselves to recommending the purchase with your eyes closed because Arkham Knight is a cornucopia of content and longevity, as well as a real killer application for this generation of consoles.
