Playing Batman Arkham Knight in 2024/25

Moist Critical’s Review

Moist critical got me interested in Batman Arkham Knight after many remarks were made about it following the release of it’s successor from Rocksteady studios. The ill fated Suicide squad kill the justice league has received alot of negative press but one positive thing it has done is act as a foil for arkham knight released a decade prior and actually generate interest for the older game. And as a result here I am, taking a break from my super busy anime viewing schedule to check out this game based on a cartoon from my childhood. Hey everybody, welcome to aniprop, let’s get into it. 

So for anyone familiar with prince of persia, assassins creed or the middle earth lord of the rings games. The combat system is easily grasped. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel in this regard. It takes directly from those very familiar systems. Where however a new dimension is added is with all the bat gadgets. Like the batarang, the bat claw and the batmobile remote which allows for some wild strategies in a fight. The stealth is also very similar to the assassin’s creed system which is evolved from the splinter cell games for my older viewers. So the average gamer will feel quite at home picking up batman arkham knight

Batman Arkham Knight Movement

The movement is particularly unique as the game takes advantage of grappling and gliding as well as the ability to summon the batmobile to any street. It really gives the traversal of Gotham an extremely unique feel. One negative i will say about this is that if you are a gamer who plays driving games you will find it difficult to adapt to the batmobile. I’m used to right and left triggers on a gamepad being gas and brakes respectively but here they mapped the brake and reverse to the X button and the left trigger instead turns the batmobile into a tank. That’s cool and all but regularly i’m trying to slow down to navigate a corner and suddenly i turn into megatron. I did later find out that there is a toggle you could set to change this button config but this should have been the default in my opinion. I have no clue why this isn’t the default setting. crazy

The quests are really engaging because they don’t really feel like quests. Gotham is in crysis and it only seems to get worse and more unwieldy. Every mission feels like a step towards quelling the crisis. I really felt like a cartoon protagonist fighting against the odds trying to counter all the bold moves of Gotham’s gallery of famous villains like the riddler,scarecrow and Penguin. Why am I just now realizing; after all these years that the riddlers’ government name is Nigma. That one is eyebrow raising. And they call his name frequently throughout the runtime of the game. 

Batman Arkham Knight Leveling System

The batman has a leveling system with a skill tree very similar to the lord of the rings games. I don’t think this skill tree has as dynamic an impact on game play as in the other games I compared it with. But still I like that the skill tree is based on Wayne technology. At times it almost feels like the IP of Batman was purpose built for this game. That’s how you know it is well executed

Just as with assassin’s creed and the shadow of mordor, this game fulfills a power fantasy and can look incredible and feel rewarding if it is played well. Its skill based and very punishing but not to the degree that would cause anybody to quit. I got really into the character patrolling the skies of Gotham. Arkham knight is the 3rd game in a trilogy and I did not play the previous two games. This however has not been an impediment to my immersion into Arkham knight’s experience. 

The Riddler in Batman Arkham Knight

Where this game really departs from the ones i constantly compare it to however is the puzzling aspects. This game is puzzle heavy as the Riddler has a major plot line in this game. The riddler quests require you to exercise your brain in a way I never had to when playing the other games mentioned. This is good because it acts as a change of pace. The game play slows down and you can really enjoy some of the more obscure mechanics of the videogame. We also get to learn more about the physics engine and how some of the controls apply outside of combat. It’s a solid and interesting departure from the confirmed gameplay loop. 

Even though i’m playing this game about a decade after release i think it looks pretty great. My laptop has a Nvidia 4050 and I was able to turn all the graphics options to maximum without enduring any slowdown in frame rates. The rain and smoke effects are particularly impressive to me. The combat is a bit cartoony, especially the way batman auto locks on to enemies far away and just leaps over there to continue a combo. The complaints about the visuals however are exceedingly limited as Gotham looks amazing from the sky above gliding with water droplets running off the batsuit. This is a beautiful game even by today’s standards 

My favorite batman animation was actually batman beyond and i would be seriously over the moon if i got an arkham knight game in batman beyond’s timeline. But with the direction rocksteady has gone in, that is very unlikely. Leave me some more game recommendations in the comments please. I want to see what else i can do with this Nvidia RTX 4050.