PS4 Game Review by James Paradie: Batman - Arkham Knight (Spoilers!!!)

Unanswered Questions: 

Ever since the first time I beat Arkham City in October 2011, I've been waiting anxiously for the next Arkham game. Oh, sure, WB Games Montreal was nice enough to give us Arkham Origins, but that was set before the events of Arkham Asylum. I wanted answers to the epic conclusion to Arkham City. Was Joker really dead? What happened to Clayface? Did Ra's Al Ghul escape death? What was Scarecrow's City of Terror plan? And these were just the tip of the iceberg of the many missing ends City left open. Then in March of 2014 we got the Father to Son trailer and I'd be lying if I said I didn't wet myself with excitement. TMI? TMI, but it's the goddamn Batman!

When would we get more answers? 

Launch Trailer:

Pre-Game Jitters:

How can I emphasis how excited I was to finally play this game? The best I can come up with is my family opens presents on Christmas Eve night. Waiting the whole day as an adult is fine. You can deal with it. As a kid? Waiting the whole day until night time is like a form of torture to a kid. That's how I can describe waiting for this game. I would get so anxious that my stomach would hurt. It was a flashback to being a kid again on June 25th, the release date being the 23rd, so I had to wait two extra days. This did not bode well with me at all.

I would look at the tracking information just about every five minutes. I'm not kidding. When I saw it wasn't moving at all, I actually called UPS's customer service. I gave the robot the tracking number and it told me it was delivered ... to the wrong address. You can probably guess with how excited I was to play this game that I panicked. I finally got a hold of an actual human, gave the tracking number, and was relieved to find out that the robot misunderstood me. My package was fine. I even asked the poor woman three times, "So it's okay?" "Yes, sir." ... Few seconds later, "It's alright?" "Yes sir." The lady probably thought I was getting crack in the mail!

But finally, the next day, UPS drove up my driveway and I ran out to greet him. I wanted to hug the guy, I was so happy to finally get the game. I ran in, ripped that annoying plastic off, put it in my PS4 and anxiously watched it install. Pressed start on that sucker aannnnnnd ...

Waiting game again!

Damn it!

Arkham Knight already had a day one update and this was 2 gigs. My internet sucks too! I had to wait another damn hour, because my WiFi kept going out. Playing around with the WiFi, finally it started to download. I let it go, let it go, and not even ten minutes after I fixed the WiFi problem, it loaded.

Oh ...

Oh, God!

The Good:

I can't tell you the immense feeling of joy I had once I saw the first scene. The one where Joker is cremated. And you do the cremating! I was sitting there for a couple moments, waiting, waiting. And when I get anxious to play, I start moving the joysticks around. Suddenly, my controller vibrated and the flames kicked in. I'm like, "Are you serious?! You get to cremate the Joker?!" It was little things like that that separated this game from the previous titles.

When the game finally kept its promise and let me Be The Batman, it was like I just stopped playing Arkham City. The Arkham controls are some of the easiest gaming controls around. My fifty year old, technology impaired mother could play this game. There were some differences, but they are welcomed differences.

When it was time to even the odds and Batman makes his descent down to the Batmobile, I couldn't help it. I screamed, "I am vengeance. I am the night," and as the Batmobile drifted, "I AM BATMAN!" It was an awesome moment for a Batman obsessed fan such as myself. But I was most curious about why people were not that crazy about one of comics most famous cars finally making it's Arkham debut.*

*Yes, I know. The Batmobile (different model) was in Arkham Asylum. I'm talking playable debut.

The Batmobile was something new, something we never had in any previous Arkham titles. Because Knight's world was bigger than City's, they wanted something to make traveling through Gotham a little faster. They didn't go the Origins route, which was just a fast travel device like you see in other games like Assassin's Creed or Far Cry. They wanted to bring the Batmobile to life.



I loved roaring through the streets with the Batmobile. Seeing bad guys fling off of it like a fly hitting a zapper brought a (admittedly) sick joy. Oh and while battling it out with baddies, you could do Batmobile assisted takedowns. It went something like this.



I'm going to repeat myself in the Bad section here, but I actually enjoyed the drone battles. I get it that people don't like repetitive play and neither do I in most cases, but I found it fun. However, like you will see in the Bad section, my love for the Batmobile fell as the game went on.

But what else?! Oh, Scarecrow. If you've read my Arkham Asylum review you will know that I love Scarecrow. My Facebook profile picture and cover is Scarecrow.

Profile picture:

Cover Photo:

Yeah, as you can see, my favorite Batman villain is the Scarecrow. Don't get me wrong, I love Joker and a lot of the other bad guys and gals in Batman's rogues gallery, but I've always just really, really liked Scarecrow. I like his style, I guess is the best I can put it. And I was super-stoked to hear that he was one of the main antagonists for the final game.

When I first saw the Arkham Knight reveal trailer, Father to Son, I think it's called, I was a bit surprised that they got a new voice actor. I really liked Dino Andrade's rendition of Scarecrow from Arkham Asylum. Scarecrow from Asylum seemed like he had a ... personality, I think is the word I'm looking for; more charismatic, I guess. He reminded me a lot of the Scarecrow from Batman: The Animated Series - more about fear being a play toy. While John Noble's Scarecrow in Arkham Knight reminds me of the Scarecrow from The New Batman Adventures - more stern, more categorized, less chaotic with decisions. Fear for him was more about sending a message to Batman. I like both. I like Asylum's Scarecrow and Knight's Scarecrow, even though they are technically still the same person. I just see they were kind of inconsistent with the voice. He goes from sounding like a posh old woman in Asylum to sounding like a Shakespearean character in Knight.

Okay, I think I over-explained myself enough. I guess what I'm trying to say is, although I love Dino's version of Scarecrow in Asylum, I believe Noble really gave Scarecrow a more menacing tone in Knight.

Some people complained about Scarecrow not being a good enough villain or at least not intimidating enough for the last game. My reaction to that is: seriously? He released a fear toxin that was going to cover the entire eastern seaboard. That's NOT good enough? That's NOT threatening enough? Hey, that's your opinion. I liked it. I felt that each encounter with Scarecrow was something to remember. Something that made you think that he got inside Batman's head each and every time. And came even closer to breaking Batman than Joker did in all the previous installments.

Yeah. All of Gotham stricken with fear gas. Totally not intimidating! (Sarcasm.)

Let's move on before we get to the end of the game. Side missions. They were everywhere. There were a hell of a lot more in Knight than there were in City and Origins (none in Asylum, unless you count the Riddler stuff). I can say I enjoyed just about all of them. Granted, the end result of a lot of these (Two-Face, Man-Bat, Penguin, etc.) will definitely be in the Bad section. But let's talk about the good.

I think the most fun I had with the side missions was with rescuing the firemen, the serial killer mission, and shutting down all the watch towers (when it was stealth, at least). I love stealth games and the Arkham games are my favorite when it comes to stealth, so any time there was stealth, I was a happy camper. Don't get me wrong, I did like all of the side missions, but those were the ones I enjoyed the most.

Also, what I found interesting is unlike some games, like Far Cry 4 for example, where they tell you where all the safe houses are and everything else, Arkham Knight don't baby you like that. If something is in your vision while say, chasing a bad guy in the Batmobile, it will save where you found it and add it to the map. Once I finished the game, pretty much the grunt of my time was flying the skies of Gotham, looking for all these side missions, because it didn't tell you where, say, all the bombs were or where all the cobra tanks were. The game, however, I guess did have a soft spot for some people who just couldn't find these things. So every now and then, you'd get intel on where something is (via Alfred or Nightwing - for the Penguin stuff).

One side mission that I have a love/hate releation with was the Riddler. The Riddler, much like Joker, has been a etched in stone returning baddie in the Arkham series. Like Joker, he has been in every single one. This time, not only do you solve his riddles, his tasks to get the trophies, but also he's really interested in the Batmobile. You compete in his first trail, which is a beat the clock challenge. Thankfully, not all of them were racing, because I SUCK at racing games. The first trial I failed, I hate to admit and actually left the track with Riddler mocking me (which, of course, pissed me off even more). Embarrassed to say, but not really, because I'm here to fight, not to race. And I guess that's where I started getting sick of the Batmobile, but thankfully not all of them were racing trials and just more solving puzzles with the Batmobile.

Riddler does have something special of the Dark Knight's as he is holding Catwoman hostage. She has this special necklace on her that if Batman fails - she dies. After competing one of Riddler's trials, you have to step on this pad to reveal where the key is, but there's multiple keys. Get it right, Catwoman is just another key away from freedom; get it wrong and the kitty's head goes boom! Guessing where the key is was not a challenge. I'm happy to say I never got any of them wrong.

Also, when you beat one of Riddler's trials, you have to go back to the orphanage (Riddler's hideout) and team with Catwoman in a challenge room. These were actually wicked fun. They were challenging, but they really made you want to keep on playing more.

The trophies were also an improvement, both challenge and fun wise. Riddler does have an ace up his sleeve and has these robots working for him that did pose a challenge a time or two. What was fun about the robots was that you had to take control of them to get to certain trophies. I had so much fun with these Riddler trophies. There were a few that stumped and frustrated me, but for the most part, they were a blast.

Also, much to Riddler's (mainly Rocksteady's) credit, I had the roughest time with the last trial. Again, you were racing. You had to beat the clock. I was screaming like an asshole, "This is no fair! It's too hard!" I'll admit, when a game frustrates me to this point, I turn into a whiny kid. I'm pouting, I'm throwing the controller on the ground. I hate to admit it, but I think Rocksteady would get a laugh knowing they made a twenty-seven year old act like a damn twelve year old. Goddamn, I don't think I've gotten that frustrated with a game. When I finally beat I was shaking!

The End of a Incredible Series 

When I say, ending, I actually mean the ending to Scarecrow's terror. Not the real ending (Knighfall Protocol) you get when you defeat the entire game (100%). Batman has to give himself up, because Scarecrow has Jim Gordon and Robin (Tim Drake). Scarecrow tells Batman that in order to save them, he has to take his mask off. Batman decides to do just that. He gets in the back of a truck and is on his way to where Scarecrow will reveal to the entire world who the Batman really is ...

It ends where it begins. 

Arkham Asylum finally makes its comeback to the series. What I loved about this (and this should actually be in the Giddy section, but oh well) is that they redid the opening of Arkham Asylum in Arkham Knight, but this time instead of the Batmobile roaring down the streets of Gotham with the Joker in the back, you have the truck that has Batman in the back. The cuts, the visuals, the music is all the same as the beginning to Arkham Asylum. PERFECT. Seeing the Asylum in HD was gorgeous as well. The only problem is I wish we could explore it! Oh, well. Maybe we'll get a next gen remaster edition or something. 

People felt the Scarecrow boss battle was weak. Why? For being the co-main villain, he had no boss fight what so ever. I was hoping, since at the climax of the game you return to Arkham Asylum, that they would do a bit of a homage to the first game. Maybe you have to avoid Scarecrow's gaze like in the first game. Some people would call it cheap, I'd call it fantastic! That's why I loved the first game so much was because of Scarecrow's boss fights.

But in a sense, this is middle ground. Scarecrow, to my knowledge, has never been much for fighting. He's more psychological. So in a way, this works. I'm actually fine with what they did, because of an obvious reason: playing as the Joker! 

(See my Giddy section for all Joker related stuff). 

The Bad: 

From friends to family, people know I'm a huge Batman fan. Die hard could be used to explain how much I love the Batman. With that said, people may think that because of my die hard love for Batman that it would blind me from finding anything negative with the game. Prepared to be surprised, because I can actually knit-pick about this game for a long time.

Before I received the game (because I didn't get the game until two days after it was released) I was keeping my temptations fixed, but not fufilled because it wasn't the goddamn game, by reading reviews on Arkham Knight. To my surprise, at the time, I couldn't believe that people were crapping on the game because of the Batmobile. I said to no one in particular, but my computer screen, "It's the friggin' Batmobile! How can you hate it! How can you say, 'too much Batmobile'? You're not a real fan," etc. etc. Typical ultra-Batman fan blather to which I am easily guilty of all the time.

However ...

I finally had the game in my possession on the 25th and was in love with the Batmobile. Had no idea why people were harping on it so much, buuuuut after the first Riddler trial (which is really early in the game) I knew what they meant. Too much Batmobile was actually true. It was almost like the game relied too much on it and at times, it was eye rolling. Sometimes it made sense and other times I just wanted Arkham Knight to sing true to the previous Arkham installments (i.e. no Batmobile; no reliance on one thing) and have Batman be the one man army.

Some people had a huge problem with facing drones upon drones and I get that, but I didn't mind. I can be one of those tools who goes, you only didn't like it, because you probably sucked at it. That could be true, but I'm not that type of guy. Some people like the Batman games for its stealth, some like it for the detective aspect, some like it just to plainly kick some ass. But I was okay battling drones. Surprisingly, I didn't even die during any of the numerous drone battles. Except for the Cloudburst one. I did bite the bullet on that one.

But did I enjoy it all the time? No. I rarely ever drove it unless I needed it for a mission and I did it the "old school Arkham way" by just flying everywhere. There's something cool about gliding through this vast city rather than driving in a car that flips easy. That reminds me of a funny experience I had with this game that involves the Batmobile: I called the car because I needed it for a Riddler Trophy. I can hear it coming and all of the sudden, it drifts, goes up a ramp and falls into the damn ocean. I've seen some funny random things like that in video games (one being in Far Cry 4 where this car flies over a bridge for no damn reason - the people survived ... until an elephant trampled them), so it's always good for a laugh, but this is Batman's car! ... Tank ... Whatever.

Don't get me wrong Rocksteady, I get it. I really do. It was a new venture for you guys and for the most part, it was fun. But did we really need it that much? I would say no, but that's just one gamers opinion, but a lot of people agree ... too much Batmobile.

The second bad would be the lack of boss fights. There were either cut scenes or two punches and that's it. I'm not going to get into great detail about all of them, but here are some examples:


Two-Face

In Arkham City you beat him as Catwoman where he is in the museum and Catwoman needs to get her stolen goods back. In that he has a health bar and he isn't that hard to beat, but yet, it takes more than two punches.

Arkham Knight comes around, he is holding up banks. Finally, after being humiliated by his thugs not getting the job done, he steps in himself. Unlike City's boss fight, they decided to treat Two-Face like a common thug. Two-Face is one of Batman's biggest rogues and you couldn't even give him a health bar? I beat him in two punches and I'm not kidding!

Harley Quinn

In Arkham City's DLC, Harley Quinn's Revenge, she has a health bar when Robin is facing her. You also face her again, but this time she is throwing tons of thugs at you. I believe she was also firing a rocker launcher at you. 

This? Oh, how about just pressing a button and that's it. Yeah! Here we are looking forward to Harley's revenge for Batman letting the Joker die and the resolve was just one freaking button! 

Penguin 

But there is something I've kind of left out. Granted, the boss fights are the most disappointing out of the entire series, but leading up to them was fun. I gotta give them that. Sure, beating Two Face in two punches was dull and horrifically shocking. But protecting banks by doing my favorite thing, stealth, get's a pass. The same can be said for Harley. Sure, she was defeated by pressing a button, but leading up to it was fun. Same thing with Penguin. You get to team with Nightwing and take down Penguin's gun trade by kicking ass with the former boy wonder. The boss fights with these guys was disappointing, but we've already faced him. Not that Rocksteady probably couldn't come up with a better boss fight than before, I'd rather have this than a repeat. 

This is where things get fickle. 

Arkham Knight introduced us to new villains. Villains we've never face in any other Arkham series. Do you think Rocksteady gave us great boss fights with them? Well ... 

Hush

Don't be fooled. He may look like Bruce Wayne, but it's not. 

Hush was one of the many shockers Arkham City had to offer, because he was a surprise. Thomas Elliot is a man who wants nothing but pain and misery for Gotham's elite billionaire bachelor, Bruce Wayne. How's he do this? In City, he went around cutting flesh off of peoples faces and surgical putting it on his own to look exactly like Bruce Wayne. He succeeded. At the time, Batman had too much on his plate and felt Hush was not a serious threat ... yet. 

That was until in Arkham Knight when he held Lucius Fox prisoner and threatened to kill him if Batman didn't bring Wayne. When Batman revealed his identity to Hush, I was thinking something big was going to happen. Nope! Just make sure Hush doesn't get a shot out on you and you piledrive his ass through Bruce's desk. That's it. Nothing more. What the hell?! 

Firefly

Firefly was a bit more challenging as you had to chase him in the ... you guessed it ... Batmobile. Dodging his napalm bombs and pursuing him closely could raise a challenge, but again, too easy. You pressed a button, took him down, punched him in the head repeatedly. Do this four times (maybe? I apologize, I forget) and Batman sends his ass to jail. People may crap on Arkham Origins, but at least the boss fight with Firefly in that was actually fun and constructive. This?

Again, disappointing.

Deathstroke

After Arkham Knight is defeated, you find out that he did have a replacement. That replacement is Slade Wilson, also known as Deathstroke. One of Batman's most epic boss fights in the Arkham games was in the, otherwise ill-received, Arkham Origins.

Unlike Origins, this boss fight was bogus. Basically they took the Cloudburst boss fight with the Arkham Knight earlier and recycled it for this one. It would've been nice if after you defeated Deathstroke's tank, that the fight would go to another stage. Hand to hand combat. Maybe something like the Mr. Freeze boss fight from Arkham City, where you had to actually be strategic with your stealth. But what we got was pure bullshit.

Arkham Knight

Arkham Knight - Lack of creativity? Sure. But not the disaster as the others mentioned or to be mentioned. I liked how you had to be more stealthy than you usually are to avoid Knight's sniper. It reminded me of Deadshot's mission from Arkham City (less challenging) and his challenge in Arkham Origins (more challenging). Though I kind of liked it, I think they could have done more to emphasis that he is Batman's equal or superior. Maybe mix in some of the epic boss fight with Deathstroke from Origins. But atlas, what we got is what we got.

The Arkham Knight Reveal - Disappointing? 

One thing that people were guessing as soon as the character was announced was the identity of the Arkham Knight. There were some crazy theories out there, such as Hugo Strange, Ra's Al Ghul, even Damian Wayne (Bruce Wayne's son), who doesn't even exist in the Arkhamverse. But the number one guy was Jason Todd, the second Robin. For those who don't know, Jason Todd was killed by the Joker. Batman thought he was dead, but to his merit, he did try his best to look for him. Unfortunately, he was too late. Batman found Tim Drake and they moved on, but the tragedy of Jason left a hole in the Bat Family.

This seemed most possible to the Arkham fans who were frantically suggesting that the Arkham Knight HAS TO BE Jason. Why would Rocksteady create a new character out of smoke that knows everything about Batman and is also Batman's equal when it comes to combat? How could he know everything? The only choices was someone in the Bat Family (including Jason), Hugo Strange, or Ra's Al Ghul.

I'm sure you can guess who the Arkham Knight is:

Yep. Jason Todd. 

People hit the roof, hated how it was so predictable, and how Rocksteady are rat bastards because they lied. All I'm thinking is, they didn't technical lie. They said, the Arkham Knight is a brand new character in the Arkhamverse; they never said the identity of the Knight was something new. Or to my knowledge, at least. If they did, show me some proof, but as far as I know, they didn't.

I wasn't pissed off, but it was very predictable. Especially when they started opening the veil somewhat early in the game. A friend of mine, who is a bigger Batman fan than I am, also said he guessed it the moment the Arkham Knight talked. He said the way he talked reminded him of Jason Todd in Under the Red Hood. But it was predictable, but how they secretly, but not so secretly revealed it, was one of my most favorite moments in the game. Look for it on the Giddy moments section.

Bugs? 

I did experience some bugs, but not the worst out of the series (the worst being Origins). One bug is where I was in the Batmobile and when I was about to go up a small incline, I went through the map. The team at Rocksteady must of knew about this bug, because it seems like they have a fail safe. Probably five seconds after I fell through the world, it respawned me back where I first called the Batmobile. This only happened once and good thing it didn't happen during the Firefly chase sequences.

But there were some entertaining bugs as well. One was while I was looking for a Riddle at that church and I heard some goons say, "Batman's here!" I put it on detective mode, saw them jump over the fence and warp into the church! Actually three warped into the church and one went onto the roof. And I'm not sure if it counts as a bug, but that damn Batmobile was finicky at times while calling it. Sometimes it wouldn't even show up. Hmm.

The Giddy Geek Moments:

I can't count how many times I squealed like the Batman fan/geek I am, but there were quite a few moments. To be fair to the game and it's genre, pretty much all moments were geek out moments, but these were the main ones.

"Goodbye, Alfred": This one wasn't a giddy moment, but it did show my geek side. I would be lying if I said I didn't damn well near cry on this part. Earlier in the game, perhaps the first hour actually, you find where Scarecrow is mixing the toxin. Going to the mixing chamber, Scarecrow escapes, and you're locked in. Batman has to take the pressure off, so he takes the canisters holding the toxin and puts it in this larger chamber to create a controlled explosion. Alfred tells him he needs to get out of there or he will die. Batman says that Alfred has always told him to do the right thing and that is what he is doing. And then he said his goodbyes to Alfred. I nearly lost it. The only game that actually made me cry like a baby was Telltale Games The Walking Dead where Clementine has to leave Lee.

Joker: During the Goodbye, Alfred part you're still relieving pressure, Batman is breathing in the fear toxin and tons of thoughts are going into my mind. What nightmare will Batman have? The ones in Arkham Asylum are legend. From the morgue with his parents in body bags asking him why he didn't fight like a man - to reliving his parents deaths - to Scarecrow even playing with the gamers mind, thinking the game crashed. Who? What is going to happen?!

MISS ME?

That's right. Joker is back! ... Kind of. Well, not really. Batman is hallucinating his biggest fears and Joker would be right on top of that list (second to seeing his parents die again). What's funny is that I guessed this almost two years before the game even came out. I know, big friggin' deal, but it's cool guessing something! And I'm glad they went through it, because Joker being a part of Batman's psyche was one of the best things in the entire Arkham series. But what's even better is that we got the man himself back to play Joker - Mark Hamill. You know what they say: you can't spell Arkham with out mARK HAMill. Whether people like it or not (and some actually don't like it) the Joker is as instrumental to the Arkham games as Batman is, so not having even a whisper of him would be odd.

I really think they handled Joker really well. I mean, think about flying through the skies, grapneling up a building, and suddenly he's there to talk to you. He keeps trying to convince Batman to let Uncle J take over and let there be a new Batman. He's actually convinced Batman to do a few things Batman would never do, such as use a gun and snap someones neck. Even though it was all a hallucination, still, a hallucination getting through to Batman is serious business.

Another part that had me all giddy as hell was when you had to return to the Clock Tower (which acted like the Batcave in this game) all of the sudden you were somewhere else. Barbara Gordon, pre-Oracle, pre-wheelchair, reading a book. You already know what's going to happen. The doorbell rings, Babs thinks it's someone else, she opens the door, and there's Joker. She tries to run away, but is gunned down. Shot in the back and paralyzed. Joker mocks her before leaving. The fact that they paid homage to The Killing Joke is incredible.

Before the hallucination ends, a message is left.

The best part had to be actually playing as Joker back when Batman returned to Arkham Asylum at the end of the game. It was all Batman's fear of him turning into the Joker and causing havoc and death in the city he's tried so hard to protect. But playing as Joker was friggin awesome. I mean, you had to love the Jokermobile! But as Joker progresses with his chaos, Batman fights back. Also, was I the only one who was sad when Joker yelled to Bats, "I NEED you"?

Under the Red Hood: With Jason Todd being the Arkham Knight and Joker in Batman's subconscious, it only made sense to have references to the death of Jason Todd. Rather than going into my personal detail of what happens, it's best I just show you. 

You have to give Rocksteady credit, these moments were fantastic! 

The Final Verdict:

Although the Bad Section was the biggest I think I've ever had in any of my video game reviews. the reason for that is because I actually played it, and to be honest, am very passionate about the Arkham games. I could see all the problems not only story wise, but game wise, which is something I don't see in my spectator reviews (unless it's bugs).

Even though the Bad Section is quite large, I still loved this game and think it is the perfect closure to an incredible video game series. And quite honestly, I'm having a hard time deciding which game I had more fun with; City or Knight. It's actually quite hard to decide. But I do love all the games. Yes, even the sometimes shit on, Arkham Origins.

This game did close the open gaps that the previous games left behind. And even though I wish the boss fights were better, the gameplay between the "boss" fights was incredibly fun. I can't tell you how much fun I have just flying through the skies of Gotham or even speeding down the streets with the accursed Batmobile. And of course, as with the previous Arkham games, the high points for me were the stealth missions.

To me, this game get's way too much crap for the Batmobile and the fact that the fans of the Arkham series have been spoiled with great storylines over the series that they expected a masterpiece. You're spoiled! No. That's fine. But I enjoyed the story and yes, even the fact that Jason Todd is the Arkham Knight. It's fine. We all thought that when he was first announced and I think a lot of us even knew it when Rocksteady kept on saying that it's a brand new character. To which they didn't lie, for the most part. The Arkham Knight is a new character just with an old character behind the mask. But oh well. I still enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

But the best parts were with the Joker and the icing on the cake was Mark Hamill reprising the role that was made for him. People have PLAYED the Joker, but Mark Hamill IS the Joker. Just like people have PLAYED Batman, but Kevin Conroy IS Batman. Their voices are the first ones that a lot of people think of when reading Batman comics. Having them together, once again, was just awesome. Joker singing, "Your parents are dead and I'm still laughing!" and bringing back such fond memories as The Killing Joke or when Jason Todd was brutally beaten and left for dead were just moments that made this game stick out more than the others. Unlike Origins, which felt like a really good DLC to Arkham City, all of Rocksteady's games stand on their own merit and each gives it's own unique experience.