As I said in my first impressions post, this game has a really dark opening, showing you the chemical attack in the diner and the following evacuation, that tone is consistent throughout the game, it's a very dark and serious story that I don't really want to go into detail of here, and while some things start to go flat, like the mystery of the Arkham Knight's identity, this game gives us our best look yet into Bruce's broken brain, and his relationships with those he loves. This story has some hard to watch scenes, but they're hard to watch in a really good way, a lot of monumental things go down in this game, and a game that can make my jaw drop in the way this game does is both hard to come by and extremely positive. And that's just the main story; Arkham Knight has an extensive collection of side stories featuring villains like Riddler, Penguin and Two-face, and a few surprising appearances that I was very happy to see as a fan of this series. All in all the main quest is extremely gripping, and there's enough extra stuff to keep you busy for a good 30 or so hours; certainly getting your money's worth. And, unless you bought the game on PC, you've got a very technically sound 30 hours to look forward to, with some beautiful graphics, great voice acting from the likes of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and John Noble, and a very fitting musical score.
Gameplay is what you know from the other Arkham games, with the same brilliant fighting system and fun stealth mechanics, both of which allow you to play with Batman's various gadgets and gizmos. But where this Batman game goes to the next level is obvious. The open world is enormous, and if shooting up into the air with the grapple and gliding around the city wasn't fun enough, you now have access to a drivable batmobile. That is every bit as awesome as it sounds, blasting through the dark neon streets of Gotham chasing down baddies and pulling stupid stunts; but that's not all, it's also a tank. The Batmobile can transform into a battle tank with a 60mm canon and machine gun, as well as a riot suppression cannon and homing missiles. I have mixed feelings on the battank, on one hand, blowing the shit out of 50 militia tanks is absolutely awesome, and driving the tank is fun, once you get past having to hold down a button to enter tank mode. On the other hand batman having a tank just doesn't feel right, this is something I got over as the game went on, so I didn't get snagged on it, and just enjoyed driving the tank, but that doesn't answer the question of why does Batman have a tank. Also, I generally didn't like the Riddler missions, but incorporating the batmobile into the Riddler's puzzles was a bad idea. That said, it hardly detracts from the game's quality, I mean the Riddler missions in general as well as the ones involving the batmobile.
There's still plenty more fun to be had outside of the main story, chasing down militia APC's, attacking Militia outposts, and disarming mines throughout Gotham while fighting off a horde of militia tanks.
This is a great game, I have a few gripes with it, but they are just that, a few. The Riddler batmobile levels and the battank as a concept aside, This is perhaps the best Arkham game to date, and a very powerful and satisfying ending to the series if this is indeed the end. This game is absolutely worth the price and is absolutely a game to be experienced; not played, experienced, go out there and buy this game, give it the love it deserves, you won't regret it.
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