How Batman is going out with a bang, a paff and a wallop
The streets of Gotham are empty, the population cleared out by feartoxin bioterrorism. Emergency service workers are left to their own devices against supervillain Firefly’s well-armed cronies. Drone tanks lie in wait for anyone foolish enough to try disarming them. And Batman careens through the streets in his shiny new Batmobile, causing delightful chaos between bouts of restoring order.
That is Arkham Knight in a tightly packed artillery shell: the final act in the Arkham storyline, it throws everything at the wall, giving you hundreds of missions to complete, new and old villains to defeat, partners in crime-fighting and a sweet ride that destroys everything in its path. And in the first hands-on demo, we finally got a chance to take it all for a spin.
While winter cold might have kept the citizens of Gotham indoors during Arkham Origins, it’s Scarecrow that clears the city out this time, uniting a who’s who of supervillains to finish Bats for good. Dealing with them is what makes up the vast majority of the game’s side quests, as each has their own robust operation that needs to be taken down one mission at a time.
Each villain’s side quests involve a different aspect of Arkham Knight’s gameplay – Firefly, for instance, must be chased down using the Batmobile’s pursuit mode until you get close enough to nail him in the kisser, while the villainous titular Knight drops advanced tank drones that can only be destroyed through Batmobile battle mode. The Riddler missions we’ve seen so far involve navigating an elaborate race course which must be altered on the fly, but he will also offer a variety of different missions focused on racing, combat and puzzlesolving. Familiar side quests also return with a new twist: murder investigations offer three levels of scanning – bone, deep tissue and muscle – and you’ll have to check all of them to find the evidence you’re looking for to solve the mystery of a local serial killer.
Undercutting the Penguin’s weapons trafficking enterprise will be the most familiar diversion to fans of the series, as it involves beating the living injustice out of packs of thugs, which hasn’t changed significantly since Arkham City. What has changed is the ability to call in support, as Batman can now summon Nightwing, and players can use both characters over the course of the fight. While Bats has much meatier hits that do significant damage, Nightwing moves quickly and is able to dodge in and out of punching range with ease, making up for his lighter hits. There’s also an option for the two to execute combined attacks, which requires quick reflexes, but time it right and their tag-team takedowns are an impressive sight to behold.
Ultimately, though, the Batmobile is easily the most unique addition to Knight’s bag of gadgets, and it can take some getting used to. While easy enough to control in slow-moving battle mode, it can become unwieldy to handle at high speeds. Thankfully, the Batmobile is nearly indestructible, so nothing short of a head-on collision with a brick wall will actually slow you down. While that makes it a great vehicle to cause hilarious amounts of property damage, it also comes with a host of more constructive abilities, letting you overload circuits gone haywire, disarm bombs, take out tanks (the one situation where your war machine isn’t quite bulletproof ) and drive along walls at high speed as justice requires. The Riddler missions seem to be where the best and worst of the Batmobile is shown off – you can land an impossible platform jump in one minute, then slide backwards into a pit the next.
Arkham Knight looks to build nicely on what came before, expanding on solid combat and interesting puzzles with additional features. But as Rocksteady’s final Batman game rolls to the starting line, the Batmobile feels like a final puzzle piece – the last part of the Wayne arsenal you have left to master. With plenty of other content to back it up, comrades to call in (maybe ride shotgun?) and a conspicuously empty road to practise on, we’re more than ready to rev up. Ashley Reed