While DC fans will have to wait until 2016 before the next big cinema fix with the release of Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice, the good news is that gamers have got Batman: Arkham Knight to tide them over this year. Building on the success and critical acclaim of its three predecessors, it’s the Bat’s first big adventure since the death of Joker in Batman: Arkham City in 2011, but with a new nemesis threatening the people of Gotham there’s no rest for the caped crusader.
Release date
The fourth game in the series is once again being developed by Rocksteady Studios, bringing the DC Comics superhero back for more Arkham Asylum madness with a UK and US release date of the 2nd June 2015. However, the big shift in the game’s development is that it’s being created solely for next generation gaming, so anyone still languishing in PS3 and Xbox 360 territory won’t be able to continue the adventure that started out on those very same consoles back in 2009 with Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The good news though is that the game has been crafted for Xbox ONE, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows PC, so it hasn’t had to split development between old gen and new game. This means that all of the attention has gone into getting it right for the high spec tech of the future-proof devices, so it’ll have no excuses for not being one of the best game releases of the year.
Storyline
While the latest game in the series was 2013’s Batman: Arkham Origins, which explored the back story of the criminal institution and the first appearance of The Joker, the latest entry picks up one year after the climactic end of 2011’s Batman: Arkham City. With the Joker dead, Gotham City has been relatively quiet for the better part of a year, but as the city starts to relax in the wake of the relative tranquility, a new threat suddenly rears its head.
The intervening time has also given Scarecrow, Penguin, Two-Face and Harley Quinn enough time to form a deadly alliance with the main aim of destroying Batman. However, there’s also a whole new force in town that appears to have the power it takes to actually finish the job. The game introduces the Arkham Knight to the DC universe, a new super villain that looks a lot like an even darker version of Batman with a similar high tech suit and mask, who is rallying his own mission against the city’s protector.
With all of the chaos of the assault on Gotham City from the intensely determined baddies, Batman has to head out into the night to save the city once more. As in previous games in the series you won’t be entirely on your own against the army of forces assembling to bring you down, as butler Alfred Pennyworth, Police Commissioner James Gordon and Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, in her Oracle hacker support role all come to your help throughout the game.
Gameplay
While there’s much more to the gameplay than the addition of the Batmobile as a controllable vehicle for the first time in the series, it’s definitely the most exciting element. If having a massive open world Gothan City to roam and glide around wasn’t enough to make the game stand out, the addition of having a very sophisticated Batmobile to race around in really kicks things up a gear.
Check out how cool it looks in the image gallery below, but you can also see all of it’s epic moves in the gameplay trailer at the bottom of the post too. As well as giving you the ability to drive around the huge environment pretty rapidly, it also comes with an array of weapons ranging from an armour piercing gun turret on the roof to target seeking missiles, which you can lock onto enemy vehicles to deliver maximum damages to a number of targets.
You can call the Batmobile to come to your location whether you’re on foot or flying high above the city, with some very cool options to jump or free fall into driving seat and guide it remotely from wherever you are. Equally, you can blast out of the car at will to go straight into a glide move to take the fight to the skies again or back on foot. It’s also got a lot of maneuverability, especially when in battle mode, where you can use the vehicle’s side to side, strafing drive blasts to escape enemy fire. The car comes in pretty handy when you need to break into a building too, where you can either use the firepower or an engine-powered winch hook to gain entry.
Other upgrades to the gameplay include improved cape gliding for longer periods of flight around the city and the ability to get to much higher areas of the map. The fighting system has a new addition in the form of a new badass Fear Take Down, which allows you to decimate up to three enemies in quick succession as long as you remain unseen by them. You can see this in action in the trailer below, with the brilliance of the slow motion targeting in between individual take downs.
A big part of the game progression in Batman: Arkham Knight is the ongoing upgrade function of Batman’s tech and skills. This has been extended to the Batmobile too and all of this will help you as you start to face increasingly difficult bosses, whether its The Scarecrow’s attach chopper or a big face off against the Knight himself.
Graphics
As the game has been developed just for the next gen might of the PlayStation 4, Xbox ONE and PC it has been created with graphical excellence at the centre of everything. The dark, wet and dangerous city has been crafted with excellent detail, a shadowy, hyper-realistic style and rapid movement. Animation is seamlessly delivered with rapid frame rates and brilliant high definition clarity.
Long draw distances and epic backdrops make for a huge and impressive Gotham City to explore, which looks daunting at the best of times, but genuinely freaky when you’re under the influence of the Scarecrow’s fear toxin. There’s some cool environments built into the game, including the sumptuously neon lit Chinatown and the industrial grit of the Ace Chemicals laboratory and manufacturing plant.
First impressions
We’ve always had high hopes for Batman games ever since we first saw Michael Keaton (Birdman) donning the black cape back in 1989. In Batman: Arkham Knight we’ve got another title to pin our hopes on and with a whole new enemy of impressive proportions, the inclusion of the Batmobile as a drivable vehicle and a huge Gotham City at your armour crusted feet it looks set to live up to expectations.
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Batman: Arkham Knight gameplay trailer:
Image gallery:
Arkham Knight attacks Batman with a flying punch and a silenced pistol in hand.
Arkham Knight looking tooled-up and menacingly ferocious in his armoured suit and helmet.
The Batmobile looking very cool with a lot of variation between battle and pursuit settings.
