The Rise and Fall of Batman Arkham

Batman is one of the most iconic characters in all of fiction. Whether you’re a kid who enjoys his pulpy adventures or an adult who enjoys the psychological character analysis, the caped crusader has an appeal that transcends generations.

Not just in comics where he originated, but in all forms of media. With my personal favourites being the 1989 Tim Burton film, The Animated Series, the Under the Red Hood animated film, and the underrated The Batman animated series.

But this isn’t about the plethora of Batman films and TV shows, this is about his videogame career. Specifically, a “trilogy” of games that released between 2009 and 2014. A series that not only stands as some of the best superhero games ever made, but also stands among the best of their generation. I am of course talking about the Batman Arkham series.

This one series not only brought Batman back to videogames in a big way after years of mediocrity, but it would also prove influential to superhero games as a whole. Hell, just look at the Insomniac Spider-Man games and the influences Arkham had on it become readily apparent.

But it’s also a series that fell apart in the end. While the early games were critically praised by both reviewers and fans, the final games would end up being divisive among players. While no one would call any of the games outright bad, I think most can agree it didn’t end on the highest of notes.

So, what the hell happened? Well let’s find out. We’re going to go through the history of the Arkham series and see what made them so beloved, and how they ultimately ended with a disappointing whimper. Welcome to the rise and fall of Batman Arkham.

Part 1: Before Arkham

Before we get into the first game in the Arkham series, I need to give you a brief history of Batman’s videogame career prior to it. It’ll help set the stage for why Batman Arkham Asylum was such a big deal at the time.

Batman has had a pretty good career when it comes to his videogame outing. In the 8- and 16-bit eras it wasn’t hard to find a good game starring the big bad bat. Both the 89 film and its sequel Batman Returns had several excellent games based on them for both 8- and 16-bit systems. Even The Animated Series got some great games based on it.

There were some stinkers during this era, but for the most part Batman fans were eating good as far as videogames were concerned. Much better than most other superheroes were. I mean just look at poor Superman, not one good game to his name, yet Batman gets plenty. Just another reason why Batman is better I suppose.

But during the 32-bit era things started to go downhill. None of the Batman games released on either Nintendo 64 or PlayStation were any good, in fact most were outright godawful. And things didn’t get better in the generation after.

Well, they did, but only very little. Games like Batman Vengeance or The Rise of Shin Tsu were ok titles, but nothing truly spectacular. Critically they got mediocre reviews, but they weren’t complete disasters.

No, that was Batman Dark Tomorrow. This was Batman’s big attempt at a videogame comeback during this generation and it was bad. Like Batman and Robin levels of bad. A truly godawful title that got almost nothing right.

Even the decent game adaptation of Batman Begins didn’t help much. Nobody wanted to touch Batman after Dark Tomorrow because of what a complete train wreck it was. This was the state that Batman videogames were in at the time. A handful of average to decent titles, undermined by a spectacularly bad one.

It was not looking good for Batman videogames. Which is tragic because other superheroes were absolutely thriving in the videogame space, but Batman just couldn’t get it together. So, when the eight generation of consoles, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was set to release, the hope for any good Batman games was at an all-time low. And then, like a bolt from the blue, all of that would change.

Part 2: Welcome to the Madhouse

Enter Rocksteady studios. A British based studio that at the time were only known for making the game Urban Chaos: Riot Response. Ever heard of it? Didn’t think so, but that gives you an idea of who they were in 2009. They were a completely unknown studio with little to their name.

But when Eidos Interactive, Rocksteady’s then owner, obtained the rights to make a Batman videogame, Rocksteady were given the chance to develop it. Something Rocksteady were eager to do as they were massive fans of the character.

The comic runs from Neal Adams and Frank Miller were what the team looked at when designing the game to get the right feel, but the biggest inspiration would be the graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morisson. As if the name didn’t make that obvious.

But it wouldn’t just be the comics. Arkham Asylum would take inspiration from other Batman media. There was a little bit of the 89 Batman here, a little bit of Nolan there, even a tiny bit of Adam West’s Batman made it in. It was a grab bag of all the best Batman had to offer rolled into one massive tribute to the dark knight’s legacy.

But the one it took the most cues from, outside of the comics, was Batman the Animated Series. Bringing back Animated Series actors Mark Hamill, Arleen Sorkin and the late Kevin Conroy as Joker, Harley Quinn, and Batman respectfully. This was the first time Conroy and Hamill had been brought back for a major Batman project together and for a lot of fans it was a pretty big deal.

But it wasn’t just the actors from the show that were brought in. Paul Dini, a writer for the show that penned some of its best episodes, was also brought in to help with the story. Something Dini had expressed interest in as he felt like Batman videogames weren’t based on an original idea of their own.

The story did have to be reworked a little as the developers began to properly define the games scope. With several villains being cut from the game in the process. Dini also had to work closely with the game designers to make sure the story was suitable for a videogame, having plenty of action set pieces that would be fun to play, that sort of thing.

The idea was to make a Batman game that could appeal to gamers even if they weren’t massive fans of Batman. Something you could easily pick up and play without needing a deeper knowledge of the mythos to fully enjoy. Though it would still have plenty of fan service for those that were.

The result was Batman Arkham Asylum. When it first came out it received wall to wall critical acclaim. Every review outlet gave it nothing but the highest praise, it won a whole bunch of game of the year awards, and it was a huge financial success on top of that. And after playing it again, it deserved all the success it got.

Batman Arkham Asylum’s story involves Batman getting involved in a jailbreak in the titular Asylum. The jailbreak being organised by, who else, the Joker. Who naturally has a much bigger plan in store that Batman must uncover if he’s to put a stop to the clown prince of crimes rampage.

Arkham was chosen as a setting for the game because Rocksteady wanted a closed in setting that would force players to engage with the combat encounters. They felt like a city setting would be too open and let players run away from enemies too easily. I like to call this foreshadowing.

The Asylum itself wasn’t just a gothic mental hospital with a stolen HP Lovecraft name as it was in other Batman material. The games Arkham was an island prison complex with various buildings and areas to explore. Giving the game more locations to visit to add to the gameplay variety, while still keeping the claustrophobic atmosphere the designers were going for.

That atmosphere is one of the games standout features. That feeling of isolation, where everything and everyone around you wants you dead, where every corner might be hiding a new threat, well it almost sounds like a horror game doesn’t it. And honestly, it does feel like a horror game at times. Especially during the Scarecrow hallucination sections which are an absolute mind fuck.

But this is still a Batman game. It might have a creepy, foreboding atmosphere, but Batman is Batman. He’s more than capable of dealing with any threats, but you never feel completely safe. Like any good Batman story, it puts him through the ringer, he gets beaten and worn down but he never falters. It’s him overcoming the odds that makes any Batman story so exciting.

The story itself is a straightforward affair. There aren’t any major twists or revelations, but it makes for a perfectly enjoyable Batman romp. It has all the villains, action, and psychological elements you could want. And with how much it pays homage to all the various Batman media over the years, there’s bound to be something here for you regardless of the kind of Batman fan you are.

It’s pretty much the quintessential Batman story for a videogame. Graphically it also looked really good for the time, and even now it still looks great. Of all the Arkham games, this one feels more akin to the comics in terms of its visual style.

The character designs are a little bit more exaggerated. James Gordon for example is jacked in this game, and Batman is built like an absolute brick shit house. Later games would be a bit more grounded in their art direction, which does help Arkham Asylum stand out.

The Asylum itself is perfectly realised. Each area keeping the dark gothic overtones while also having their own distinct look and vibe to them. That said it is a game that very clearly came out in the eighth generation. It’s a dark looking game with not much colour to it, which admittedly does work for the kind of game it is but also serves as a reminder of how drab games looked at the time.

I’m also not a big fan of some of the character designs. Harley Quinn traded in her classic harlequin look for a slutty nurse outfit that just made her look like a sex doll. And it would sadly be indicative of how they would ruin her design in future media. I really don’t like how Harley looks nowadays.

And then there’s Bane.

What happened here? Bane in the comics is meant to be a physically imposing figure, but not like this. he looks like Abobo from the Double Dragon movie. And they basically just made him a mindless brute when he’s meant to be a cunning criminal mastermind. Not a fan of what they did with him here.

The gameplay is laid out in a Metroidvania type of way. You’ll explore different areas of Arkham and find new gadgets that can unlock new areas to explore and find collectible Riddler trophies you couldn’t get before.

Along the way you’ll fight enemies, engage in stealth encounters, and even perform a little bit of detective work. And it was this specific combination that made Arkham Asylum so special.

See, while Batman had great videogames, they were mostly just great games that just happened to feature Batman. Just look at Batman Returns on SNES, a fantastic game but basically just a Final Fight clone with Batman in it.

But Arkham Asylum truly felt like a Batman game. The fighting, the sneaking around, the investigation and puzzle solving, it was all the things you would expect Batman to do. Some Batman games had these elements, but there was always a focus on one over the others. For this game they were all given equal attention.

A cliché as it has become to say, this was the first game that truly made you feel like Batman. From using the detective vision to scan for enemies and evidence, to the plethora of gadgets you could use, it all felt distinctly Batman.

The fact the game was fun to play was simply the icing on the cake. The games free flow combat system was excellent. Up to this point, hand to hand combat in most 3D games was stiff and clunky. It didn’t have the same finesse as hack and slash games did at the time.

But the free flow combat in Arkham changed that. The combat was buttery smooth, allowing you to jump elegantly from enemy to enemy as you rained blows upon them while deftly counter attacking their own blows. It was simple to pick up and play but had enough depth to prevent it from being a mindless button masher.

Indeed, the game discouraged that. It was all about timing your button presses in an almost rhythmic fashion, learning when to go for the grounded takedowns and using instant knockout moves at the right time. The way you could swiftly move between large waves of enemies was almost like a brutal ballet. A brutallet if you will.

The level design was also excellent. It offered plenty of encounters with some having different gimmicks to spice things up, while having plenty of secrets and easter eggs to find in the downtime between the action. The game even made an entire mechanic around it with riddles that would uncover new character bios on nearly all of Batman’s rogue’s gallery.

The island is filled with so many small details and easter eggs. Even if a Batman villain isn’t shown in the story, there’s probably still has a reference to that villain in the environment. And they go deep with these cuts. Not only referencing characters like Two-Face and Penguin, but also super obscure characters like Rat Catcher and Humpty Dumpty.

I didn’t even know there was a Batman character based on Humpty Dumpty until this game. Or villains based on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Comics are fucking weird.

Really, what else can I say that hasn’t already been said. Arkham Asylum is a masterpiece. One of the greatest comic book games of all time, and one the best of the generation. But it isn’t perfect, not by a long shot. The game does have its flaws, and one of those is the stealth.

It’s not bad stealth by any means, just overly simple. The detective vision makes it easy to get your bearings straight, and there are plenty of opportunities to use your gadgets. But there’s not a lot of options when it comes to enemy takedowns.

I was surprised at the number of things I couldn’t do in stealth here. It just feels a little bit too limited in what you do. Even the games upgrade system doesn’t offer much to unlock for stealth. In fact, there’s only one stealth upgrade in the entire game.

The detective is also, perhaps, a little too good in these sections. It’s too easy to keep it on at all times, which makes it far too easy to keep track of your enemies. Granted I’d rather have that than not being able to track them at all, but it’s far too easy to rely on it.

Admittedly, a lot of the game’s issues are only issues in hindsight. The stealth feels a lot more restrictive because later games would give you more options. Another example are the Riddler Challenges. A lot of them aren’t very interesting, lacking the puzzles that later games offered.

But some issues were bothersome even at the time. The boss fights being the biggest one. These are easily the games weakest part of the game. Very basic, not that interesting to fight and very repetitive. They use the Bane boss fight multiple times as mid bosses in the game. it’s worse than the troll bosses in God of War, the Norse one not the Greek one.

And the final boss against a roided up Joker just feels wrong. The Joker isn’t a brute, he’s a cunning trickster. So having him turn into a frigging Hulk monster just feels wrong. What is it with this game and making everyone the Hulk.

But aside from that, this is a pretty great game. It’s hard to find much fault in Batman Arkham Asylum, everything it sets out to do it does so brilliantly. As a Batman game it’s superb, but even removed from the license it’s still a great game on its own merits. A truly miraculous turn around given where Batman games were just a few years prior.

Rocksteady had done it they’d created the ultimate Batman videogame. They had done such a good job they were bought out by Warner Bros soon afterwards so they could continue developing Batman games. And for as good as Asylum was, it’s sequel would only take the series to even further heights.

Chapter 3: Taking it to the Streets

It didn’t take long for Arkham Asylum’s follow up to come out. Only two years in fact, as the sequel, Arkham City, would release in 2011. Remember when we didn’t have to wait an eternity for sequels to big games to come out. I miss those days.

The reason it came out so quickly was largely because they had already planned the game out. Rocksteady started conceptualising what their sequel would look like while they were wrapping up the development of Arkham Asylum. Wanting the stories of both games to be inter-connected.

They had already made so much progress on this that Asylum would include a hidden room with concept art hinting at the idea for the sequel. Which would end up being accurate to how the finished product turned out.

The basic concept for the sequel would be to take Batman into the streets of Gotham. Wanting to provide a more expansive game world for players, but also keep the same level of detail they had in Asylum. They didn’t just want to have Batman battle in any random streets either, deciding instead to focus on a lot of iconic Batman locations.

So the idea for the sequel would be for it to take place in a mega prison built into the most rundown area of Gotham. Essentially, they just put a big wall around part of the city and put all of the criminals inside.

This allowed them to expand the scope of the game, while keeping the tighter focus and sense of isolation Arkham Asylum offered, though not quite to the same degree. They also expanded on Batman’s move set to match this. Adding more gadgets, stealth, and combat moves, as well as a glide to make exploring the city more fun.

On that note, despite the larger world the designers intentionally did not include the Batmobile. Batman’s glide was already more than sufficient for navigation, and it wouldn’t really work with how broken and run down the roads in Arkham City were.

It was also determined that including the car would result in it feeling like a completely different game. Since it would require a completely different style of gameplay. Once again, I call this foreshadowing.

When Arkham City was released it was received just as well, if not better than its predecessor. Going on to become one of the best reviewed games of 2011, tied with the legendary Skyrim for the number one spot.

Arkham City is the definition of a perfect sequel. It keeps what made the first game so great, while also expanding upon those elements. You still have that same oppressive atmosphere of being alone surrounded by enemies that want you dead, only with a slightly bigger world.

The games world was about five times larger than Asylum’s. A sizeable increase to be sure, but not to the extent where you lose what made Asylum’s world so engaging. The atmosphere isn’t as strong as Asylum’s, which is expected given the larger world, but it still has a similar vibe to it.

The closed in streets keep that same sense of claustrophobia Asylum had. Even when on rooftops, the buildings are so close together you still feel closed off. And the urban decay mixed with the gothic art deco style of Gotham does give it a strong atmosphere of its own.

The gameplay leaned more into an open world feel, while still keeping some of the Metroidvania trappings of the first game. Unlike Asylum where you didn’t spend much time in the island hub world, in City you spend more time roaming, well, the city itself.

While Arkham City is still a linear game, there are plenty of side missions you can do in between the main story. Some of which require a little more exploration to uncover. It’s a little annoying, but it makes running through the city more fun as you’ll often stumble into something new by accident.

This also means there’s more Riddler Challenges to do. There are riddles and trophies absolutely everywhere, you’ll not go five minutes exploring without running into one. The trophies are also now usually being hidden behind puzzles which were added to avoid just having a bunch of random collectibles everywhere you could just pick up.

It makes it more engaging to collect them, even if some are beginners traps that will kill you the first time you do them. Because that’s fun right.

The larger scope of the game also allowed them to include more villains. Big bads like Two-Face, Mr Freeze, Mad Hatter and Penguin made their first appearance in City. Some would be major players in the main story, while others were given their own side stories.

Admittedly I do think some of these side stories should have been a part of the main plot. The Mad Hatter and Deadshot ones in particular should have been part of it since they both tie into the main villain. And Mad Hatter’s is so short I don’t see why it wasn’t just a main story mission anyway.

It’s not a big deal since the game encourages you to do these as you go through the main story. Which I also recommend you do, since a lot of them won’t make much sense if you do them after the main story has wrapped up.

All the great gadgets that Batman had in the first game are here with even more to play around with. One thing I appreciate is that you start the game with all the gadgets you had in Asylum already unlocked. Creating a great sense of progression between the two games.

The combat was more refined. Now having easier access to quickfire gadgets to give more variety to the combo’s you could create. And the stealth? Much better this time. Better map design that gives you more options for approach, and more interesting enemies that prevent the detective vision from being too broken. A big improvement over the stealth in the first game.

Then there’s the story. Paul Dini would once again return to help pen the script, along with Conroy and Hamill. Though Arleen Sorkin wouldn’t return as she had largely retired from acting at that point and would be replaced by Tara Strong. She wasn’t great in this game, but she would get much better in later projects.

It was a much darker plot than the original. Seeing Batman infiltrate the titular mega prison to find out what is going on, as well as discover the true motivations of the one running it, Hugo Strange. A mad psychiatrist who has figured out Batman’s secret identity as Bruce Wayne.

So yeah, Batman’s in trouble. Not only is he trapped in a prison with all his greatest enemies, but he also has to deal with someone over his head who knows the one thing that could truly destroy him.

On top of that, he soon gets infected with Joker’s contaminated blood. Joker is dying due to the events of the last game, and he infects Batman to force him to find a cure for it. And with all the different villains vying for control over the facility, on top of Strange’s own militarised security, that won’t be easy.

It’s a much bigger, more action focused plot than Asylum. There’s a lot more mystery, a lot more characters and far bigger set pieces. There’s also a more concerted effort to make this its own distinct mythos from other Batman media.

As you do Riddler Challenges you’ll unlock these little side stories that give you a bit more backstory on the world and its characters. You get the sense from these that the world is far richer, more lived in with a history of its own.

Asylum had this with its character bios, but those were so general in their descriptions they could fit in any Batman story. The stuff in City is very much unique, it’s a distinct Batman mythos that’s all its own. And while I’m not a fan of everything they do, Penguin having a glass bottle in his eye is gritty to the point of parody, it is a very well realised world.

The narrative isn’t perfect. I find that when the Joker story kicks in it does somewhat derail the main story. The stuff with Hugo Strange takes a backseat to it which kind of makes it feel like an afterthought even though it is technically the main threat.

Even the ending is all about Batman and Joker. With the game ending with the Jokers death, something that was planned from the beginning of development. It just felt like there was favouritism to Joker when the focus should have been on the villain they set up in the beginning. Sadly, this would become a reoccurring issue with the Arkham series, only getting worse as it went on.

Still, it is a fun story. It has a lot of great set pieces, including some great boss fights which are a massive improvement from the originals, and it has plenty of classic Batman characters and villains to interact with.

There are even brief chapters where you get to play as Catwoman. Though sadly these are the weakest parts of the game in my opinion. I just don’t find Catwoman all that fun to play as. At least when compared to Batman.

Batman Arkham City is a truly phenomenal game. Outside of the Catwoman sections, the game itself is an utter blast to play. The main story isn’t that much longer than Asylum’s, but the various side content adds plenty of new content, even letting you play as other characters like Nightwing or Robin.

Now if you want to play Arkham City the best way to do it is through the Return to Arkham collection on PS4 and Xbox One. This version is pretty much identical to the original, but it comes with all the DLC that was released for the game, such as additional costumes, challenges, and the Harley’s Revenge story pack. It also comes with Asylum, so it’s doubly worth picking up.

However, there is another version worth mentioning, the Wii U version. This was called Batman Arkham City: Armoured Edition and came with a few changes from the original. Mostly new features that took advantage of the Wii U gamepad, but it also came with a new Batsuit that had an additional mechanic that boosted your strength for a short period of time.

It’s an interesting version to try out, assuming you have a Wii U to play it on. Which is probably not many of you. It’s a shame this version is locked on a console not a lot of people owned, but at least it is a unique version that stands out from the others.

Still, no matter which one you pick, Arkham City is an absolute gem. In my opinion it’s the best game in the series. The gameplay was refined and improved from Asylum, the story was more in depth with its worldbuilding, and graphically I think this game found the best balance between the comic book style of the original and the more grounded look of the follow up.

People tend to be split on whether Asylum or City is the better game. For me it’s City, no contest, but there are others that prefer Asylum due to its tighter design. Regardless, most agree that City was the high point of the series, a high point it would unfortunately never reach again.

Part 4: A Forgotten Origin

Remember when I said Batman Arkham was a “trilogy”? Yeah, there was a reason for the quotations. Batman Arkham isn’t actually a trilogy at all, there are multiple other games in the series outside of the big 3 that Rocksteady made.

Most of these are spin-off titles that aren’t really worth covering in detail like Arkham City Lockdown. Which was a mobile game designed to tie into City. But there is one Arkham title that gets unfairly overlooked. To the point where it isn’t even included in the upcoming Arkham Trilogy on Switch despite having references to it in the final game.

That game is Arkham Origins. Which, if the title didn’t give it away, is a prequel that takes place during Batman’s early years as a crime fighter. The story dealing with Batman’s struggles with a bunch of assassins sent after him by Black Mask, including Deathstroke, Lady Shiva and Firefly.

The game wasn’t developed by Rocksteady. They were busy working on the planned finale for the series that was set to release on the next generation of consoles. It was instead developed by Warner Bros Montreal and would release in 2014 on the then current generation of consoles.

If that last paragraph didn’t give it away, Origins was never meant to be the next big evolution of the franchise. It was basically meant to be a game to tide people over until the next big game came out.

Nothing had really changed between Origins and City. Batman’s move set and gadget line up was pretty much identical to what he had in City. With the only noticeable inclusions being the Shock Gauntlets and the Concussive Detonator. And even then, the Shock Gauntlets were simply a reworking of the armour system from Arkham City Armoured Edition.

Even the level design was simply a reworking of the map from City. It had all the same locations as that only not nearly as decayed. I guess that makes some sense. This is an origin story, and having the same location from the last game can show how we’re in a different time period. But it also comes across as uninspired.

It made the game feel like just an expansion of City. Nothing new or innovative, just the same game as City but with some slightly new bells and whistles attached. Does that make it a bad game? Not at all. Arkham City was a really good game, so having more of that isn’t a bad thing.

And Origins does have things about it that do make it stand out in the series. The boss fights in Origins are, in my opinion, the best ones in the series. Especially the Deathstroke fight. That one is just incredible and truly makes it feel like you’re battling an equal.

Arkham Origins also greatly improved the detective side of the game. Allowing you to rewind crime scenes to put together what exactly happened. This was such a cool feature Rocksteady went on to use it in their upcoming sequel.

And if I’m being honest, I actually prefer how Arkham Origins handles some of the Batman cast. Especially Bane who was thankfully portrayed more like he is in the comics.

So I don’t think Origins deserves to be forgotten. It does have things that are worth praising about it. Plus, it takes place Christmas and has all of the typical Christmassy things you would expect. So that makes it a great game to play for the holiday. Probably the best one next to Christmas Nights.

But it can’t escape the fact that it is an iterative sequel. Most of what makes it good is due to what it took from City and not anything it specifically brings to the table. The only thing it does add was a multiplayer mode.

This was something planned for City, but they decided against it to focus on the single player campaign. But with Origins the idea was brought back, and it wasn’t very good. I can’t say anything about it because I didn’t play it, but it was not well received by critics and based on what I’ve seen, yeah it doesn’t look good.

Even the story isn’t all that great. It has some great moments, but it falls apart near the end once Joker shows up. Yes, Joker overtakes the story again, only this time it’s worse. Remember when I said Black Mask was sending the assassins after Batman? Well, it wasn’t actually him, it was Joker pretending to be him.

And that sucks because Black Mask is pretty underrepresented as a Batman villain. First Origins replaces him with Joker then Birds of Prey ruins his character. Roman Sionis can’t catch a break can he.

I remember the story itself caused some controversy prior to release. Paul Dini didn’t return, nor would he return for the next game. This was largely because the developers wanted to work with their own in house writers and collaborate with DC writers like Geoff Johns, rather than Dini who was freelance. This was also around the time when Dini decided to work on other projects outside of DC so he probably wasn’t too bothered at not being brought back.

The bigger controversy though was with the voice actors. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill did not return to voice Batman or Joker. Instead, Roger Craig Smith was brought in for Batman, and Troy Baker was brought in for Joker.

The reasoning was that they wanted younger sounding actors since this was Batman in his early days. Which does make sense as both Conroy and Hamill were well into their 50’s by that point. But I remember a lot of fan buzz at the time of this being an attempt to replace the two actors. Especially Hamill who was always threatening to walk away from the Joker role.

That obviously never happened. It was just fans being paranoid for no reason. That said, both actors did a decent enough job. Roger Craig Smith did a great job of portraying a younger, angrier, gruffer Batman who hasn’t quite sanded his edges down yet. I wouldn’t mind seeing him take on the role again.

Troy Baker also did a fine enough job, but it sounded more like he was doing an impression of Hamill rather than doing his own thing with the role. He would voice Joker again in other projects where he would find his own voice for the character, but you can tell he was still trying to find that in Origins.

Arkham Origins was still a decent success, but not as big a success as its predecessors. Critically it got mixed reviews, with most critics agreeing it was an iterative sequel that didn’t really add anything to the series, as well as criticising the games multiplayer.

I should mention there was another Origins game called Arkham Origins Blackgate. This was a handheld game made to tie into the main console release. I never played it personally, and from what I can gather that was for the best. It tried to turn Arkham into a 2D Metroidvania and largely failed at it. it was savaged by critics and audiences and is probably best left forgotten.

Still, Origins was always meant to be a hold over. The real follow up to City was still being worked on by Rocksteady and it was going to be the biggest Batman game yet. But that wouldn’t mean it would be the best.

Part 5: Knightfall

I remember when Arkham Knight was first announced. The hype for it was huge. Granted the hype for Origins was also big, but that was tempered by it not being developed by Rocksteady and the voice actor changes. The next game, Arkham Knight, would be developed by Rocksteady and would see Conroy and Hamill return.

On top of that, it released in 2015 very early in the life of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. So there was a bit of that next generational hype going into this. We had already seen what Rocksteady had done on the last gen systems and it was great, just imagine what they could do on the more powerful hardware.

The hype was definitely real for this. Especially when it was revealed that the game would finally have a playable Batmobile. Something fans had been asking for since City. The reviews were also extremely positive, with some claiming it was the best game in the series.

The public reaction wasn’t quite as positive. It sold well, it was the bestselling game of the year in fact, but the reception among fans was much more mixed. Some loved it, while others were disappointed by it. It was a pretty divisive game. Not as much as, say, Last of Us Part 2 which was so divisive it became toxic, but fans were definitely split on the final product.

Now some of the acrimony the game received was due to the PC port. When that thing launched it was a complete and utter disaster. It was basically unplayable with the number of technical issues and bugs the game had. It was so bad they had to remove the game from the PC market entirely until it was fixed.

Now Arkham Knight has since been patched to make it more stable on PC. It’s now perfectly playable on the platform, though I’m unsure how it stacks up to the console version. Though I should mention that even the console version has its own technical issues.

During my recent playthrough I had the game crash on me multiple times. And it wasn’t just a handful of occurrences, it happened almost every play session. It was honestly ridiculous how often it crapped out on me. If it wasn’t for the generous auto saving, I’d be a lot more pissed off.

But the technical issues aren’t the only reason why Arkham Knight disappointed people. There are gameplay and design issues the game suffered from too. Though it wouldn’t be fair of me to talk about what went wrong before talking about what it did right.

The core gameplay here is the best in the series. The combat and stealth are the most refined it’s ever been. The combat is much smoother with more challenging enemy types as well as more enemies in general which makes the fight far more intense and exciting.

They also added new environmental takedowns as well as the ability to pick up weapons dropped by enemies. Except for guns cause Batman don’t do that. And in certain battles you can team up with other characters that you can swap between.

The stealth has seen the most improvements though. Not only are there more types of enemies that require different approaches, but you ow have more gadgets that can be used to properly set up takedowns, making the stealth more fun to experiment with.

There’s also a new fear takedown system that lets you take down multiple enemies at once. It’s a little finnicky at times, but my god is it satisfying. And it’s probably better it is a little finicky since it would be utterly broken if it wasn’t.

The gliding is also much better than before. You can go much further with it and it just feels better to control overall. It’s exhilarating getting a good boost then gliding gracefully over the city.

The detective work is also more engaging. The rewind mechanic from Origins was brought in, but there’s also a new mechanic involving using CCTV cameras to track a crime scene that leads to some puzzles.

The core gameplay here is fantastic. It builds on what Arkham City did, and while it isn’t as innovative as that was it still feels like a natural progression for the series. I would argue from a pure gameplay perspective it’s the best in the series. When playing as Batman, but you don’t just play as Batman do you.

This is where the Batmobile comes in and starts ruining everything. Well maybe that’s a bit harsh. In some instances, the Batmobile is integrated into the game quite well. As a mode of transportation around the city it works great. It’s a little slippery to control and the physics aren’t the best, but when it comes to the driving it’s pretty fun.

But you don’t just use it for traversal. Rocksteady wanted the Batmobile to be an extension of Batman, so you also use it for puzzle solving and you can turn it into a tank and engage in combat or stealth encounters.

Yes, there’s tank stealth in this, and it’s just as bad as it sounds. It’s clunky, slow, and you don’t have many options to takedown the other tanks. It’s all the worst parts of tank gameplay and stealth with none of their strengths. I seriously don’t understand why anyone thought that was a good idea.

The tank combat on the other hand is a lot better. You get a couple of different weapons to use, the firing feels good, and it has all the hectic chaos expected from it. The problem is, why am I driving a tank in a Batman game? Batman doesn’t ride in a tank. For God’s sake he hates guns with a passion, but you expect me to believe he’s ok with riding around in a frigging death mobile.

You can say you’re firing rubber bullets all you want Bats, but that thing can and likely will kill someone at some point. Have you seen how powerful a tank cannon is? The whole idea of Batman being in a tank is ridiculous and goes against the entire appeal of Arkham to begin with. You know, to feel like Batman.

And the big issue with the Batmobile, aside from tank stealth being awful, is just how much of it there is. If it was something you used once in a while it would be fine, but you use it for everything. Need to solve a puzzle? Call the Batmobile. Need help taking out an enemy checkpoint? Call the Batmobile.

It feels like every five minutes you need to get in the goddamn Batmobile. Which takes something that should be a fun change of pace and turns it into a burden that wears out its welcome long before the credits roll.

On top of that, there’s also the issue of what they lose to accommodate the Batmobile. The streets and overall world were made wider to make driving through it much easier, but as a result that claustrophobic tight design of the first two games is gone and that feeling they created where you were alone, and every corner could have someone trying to kill you is gone too.

The atmosphere the first two games excelled at is absent here. The world has expanded to the point where it feels too open. Too easy to avoid conflict unless you absolutely have too. In other words, they created the very issue they were afraid of creating in the very first game.

Another problem is that the Gotham in this game isn’t nearly as memorable. It lacks any iconic Batman landmarks, or that gothic art deco aesthetic mixed with urban decay that City had. Instead, it’s a lot of the typical city districts, a Chinatown, financial and business districts. It’s just too generic, nothing about it screams Gotham to me.

There are three islands to explore but none of them stand out. The areas in City were all visually distinct and interesting which made it easier to find your way around. It lacks the character the worlds of Asylum or City had. It’s a bit like going from Burton’s Gotham which was a gorgeous neo gothic work of art, to Nolan’s Gotham which was just Chicago.

It still looks fantastic don’t get me wrong, it puts games from current consoles to shame with the amount of graphical fidelity it had, but artistically it lacks something. It’s missing that comic book exaggeration that Asylum or City had.

Then there’s the story. This plot of this game sees Gotham being attacked by Scarecrow who threatens to unleash his new fear toxin on Gotham, forcing a mass evacuation. During which, Batman’s villains are set free to run rampant, and the city is soon overtaken by them and a militia lead by s new villain, the Arkham Knight. A mysterious bad guy who knows all of Batman’s secrets and seems to have a history with him.

Now, if you know anything about Batman’s mythos you probably know exactly who the Arkham Knight is just from reading that last sentence. If you have a long enough memory, you probably remember the original trailer and called it then. I know this because, everyone called it!

We all knew what the twist was. It was going to be Jason Todd and the whole thing was just another adaptation of the Under the Red Hood storyline. Rocksteady vehemently denied this, claiming the Arkham Knight was a completely original character made exclusively for the game.

This was quickly discovered to be a lie. Yeah, spoiler alert, the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd. I honestly don’t know why they tried to hide it when it was so obvious, but they did, and the twist is really lame because you can see it coming from miles away.

But as for the story itself, it isn’t bad. It has some great character moments and I like that it puts a bigger focus on Batman’s relationships with his allies. It’s nice getting to see more of Oracle, Robin, Commissioner Gordon and Nightwing. Especially Nightwing who kind of got shafted in this series as this was his only major appearance.

I did end up enjoying the story overall, but it’s not a great narrative. Part of that is because I don’t think Scarecrow works as an ultimate puppet master sort of villain. I love Scarecrow, he’s my favourite Batman villain as a matter of fact, but he works as a horror villain or a psychological villain.

That was how he was depicted in Arkham Asylum, and it worked great. Those Scarecrow sequences were some of the best parts of that game. But here, well they try to lean into his psychological underpinnings by having him constantly talk shit about trying to unmake Batman’s legend, but he never does anything.

And when his plan does come to fruition, it’s due to the Arkham Knight. Which is kind of the big problem. Scarecrow is set up as the main villain, but he isn’t treated as the main threat. The Arkham Knight does more than Scarecrow does, which would be fine, but I don’t think Jason Todd was handled well at all.

Ignoring the fact that the twist is too obvious, they completely missed what made Under the Red Hood so interesting. See, Under the Red Hood was a philosophical debate. It was a battle of ideology between Batman and Red Hood.

Batman argued against killing criminals for fear of what it could do to him, while Jason argued it was a justifiable act. It was a fascinating battle of two conflicting viewpoints which was bolstered by the history Jason and Batman had.

But in Arkham Knight, well it’s just a basic revenge tale. Jason was tortured by Joker, and he hates Batman for abandoning him. Which is fine and plays into Red Hood being a symbol of Batman’s greatest failure, but it it’s far less interesting than the one in the comic because instead of Jason wanting to prove Batman wrong, he just wants him dead.

That interesting back and forth they had in the comic and animated movie isn’t here. And because Jason hadn’t even been mentioned until this game, there’s no history there either. So, it just feels like it comes out of nowhere. The entire Arkham Knight thing just ends up falling flat because all the depth of the comic isn’t there.

But do you know what the kicker is? The Arkham Knight isn’t even the main villain either. You know who is? The Joker. Now I know what you’re thinking “wait didn’t you say Joker was dead?” Yes, and he is dead, but now he’s back, in ghost form.

It turns out that when he infected Batman in Arkham City, this caused a side effect where Batman is turning into the Joker due to some genetic mutation. So, half the storyline is about Batman looking for a cure while dealing with a fear toxin induced hallucination of Joker driving him insane.

To be fair, this is handled pretty well. Seeing the Joker pop up randomly to mock you is a pretty cool effect, and there’s some very subtle touches they add that make it feel like you’re losing your mind, which helps put you in Batman’s situation.

But by this point I was sick and tired of Joker. Most people were. Even if you disregard Origins shoehorning him in, having Joker hijack the plot again, when they could have spent more time on making Scarecrow and Arkham Knight more interesting put a huge damper on the entire story.

And the other villains? They’re relegated to side quest fodder again. They make a big deal on them all teaming up to take down Batman, but we never actually see them teaming up. They’re just kind of doing their own thing.

The side missions themselves are pretty good for the most part. Some of them were actually better than the main story and they managed to work in more obscure like Man Bat and Professor Pyg, the latter of which I hadn’t heard of until this game and frankly I wish I hadn’t. Very disturbing character.

But the side missions have a problem, they’re either way too long, or way too short. Some drag on with way too many parts, while others are so brief they come across as complete afterthoughts. The Hush one being particularly egregious because he had an entire side story in City building him up, and the pay off in this is a mission that’s over in 5 minutes.

There isn’t a balance to them like the ones in City and frankly, a lot of them come across as busy work. Take dismantling the Militia’s presence. There are several missions where you need to take down the Militia’s checkpoints, or dismantle their mines, or take out their bases. These objectives get very repetitive and there are a lot of them. It’s tedious taking them all out.

But the worst part of it all is, you need to do these missions. You need to do every single side mission, take care of every Militia, complete every Riddler challenge and collect every Riddler trophy, you need to do absolutely everything in the game, just to see the fucking ending.

I am not kidding. The only way to get the full ending for the game is to fully complete it. If you don’t, you won’t get any ending. Well, you can get an ending that doesn’t require doing everything, but it’s so abrupt and unsatisfying, and you still need to do nearly everything to get it anyway. You might as well just go for full completion at that point.

Normally I don’t mid hiding something behind 100% completion. It’s a good reward for those who put the time into doing so. But when it’s just the basic ending to the game, that’s when you go too far.

The individual tasks themselves aren’t so bad, but there’s so many of them that it just feels draining. City had a lot to do as well, it had more Riddler Trophies to collect so it wasn’t shy on having content, but Arkham City was so tightly designed you would find something new every 5 seconds.

But everything in Arkham Knight is so spread out, and the city so labyrinthine, your almost required to go after Riddler informants just to have a chance at finding everything. Oh, and did I mention that they add new things as it goes on which forces you to backtrack. Because they do, and I fucking hate them for it.

And this is Arkham Knights biggest issue, it’s overstuffed. There are too many things in the game that it becomes tiring to finish it. I played through all the Arkham game, sans Origin because I don’t have it anymore and it hasn’t been made available on modern systems, and I swear nearly half my total run time between all three games was spent on Arkham Knight alone.

The sad thing is playing Arkham Knight is great. The core gameplay is the best in the series, and I do have fun when I’m playing the game. Even the Batmobile, as forced and unfitting as it is, is enjoyable, sans the tank stealth. But the less interesting story and overabundance of shit to do make it a chore to finish.

I can see why some people love it. The elements of a great game are buried in there somewhere, but it doesn’t come together in the end, and they lost a lot of what made the first two games so great. I don’t hate it, I like it a bit more now than I did on release, but if Asylum and City are both A and A+ respectively, then Knight is a B-. A good game, just not a great one.

I will say that it does feel like a finale. It wraps up everything neatly, and the ending itself is very well done, but I think it could have been better as a final game. It didn’t end on a whimper, but it certainly wasn’t a bang either.

Part 6: An Uncertain Future

And that’s the Batman Arkham series. it’s high points and low points, and whatever Origins was. But now that the Arkham series is over, what’s next?

Well after Arkham Knight there was one more Arkham game called Arkham VR. Though calling it a game is generous because it was more of a VR showpiece than an engaging gameplay experience. So, not much to report on there.

Aside from that, Warner Bros Montreal would go on to develop Gotham Knights, a sort of spiritual successor to the Arkham games starring Batman’s sidekicks. This one wasn’t as well received. With the main criticisms being the poorly implemented RPG elements, weaker combat, and over emphasis on multiplayer co-op. Some liked it, but it’s pretty meh from what I can gather.

Meanwhile, Rocksteady have been working on their own follow up called Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League. Which is connected to the Arkham games and will feature Kevin Conroy’s final performance as Batman.

The game isn’t set to release until this coming February at the time of writing. It was supposed to come out this year, but it was delayed several times. And I can’t say I’m excited for it. The initial reactions to the gameplay have been mixed at best, and the addition of a Battle Pass doesn’t fill me with hope. It just looks like Warner Bros answer to the Avengers game, which is just a recipe for disaster.

It isn’t looking good. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rocksteady shuts up shop after it because it just looks like a flop waiting to happen. Maybe I’m wrong and it’ll be good, but I’ve seen this story before, and it doesn’t have a happy ending.

And that’s where things stand with Batman games. One mediocre game, and a soon to be released mediocre game. With nothing else on the horizon, and Warner Bros currently in a state of disarray, the future of Batman games isn’t the brightest.

Still, we have the upcoming Arkham Trilogy on Switch to look forward to, and who knows maybe we’ll get a fresh new series of Batman games that does what Arkham Asylum did again. Batman does have a habit of reinventing himself when things aren’t going well.

But whatever happens, at least we have 2 excellent Batman games to play thanks to the Arkham series. It is a shame it kind of puttered out in the end but that’s just how most series go. But at least it ended with some dignity and didn’t wind up becoming a parody of itself like the movies ended up becoming. Although, a campy Batman game in the same vein as the 60’s show would be hilarious.