Most impressively, Rocksteady not only makes these elements satisfying in their own right, but majestically strings them together. Whether you’re beating up thugs, soaring through rain-battered skies, leaping from Wayne Tower or roaring through Gotham’s wide streets in the Batmobile, almost everything in Arkham Knight is empowering. It’s a marketing tagline to end all taglines, but Be The Batman perfectly sums up what’s on offer here. This freedom is the real reason to buy Arkham Knight. Much like its predecessors, Arkham Knight’s world feels expansive but handcrafted, rich with detail and teeming with stuff to find, whether that’s clues to cases, nods to DC lore, or the hundreds of Riddler trophies waiting to be solved. This new Gotham is a large trifecta of distinct areas, each with their own neighbourhoods and interesting sights, stretching from a gothic city underbelly, to the gleam of cloud-piercing skyscrapers. There’s a large cast of impressively rounded (and usually damaged) characters on both sides of the law Photograph: Warner Brosīuilding on the open-world structure that Arkham City debuted in 2011, Knight is simply an expansion of that vision. It’s gripping – sometimes almost unpleasantly so – to see through to the end. The horror of failure is something Batman succumbs to, and is punished with, at major points throughout Arkham Knight’s 10-12 hour storyline. This is a game about madness, about prevailing darkness and about heroes failing. Under the perpetually stormy skies of Gotham City, the Caped Crusader is put through trial after trial test after test. Arkham Knight consistently delivers brilliant and unexpected moments that delve deep into the Batman’s mentality, pushing him to breaking point. And while the titular villain is more stroppy adolescent than brooding menace, Arkham Knight’s supporting cast – which I shan’t spoil - work tirelessly to create a compelling plot. The characters are multi-dimensional and complex, while delivering all the action and bravado that you want from a superhero adventure.
The bold story-telling steps Rocksteady made with 2011’s Arkham City have been retained in interesting, subversive ways.
Not only has this development team polished its series game mechanics to near-perfection, it has also reached a perfect understanding of this grimy comic book world. If Arkham Knight really is the end for developer Rocksteady Studios and the Dark Knight, at least the two are parting on a high. This review should not be considered a reflection of the PC version of the game. The PC version has been withdrawn from sale by Warner Bros owing to technical issues. Note: this is a review of the PlayStation 4 version of Arkham Knight.
0 kommentar(er)
