Batman: Arkham Knight

[Swigen]

Bah, AK is worth playing unless you are too edgy to tour Riddler's death trap race tracks.

Sheeeeit. Did I make a mistake?

 

[sullynathan]

My PS4 controller's down on d pad is fucked. Can't use a PS3 controller for it but Epic gave all of arkham knight dlc while Sony didn't.

lol Epic Games Launcher

To be fair, the pirated copy was crashing too.

 

[sullynathan]

I might've done it. I set V-Sync on, max fps to 30 or 60 with 30 being more stable and texture resolution to low. The game actually runs and doesn't crash frequently anymore. I'll update

 

[sullynathan]

Still crashes but away least I can play for 30 min - 1 hour before or crashes instead of crashing at startup. VRAM must be my problem

 

[DalekFlay]

Time to upgrade that potato.

 

[aweigh]

arkham knight has lots of texture crawl and shimmer, game needed some good TAA.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

I liked all of previous installment, 4 is still but damn, that Batmobile parts are awful.

Now I'm fighting Harley forces, I hope the is no vehicle boss fights? Batmobile shit is killing me.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I hope the is no vehicle boss fights

I have some bad news for you.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

For my part I didn’t really mind the Batmobile stuff except for the

Spoiler

Deathstroke fight.

It wasn’t great, but it was serviceable.
For me the much bigger problem with Arkham Knight was the writing. It’s aggressively terrible, in both dialogue and plotting. Batman acts utterly irrational. The Arkham Knight literally has no reason for existing, because the competent parts of his story are a direct adaptation of a well-known arc, and the character is much better served in the source material. And then there’s the ending, which careens from nonsensical plot-point to nonsensical plot point and refuses to acknowledge that it’s anything less than tragic, operatic high art. It’s just total trash.

 

[Zombra]

One time I GMed a pen & paper campaign, with a really fun cosmology involving a single creator god, who created a race of utopian worshipers. The god later went insane, so the worshipers (who remained sane/enlightened though flawed) elevated themselves to the level of demigods to administer the divine rulership of the world. There was an elaborate and (I thought) fascinating backstory that made everything make sense and created lots of story opportunities for the player characters.

I didn't write down any of this brilliant worldbuilding though, and as campaigns can often be months between sessions because of real life, I soon forgot it all, but continued running the campaign with a vague sense that there was a good backstory there somewhere even though there was no moment to moment evidence of it. The game was still fun but all the beautifully crafted ideas that had made it a work of art had all dissolved into garbage.

That's how I feel about the narrative of Arkham Knight. Somewhere, someone had some really great ideas and maybe talked about them, but no one wrote anything down so they all just kind of had to guess and ended up throwing together complete nonsense.

Still fun to play.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I can get that except for the actual character of Arkham Knight. That character, or more specifically that version of the character, has absolutely no justifiable reason for existing. It also made Rocksteady look like a bunch of morons considering when the announcement trailer dropped everyone with a brain immediately deduced the AK’s identity and instead of just saying “well, wait and see!” Rocksteady said “N-n-n-n-no! This is a wholly ORIGINAL character that we created ourselves! We are brilliant storytellers and are going to show you. Just wait till you see who the Knight is! You will never have guessed because we are too good of writers!”

Just embarrassing.

They’re lucky they had already cracked the formula for fun moment-to-moment gameplay, because otherwise the game would have no redeeming value.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm playing this on and off. Writing does feel worse than I remember compared to previous entries. Batmobile parts aren't great, but they don't bother me much. Most fights feel easier than previous games.

What I do like is gliding around on my way to missions. I can't lie, it looks and feels great to glide around the city. The other thing is the AR challenge mode(s). These feel more thought out compared to the story stuff.

 

[Zombra]

I'm playing this on and off. Writing does feel worse than I remember compared to previous entries. Batmobile parts aren't great, but they don't bother me much. Most fights feel easier than previous games.
What I do like is gliding around on my way to missions. I can't lie, it looks and feels great to glide around the city. The other thing is the AR challenge mode(s). These feel more thought out compared to the story stuff.

Oh shit, you're on my Steam Friend list. I hope you don't beat any of my AR Challenge scores or I'll have to go back and play the whole damn game again.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm playing this on and off. Writing does feel worse than I remember compared to previous entries. Batmobile parts aren't great, but they don't bother me much. Most fights feel easier than previous games.
What I do like is gliding around on my way to missions. I can't lie, it looks and feels great to glide around the city. The other thing is the AR challenge mode(s). These feel more thought out compared to the story stuff.

Oh shit, you're on my Steam Friend list. I hope you don't beat any of my AR Challenge scores or I'll have to go back and play the whole damn game again.

It's impossible! I'm playing on PS5. :D

 

[Zombra]

thank fucking god

 

[Silentstorm]

I can get that except for the actual character of Arkham Knight. That character, or more specifically that version of the character, has absolutely no justifiable reason for existing. It also made Rocksteady look like a bunch of morons considering when the announcement trailer dropped everyone with a brain immediately deduced the AK’s identity and instead of just saying “well, wait and see!” Rocksteady said “N-n-n-n-no! This is a wholly ORIGINAL character that we created ourselves! We are brilliant storytellers and are going to show you. Just wait till you see who the Knight is! You will never have guessed because we are too good of writers!”

Just embarrassing.

To be fair, almost everyone forgot that and quickly assumed it was always Jason Todd when the character appeared, funnily enough, there is an actual Arkham Knight in the comics, and she's a villain too, obviously by the gender she is not Jason, more like the shameful daughter of Arkham Asylum's director who he kept locked in the Asylum and thus she ended up being literally raised by Arkham's inmates to a point where she sees some of Batman's villains as family and likes the Joker more than Batman.

And wants to fight Batman because they all convinced her he is evil and they are just poor framed victims or some BS like that, still, at least it's better than repeating Red Hood's story but with a different name.

She was only used like once, and this game made almost every single Google Search go directly to the game and the Jason Todd version, though she's come back leading a group composed of her, Two-Face, Killer Croc and other Batman villains...to fight for justice and freedom...yeah, to be fair, she was mind-controlling them with Mad Hatter's tech but good to know she realized that the Arkham inmates really aren't nice people and need to be forced to be good, just don't think brainwashing them into being heroes was a good idea considering how they want to kill her now.

Also, holy crap, the idea of someone brainwashing the villains into fighting as an unit would make for a good game, or at least one side quest or story where people argue that the villains are so awful that Batman should let be brainwashed into heroes, but that would require Batman getting a whole new big game.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I can get that except for the actual character of Arkham Knight. That character, or more specifically that version of the character, has absolutely no justifiable reason for existing. It also made Rocksteady look like a bunch of morons considering when the announcement trailer dropped everyone with a brain immediately deduced the AK’s identity and instead of just saying “well, wait and see!” Rocksteady said “N-n-n-n-no! This is a wholly ORIGINAL character that we created ourselves! We are brilliant storytellers and are going to show you. Just wait till you see who the Knight is! You will never have guessed because we are too good of writers!”

Just embarrassing.

To be fair, almost everyone forgot that and quickly assumed it was always Jason Todd when the character appeared, funnily enough, there is an actual Arkham Knight in the comics, and she's a villain too, obviously by the gender she is not Jason, more like the shameful daughter of Arkham Asylum's director who he kept locked in the Asylum and thus she ended up being literally raised by Arkham's inmates to a point where she sees some of Batman's villains as family and likes the Joker more than Batman.

And wants to fight Batman because they all convinced her he is evil and they are just poor framed victims or some BS like that, still, at least it's better than repeating Red Hood's story but with a different name.

She was only used like once, and this game made almost every single Google Search go directly to the game and the Jason Todd version, though she's come back leading a group composed of her, Two-Face, Killer Croc and other Batman villains...to fight for justice and freedom...yeah, to be fair, she was mind-controlling them with Mad Hatter's tech but good to know she realized that the Arkham inmates really aren't nice people and need to be forced to be good, just don't think brainwashing them into being heroes was a good idea considering how they want to kill her now.

Also, holy crap, the idea of someone brainwashing the villains into fighting as an unit would make for a good game, or at least one side quest or story where people argue that the villains are so awful that Batman should let be brainwashed into heroes, but that would require Batman getting a whole new big game.

Astrid Arkham post-dates the Rocksteady AK; she was designed to somewhat justify what was widely regarded, even internally, as an embarrassing “creative” misstep on the part of Rocksteady.

Edit: Also even though I think the identity of the in-game AK is insultingly obvious to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the last twenty years of DC comics, several people ITT have said they are currently playing the game for the first time, so you might want to put that in a spoiler tag.

 

[lightbane]

ust don't think brainwashing them into being heroes was a good idea considering how they want to kill her now.

Also, holy crap, the idea of someone brainwashing the villains into fighting as an unit would make for a good game,

Funny that, I vaguely remember this being a plot in one of the Justice League comics. Batman's response was: Screw that. And he left the League in disgust to such blatant hypocrisy.
He also activated traps to incapacitate most of the league as part of his butthurt rage IIRC.

so awful that Batman should let be brainwashed into heroes,

His answer would be a first to your face. See above. IT doesn't help that the League also brainwashed Batman to make him forget that when he opposed the idea, thus making him angrier when he regained his missing memories. Unsurprisingly, villains that are "converted" get worse once they recover their memories. Still though, it would work for a quick and dirty grimdark plot for a DC game.

 

[Silentstorm]

Ah yes, Identity Crisis, also, yep, every villain that was brainwashed wants Astrid's head, particularly Two-Face, Uncle Two-Face is pissed!

Also, Rocksteady is coming back to the Arkhamverse, albeit with a Suicide Squad game where they face brainwashed or corrupt versions of the Justice League, what seems to be the Batmobile appears in a trailer too so it's either before Arkham Knight or things are so bad that Bruce is willing to make a public showcase of how he's not dead.

 

[Ezekiel]

Ah yes, Identity Crisis, also, yep, every villain that was brainwashed wants Astrid's head, particularly Two-Face, Uncle Two-Face is pissed!

Also, Rocksteady is coming back to the Arkhamverse, albeit with a Suicide Squad game where they face brainwashed or corrupt versions of the Justice League, what seems to be the Batmobile appears in a trailer too so it's either before Arkham Knight or things are so bad that Bruce is willing to make a public showcase of how he's not dead.

I don't follow gaming news anymore, so even though I've played all the Arkham games and this trailer is three weeks old, this is the first time I'm seeing this game. Worst Harley ever, largely because of that undershave.

Of the MCU and the DCEU, I only really care about Batman, so I hoped Rocksteady's next game wouldn't be about superheroes at all. Oh well. Another developer I can leave now.

 

[Silentstorm]

Well, they are making Gotham Knights, but you don't play with Batman as he's dead:


Instead you play as Nightwing, Batgirl(Barbara Gordon), Red Hood and Robin(Tim Drake) as they face the Court Of Owls and protect Gotham after Bruce dies shortly before the game starts, no relation to the Arkham games though, it's the Suicide Squad game that is in the same universe.

And...it's an Action RPG and your four characters can level up...and the enemies are confirmed to always be on the same level as you...yes, it's one of those games, oh you get new equipment and abilities?

Screw you, every enemy will just get better stats anyways, though it seems that their AI will change too, obtain new abilities and change their way of fighting, and areas change enemies after you get to a certain level but it's still lame and i wish there would just be areas and low level mooks around you could smack with ease.

 

[Caim]

Yeah, they go into that into the gameplay trailer from last year. So if the villains keep up with you regardless of your level, this means that either your new attacks won't be very effective, or they become damage sponges. Same for the enemies: one or two immunities might work, but not if they start stacking up.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

After another bunch of battles against drones, Cobra tanks, Cloudburst and AWFUL excavation tunnel race, when Arkham Knight destroyed Batmobile I felt an incredible relief, finally no moar of this shit.

2 scenes later:

Batman: 'Dont' worry, Lucius made a spare one.'

 

[randir14]

Well, they are making Gotham Knights, but you don't play with Batman as he's dead:

Instead you play as Nightwing, Batgirl(Barbara Gordon), Red Hood and Robin(Tim Drake) as they face the Court Of Owls and protect Gotham after Bruce dies shortly before the game starts, no relation to the Arkham games though, it's the Suicide Squad game that is in the same universe.

I bet Bruce isn't really dead. Talon will be a recurring antagonist until you later discover it's a brainwashed Bruce.

 

[Silentstorm]

Probably will be the case, anyways, besides the level scaling thing, it seems better than the Suicide Squad game, it's also nice having a freaking Batman game where the Joker isn't the main villain or an illusion constantly talking to Batman.

I mean, he will still be in, he's too popular, but i really appreciate that the Court Of Owls seem to be the main villain and that the other guy appearing in the trailer is Penguin, not Joker or Harley Quinn, the only other villain revealed is Mr.Freeze.

Granted, Red Hood is playable, Joker will shove his face in, but oh God, he's just a secondary villain for once, much like this is, i think, the first Batman game where you don't play as Batman which is also cool in it's own way.

Also, Jim Gordon is also dead, apparently the story is that Batman and Commisioner Gordon dying leads to a massive crime spree and it's why the four come back together as a group, Robin can teleport by using the Justice League's satellite and Renee Montoya will play a part since, you know, Gordon is kinda busy being dead and we still need a cop character.