On June 23, 2025,
Batman: Arkham Knight
turns ten years old. After 2013’s
Batman: Arkham Origins
, fans were looking forward to the next true installment in the series made by Rocksteady themselves, as WB Games Montreal developed the last game. Even the back of the box of
Arkham Knight
dismissed
Origins
, claiming
Knight
was the finale to the
Arkham
trilogy.
Warning: The following article includes spoilers for Batman: Arkham Knight and Batman: Arkham City.
However, all these years later, it’s safe to say that
Arkham Origins
got a bad rap and shouldn’t be skipped when deciding the
order you should play the
Batman: Arkham
games in
, as
Arkham Knight
was actually worse for a lot of fans.
Batman: Arkham Knight
is still a very good game, with gorgeous graphics that still hold up and improved gameplay, but the story and side content belong in the rookie league compared to the master league quality of
Arkham City
. After the greatest superhero game of all time,
Arkham Knight
doesn’t even compare
.
Rocksteady Pushed The Envelope With Batman: Arkham Knight
It Looks Like A Game That Could Have Been Released Today
By far, the best and most impressive element of
Batman: Arkham Knight
is the graphics. It’s ungodly, with the rain detail hitting Batman’s cape as he glides across Gotham and the satisfying destructible environments when riding in the Batmobile. The character models are stunning, too, and
arguably look superior to future games
like
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
and
Gotham Knights
. It’s still impressive to this day, especially on PC.
While the PC version of
Batman: Arkham Knight
was notoriously broken at release, it’s thankfully fixed now.
The gameplay was also improved from
Arkham City
with the introduction of Dual Play. Several moments in the story and side content allow you to play as Batman and another character in a single encounter, and
it was a great time in both melee combat and stealth
. For stealth, it added more of a tactical element, as you could take down the heavy-duty enemies, which was great and majorly useful, but it would cause some noise, so you had to pick your moment.
Tag-team fights were incredible, as you could chain combos when switching characters and do awesome double-team moves, making the Riddler boss fight one of the best in the game. Even though many disliked the over-reliance on the Batmobile during the story, I loved riding it around and enjoyed the DLC racetracks.
Batman: Arkham Knight
has some big positives, but
what kills the game for me is the story and side content
.
The Story Still Frustrates Me All These Years Later
Why Can’t The Joker Just Stay Dead?
Right behind
God of War 3
,
Arkham Knight’s
story has to be the worst ending to a trilogy in modern gaming. First off, the titular Arkham Knight. While Scarecrow’s the main villain, Arkham Knight also plays a big role, and the game hypes up his mystique quite a bit. However, the person behind the mask is
the most obvious choice Rocksteady could have picked
. Anyone familiar with DC heroes that have
died but come back to life
would think that it’s Jason Todd before even pressing start on the title screen.
Most of the side missions present in
Arkham Knight
feel like busy work.
Killing off the Joker in
Arkham City
was a bold move, but Rocksteady couldn’t let go because
Mark Hamill’s Joker comes back in the worst way possible
. Early on, Batman gets infected with fear toxin, making the Joker appear in hallucinations throughout the rest of the game. Batman’s entire character arc in
Arkham Knight
is him mentally putting away the Joker, which is too weak for a finale.
To see why this doesn’t work, it’s best to look at another franchise that won’t let a villain go, and that’s
Saw
. Jigsaw dies early on in the
Saw
film series, but his later appearances are done right. All of his appearances are actually happening, whether in flashbacks or new tapes; moreover, what Jigsaw does in those scenes has relevance to the ongoing conflicts in the present.
Batman: Arkham Knight
, on the other hand, features these
Joker hallucinations that have no real relevance to the core conflict
in the story.
The other big disappointment that let me down significantly was the side content. What made
Batman: Arkham City
one of the
greatest video games of all time
was its brilliant map design that made all the additional content, whether side missions or collecting Riddler trophies, immensely fun. I 100% completed
Arkham City
twice, and
you didn’t need to 100% the game to unlock the true ending
, unlike
Arkham Knight
. Most of the side missions present in
Arkham Knight
feel like busy work.
Arkham City
actually made the Riddler content a lot of fun because you needed to do little challenges to collect most of the Riddler trophies, like gliding to wall panels or controlling a Batarang through an air vent. Those fun challenges aren’t nearly as present in
Arkham Knight
, and it feels so disappointing when you finish all the Riddler side missions
only for the boss fight to be called off
because you didn’t find all the collectibles. It’s not surprising that
there’s a mod to skip this annoying part
.
Arkham Knight Is A Phenomenal Game, But A Disappointing Finale
It Should Have Been Better
Ten years later, I do respect many aspects that Rocksteady put into
Batman: Arkham Knight
. You can’t tell that this is a ten-year-old game from the visuals alone, as the character models, vehicle models, and practically everything looks incredible. The DLC implementation was also really cool, featuring suits and vehicles from the
Batman
movies with that same amazing level of detail. I personally enjoyed the gameplay additions, with the Fear Takedowns and tag team fights, but
much of what made
Arkham City
so great was absent here
.
The side content pales in comparison, most of the boss fights were atrocious, and the story was so bad that I think the writing to
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
was an improvement, to be frank.
Batman: Arkham Knight
really let me down, but after the commercial and critical failure of
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
, it appears that a new
Batman: Arkham
game is more likely now than ever, and hopefully, it’ll fix the problems
Arkham Knight
had.