Many may remember Arkham Knight as the most controversial title in the Arkham-Series, mainly due to the horrible performance issues the majority of players had to fight with. This ulitimately lead to Rocksteady realizing how severe the issues were and made them offer a refund to anyone who owned the game. All of this happened in late 2015, quite some time has passed and I think it is time for me to give my opinion on how this game, despite the many problems that plagued it through the first months after release, managed to rise from its ashes, more glorious and stunning then ever before.


This game's story takes you into the beautiful looking setting of Gotham City. Batman's mission for this night sounds simple at first: Get the city under control again. But what even happened if the entirety of Gotham relies on the Dark Knight to save them? Well, Scarecrow is back, much more sinister and witty than he was in the Asylum and he didn't come alone: A new enemy, the "Arkham Knight", is swarming the city with countless tanks and militia forces, all in an effort to put Batman's life to an end. This is basically how the main storyline starts and, without giving away too much, it sometimes is very easy to guess what happens next. But all in all I'd say the story has many memorable moments and some very interesting characters and dialouge to keep you interested in it.
But of course there are also lots of side activities to do in this vast and detailed open world, including some of the most iconic villains of the world's best detective. Personally, I enjoyed doing most of the side quests, especially those that added their own little story or those that introduced some never-before seen characters. The only thing that may require a strong will to complete are the dozens of collectibles that you have to find to beat the Riddler.


This one I'm going to divide up into two categories: Batman himself and the Batmobile. These two really split my mind so I'm doing myself a favor by reviewing them seperately.
First off, the Batmobile. This one is controversial, not because the gameplay that this stylish tank offers you is bad, but because it is not good enough to justify the amount of time you spend in it. And let me tell you, you spend quite some time in that thing. Some of the "boss fights" you have to do in the Batmobile are, in my opinion, the worst part of this game. They are boring, they offer no variety, they simply suck. Sure, it can be fun to destroy the city you are supposed to protect by recklessly driving through everything that isn't nailed to the ground but it sadly gets boring after a while. But at least they totally nailed the sound design of that monster of a vehicle.
Speaking of amazing sound design, there is nothing more satisfying in this game then brutally punching enemies into unconsciousness and hearing the sounds of their bones shattering into tiny pieces. And yes, this actually does sounds very questionable and concerning when I read it aloud, but hey, it is what it is, and trust me, it is good!
Further continuing my praise of the hand-to-hand combat in this game I have to say that the animations are done incredibly well and really manage to make you understand what force is behind every punch and kick you throw. The inclusion of countless gadgets adds to the variety and gives you lots of options on how to best ensure that everyone who dares to invade your personal space gets the classic Batman treatment of severe traumatic brain injuries and a lifetime on the feeding tube. Hospitals love him.
The stealth portion of this game is also really well done. Once again your gadgets get to spice things up and add some tactical thinking into your attacks while the many different enemy types spice things up by making it more likely that you recieve a few shotgun-blasts to the torso and die tragically. Not that something like that ever happened to me.
And of course you can once again upgrade almost every gadget and every skull-crushing and bone-breaking move you have in your arsenal while also being able to add many new options, like for example being able to deactivate tank cannons from a distance with your disruptor.

"It really makes you feel like Batman" - Dunkey


This game is absolutely stunning if you play it on high or even medium settings. To give you a quick look at what Arkham Knight looks like visually I'll give you a few screenshots to peek at:
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1776542549
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1776543106
The performance is also a lot better than it was back at launch, my GTX 1070 and i5 6600K have no problem running this game on highest settings at a resolution of 1440p. Sure, sometimes you still have to deal with minor stutter and a few framedrops here and there but all in all the performamce of this game has improved to a point where I would call it not only bearable, but rather solid.


Arkham Knight offers you quite some content besides all the activities you can go after in Gotham City. There are the Challenge-Maps: Here you fight numerous waves of enemies with increasing difficulty while trying to maintain your combo and use as many gadgets and moves as possible to get a high score. Or you have to silently take out a few armed guards while trying to complete the challanges given to you by the game. Or maybe you'll race around in the batmobile, take out some tanks, do what a rich and twisted vigilante would do with his own heavily armed and armored vehicle. It's all possible.


In conclusion this game is still worthy of being called a good Arkham game. Maybe not the best one, but defenitly one that deserves every cent it's asking for to be enjoyed by you. If you think about buying the game, now's the time. The performance issues are nearly completely gone (at least they never really bothered me) and the game is guaranteed to entertain you for dozens of hours.