Something I didn't expect when I stated playing was the prominence of the Joker and his importance to the story; given that he died in Arkham City, I expected him to not really be around in this game, boy was I wrong. In Arkham City, Joker was dying of a blood infection he contracted in Arkham Asylum. He gave Batman a transfusion of his infected blood, in the hope that Batman could save him by curing himself of the infection. Something I didn't expect and didn't fully understand was that even though the infection was cured, Batman in this game is developing a sort of split personality/ imaginary friend that takes the form of the Joker; at first I thought this was Batman's guilt over the Joker's death and exposure to Scarecrow fear gas, but it turns out that the Joker is taking over Batman's brain. That makes very little sense; but his blood was mutated, and this is a game with a woman who can control and talk to plants, and it gives us more time with a great villain. Throughout the game, Joker tries to take control of batman, either by causing him vivid and very unsettling hallucinations, or when batman is exposed to the fear gas. These hallucinations come as creepy Joker mobs that batman has to fight off, and as down right disturbing flashbacks of Joker crippling Barbara Gordon and torturing and killing Jason Todd. The Barbara Gordon one really chilled me because I knew it was coming; Barbara answers the door, Joker comes in and shoots her in the back, then takes photos of her crippled body and leaves, not pleasant, but I've got to commend the writers for including that, it's a very powerful scene. Another great joker moment is at the end of the main story. Joker takes full control of Batman, but in an unexpected turn, Batman starts fucking with him, exploiting Joker's greatest fear, being forgotten. It's so awesome to see the Joker facing his fear, before being locked away, no doubt never to be seen again, I think this is a brilliant end for this character, far from dying gloriously or with a grin on his face, he dies completely crippled by fear and terror.
Barbara had a scene that left me speechless, she is exposed to the fear gas, and sees batman as a monster, after failing to shot him trough the bullet proof glass of the cell she's in, she takes her own life instead, in front of batman. This was a tough scene to watch for obvious reasons, do I have a soft spot for Barbara or something? I was a bit disappointed by her being alive though; turns out that batman was gassed, not Barbara, and Barbara killing herself was a hallucination. Sure it was great that she didn't blow her own brains out, but it completely crashed the weight of her suicide, a game hasn't hit me that hard for a while, and that was derailed, which was disappointing. Poison Ivy's death didn't hit me as hard, but it was heart warming that; as Alfred said, "her final act was a noble one," saving the city from Scarecrows fear cloud. Speaking of fear gas, fuck you Scarecrow at the end, getting a very strong dose of his own fear gas. Something I didn't expect was Scarecrow revealing batman's identity to the world, that was when I accepted that this is the last game in the Arkham series. what I definitely didn't expect was nightfall protocol destroying Wayne manor and the fates of Bruce and Alfred being left uncertain, I expected a Dark Knight Rises style ending where Batman died but Bruce lives on, instead it's pretty apparent that Bruce Wayne dies at the end of this game. Which makes the fucked up bat creature in the third ending even more interesting. who/what is it, is it Azreal, is it Robin, is it Nightwing, hell, is it Jason Todd. and why did it's eyes glow, is it a hallucination, is it the fear gas, is it something entirely new. Rocksteady, this isn't fair, dick teasing your fans with whatever was on that roof, I might just do a full post on the nightfall protocol; a ramble on whatever theories I have.
The game's big mystery is the Arkham Knight's identity. it got a bit obvious though. The Knight is someone from Batman's past, someone with extensive training, and someone with both an extensive knowledge of and intense hatred for batman, that all lines up pretty nicely with Jason Todd, a former Robin, tortured and brainwashed into hating batman, I was right, the mask came off and it was Jason Todd, just as I thought. by that, the reveal of the Knight's identity wasn't all that surprising or shocking, and his sudden flip from desperately wanting batman dead to helping him defeat scarecrow just confirmed what Joker said, that he was just a whiner, if Jason Todd was a less bark and more bite, him being the Arkham Knight would have been more satisfying.
I've missed things in this spoiler review, but there was a lot to cover, and this is a pretty long post already, so there are my thoughts on the bigger elements of the story. I liked this story a lot, it took Batman and the joker in directions I wasn't expecting, and it had a cool titular character with a lacklustre big reveal, and did I mention that scarecrow is menacing as fuck in this game, because he is. I've already started another game on Arkham Asylum and I can't wait to come back around to Arkham Knight, by most of my standards, it's an outstanding game.
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