Batman Arkham Knight is the pinnacle of the Arkham series, delivering the most expansive Gotham yet, refined combat mechanics, and the long-awaited introduction of the Batmobile as a playable vehicle. This title brings together everything fans loved and adds new dimensions, though it occasionally leans too heavily on vehicle combat segments.

Pros

• 🌆 Vast, detailed Gotham city full of side quests and secrets
• 🦇 Refined combat system with a broad moveset and gadgets
• 🚗 Playable Batmobile integrated into both combat and puzzle-solving
• 🎯 Engaging main story with memorable villains and twists
• 🎨 Excellent visuals and sound design pushing the series forward

Cons

• 🚙 Over-reliance on Batmobile sequences and tank battles, to the point that it became annoying
• 🎮 Some boss fights feel repetitive or frustrating
• ⚙️ Performance issues, especially on less powerful hardware

Arkham Knight offers the largest and most detailed open world in the series, packed with diverse environments ranging from gritty industrial zones to towering skyscrapers, as the open world is now a huge chunk of Gothan City itself. Traversing the city, whether gliding over rooftops or driving through the streets, feels exhilarating and immersive.

The combat system continues to impress, blending fluid freeflow mechanics with an extensive range of gadgets and combos. Batman’s agility and tactical prowess make each encounter satisfying, whether facing thugs, assassins, or supervillains.

I found the story compelling and it has mostly kept me hooked from start to finish. It felt like a Hollywood-style high stakes Batman action movie, with enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. The use of villains were much more balanced here and much more detailed. However its seems that towards the tail end of the main story it ran out of fuel to make things interesting for me. Beyond the Main storyline, the side quests feel like they’re an integral part of the main story, rather than just optional distractions. This side quests compelled me to actually complete them instead of ignoring most of them.

At first, I was actually invested in the Riddler side story now in this one after almost fully ignoring him in Arkham City and Origins (though I did manage to complete it in Asylum). That alone speaks for how compelling quests in general is for me. However after I was done with the main bulk of his side quest, it became annoying once again and we’re back to IGNORING him again because of the forced collectibles. Although there is indeed a mod that allows you to skip the trophies to skip to the end part.

A minor thing I hate though, is the jumpscares, because i hate jumpscares, and it being in this game, instead of a lets say horror where you can expect one every moment, really worsens it.

As with the main story, of course the game needs a grandiose event once again to provide that “gameplay battleground” just like Arkham City, and in some ways like in Arkham Asylum. It’s a little bit disappointing not being able to play as Batman on a regular night in Gotham, like in Batman Arkham Origins, but I guess for the sake of good gameplay and open world level design it has to happen.

How they explained the world’s state — the lack of civilians and regular people — it was done decently anyway. My only gripe/pet peeve is that they hired Jonathan Banks to voice commissioner Gordon, and every time I hear his voice, I hear Mike from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, and I just can’t stop associating his voice from it.

The long awaited introduction of a playable Batmobile finally is pretty awesome, as we never got to use it playing the previous three games. However, I couldn’t help but feel that there’s too much reliance on it, perhaps it is forced too much on the player. Tank battles are so frequent that I’m almost playing a tank combat game instead of a Batman game. The heavy tank combat use at certain points detracts from the Batman experience. Almost every point of my annoyance in the gameplay is related to the Batmobile segments or boss fights, especially towards the end of the game like this one specific chase/drill boss fight.

However aside from this, all the other Batmobile aspects are done very well. How it is incorporated to the puzzle solving mechanics is done beautifully, as well as the ability to remote control the car and use it in certain situations. The pathfinding and how you call the batmobile is pretty badass too and done really well. Handling is pretty good for the most part and you can easily drive like Batman throughout Gotham City, barring some minor physics quirkiness especially if you’re trying some jumps or high speed maneuvers, which are kinda annoying too but it didn’t detract much from the overall experience.

The skill progression and challenges in the game = well done. The best in the series, gone are the Origins type of progression where you need specific challenges to unlock stuff, and back are the XP/Skill point based unlocks of Arkham City, albeit done with more both style and substance.

As for the combat, it also feels like the peak of the series in terms of mechanics, with a wide range of moves and gadgets that allow for creative gameplay, which are also well integrated with the aforementioned progression system. However, the combat feels a bit too “arcadey” now, compared to the more grounded, tactical approach of the earlier games. While it might be easier and feels more video game-y, it’s undeniably fun and offers plenty of variety for players who enjoy experimenting with different combos and strategies.

One more criticism I have for this game is the optimization, which can be justified because the game has really good visuals for its time anyway, and can even pass as a game made today. Nowadays though, you can pretty much brute force good performance in this game with new hardware, but I can still feel the stutters sometimes. On the Steam Deck in which I play when I’m out of the house, Arkham Knight is the only game in the Batman Arkham series that failed to have a locked 60fps experience, with dips to the high 30s.

This is just simply The peak Batman video game experience. Gameplay wise its the ultimate evolution of what has been done in previous games. Level design-wise, its also the ultimate evolution because you now get a bigger open world that feels much more like a real City. Still not a huge New York city like in the Spider-Man games, but a city that feels like a city nonetheless. It feels detailed and immersive enough to give a real sense of scale.

Conclusion

Batman Arkham Knight stands as a fitting and thrilling conclusion to the Arkham saga, delivering a rich, expansive Batman experience with many memorable moments. While it occasionally stumbles with an overemphasis on Batmobile combat and minor technical issues that has since been mostly bruteforced by modern hardware anyway, it remains a must-play for fans of the series and superhero action games in general.