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LTTP: Batman: Arkham Knight via PS5 (2015 PS4)

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
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I don't ever remember ever like a super hero game until Batman Arkham Knight, Arkham City, the villains' etc. are different than what other super hero games were doing.

This is originally a 2015 game developed by Rocksteady that's playable over a number of platforms.

The story is built around taking down a psychic terrorist named Scarecrow, several months after defeating the Joker in the previous game. Batman does a lot of explaining to the police department in this one for his actions (destroying evidence, or taking someone hostage) soon the "Arkham Knight" arrives, attacks Bruce, "Batman" and builds a super army capable of taking over the world.

Basically Batman is under a lot of pressure from the badguys, who at times feel legit scary. There's a total of 24 chapters but you can confront other quests and criminals.

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When it comes to characters, there's plenty of interesting ones here. I like the dramatic Joker guy that hangs out with Batman throughout the game that keeps you glued in for every second, than there's the guy dressed as a Scarecrow (above) hanging out in Batman's hometown doing the insane drug criminal thing which is great.

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I absolutely loved the map design, the world has real chemistry and everything just fits into place like a real urban jungle.

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Batman: Arkham Knight shows an open world BUT I play the game with a linear approach that adds a more direct, good ol' fashion to the point playthrough.

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They're never going to win game of the year, but Batman games today live off that small crowd that doesn't buy COD. Maybe it's the stealth eccentric, 3rd person super hero vibe, but either way it stays in basic general gaming conversation, and you feel you're getting a quality superhero game today where's in the past that was a rare thing.

Let me here your takeaways from my writeup on Batman Arkham Knight a game I think will be a classic and I am proud to of played through it.
 

Numenorean

Member
I loved Batman Arkham Asylum back then. I have yet to play all other Rocksteady's Batman but I went through a hell Platinum-ing that game. I expect no less for this game
 
Cross-posting my "review" from the backlog thread (lots of pictures there that I can't replicate here for some reason....):

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I was initially excited to try this game. I don't do the "superhero" thing much (don't read comics, don't follow things closely) but Batman is not only my favorite superhero, he may actually be my favorite character in ANY work of fiction. By far.


Summary: A huge love letter to Batman fans, and a game with lots of good ideas that can quite often be fun. And you can tell there was a lot of love put into it by the developers. But ultimately, the experience is handicapped by an overall mediocre story, poor encounter/battle design, over-reliance on the Batmobile in favor of previous mechanics, and a significant amount of open-world "bloat."

Pros:
+ The best-looking Batman game yet, with rich amounts of detail, fantastic art direction, great facial models, and a sprawling Gotham City that has some of the most ridiculous draw-distance I've seen in a game. Lots of pictures after the jump.
+ As I said above, a big love letter to Batman fans. LOTS of costumes for many characters (not just Batman), lots of Batman allies, an insane amount of villains from his rogues gallery, etc.
+ A continuation of the point above, they even reference several comics (and, I think, even the Batman Animated Series).
+ Free-flow combat (which is what you're going to be doing the majority of the time you're on foot) still feels great.
+ Traversal (whether on foot or the Batmobile) is the best in the series yet, and just moving across Gotham feels great. Smooth as hell, and the handling on both Batman and the Batmobile are great.
+ Voice acting is absolutely top-notch, great job by all the voice actors. Of course a couple of key ones (Batman himself, of course) from the original Animated Series return here, but the rest of them all do a fantastic job.
+ Alfred is awesome, as always.
+ PC version, in 2021, runs great (exceptions noted in "Cons" below). On a GTX 1070 Ti GPU, I was able to get semi-locked 90fps (it's the highest framerate the game allows) at 1440p with a lot of detail and high settings.
+ If open-world/"gaming minute to dollar ratio" is your thing, this game provides FANTASTIC value. Based on that metric alone, this has got to be one of the best values in gaming for this type of game.

Cons:

- Generally mediocre story. A lot of story beats are thoroughly predictable (even the identity of the titular Arkham Knight is telegraphed from a freaking mile away). Key moments that are supposed to deliver an emotional punch to the player are delivered poorly, and subsequently completely undone by later parts of the story. I have to say that, coming from Origins, the story here is a bit of a disappointment. Not only that, but the story keeps going in a nonsensical way (to pad out playtime). In the first 3 games, I wanted there to be more and was a bit sad when the main campaign was over. In this one, I couldn't wait for the campaign to be over.
- Too much of an emphasis on the Batmobile, to the point where the Batmobile feels like a co-protagonist alongside Batman. I'll be coming back to this.
- Hand to hand combat encounters have taken a HUGE nosedive (they probably peaked in Arkham City). Whereas the first 3 games in the series had balanced and fun encounters, here you may get (as an example): 10 dudes, out of which 5 have riot shields, 3 have electrocuting batons, and 2 "giant" dudes who can just punch you at any time. This is a nightmare and your free-flow will be broken so often, the thing becomes not fun. It seems that the player has less tools to deal with groups of thugs than previous games.
- Probably the biggest loser, BY FAR, is the stealth (or "Predator" as it was known in previous games) portion of the gameplay. The encounters are terrible -- there are some predator rooms with up to 16 (!!!!) armed thugs. And, just like hand to hand combat, you have LESS tools to deal with them. The map design for the predator encounters has also gone downhill from previous entries. Maybe they're better in the non-campaign challenges? I don't know.
- The Batmobile. The heavy emphasis on the Batmobile is probably why Combat and Predator took a hit. And the Batmobile is used for practically EVERYTHING. Riddler challenges. Extra tasks. Navigation. (Minor non-story spoiler) Even Deathstroke, who was an absolutely AMAZING boss in Arkham Origins (probably the best combat boss of any in the whole series) is a goddamn Batmobile battle in this game. Yes, you fight Deathstroke.... in the Batmobile. Think about that.
- Batmobile combat encounters have the double sin of being repetitive and poorly designed. And there are so many of them, too.
- Some of the main campaign boss encounters, especially towards the end, are beyond annoying (and several of them involve the Batmobile).
- There's a lot of open world bloat that can lead to real fatigue real fast (what happened with me in the end). The story just keeps going and going and going.... for no good reason. There are side missions, and then side missions on top of that. Then there are the Riddler trophies/riddles from past games, except that here, there are two hunded and forty-three (that's right, 243) of them. And not only that, but in the past, the main story was separate from the side missions. But in this game, they had the fucking audacity to tie the ending to the main campaign on completion of the side stories (yes, even the Riddler one).
- As I mentioned above, the game runs great at high/max settings. However, there are a few extra settings at the bottom, which they call "NVIDIA Works" or something like that. Those are awful, and there were moments where my FPS tanked as low as low-20's when I had that setting on. Stay away from that at all costs.

Anyway I really wanted to love this, I did. Asylum, City, and Origins are all great games. And this one is good, too... at times. But for me, the cons were simply just a bit more than the Pros. Unlike the other games in the series, I likely won't play the main story of this game ever again.
 
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lefty1117

Gold Member
I liked the technical aspects of this game but I thought Arkham City was a better story and just had a better overall vibe. I'm in the minority I think but I did actually like having the batmobile in the game. Basically I wish Arkham City could be remastered using Arkham Knight updated engine :) AK to this day is still a fantastic looking game, if someone had said it just came out in 2020 I would totally believe it.
 

kingfey

Banned
Batman+gotham+beat up criminals+batman Rouge gallery+faithful to batman source material.

Pinnacle of what a super hero game should be about. I played bits of Arkham night, Arkham city. While you play the game, you feel the soul of Gotham. Plus gliding through the city as batman is very fun, compared to spiderman swinging in New York.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
I'm not trying to "PC Master Race" here but... I made these shots not that long ago and... well :messenger_mr_smith_who_are_you_going_to_call:
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Still the best looking UE3 game, forever will be and can compete with Gears 5 and other modern AAA games easily.
 
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Perrott

Gold Member
I'm not trying to "PC Master Race" here but... I made these shots not that long ago and... well :messenger_mr_smith_who_are_you_going_to_call:
lnQKJPd.jpg

s8iS4aR.jpg

JN57xsq.jpg

4c7h59q.jpg

ePmOg5t.jpg
Still the best looking UE3 game, forever will be and can compete with Gears 5 and other modern AAA games easily.
Damn, it looks absolutely stunning, to the point that I think Suicide Squad looks worse overall.

Might just be an art direction thing though, but in any case, props to Arkham Knight! Chad game.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
I loved Batman Arkham Asylum back then. I have yet to play all other Rocksteady's Batman but I went through a hell Platinum-ing that game. I expect no less for this game
Arkham Asylum is just a different beast all together. One of the best stealth games I’ve played, one of the best games I’ve played full stop. I love small but complex maps like AA. The sequels lose the magic IMO by striving to be bigger.
 

GasTheWeebs

Banned
Loved the graphics on PC, but could´t beat it due to the crazy amount of boring sidequest and shit.
I know they are no mandatory but it just makes me anxious.
If they release the rumoured raytracing version I'll try it again.
 

Urban

Member
The biggest problem that Arkham Knight had was that Arkham City released before it.

Loved it but City was/is a masta peaze
 
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RAIDEN1

Member
I still haven't got to checking it out, on the Return to Arkham collection, it is part of my extensive back-log... :messenger_grinning_smiling:
 

Beechos

Member
Boy do i miss these games some of the most enjoyable experiences ive had last gen. Why cant ubisoft games be enjoyable to play like this, the only one of theirs games that came close was fenyx rising. Ass creed, watchdogs, ghost recon, farcry all wear out their welcome like 2 hours in for me.
 
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Shubh_C63

Member
I have nothing bad to say about this game except my own nit picks.
Also I was led to believe Batmobile section sucks. Turned out, Batmobile sections were amazing and I always looked forward to the combat dance you do against other tanks., that satisfying one hit canon shot. Could have gone much easier on Riddler though.
 

TLZ

Banned
I'm not trying to "PC Master Race" here but... I made these shots not that long ago and... well :messenger_mr_smith_who_are_you_going_to_call:
lnQKJPd.jpg

s8iS4aR.jpg

JN57xsq.jpg

4c7h59q.jpg

ePmOg5t.jpg
Still the best looking UE3 game, forever will be and can compete with Gears 5 and other modern AAA games easily.
Such a shame they never made this in 4k on the new consoles.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
The end of this game was not worth the effort. Some parts were okay though.


Pc version was horribly buggy for a long time. Idk if they ever fixed it .. I gave up and bought the Xbox version.
 

Freeman76

Member
Great series. I did prefer City as it had a better story and no batmobile. If they hadn't made the car such an integral part of AK I would have enjoyed it more. I felt the villain was poorly written in AK as well, felt like I was being taunted by a 5 year old.

Was hoping MS would give it the 4k 60 treatment but looks like that aint haopening
 
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SSfox

Member
Batman Arkham are by far the best superheros games. Spiderman was very good (and for sure the next best superhero game after Arkham franchise) also but honestly it doesn't come close to Batman games by Rocksteady, those are simply epic and legendary.

Looking forward to Wonderwoman, it's gonna be way too hard to top Batman and i don't except it to happen, Batman Arkham are just the GOAT of superhero games at this point, but if it can be another great superhero game like Spiderman insomniacs games then that would be awesome. We'll see.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Batman Arkham are by far the best superheros games. Spiderman was very good (and fore sure the next best game after Arkham franchise) also but honestly it doesn't come close to Batman games by Rocksteady, those are simply epic and legendary.

Looking forward to Wonderwoman, it's gonna be way too hard to top Batman and i don't except it to happen, but if it can be another great superhero game like Spiderman insomniacs games then that would be awesome. We'll see.

Insomniac's Spider-Man is great, but I agree they are a notch below Rocksteady's Batman. The grittiness of Arkham vs the crispy clean portrayal of Manhattan along with simply superior side missions are what elevate Batman over Spidey. And better writing too. Personally I think Insomniac did a better job with combat in Spider-Man even though they obviously and unapologetically used the same techniques Rocksteady developed for Batman.

But either way, I'm just happy a top tier dev has taken over Spider-Man. The games were so subpar for far too long.
 

skit_data

Member
Great game outside of the batmobile sections. Give us a 60fps patch for PS5 and I will return to get the platinum trophy.
 

skit_data

Member
The batmobile sections were my fav part.
It is a fast tank, you break through everything, nitro all the time. It's so cool.
This game could use 4k more than 60fps. but I am sure 4k60 should be easy to acheive
Ok, I really liked some parts with the batmobile but there were some sections were you had to play stealthy and sneaky in it and it just didn’t work with me. It was pretty frustrating in those sections, it was more like playing a very frustrating and less fun part of MGS1.

Might have to replay it, I just remember dying over and over in some batmobile sections in what I felt was a unfair manner.
 

Kuranghi

Member
The batmobile sections were my fav part.
It is a fast tank, you break through everything, nitro all the time. It's so cool.
This game could use 4k more than 60fps. but I am sure 4k60 should be easy to acheive

Agreed pal, I love it. Feels like a wee arcade game when you do the tank sections. It appeals to my snooker/pool, angle-calculating brain.

I've replayed the whole game at native 4K30 LOCKED on PC (4K60 LOCKED requires more than a 2080 ti) and it does look amazingly fantastic at 4K but its still a crust festival because the AA is so bad and doesn't affect shaders and transparencies, which abound in the game.

I'd love to see a remaster with added (good quality) TAA + sharpening for older cards & DLSS for newer. Hopefully the nvidia RTX remaster leak is true...
 

AgatonSax

Member
I loved Batman Arkham Asylum back then. I have yet to play all other Rocksteady's Batman but I went through a hell Platinum-ing that game. I expect no less for this game
Really the only hard thing was Shock and Awe extreme and a couple of the Predator challenges.

Now trying to platinum Arkham City was a right pain. Never managed it with Knight.
 

GymWolf

Member
Ah yes, the twisted metal game with the batman makeup, between the forced fucking car and solving all the riddles to get the real finale i bailed out after like 10 hours, fuck this thing.

Great graphic tho.
 
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Chuck Berry

Gold Member
Hopefully if Suicide Squad tanks WB will bestow upon us a remastered 4K/60 upgrade for this as a way of apologizing.
 

REDRZA MWS

Member
I loved Batman Arkham Asylum back then. I have yet to play all other Rocksteady's Batman but I went through a hell Platinum-ing that game. I expect no less for this game
I thought the second one, Arkham City was the best of the three. Rocksteady in full force.
 

fersnake

Member
i bought the game back in the day when i had the ps4 pro expecting some performance gains never happen. try to play it on ps5 again i said gonna wait for a patch... still waiting lol.

so i grab it on pc at 4 buck on black friday and im having a blast playing it at uncap fps ultra gfx and yeah im LTTP too xD
 
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