Batman: Arkham Knight Part 2 - DLC & Side Missions - Retrospective Review

foreign [Music] [Music] foreign welcome back to part two of my Batman Arkham Knight retrospective Series in this video we'll discuss everything outside of the main story such as all the side missions DLC and challenges amongst other things if you missed it Part 1 focused on the game's creation as well as the main story those details will play an important role in this video so I'd recommend watching that one first although it's not 100 necessary if you're already familiar with all these story beats of the main game that said this video will fully spoil the events of Batman Arkham Knight since we're pretty much picking up where the main story ended but we have a lot to talk about in this video so let's get started once you've completed the main narrative there's a plethora of additional content you can engage with Beyond it side missions are a big chunk of that and the villains of Gotham are certainly keeping Batman busy this Halloween night let's first start with man bat that's probably the most intense jump scare in the game and it gets me every playthrough it's not too surprising since Rock City programmed him to pop up anywhere in the city so you never know exactly when he'll show up this Randomness makes the scare more effective because even After experiencing it in Prior playthroughs it still manages to get me sometimes without the scare even occurring what I mean is that in future playthroughs when I get the feeling that the jump scare might be coming I start to tense up every time I grapple up a building which I think makes it an effective scare since rock city is able to induce a response from me each playthrough both from the scare itself and the moments leading up to it during a Reddit AMA with Sefton Hill he describes cut content that would have actually taken this man that scare a step further one feature I'd love to have gotten in was linked to the manbat surprise in Arkham Knight we had planned to activate the Xbox PlayStation camera and record everyone's reactions to being man-batted so you could share this with your friends unfortunately we just ran out of time maybe it's for the best this feature never made it in I'm not sure I want my friends to see me scream while I'm casually in my underwear but now that you have that horrifying image in your minds let's talk about the horrifying image that is manbat and how he functions in this game after getting jump scared by him he'll begin flying around the city giving you an opportunity to Glide over to him and headlock him down to the ground Batman will take a blood sample and manbat will fly off again Batman has Alfred analyze the blood and he determines that it belongs to a scientist named Kirk langstrom who has a lab in Chinatown we go there next to investigate and once we get inside we're met with a pretty haunting scene [Music] you honey go on tell them what you've done [Music] foreign hello world now let's let's go on just be yourself it starts off innocent enough with Kirk's wife Francine forcing Kirk to document his discoveries because she's so proud of his progress Kirk is suffering from a rare disease that is causing him to go deaf so he's been working on a way to cure himself and ultimately all of humanity his solution is to mix his DNA with vampire bats he must not have watched morbius though because he decides to experiment on himself as you would expect things immediately start to go wrong Francine puts the camera down after which all we can hear is her screaming until we see her unconscious body fall into view the tape then replays itself from the beginning so proud of you honey go on tell them what you've done I love the writing there so much when you first walk in the room Francine's words come off as celebratory since she's so proud of Kirk's accomplishments now that we know how it resulted her words go on tell them what you've done become more accusatory and now frame this entire video like a confession I thought that was really clever and it helps to add to the Eerie nature of the room exploring the room further we can find Francine's dead bodies still laying there it's really creepy and also very tragic since you know she didn't deserve this also in the room is Kirk's computer where Batman is able to develop a cure for Man-Bat with that we're ready to hunt for him around the city again we'll have another couple encounters with him similar to our first where we grab hold of him and take him to the ground where we inject him with the Cure our final injection will cause man bat to pass out and we load him into the Batmobile by the time we get to the gcpd he's already transformed back into Kirk langstrom and we continue towards lockup where he's placed an ibizole containment cell just in case he reverts back Batman tells him that Francine is dead and he's incredibly distraught over what he's done it's a really tragic and sad Tale and one of my favorite side missions in the game manbat's Origins are a bit different in the comics though in his first appearance he idolizes Batman and wants to develop real batlike abilities namely improved hearing and natural sonar detection so he makes a serum from the glands of bats which turns him into a human bat in the game we get the sense that manbat is a Mindless creature just rampaging through town in these early issues though Kirk still has full control of his actions and just has bat-like features he also teams up with Batman in this issue and the two fight alongside each other the way Kirk has always dreamed of still Kirk is horrified at his appearance and seeks out Francine to see if she still loves him she actually loves him so much that she says that they can make this work but Kirk is too self-conscious to take her seriously a few issues later Batman learns of a marriage between Kirk and Francine and upon arrival to it he discovers that Francine actually turned herself into a bat as well to match Kirk we get a tease that Francine might be turning into she-bat in the game as well if we return back to their lab later on when we arrive her body is gone and the TV has been smashed with the words Forever My Love written on it this suggests that Francine is still alive and I think we're meant to insinuate that she was infected by bat DNA during the attack and is now somewhere in the city as she bet she may not be alone either since you get a similar tease if you set your console or PC to Halloween while you're cruising around Gotham you'll get jump scared by Man-Bat once again even though he's meant to be in gcpd lockup if you return to the gcpd to investigate you'll see that the holding cells percentage has dropped to show one less inmate entertainment and you'll also find that manbat managed to break through the glass of the containment cell and is legitimately back on the loose looks like we might need thicker glass next time I was afraid this would happen cash got off a couple rounds but it was too quick no way we're gonna stop that thing happy Halloween huh so maybe him and Francine are off to get married like in the comics while we're on the theme of creepier side missions though let's talk about perhaps the creepiest one Professor Pig around the city will find a bunch of dead bodies tied to walls they all follow the same Mo where their face is bandaged up with a word written nearby describing their imperfections strangely none of the bodies were killed in Gotham and were instead killed elsewhere and then brought here eventually Alfred is able to determine that the missing people were abducted along the route of a traveling circus called the circus of strange it's run by a man named Laszlo Valentin who owns a beauty salon in Gotham we head to the beauty salon next and inside is a really unsettling scene we find Laszlo Valentin performing surgery on a living victim against their will another scene referenced by the ESRB as to why the game received an M rating foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] if you're wondering why the victim was screaming at first and then seemed to be appreciative of the work that's because pig is not only mutilating his victims but also mind controlling them he wants to turn them into his perfect mindless dolls and he refers to them as dollar trons things still manage to get creepier from here too as we talk with Laszlo Ballentine AKA Professor Pig [Music] she's all unique and wrong all messed up inside out Pig make her better pigment oh as Batman approaches the victim it actually jumps out and attacks him even more of pig's dolls jump into fight as well and it's extremely unnerving I think it's mostly the way they walk all stiff and unnatural we have to fight them too even though we know they're all innocent victims at this point they're all mindless humans following the will of pig so we don't have much of a choice after defeating them Pig will jump down to join the fight he'll hide behind the operating table and throw butcher knives at us while we fight more of his dollar trons once we've taken them all down we can focus our attention back at Pig and Batman gives him the most destructive punch in the game foreign with pig taken care of Batman releases the remaining hostages who were extremely lucky if there's any villain I'd hate to be captured by I think it would be Professor Pig he just seems like the most horrific Batman villain to me he's like this in the comics too he'll take people and adhere doll masks to their face and turn them into his mindless Dollar trons in one panel we see doctors attempting to take the mask off of a victim which ends up pulling the skin from their real face off too which is extremely grotesque in the comics Pig seems to be motivated by the criticisms of his dead mother who he thinks still speaks to him through this object he's made featuring a doll mask atops and Boards kind of similar to the relationship Jason Voorhees has with his mother in the Friday the 13th movies Jason mother is talking to you in the game pig will mention his mother occasionally for example this moment while you take him to gcpd and the ones you murdered too broken for pig to make better too imperfect Pig out you go Valentin don't don't lock Pig away mother won't be pleased in the comics we also get a sense that pig enjoys the feeling of pain we get an odd to that in the game too along with the idea that he also has an attraction towards Bruce Wayne Bruce Wayne what a pretty man hiding in that suit like a big present bro Pig wants a hug Pig wants to feel the nails in his chest I also appreciate that Rocksteady chose to forego his dance routine from the comics and instead made him a fan of opera music it's definitely creepier and way less cartoonish ultimately Pig ended up being one of the most fascinating villains to me in this game and his side mission is probably my favorite one just based on how unsettling it can be keeping with the theme of unsettling though let's next talk about the side mission for the villain hush in the last game Batman Arkham City we discovered that hush was Bruce's childhood friend Thomas Elliott and that Thomas had managed to perform plastic surgery on himself making him appear to be Bruce Wayne hush then left and that was the last we saw of him his story picks up in Arkham Knight though during a mission at Wayne Tower while we're playing as Batman we head to Wayne Tower to check on lucious Fox I like how the game tricks Us by giving us a clever transition where Batman enters the elevator at the bottom floor as Bruce Wayne exits at the top floor we're meant to believe that we're playing as Bruce Wayne but were actually Thomas Elliott we learned the truth when Thomas sits down to access Bruce's computer and is denied access via the retinal scanner Lucia's Fox walks in at this moment and Thomas attacks him using his eye to access the scanner from here he attempts to transfer all of Bruce's money to his own account we then transition back to Batman who discovers that Thomas is in the building and has taken lucious hostage when Batman enters the room he tries to learn why Thomas is acting like this what Thomas tells him is pretty similar to the comics Thomas Elliott's parents were both very rich like The Wayne's and one Rainy Night Thomas cut the brake lines to their car in hopes that they would both die the plan went smoothly until Bruce's father attempted to save their lives successfully saving Thomas Elliott's mother in the story heart of hush written by Paul dini we get further insight into Thomas's life after his mother was saved and why it resulted in him hating Bruce so much basically his mother became extremely clingy and required Thomas to take care of her 24 7. she was also pretty awful to him always comparing him to Bruce Wayne and often stating how much better of a child Bruce was to his parents Legacy this caused Thomas to resent Bruce and he was also envious of Bruce's freedom to travel the world without being tied down by family in that story Thomas ultimately killed his mother after she attempted to take him out of her will the game's version of hush wasn't quite so fortunate though as we can see on a plaque in the Eliot Memorial Hospital owned by his family on it it states that his mother donated their entire family fortune to the hospital to renovate and preserve it essentially leaving Thomas with nothing so that explains his hatred towards Bruce Wayne and why he's attempting to steal his money Thomas then tells Batman to bring in Bruce Wayne or he'll kill Lucius Batman agrees and reveals his true identity to Thomas Bruce did this to catch Thomas off guard and Bruce thinks to himself that he'll have a brief window to attack Thomas when he turns the gun on him however if he's too slow or too fast one of them will die I thought I should test that theory out so let's start with what happens if you're too slow Thomas will in fact shoot you and kill you and you get a death scene featuring him everything you are everything you have it's mine Bruce all mine the next one I'll forewarn you is a little bit jarring to watch if you act too fast Thomas will instead shoot and play Lucius going even further you get a unique death scene featuring Thomas standing over Lucius too bad Lucius I could have used a man of your talents now that we know the stakes and despise Thomas even more we'll get the timing right and perform a really satisfying team takedown between Bruce and Lucius my face in the last video I talked a lot about the final cut scene and whether Bruce planned to fake his own death to become a new version of Batman if you've already beaten the main story ahead of this Mission and had your identity revealed to the world you'll get a conversation with Lucius that I think reinforces that theory the world knows who I am I I don't know what to say Mr Wayne what does this mean for Batman after tonight there will be no more Batman I'm sure you know what you're doing sir I know you'd never abandoned Gotham if there's anything you need me to do anything at all thanks Lucius along with that Batman has also been confirmed to return in Suicide Squad kill the Justice League so we'll see what Bruce has been up to since Arkham Knight in that game continuing on let's look at another potential protector of Gotham asriel Azrael was a mysterious character in Batman Arkham City who followed us around and described a prophecy involving Batman dark days are coming Batman the prophecy is coming true you are the warrior who will close the gates of hell you are the one who will save this day and in doing so events will occur that you cannot stop From the Ashes of Arkham the fires will rage and Gotham will burn you you will burn too as we saw that prophecy came true but prior to Batman's demise Ezreal reaches out via burning bat symbols on rooftops he wants to take up the mantle when Batman is gone and wishes to prove himself through Batman's trials as a symbol of his willingness to follow Batman's no kill rule Ezreal gives Batman his sword and Batman later hangs it up in the clock tower Batman agrees to test him though and each Mission involves us playing as Azrael fighting off holographic enemies The Twist though is that you can't get hit during these trials or else you fail they're not too terrible and since Azrael has been studying Batman's moves for quite a while he fights identically to him after completing all of the trials Batman still isn't sure if Azrael is an ally or not so he conducts research on him in the Watchtower he learns that his real name is Michael Lane and that there are issues with his brain waves after some analysis it seems that the Order of Saint Dumas the religious organization that Azrael works for has implanted hidden messages into his subconscious as far as Azrael is aware his mission is to take up the mantle of Batman which is Honorable however these secret message that hasn't fully triggered him yet is that he must earn Batman's trust and then kill him the order believes that Batman's no kill rule makes him weak so Azrael must become the protector Gotham truly needs Ezreal then arrives and after learning about this hidden message he's conflicted and Batman offers him a choice we'll decide for Azrael and after reclaiming the sword from the mantle we choose to either kill Batman or break the sword if you choose to kill Batman he'll counter asriel and knock him out on the drive to the gcpd Azrael will state that he agrees with the order that Batman is ineffective due to his no-kill Rule and that Ezreal believes he is still the true protector that Gotham needs this makes him an antagonist to Batman and will lock him up in the gcpd holding cells with the other villains if you choose to break the sword asriel will show disgust in the order for using him as a tool he felt his cause was noble and that Sully's that his vow is to make the order answer for what they have done to him and he leaves as an ally to Batman in the comics Michael has a pretty tragic path to becoming asriel too he originally had a wife and son but his son was killed in a car crash and the trauma of that loss caused his wife to take her own life not long after this his siblings were killed by a satanic cult Michael joined the police force and was then put in a secret program to try and train potential Batman Replacements should he ever die the other participants went mad and died while Michael was the only Survivor with this background the order of San Dumas saw him as a fitting replacement to take up the mantle of Azrael he was granted the suit of Sorrows boosting his strength speed and stamina as well as the sword of sin in the back computer it stated that the sword of sin burns with the souls of the Damned which is why it's emitting a white light when asriel picks it up overall I really enjoyed the asriel side missions over the course of the last couple games and I like that we got to choose his ending in this 1 continuing on to another side mission though let's talk about what Jack Ryder was investigating in his reports he discovers some kind of cult and tries to track them down unfortunately he actually finds them and becomes their ritual sacrifice conducted by their leader Deacon Blackfire if you want you can actually let Ryder die and he'll be stabbed with the Deacon's ritual dagger your life on this Earth is over an eternity of pain awaits no no it's not the saddest death in the game but it's probably best we actually save him so Batman drops in to help and after taking down all of the Deacon's worshipers he's able to subdue Deacon Blackfire as you would expect Jack is completely oblivious to the danger he just faced what took you I'm kidding looks like I got my story this is it Batman this could get me back in the game My Own show hey first guest how about it the real Batman your story interestingly though there is a mystical quality to Deacon blackfyre since there's evidence that he's over 100 years old despite his youthful appearance well youthful in the comics at least we learned that he maintains his age by bathing in Blood and it's the secret to his immortality we'll hear that referenced a couple times during our battle with Deacon in the game as well this is sacred ground Heathen you do not belong here but God has sent you so that I may bathe in your blood too the side mission is pretty short overall but it's based on a comic run that was really striking called the cult in it Deacon blackfyre opens up a homeless shelter in Gotham where he gives the homeless free meals but he also preaches to them we can actually find this homeless shelter in the game too through this method he convinces them that he's a Divine being and they join his cult they believe that it is up to them to cleanse Gotham of the evildoers and that the police can no longer handle things they even manage to capture Batman and tie him up in the sewers from here they starve him beat him and Drug him Batman's will is strong but even he starts to see visions and gets brainwashed by blackfyre if Nightfall is the story where Batman is broken physically then the cult is the story where Batman is broken mentally it's not common to read a Batman comic where Batman is so down and out but it's interesting to see him at his lowest and how he fights to overcome it it's unlike many other Batman comics and it's a good one to check out if you're curious I'll have it linked in the description as well next up we talked about him a bit earlier but another villain we still need to capture is the Penguin while we've been dealing with Scarecrow Nightwing has been tracking more penguin stash houses so like last time we'll break in and clear the room and then destroy all of Penguin's illegal Goods however in the last Depot Nightwing failed to join us we cleared out solo but as we're destroying everything penguin broadcast to us that he's managed to capture Nightwing Nightwing has a tracker on him though so Batman is able to hone in on his location When we arrive we break through an obnoxious painting of penguin and free Nightwing this leads to another team combat sequence where together will take out everyone in the room afterwards Batman plants the explosive gel but in the meantime Nightwing has managed to get himself captured once again this time though he redeems himself by flipping penguin into the air for Batman to slam him Penguins taken care of but what I'm most interested in with the scene is how Batman talks to Nightwing after so here's the part where you tell me off I'm proud of you dick are you feeling okay This Is the End this is the last time we meet don't talk like that all right this won't stop you Nothing Stops you keep bloodhaven safe promise me it's okay Bruce I get it you just don't want me hanging around stealing the Limelight dick I won't let you down it's nothing too heavy but it's not often that you get emotion like that from Batman and you have to imagine it was nice for Nightwing to hear that Bruce was proud of him on our way to transport cobblepop back to the gcpd you get different dialogue with them depending on if your identity has been revealed or not if it hasn't penguin will act cocky and Batman will suggest that he might actually kill him tonight what's the matter call you rattle your choice gcpd or the more threat Batman we all know you don't kill me I'm not feeling myself tonight he will I'm sure you you feel better tomorrow you know what's keeping you wonders mate if your identity has been revealed you get a more personal dialogue regarding their families and it ends with another tease that Batman has plans for his future Beyond Nightfall he had to go and kick 10 tons of crap out of people too your family was corrupt cobblepot yeah and yours are dead oh what's up man touch the nerve this cape Crusader lock doesn't really work when everyone knows who you are does it worked fine catching you face it after tonight Batman's dead in the water better find a new costume oh boy would it be next oh I know how about a squirrel another villain who you can get unique dialogue with is Two-Face since he's another villain with a more personal relationship to Batman in the comics the two were once allies while Harvey Dent was district attorney that all changed during a court hearing against Moroni when Moroni threw acid at Harvey during the trial scarring half of his face this physical transformation made him snap mentally developing an obsession for Duality as well as a dark side on a side note something I found interesting about Harvey in these early Comics was that his name was actually Harvey Kent for a while until they later changed it probably due to Superman having the same last name going back to the game though Harvey is taking advantage of the chaos by robbing all of the banks in Gotham when you capture him you'll drive him back to the gcpd like the other villains if your identity hasn't been revealed yet Harvey will Express sadness over the falling out between you both settle down Dent don't call me that he's dead I don't believe that I wish I was dead I'm a freak because of you that wasn't my fault you're the man who that acid throwing bastard in the dark you said we'd save Gotham I'm sorry Harvey [Music] however I really love the dialogue between them if your identity has been revealed you get to see the similarity between them and it's like Two-Face knows you better than anyone else does and excuse the pun but maybe they're two sides of the same coin also listen to how tremendously voice acting for two faces in this clip again voiced by Troy Baker you can clearly tell when the two-faced personality is talking versus the Harvey personality damn you [Applause] is it true Bruce don't answer them we know the truth you aren't Bruce Wayne Jim Gordon and I we didn't strike a deal with Bruce Wayne and it sure is hell not Bruce Wayne waiting on the rooftops each night this is who you are see we get it Bruce it's not the face you're given it's the face you choose another interesting pairing is that of the Firefly side mission and the firefighters throughout the city you'll find a bunch of captured firefighters who need your help as you rescue each one they'll tell you that the city was looking to cut back on firemen and many of them were going to lose their jobs the majority of the firemen you save will also Express concern over finding their Chief since he's gone above and beyond to secure their jobs however you also learned that the chief was occasionally meeting up with someone who had Burns all over their body what you come to find out is that the chief made a deal with the villain arsonist Firefly to burn abandoned buildings in Gotham to hopefully show a need for firemen in the city again and get funding back the deal though was that Firefly would be able to burn buildings without resistance but the chief's men decided not to evacuate tonight so Firefly got pissed and started burning fire departments when we eventually rescue the chief he admits to as much and it's kind of a sad moment you have to take him to the police station because he did the wrong thing but you also know he did it for the right reasons I never enjoy putting him behind bars with the rest of these Sinister villains and I like that rock city gave us a side mission with a little bit more of a moral Gray area as we continue through these side missions we'll eventually come into contact with Deathstroke like I mentioned in the last video Deathstroke had been working with the Arkham Knight and has been helping to lead the militia troops once the Arkham Knight disappears though Deathstroke steps in to finish the job you really only converse with him by a radio and if you want to actually fight him you'll have to destroy all the various militia roadblocks watchtowers mines and apcs which can take quite a lot of time initially I thought it was worth it though because I was extremely excited to fight Deathstroke he's a master Assassin from the comics and had one of if not the best fights in the series during Arkham Origins so the thought of revisiting that but an Arkham Knight had me pumped however I was massively let down when I realized what this boss fight actually was another tank battle it's also very similar to the cloudburst battle against Arkham Knight which by itself is disappointing because it's a reused boss battle still you'll recall from the last video that I enjoyed the Arkham Knight tank battle and admittedly I do still enjoy the cat and mouse style gameplay in this boss fight too my issue with it though is that it's poorly utilized Rising Deathstroke I guess the best way I can summarize this thought is to say that it's a good Batmobile level but it's a terrible Deathstroke boss fight when you bring someone like Deathstroke up against Batman you don't put him in a tank that needs to be a martial arts slugfest this is a man that can push Batman to his limits in hand-to-hand combat and you especially need to Showcase that because the bar has already been set high for that in Arkham Origins I'll also remind you that Arkham Origins was not made by Rocksteady and was instead made by WB Montreal so having Deathstroke in a tank honestly felt like Rocksteady didn't feel like they could top with WB Montreal did with him and instead chose to sidestep it entirely it's disappointing for sure and I know that Rocksteady could have given us a worthy boss fight against Deathstroke had they actually gone for it but ultimately it feels like such wasted potential for such a badass character going back to the other side missions though our final one from the base game is against the Riddler I have definitely had mixed feelings about his implementation and payoff in the past games and this one is no different compared to the prior games Riddler has much more planned for us this Halloween night though and has even managed to have capture Catwoman in the orphanage by pretending he had a job for Riddler then strapped a bomb collar to her neck and tasked us with completing trials to rescue her there are a lot of different trials that he puts us through and most of them have to deal with the Batmobile he'll test our driving skills putting us through various fast-paced obstacle courses and every time we complete one we then have to tell Catwoman which case contains the correct key or else she'll get blown up one detail I liked was that in New Game Plus these key puzzles were different and more challenging compared to the normal game which helped to maintain the tension of selecting the correct key after each interaction with Catwoman our Joker hallucination will also pop up giving Bruce some dating advice and these were some of my favorite Joker hallucinations hey bats when did Catwoman get so cute must have been when I started looking out of your eyes you're gonna ask her out or what oh you're not still torn up about Talia al Ghul are you come on it's been months even the worms that ate a corpse had probably forgotten about it by now great news bats I was just hanging out in hell you know because you killed me and sent me there and you'll never guess who I saw that's right your dead girlfriend tell you how cool don't worry I asked and she's totally cool with cat lady having a go on the old scratching post another great detail at the orphanage is that you can annoy Riddler during one puzzle in particular during one of your early moments revisiting the orphanage Riddler will have set up a mirror puzzle with rotating pieces what you're supposed to do is line the pieces up and then scan the mirror to complete the puzzle however if you're annoyed by this as soon as you see it you can attempt to walk out the door I see what you're trying to do you're testing my patience aren't you trying to drive me insane as I watch you struggle with that riddle well I've made it easy now all you have to do is stand in the right place and scan oh no no no no no no do you think pretending you can't do it will let you off the hook I know that you're not that stupid there stupid it's done yeah I'm definitely doing that every time from now on that's not all though because not only does Riddler have all these challenges for you but there are also 243 Riddler trophies hidden around the city that you need to find as well Riddler just can't help himself and after beating certain levels you'll find that he comes in behind you and puts up more puzzles for example after beating Johnny Charisma and panessa Studios he somehow sneaks in and puts his own challenges up like in the previous Arkham games The Riddler challenges are still a grind some of them are pretty unique and I got some enjoyment out of them but for the most part I was happy to be done with them however I like that there was at least some good payoff for collecting them once you manage to successfully remove the bomb collar from Catwoman and collect all 243 riddles you're ready for your final showdown against the Riddler he's decided that he'll fight you this time and is piloting a Mech of his creation together with Catwoman you'll fight all of his robots and work together to take down Riddler it's never been more satisfying to punch Riddler in the face repeatedly after grinding all of those challenges and collecting all of those trophies and I'm glad it's finally over this is also our final moment with Catwoman though and this was the conversation where I realized just how serious Bruce was about the Nightfall protocol Selena for the daring last minute rescue it was very heroic it was under control I'm sure it was now be a good damsel and bestow a kiss on your Gallant hero play nice you're not playing at all no I'm not not anymore and what's that supposed to mean it means this is the end Selena it means we can I can I will see you again right no one will Gotham needs something more something worse to Defender she needs a new myth the legend more powerful than I can be right now a legend that can only Rise From the Ashes of the Batman some things you can't do alone Bruce some things you have to call if you need me I know I just wanted to say it I think this conversation in particular tells a lot about what Bruce has planned his line about what Gotham needs is pretty much what we theorize in the story section that he's planning on becoming a myth again abandoning the life of Bruce Wayne and going full time as Batman still I thought that if there was one thing that could get him to stay it would be his love for Selena I think Selena symbolizes the life he could have as Bruce Wayne and as bluntly as he turns her away it shows he's 100 done with Bruce Wayne and I'm definitely left feeling sad for Selena after this interaction getting to beat up Riddler was a nice payoff to his challenges but I think I appreciate this cut scene more because it gives us more insight into Bruce's plans and it gives some closure to his relationship with Selena we haven't really talked about it much but while you're hallucinating Joker he'll pop in at certain moments to give his thoughts on the situation that includes locking up criminals and after each villain is thrown in the gcpd Joker will have some commentary the same goes for Riddler if you manage to beat his side mission before the end of the main story in which you can get two comments by Joker one after Riddler's initial lock-up and another after revisiting him for a more cinematic conversation here's both Eddie doesn't need psychiatric help no no no beat him up lock him up that's the best medicine you are never going to win enigma Tut Tut Batman in your incessant Quest For Justice you've just deprived the city of its one true genius I'm sure we'll cope cope yes but also regress my puzzles are the Whetstone with which to sharpen your intellect ah keep me in here and let your mind turn to mush it will be all the easier when we reconvene so be honest bats you don't have to solve any riddles do you you just like to make him cry since we haven't really talked much about these bonus Joker hallucinations and inmate conversations here are a few more that I think are fun now old pig face here total lunatic far too good for this place don't worry you'll be the first one I let out I hope whatever they paid you was worth it Slade the chance to fight you is always worth it Batman I'm flattered you should be when a man earns my respect that means I do not rest I devote all of my energy everything I have to killing him so at what point is world's greatest assassin become false advertising of all the crimes you missed while capturing us so how's it hanging huh color me insensitive but I've always wanted to ask did everything get split down the middle you're stepping into my church now deacon look around you Batman look at what you seek to protect Gotham is Fallen why are you still fighting this is over I say when it's over Blackfire take him down to the cells hey don't look too pleased hey spotsy it's just I owe Gotham Church an apology for that incident with a Hydrochloric holy water that was one hell of a baptism but those are the main story side missions and if you thought that wasn't enough extra content there is still DLC side missions starting off we have Killer Croc our mission begins when we learn that the iron Heights Penitentiary which is basically an Airship prison has crashed into the river Batman goes to investigate and calls Nightwing for backup inside the places in Ruins with many dead guards and inmates one lucky Survivor tells us that Killer Croc managed to escape and tear out the engine which is how they crashed shortly after this we find another Survivor who just happens to be the warden before we can get much information from him Killer Croc leaps in and steals the warden away Croc is also looking much larger and more monstrous compared to when we saw him last in Arkham City which raises a lot of questions continuing through the Airship we find a lab containing a video diary of the warden in it he describes how they apprehended killer croc in the lighthouse in Gotham speaking of which if you go there you can find evidence that Croc has been living there based on all these skeletal remains but after capturing Croc the warden decided to run experiments on him since he was fascinated by Croc's ability to regenerate law limbs the warden had Crocs limbs purposefully cut off to test their ability to grow back and this brought a great deal of trauma to Croc the toll of the pain started to manifest itself physically too causing Croc to grow larger as his body attempted to adapt in the Next Room we'll find Croc holding the warden prisoner requesting you find a way to change him back to how he was before we break in to stop croc from potentially killing the warden which leads to a boss fight against him with Nightwing alongside us this is another team combat encounter and I thought this was a really enjoyable one mostly due to the animations associated with The Croc takedowns he's so large that it's fun watching Batman and Nightwing flip around to evade his attacks and beat on him together they're both so in sync that it's a joy to watch them work together to take down croc in unison with Croc defeated we bring the warden back out to safety he's the True Villain of this story though and Batman treats him accordingly using the Batwing Croc and Warden are brought to the gcpd and locked up also the gcpd is Matt Hatter when we go to interrogate him he tells us that he's kidnapped three gcpd officers and hidden them around the city in order to find them all we have to do is listen for the siren song what he means by siren song is a distortion he's created to their police sirens that we can hear from a distance to pinpoint their location [Music] the hostages are each trapped in the trunk of their car surrounded by bombs so Batman diffuses each car to free them however the final car that we find is empty with only a book inside officer cash also calls them to tell us that the missing police officer has returned back to them no harm done this is strange so we head back to the hatter when we get there we question Mad Hatter about the book he tells us that the answer is inside it we just have to open it when we do we turn to a storybook page of Arkham Asylum and then the room starts to black out as we fall down the rabbit hole like Alice in Wonderland as we enter the book each chapter is reminiscent of each of the Rocksteady Batman games and it's a really fun stroll down memory lane I also love the watercolor style textures all over the characters now and I think this is one of the most fun levels visually although I do think it's strange that on the ground is a picture of sick Joker that's from Arkham City so I'm not sure why it's in the Asylum chapter regardless the page turns and we're back in Arkham City fighting Joker Goons and tiger guards when the page flips again we'll be in a chapter themed around Arkham Knight after beating this chapter we'll remove our cell off and the cop from the hallucination and lock up Mad Hatter it turns out that the police siren we heard earlier when rescuing the cops was actually a form of hypnosis that primed us to enter a hallucination when we opened the book pretty clever but Hatter is still super weird and creepy especially when he's asking Batman to be his Alice oh no no no no no no a magician can't reveal his traits I'll keep you guessing Just for kicks oh Alice why not brew some tea and snuggle up in here with me you need help Jervis if you want the help then why so callous join me Batman be my Alice next up is Rachel ghoul who mysteriously disappeared after puppeteering the events of Arkham City this Mission begins when we find evidence of a battle between three League of Assassins ninjas there was only one Survivor who inadvertently left a blood trail for us to follow it leads us to Elliott Memorial Hospital where the ninjas seem to be hiding out inside we can also find a badge for Dr Bradford Thorne who in the comics is known as the crime doctor the crime doctor is a physician who is known for giving Medical Aid to Gotham's underworld with this hospital now associated with hush ninjas and the crime doctor who knows what other kind of shady [ __ ] is going on here things look even worse as we get into the basement though as it's littered with dead ninjas fittingly we'll continue into the morgue where we can find some interesting details the first is the waitress from the diner at the beginning of the game and we can see she sadly didn't make it out alive the same goes for someone else at the diner the guy who told us that someone was smoking in the corner Booth below him is an even more intriguing fine though and that's a tag for the body of Talia al Ghul Bruce's love interests who died in the last game and daughter of ghoul what I find most interesting about this though is that her body's missing I like Talia a lot in the last game so I'm hoping this means that someone from the League of Assassins retrieved her body and took her to the Lazarus Pit continuing on though we'll find a secret door that takes us deeper underground where we find Rachel ghoul in terrible shape he's been revived too many times and is barely still alive his loyalist guard requests our help stating that they discovered a Pure Source of Lazarus not far from here Batman says he's not going to help them but she threatens to bring War to Gotham if he doesn't she also calls in to question his morality believing that he won't kill Reish but he also won't allow him to die if he can save him with this information Batman heads to the Lazarus source that she mentioned so that he can destroy it he first takes a sample of it though potentially is a cure for rage afterwards he places explosive gel to destroy the source however he's not alone before he can blow it up he's interrupted by Nissa al Ghul talia's sister and Rachel's other daughter Nissa tells us that their goals are the same she agrees that race has been revived too many times and each time he comes back he returns as an even worse person she requests that when we go back to him we destroy the machine that's keeping him alive she even takes the opportunity to destroy the Lazarus Source herself to further show that she's serious she also tells us that when rage dies she'll lead the league and take all of their forces out of Gotham and stop shedding innocent blood Bruce now has a tough choice will he help Nissa and the rebels by helping them kill Reish or will he keep Reish alive and risk more of his crimes if you decide to destroy the machine Batman will do just that and then fight off all of Russia's loyalist guards rage will attempt to come fight you but he can barely stand this event shows up ready to kill him for good but Batman decides to take him to the gcpd instead where he'll die naturally Nissa allows it and states that she'll stay true to her word and pull the leak out of Gotham when Batman gets raced to the gcpd we even get a nice little bit of closure between them Detective if you choose to cure rage though you'll now have to fight the rebel forces as they swarm you Nissa will also attack you questioning your decision already being healed by the Lazarus chemicals race is able to stand and speak to Nissa he calls her a traitor and she charges him he manages to slash her in the chest killing his own daughter Rach then Escapes in a cloud of smoke Batman offers to try and get some Lazarus chemicals for Nissa but she refuses not wanting to become like her father before she legitimately dies so yeah nothing about this ending feels good as Batman leaves the hospital though Alfred calls and tries to give Bruce a sense of optimism all of the League's ninjas have left Gotham and race will need some time to heal Alfred feels that Bruce managed to stop a war but I still can't help but feel like this was the bad ending this takes us to our final side mission for Mr Freeze which begins when we find a ship named Nora trapped in an iceberg Insider a bunch of dead Frozen militia guards as well as Mr Freeze we can also see that the cryogenic Pod that usually contains Nora is broken and the cryo generator that powers it is unstable free states that scarecrow and the militia wanted freeze to help them defeat Batman but like Ivy he refused as a result they took Nora from him and she'll die if she's not soon returned to the Pod desperate freeze-ass Batman to go find her while he works on repairing the ship when Batman finds her and rescues her he gets a moment to speak with her we get the vibe that she's felt every moment that she's been in that cryogenic sleep and that she's tired of it at this moment Victor calls and he and Nora get to talk for the first time in years Victor as soon as you're back I'll freeze you again please [Music] I'm nearly there the next round of therapists don't you see I don't want saving more Victor the generator is in trouble so he put Nora in the Batmobile and head back to the ship we'll then race through the ice and snow tunnels and it feels like bobsledding in a tank I also really love these slow-mo cinematics as we leap into the fight seeing Victor standing Atop The Ship ready for battle really great scene there we'll next try to fight off all the militia forces but there's too many of them and we're quickly getting overwhelmed the only solution is to detonate the cryogenerator which will take them all out but it also means that freeze won't have any way to save Nora Nora says it's what she wants so freeze detonates it I want the equipment it's all gone I can't save you maybe there's another way Victor this isn't you I won't let you destroy yourself anymore then let me live [Music] I won't have much time days time never has been on our side Victor at that moment Batman calls in the Batwing so he can leave and give them some space together it's a really sad moment knowing that they'll both likely die soon but it's nice that they'll have each other during their last few days this is my favorite of the DLC side missions because I think it's a very heartbreaking story and the voice performances of Chrissy Jones as Nora and Maurice Lamarck as Victor really sell the emotion of course Bruce's lack of emotion afterwards really kills the moment should I keep tracking them let them go we won't see them again so even though that concludes the side missions of the game Rocksteady still included more DLC missions focusing on the other playable characters we'll start with the largest one the Batgirl DLC which takes place in the past before the events of Arkham Asylum the story also takes place at the abandoned Seagate amusement park which Joker has turned into a hideout if you recall from the main game you can find Batgirl's suit along with newspaper headlines one describing a time where she saved the commissioner this DLC plays out that story during a time where Joker has kidnapped Commissioner Gordon and taken him to this abandoned amusement park Batgirl plans to save her father and we can see that she kicks all kinds of ass to do so foreign specifically said he'd kill him if Batman showed up if anything happened to him I don't know what I do don't worry Barb you got this it's gonna be all right how can you be so sure well for one Robin's a good luck as you can see this DLC will not only focus on Batgirl but also Tim Drake Robin who will play a supporting role I'm a big fan of this pairing since we were told that Barbara and Tim had fallen in love and got engaged in the main game so I'm interested to see the early moments of that relationship and how it blossomed even more exciting though is that for the first time in the series we get to see Batgirl and play as her as far as her combat she plays mostly the same way as Batman sharing a lot of the same moves that said she's not just a reskin of Batman since she has some of her own unique animations primarily via her takedowns Batgirl ultimately feels lighter and more acrobatic compared to Batman which I think is a good way to differentiate the two of them as well I also like that Batgirl is more of a kicker utilizing her legs a lot in combat which I think makes her style feel more unique compared to the rest of the bat family another unique aspect of Batgirl's gameplay is her hacking ability since Barbara is such a tech whiz she's also more proficient with the remote hacking device allowing her to control more objects in the area after gaining entry to the amusement park Joker broadcasts to Batgirl and Robin he based says that he set this up as a way to test them to see if they sink or swim as Heroes we know from the main game that joker hates the sidekicks and feels that they interfere between his and Batman's fun rivalry so ultimately Joker has set this up as a way to kill two of them without the interference of Batman later on Joker gives a different broadcast describing how Batman has changed since getting Sidekicks which I found to be pretty interesting ladies exhausted if he's not exhausted he's preoccupied making all kinds of silly mistakes I believe they call it baby brain best way to cure baby brain is to get rid of the babies as we head through the gate we get a great look at the Seagate amusement park off in the distance if you recall from the last video we can even see the amusement park in the beginning of the game which is a fun detail as well we'll get to explore all of it as a mini expansion as well as uncover the lore of its Origins which are all pretty interesting to start Barbara tells us that this was an oil rig owned by an oil tycoon and he eventually built an amusement park on it for his daughter despite it being fully operational the place never actually opened due to permit issues his daughter later died and he disappeared leaving the amusement park abandoned pretty intriguing and there's more to that story that we'll discuss deeper in the video for now though Batgirl and Robin Traverse the trolleys to reach the park along the way they get some interesting character moments for example they run into a sniper and Robin says he'll take him out batgirlin says she can do it and uses her remote hacking device to electrocute him afterwards Tim tries to be playful and surprisingly gets shut down how'd you get so good with computers books ah looks I've heard of those Tim yeah not now not exactly the kind of chemistry you'd expect from them knowing that they'd be married in the future but I think it says a lot about their current mindsets I assume this takes place before the two started dating so it's interesting to see that Robin was the one who was interested first and how he's trying to catch her attention now probably isn't the best time though since she's focused on rescuing her father but you also get the sense that she's got something to prove as the only female member of the bat family I'm sure the other members want to do things for her a lot of the time as we saw Robin offer to take out the sniper her outfit also closely resembles Batman drawing a lot of comparison with even Batman calling her a copycat at one point speaking of which let's talk about Barbara's comic Origins a bit when she was first introduced she was not only the commissioner's daughter but also a librarian which I believe is true for the Arkham continuity as well we even get a nod to the center Clock Tower workspace where she has a poster about books in those early Comics Barbara had no association with Batman but did see him as an idol her and her father were invited to a policeman's masquerade ball in which she made her own variation of the Batman costume on the way to the party she Witnesses Bruce Wayne get jumped by killer moth so she Springs into action to rescue him Bruce runs away to Don his Batman outfit while Batgirl fights killer moth moth ends up escaping and Batman tells Barbara that he's not looking to be allies instead of calling it quits after this Barbara is hooked on the idea of fighting crime and trains herself for the day that it might happen it's sooner than she thinks when she goes to drop off a rare book at Wayne Manor which coincidentally happens to result in another Killer Moth attack she dresses up as Batgirl and helps Batman and Robin capture Killer Moth leading to Batman accepting her as an ally in the Arkham Knight prequel Comics it's similar but different in that Barbara is on a tour of the police department with her dad when she notices a makeshift Batman outfit the police have been trying to figure out how Batman does what he does and prove that he's not a mythological figure to prove that he's just a normal man using Tech they've built their own Batman suit to Showcase their Theory they also plan on revealing the suit to the public during a big press event Barbara and her father attend the event but it's Crash by killer moth he aims to prove to Gotham that he's the anti-batman and make a big show of it in the chaos Barbara takes the Batman suit and fights Killer Moth eventually Batman shows up and he takes down killer moth afterwards he compliments Batgirl's work but tells her to make this just a one-time thing and not become a vigilante because it's a dangerous lifestyle it's too late though as Barbara has already caught the bug and is addicted to the thrill later in the prequel Comics we see Batgirl again in a new suit the same one in the game where she attempts to apprehend Killer Croc Batman shows up and subdues him and tells Batgirl that she needs to go home and burn the suit and that he doesn't want to copycat vigilante getting killed doing what he does trouble seems to find barber though as she attends a carnival in Gotham this just so happens to be the moment that Harley Quinn introduces herself to the world in an attempt to prove herself to Joker Batgirl isn't able to apprehend Harley but she is able to restore order to the area and rescue civilians Batman's impressed but still doesn't fully approve Barbara doesn't care and tells him that he can't be everywhere at once and that she isn't Batgirl for him but for herself seeing how determined she is to be a hero it's no surprise that Batman avenge takes her on as an ally and member of the bat family returning to the game though Batgirl and Robin continue to ascend towards the park when Joker shows up to interfere as he further describes why he dislikes the sidekicks also please try to ignore how bugged out Batgirl's Cape is in this cutscene I blow things up he shows up start all over again I don't know what he's planning but Gordon he's in trouble he'll be okay I'll make sure of that now there's YouTube Knuckleheads spoiling my game my game not funny Robin RPG I see it the splits Batgirl and Robin up so Batgirl will have to continue forward alone she can still talk with Robin via their comms though and we get a moment where I think Robin was about to ask her out Barb yeah never mind don't do that it can wait you sure yeah it's nothing it can wait watch yourself out there ditto now is a really bad time for that so I'm glad he backed out still I feel bad for him since he so desperately wants to have that conversation with her it's kind of endearing but the mission should be the focus eventually Batgirl reaches the surface and we get a great look at the amusement park all of which is fully explorable often the distance is a fun Easter egg too and it's this parade balloon made to resemble one of Joker's parade balloons in the Batman 89 movie I also like how you get a different perspective on the city from here since you can see what will later become Arkham City as well as the islands of Gotham from the main game of Arkham Knight I think we can also vaguely see Wayne Manor off in the distance as well Batgirl also scans the area and finds the locations of three hostages who will have to save while Robin investigates the area further Joker has trapped each of the hostages in one of the major rides at the amusement park while you're saving the hostages you can hear Joker and Harley Quinn over the intercoms talking about you and one detail I like is how Harley Quinn will often compliment Batgirl I enjoyed it I liked each of these hostage rescue missions and I think Rocksteady did a good job utilizing the amusement park theme to place the hostages in Peril for example one has you attempting to rescue hostages from an out of control Ferris wheel while also trying to stealthfully take out Joker's men another takes place inside an attraction called the Ghost Ship which features more incredible level Design This Time more pirate themed this is just my speculation but this location could also be a reference to a DC comic series called House of mystery which featured an issue about a ghost ship the skull on the cover even seems to resemble the interactive skull in the level although the comics didn't feature a Kraken attacking the ship so I could be off on that as you leave the Ghost Ship though you'll also get jump scared by a mechanical fish with a Joker face painted onto it this could be a reference to the animated series from an episode called laughing fish where Joker infects fish with his Joker toxin creating jokerfish there might even be multiple references to jokerfish in the game with another being a shark drawing in the park with a joker grin painted on it there's also a shop called the grinning fishmonger during the main game that could be a nod to it as well going back to the host stitches though probably the most intense hostage rescue takes place at the Merry-Go-Round which has them trapped in a container that slowly fills with water you have to defeat the incoming swarms of Joker thugs fast enough to rescue the hostages before they drown seeing the water continue to rise while you fight is a great visual ticking clock and I felt a lot of pressure to quickly beat all of these thugs that pressure made it fun though and I found it to be one of the more enjoyable Encounters in this DLC after rescuing all of the hostages Robin will call in to tell us that he's located Commissioner Gordon so we head there next When we arrive we find Gordon locked in a cart that would usually house a member of a freak Show and it's reminding me a lot of The Killing Joke comic where he was locked up in a similar way but now that we're here both Harley and Joker are waiting for us and it's really awesome to see Harley in her classic outfit along with Joker who's looking especially theatrical this leads to a boss fight against Joker and Harley as well as their many henchmen and it's one of my favorites in the entire game first off I love that Joker and Harley are fighting together amongst the henchmen I stated earlier how I wish there were more combat boss fights in the main game and this is a lot closer to what I was envisioning it's a lot more thematic and having noteworthy villains in the fight elevates it significantly I also enjoy that it's almost a couple's fight Batgirl and Robin against Joker and Harley team combat missions are some of my favorite combat Encounters in the game so pairing that with a more inventive villain battle is what makes this one of my favorite boss fights I also enjoyed some added cinematic moments at certain points you can trigger a one-on-one moment against Joker where the camera Zooms in as you counter him and repeatedly smash him in the face he'll then pull out his pistol allowing you to trigger an assist from your teammate to further attack him you can do these as both Robin and Batgirl and these moments really elevated the battle for me I think because it made the fight feel more personal against Joker and it also made him stand out as a bigger threat amongst the henchmen you can get a similar encounter with Harley early on in the fight too but it's easy to miss during the fight Joker will throw a gas grenade at you and if you fail to stop him Harley will jump in for a sneak attack you can also call in your partner for a counter and these moments went a long way to give the fight a deeper feeling of teamwork overall I thought this fight was a lot of fun and I wish the main game had more fights like this where you can go hand to hand against the villains but after beating Joker and Harley we rescue Gordon as the police breached their way into the area what would that man do the best [Music] kiddo thank you I thought you said Robin's for good luck he missed didn't Nick that girl we'll scoop him out later hurt my dad Tim call in here supporting the Coast Guard put out an APB on Joker your dad's safe now it's all that matters you two okay we're a good commissioner you've saved many lives tonight including my own thank you you're welcome you sure you're okay Becca [Music] get her out of here as Harley gets carried out Gordon Returns His attention to Batgirl and Robin who've secretly and abruptly left the same way Batman always does to which he says this I guess something's running the family he of course is referring to Batman as family of Sidekicks but I think it's funny that it also applies to his daughter being similar to him more than he knows after beating this DLC story you can still return back to the amusement park as Batgirl and explore more of the area I definitely recommend doing so because there are some really interesting details that you can find to start off more generally the level design in this DLC is incredible it's such a joy just to run around and explore with so many fun carnival thematics rock city did a really excellent job crafting this location for the DLC and it's a mission that I return to often as far as what you can find though probably the most intriguing Easter egg is the one for the park starring freak Show attraction outside the great white shark roller coaster you can find a giant poster for a starfish freak and the image depicts a starfish attached onto somebody's face this is a reference to the comics villain staro an alien starfish with the ability of Mind Control via many clones of himself if a starro clone latches onto someone's face he can essentially puppet them to do whatever he wants like he manages to do to the Justice League in the comics if starro sounds familiar it's likely because he was recently featured as a villain in The Suicide Squad movie where you can see him in all his CGI Glory even better though is what you find in the game hidden behind some Bender carts as a vent shaft which takes you to a dark creepy room where staro is being held in a container even though he's much smaller here I think it's because he's in a weakened state in one of the Justice League Comics after being defeated by them he later returned and had to regrow himself by feeding on protein fed to him by mind controlled humans so that could explain his smaller size here another detail that I found strange is that there's a second container next to him that's empty Storrow can produce smaller starfish to do his bidding so I'm wondering if there is at one time another starfish in the second container which is possibly escaped I might be overthinking that but I'm sure a second container was placed here by Rock City intentionally the idea of another mind controlling starfish on the loose is certainly pretty terrifying and maybe we'll see this Easter egg return in rocksteady's next DC game Suicide Squad kill the Justice League which is confirmed to take place in the Arkham continuity the villain of that game is said to be Brainiac but I don't think it's a stretch to speculate that Brainiac could be working alongside star Pro to mind control the Justice League continuing on though my favorite of the additional details in this DLC is the story of the Park's owner Edward Burke through your exploration you'll find various carnival games that you can interact with for example a memory game where you have to hit certain plates to find the matching images they're pretty simple many games but being able to interact with them is a really nice touch after beating each game you'll get a voiceover message from Edward Burke to his daughter Katie which provide details on the origins of the amusement park the way The Story Goes Katie became ill and he spent a lot of time with her in the hospital during their talks she would describe amusement parks and even make drawings of them Edward decided to show those drawings to his therapist Dr Harley and quinzel who unbeknownst to him was also Harley Quinn if you recall Harley was actually a clinical psychologist until she fell in love with the joker and decided to be Harley Quinn full-time this is explored in much more detail in the Arkham Origins game which I'd recommend checking out going back to Edward though we can hear in a story that Harley was manipulating him and even put him in contact with the joker although Edward didn't know that's who he was dealing with actually come to think of it she was the one who suggested I build this place for us to inspire me she introduced me to a strange man in a purple suit who gave me a lot of unique ideas for the park he calls himself Jack White he's got a great laugh and sense of humor I think you'd really like him Jack White is an alias that joker often uses and it's one that he used around the time of Arkham Asylum as well company owned by a Mr Jack White one of Joker's oldest aliases so Joker pays Dr Young to create his army and then all of a sudden he stops doesn't make any sense the Asylum Game is actually referenced further in the next audio file from Edward Burke where he mentions that his daughter's illness became worse and the doctors had no solutions for so Joker referred him to Dr Penelope young who was able to give Edward's daughter a special treatment that kept her alive Penelope young is a doctor from Arkham Asylum who's experimenting on Bane and created the Titan formula her intentions were good since she legitimately wanted to cure people but Joker ended up manipulating and blackmailing her as well as weaponizing her formula which led to all the Titan monsters in that game continuing Edward's Story Once you find and complete all of the games and listen to his voice recordings you'll gain access to his office it's in total disarray and clearly hasn't been touched in a long time inside you can find a joker card lying on the ground and on the walls you can see the drawings Katie made for her dad as well as purchase orders for the amusement park equipment suggested by Joker you can also find a table full of liquor bottles and pills along with a final tape to Katie Kitty died before she could see the park Jack blamed me and said I should never have taken her to Gotham General in the first place but how was I to know he told Dr Young to Triple the dosage of her alternative meds but that only seemed to make things worse she died last week and the pain is unbearable Dr quinzel says it won't get better she says the pain will just get worse and that there's no point in going on she's right she always is I signed the park over to Jack and uh well my only hope is that he does something inspiring with it as for me I'll be with Katie soon these pills Jack gave me will make sure of that you're supposed to be painless [Laughter] [Music] in the bed you actually find these skeletal remains of Edward Burke his tail is a tragic one and it paints a good picture of Joker's Sinister nature and the lengths he'll go to to get what he wants as well as how needlessly cruel he can be to his victims I found the tale of Edward Berg to be a fascinating one and a great reward for exploring the Seagate amusement park and overall I really love this DLC I've already expressed how impressed I was with a level design but I also want to complement the writing I think it was great to see how confident and motivated Barbara was as Batgirl and I like seeing the early stages of her relationship with Tim my only criticism is that I was hoping for a little bit more chemistry between them throughout the main story we're told how in love they are but you never see it in fact I don't think they were ever in a room together until this DLC I mentioned in the last video how in the comics it's usually Nightwing and Batgirl who are dating so I was curious as to why that change was made for it to be Tim in this game ultimately I think it was just to give Robin some extra motivation in the main story since Nightwing and Batgirl already have decent arcs if that's the case then I do think the decision to have Tim and Barbara dating was helpful since it gave some extra your depth to Robin as well as some nice tension between him and Batman as Batman attempted to hide the danger Barbara was in from him in that regard I guess I'm fine with the change but I still wanted the game to sell me on their relationship more so I was hoping this DLC story could expand on why they're so good together but I ended up slightly underwhelmed on that front otherwise I think the DLC was great though it's one that I enjoy replaying and it makes me want to see more Batgirl stories that said had this Arkham series continued it wouldn't be unheard of for Batgirl to be a playable character again in the comics Barber actually regained the ability to walk again and she reclaimed the mantle as Batgirl let's now move forward in time though and check out the other DLC missions let's start with Harley Quinn's DLC set right before the events of Arkham Knight in this story Harley's been tasked by scarecrow to break out poison ivy so they can all be present for his meeting I think it's fitting to have Harley rescue ivy for a couple reasons too the first is that she was the one to release Ivy in Arkham Asylum so it's a nice call back to that moment the other is that Harley and Ivy end up having a relationship in the comics so it's pretty fun to see them paired together Ivy is being held in the bloodhaven police department and in a few hours we'll be transferred to Black gate prison this is Harley's opportunity to strike so we'll play as her as she fights her way through the police department Harley has her own unique combat animations and she has a very acrobatic playstyle she's also armed with some unique gadgets such as a snare that will trap enemies and ribbons for a short amount of time she also has a trusty baseball bat which she'll use in some of her more devastating attacks like takedowns for example I also thought it was interesting how Harley's Hut is different from everybody else's including her objective hints which are all scribbled in red and seemed to glitch out thematically this is supposed to symbolize Harley's psychosis I think it's a great way to visualize it this goes even further when you trigger her version of detective Vision the entire room goes red and words cover the walls from her subconscious they're mostly incomprehensible but you can occasionally make out phrases like don't judge me he never gave up dear God I'm alone I'll Never Love another and we changed I like how jumbled together the writing is because it gives you a sense of just how chaotic Harley's mind is right now especially after the death of the Joker and her scattered thoughts seem to reinforce that sometimes you'll come across writing that's highlighted which I think is meant to symbolize certain thoughts surfacing at that moment I really like that we're getting a glimpse inside Harley's head and at times it can be sort of humorous but it's also sad to see her struggling with so many negative thoughts as we move through the police station we're eventually faced with a stealth section however there's nothing stealthy about Harley Quinn so things play out quite differently you still sneak around the place but you can't perform stealth takedowns only loud takedowns I thought this was fun since it matches Harley's chaotic and explosive personality and it added a new challenge to stealth missions she does have one ability to help with this though and that's her Mayhem mode once she fills up her meter she can go into a frenzy and One-Shot enemies in the area so you'll essentially just run around the room and ruthlessly strike as many enemies as you can before the meter depletes this reminded me a lot of a similar mechanic in The Punisher game where you can run around and just destroy everyone in the room after taking out all of the officers in the area you're free to explore a bit on a board you can find a couple wanted posters one for poison ivy B and one for Thaddeus ryerstad Thaddeus is a villain in bloodhaven going by the name Nightwing which I'm sure annoys the hell out of Dick Grayson you can also find a poster that says let's work together to fight corruption bloodhaven has a very corrupt Police Department so this poster seems to be a very minor attempt at fixing that a lot of good it's doing though since in the Next Room we can find a board that seems to outline bribery pickup locations another fun detail I discovered in this area is that if you stay in your psychosis Vision the harleen personality of Harley Quinn the good one essentially will try to talk some sense into her Holly can we please stop this craziness blah blah blah yeah you're a crazy one here Halloween he played all the interns he never cared about you okay now you're starting to piss me off once we're done here though we can use these security cameras to locate where Ivy is being held she's in the basement so we head there next before long we find poison ivy but at the same time more police officers rush in to make matters worse Nightwing shows up to fight us too like with the Batgirl DLC I was excited to have a combat boss fight and it was a cool twist to fight a hero this time it's not too crazy of a fight though since Nightwing is basically just a more advanced stun baton enemy you can't attack him directly or else you'll get shocked so you're mostly just flipping around him and attacking from behind still the thematics of fighting Nightwing is cool even if it's not as effective as I'd hoped but after defeating Nightwing Harley successfully frees Ivy and Ivy uses her plants to yank Nightwing out of the area that pretty much concludes this DLC but I thought it was a lot of fun I liked Harley's unique gameplay style and out of all of the DLC missions I think this one has the best visual design with all the creative visual flourishes to Harley's detective vision and HUD but let's move on to the next one this time Red Hood the story begins with an arm arms deal between Penguins men and black masks men red hood drops into busted and give these criminals a more ruthless kind of Vengeance were immediately thrown into a combat section and red hood has his own unique combat style unlike the rest of the bat family red hood is an anti-hero and has no problem with killing criminals this is very apparent when he uses his dual handguns which are probably my favorite aspect of his combat if you're given an opening during a fight you can press the left trigger on your controller to initiate an animation that causes red hood to Rapid Fire a few shots at an enemy instantly taking them down this is a powerful move but it also leaves you open for an extended period of time so you have to use it wisely in fact a lot of red Hood's combat style is like that compared to the other playable characters Red Hood feels the slowest but also the most powerful this forced me to play him a bit differently because his lack of speed gives you less margin of error so you have to think through your moves a little more carefully but it's an aspect that I like about it I also really love his animations since they're a great mix of acrobatics and brutality which I think is perfect for a robin-turned anti-hero his takedowns are also more like executions and as dark as it is to say it's kind of refreshing to play a character like this who contrasts so heavily with the rest of the other playable characters but after taking out all of the henchmen Red Hood interrogates one of the few surviving members of Black mask's Gang with a little convincing red hood is able to persuade him to give up the location of the rest of the weapons which are at the Docks When we arrive at the Docks we'll find it covered with armed henchmen so we'll have to silently take them out we further get a glimpse at the brutality of red hood through one of his stealth takedowns where he just walks up behind a henchman and snaps his neck I also like that red hood has a good blend of loud takedowns and Silent takedowns which I think makes him a lot of fun if you're not too worried about remaining stealthy the entire run for example there were a couple times where I get caught by henchmen and then just blast them with the Dual handguns I guess it's technically a crutch that lets you bypass some of the stealth challenge but I enjoyed getting into a firefight with these henchmen and giving them a taste of their own medicine it feels a bit like playing as John Wick but with a few Batman gadgets Rocksteady did try to make the pistols a little less overpowered though by implementing bulletproof villains who are highlighted in blue they can't be damaged by your bullets so you have to be more careful around them I think this was a smart idea and it forced me to get a little bit more creative against those particular enemies I found this to be a fun Challenge and it got me incorporating some of his other gadgets into his gameplay but like last time red hood interrogates another black mask Thug who gives the location of mask's Hideout When we arrive we find a bunch of his henchmen so we're in for another combat section it starts off easy enough and we take out all of the thugs in the room after this wave though black mask himself busts in to fight us as well I've expressed how I've enjoyed villains joining the fight and I like this final battle as well black mask has a pretty fun mechanic too where her aim is good at you giving you a moment to dodge and then counter with your own spray of bullets during this fight the thuds will occasionally mention other criminals the Red Hood has taken out recently and he's been busy fight now he's after black man look I'll kill him off the clock cake he ran Maroney now he's at the black although it's never explicitly stated that red hood killed these criminals I've always took it to mean that he did kill them with the exception of Moroni who he ran out of town drugs and guns weapons whatever you want please I'll pick a place we've got them never show my face again anyway you want I'll go anywhere how about you go to hell say out a joker for me we never see the body so black mass could still be alive but red Hood's line about Joker leads me to believe that he killed him but that ends the Red Hood DLC Mission it's short and took about 10 minutes to complete but it was fun nonetheless I loved red Hood's combat style and animations and I appreciated that we got to fight black mask especially since he was the main antagonist for Red Hood in the under the Red Hood comic run moving on though we next have a mission dedicated to Nightwing this takes place shortly after the events of the main game where Nightwing has returned to bloodhaven to continue his investigation into penguin's weapon stashes we start by breaking into one of Penguin's safe houses and fight all of the henchmen within it after beating them we can explore a bit and we find a familiar face behind the glass is penguin shark tiny who Batman met up close and personal in the last game when we investigate another one of penguins Vans were conveniently jumped by another Criminal Who Nightwing decides to interrogate the thug tells us that they're planning to break penguin out of the gcpd and that it's going down right now with that knowledge Nightwing decides to return to Gotham once again as he approaches the gcpd we get a good look at the front of the building which appears to be under construction to repair all of the damage from The Siege scarecrow laid on it in the main game we'll next see the blown up bat signal which Nightwing discusses with lucious Fox you know when you fitted this thing with a self-destruct option you could have asked him why that was never a very popular word in Mr Wayne's vocabulary ah yes the stoney-faced intractability we left him for these guys on the other hand look very tractable they're tampering Mr Grayson I found them it's pretty hilarious to see Nightwing just casually watching these thugs from a distance and I like the lightheartedness of this Mission so far it makes me wish we had more Nightwing in the Arkham series after beating the thugs Nightwing places a remote hacker on the power station that the thugs were messing with which patches them into penguin's Communications and Nightwing can't help but mess with them ah sorry boss we're not getting you out of there anytime soon cause we just got our asses kicked no you from here we have to clear out all of Penguin's men from the gcpd this is a pretty big stealth section with a lot of verticality since you can Traverse the multiple floors of the police station I've always found this to be a pretty challenging Mission too due to the large quantity of henchmen your limited ability to get high above them and Nightwing's limited gadgets compared to Batman I died a lot during this Mission but surprisingly I never felt like I was beating my head against the wall to complete it in fact I think it's one of the better stealth missions in the game because it's legitimately a good challenge it's not just difficult for the sake of being difficult this Mission also made me realize just how much I had been using gargoyles and high Vantage points as they crudge in stealth missions and having that ability restricted here really forced me to think through my actions more and pay closer attention to my surroundings since things are so close quarters it also forces you to quickly adapt to situations since it can be pretty easy to get caught off guard I've never felt like I've been good at Arkham stealth missions and this one is no different but I can at least appreciate that this was a well-crafted stealth mission after taking out all the henchmen though Lucius calls into to give us an update on Tim and Barbara ah my heart melts as you can see there's a lot of positivity around the office regarding Gordon's election as mayor and we even find his desk with pictures of him and Barbara and Barbara and Tim another desk you can find is a fun one which has a bunch of cupcakes and a wanted poster the poster is for someone named Sarah York aka the marshmallow Thief Sarah York isn't a character from the comics and is instead trainee environment artist on the Rock City staff I'm guessing this is an inside joke at the company and it's a fun read the rest of it says born in your nightmares build like a boss trade ridding the world of marshmallows peculiarities inability to turn left and eyes Shifty thank God they caught her but now that we've cleared the gcpd of henchmen it's time to recapture penguin hey boss we're getting you out yes Nightwing oh he's right here we thought you'd want to say hello oh I like nah sold off much obliged maybe we should get that light on the roof fixed change the symbol what do you say thanks for the offer but this isn't permanent hey little man please hasn't been the scene without you get stuffed as short as this mission was I enjoyed the gameplay elements within it as well as a glimpse of Gotham post Batman but let's keep moving into the next DLC this time for Catwoman this one takes place shortly after the events of the main game as well as Catwoman attempts to get revenge on the Riddler for kidnapping her this Mission begins at Winslow's toy shop and not to the Superman villain Winslow shot AKA Toyman Catwoman has learned that Riddler's robot Factory is hidden within the toy shop so she intends to break in to gain access Catwoman first has to steal key cards from the guards so we start with a stealth section sneaking around the toy shop this plays pretty much identically to Catwoman Stealth gameplay in Arkham City where she'll climb on the ceiling and pickpocket guards activating all the keys alerts the guards as well as triggers a riddle in the middle of the room as you'd expect we'll spend the next few minutes stealthfully taking out guards before attempting to Solve the Riddle the riddle itself isn't too tricky and requires you to explore the toy shop objects on display when you find the corresponding display in the store you'll also find a hidden number on it somewhere indicating what order to push the buttons while exploring the there are a couple other interesting toys that you can find as well such as another nod to the ghost train that we've discussed a couple times now also what the hell is this doll I don't recognize it and it's creepy as hell but anyway pushing all the buttons in the proper sequence reveals a doorway to Riddler's robot Factory right inside the doorway is another Easter egg this time to the movie Batman Returns this cat head is the logo for a company called Shrek's owned by Max Shrek the tower for which is the building Max push Selena Kyle out of essentially triggering her transformation into Catwoman eventually we find the elevator to Riddler's robot Factory and take it all the way down meanwhile Riddler attempts to communicate with the AI he's created while he's still imprisoned at the gcpd computer computer is I your master hello The Riddler you know you're very smart today thank you computer but this is about our most exigent do not understand oxygen it means urgent understanding now thank you yes yes you're welcome now the Gotham Police Department currently has me in New York and I do not understand you idiotic machine confined incarcerated banged up I don't know which is more corrupt the prison industrial complex or your vocabulary files you're welcome Riddler is reaching out to his computer to run a jailbreak protocol to help him get out of prison unfortunately he didn't program it well enough and it keeps erroring out meanwhile Catwoman attempts to use a lift in the factory which alerts The Riddler to her presence Catwoman tells him that she's going to destroy his Factory and steal all his money so he deploys his Riddler Bots to attack her this leads to a combat Gauntlet against the Riddler Bots as well as various traps that Riddler sends our way I thought this was a fun combat sequence until I got to the last wave in this phase you'll fight more Riddler Bots but the floor will slowly become electrified starting from the perimeter and working its way in it's not a race to defeat the Bots before the whole floor becomes electrocuted but more of a battle with limited floor space the idea is pretty cool however I don't think this part was properly play tested because you're eventually left with only four squares to stand on which isn't enough Catwoman's counter animations will often put her into the electrified squares despite your best efforts and I died a lot during this Mission I mentioned earlier how the Nightwing stealth section was tough but a fair challenge this is not the same it's frustratingly difficult and it forces you to just stay in one spot encounter repeatedly hoping you destroy all the Bots before you accidentally die again even if you manage to do this successfully there's nothing fun about it it's severely limited my ability to engage with the combat mechanics to the point I was just standing still and pressing one button so I was really disappointed by this section and it kind of ruined the mission for me which is a shame because the rest of it had been so good up until this point but after finally beating this phase Catwoman continues to Riddler's computer oh gee it's locked and encrypted so good luck thanks Eddie I won't accept the plea bargain despite my feelings over that last combat phase I do still enjoy the writing and how the Riddler's overconfidence in himself and his technology was his own downfall now that Catwoman has access to the computer she transfers all of Riddler's money to herself and then initiates the self-destruct sequence to Riddler's Factory Riddler's Dropped a Bomb to her neck so he definitely deserved this and it's nice to see Catwoman come out Victorious but that brings us to our final DLC Mission focusing on Tim Drake Robin this Mission takes place after the events of the main story as well after Tim and Barbara learn of two faces escape from prison they even left their tropical resort honeymoon to return to Gotham and recapture Two-Face a fact that Robin isn't super psyched about the mission begins at Hell's Gate waste disposal which two face controls is a front for illegal activities Robin will have to clear the room while Barbara provides backup as Oracle over their comms this is another great stealth level thanks to its large size and lots of verticality as much as I enjoyed the challenge of a close quarter stealth Mission during Nightwing's DLC I still really enjoy zipping high above the criminals stalking them for the right moment to strike one of my favorite details about this Mission though is that it gives us a glimpse at how the absence of Batman is affecting Robin and Oracle Robin is still trying to find the confidence to live up to what Batman started and Oracle is nervous that he'll change himself to try to live up to those standards the Foreman's in the controller he'll know where two faces hiding I'll make him talk really what nothing Barbara I know when you want to say something okay it's just you were always the good cop weren't you good cop huh okay despite him not being as intimidating as Batman I think Robin does a good job at interrogating this guy where is he hi excuse where okay okay I'll talk he's in the main office I swear not bad huh very scary honey when we enter the main office Two-Face broadcast that he knows we're here and to come find him he also suggests that Robin should just turn around and leave now that he doesn't have Batman to hold his hand through this I really like the Mind Games the Two-Face is playing since I'm sure Tim is still struggling to find that confidence in himself we continue forward though and there are some pretty cool Easter eggs in this hallway the first is an Easter egg for the long Halloween story in the display case we see a newspaper clipping detailing a Thanksgiving massacre in the long Halloween comic a killer is on the loose named holiday who's named that because they kill someone each holiday one of which is on Thanksgiving and on the table you can see the murder weapon a pistol with a baby bottle nipple this was found at the scene of the crime of the holiday killings and the baby bottle nipple was used as a silencer Harvey Dent helped Gordon and Batman hunt down that killer so it's pretty cool to see that comic referenced here across from this display case is a portrait of Gilda Dent Harvey's wife we see her a lot in the long Halloween graphic novel as well and it's one of my favorite Batman stories of all time it it's a great mystery and I'd recommend you check it out if you're curious and I'll leave it linked in the description continuing forward though Robin sneaks above a group of Harvey's thugs as they have a conversation about him they basically discuss how Robin is deluded if he thinks he's as good as Batman and that he's never going to be able to fill those shoes this is clearly getting into Robin's head as we can hear in his next conversation with Oracle how's it going slow you're not him so everyone keeps telling me good little moments like this are what I've been looking for in their story hearing Oracle build him up when he's feeling unsure about himself helps to show an emotional connection between them and it gives a small glimpse at why they're good together I also really like that the writers at Rock City decided to explore the mental state of these characters instead of just making it a straight up action Mission and is helping me to connect with these characters further continuing on we can find a reference to the Hell's Gate legal company that we've seen ads for around Gotham this seems to be the headquarters for it a desk with about 10 phones connected so it looks like Harvey found a way to cash in on the Arkham City Compensation Plan in the Next Room is another display case full of Easter eggs specifically a pair of dice and a set of tarot cards referencing the Arkham Asylum graphic novel a serious house on Sirius Earth we talked a lot about this comic in the Arkham Asylum video but not a ton about two-faces role in it it's actually pretty interesting though since two-faced is obsessed with making binary Decisions by flipping his coin the doctors at Arkham Asylum decided to try to wean him off of that by introducing objects that allowed extra options they first started with a six-sided to die and when they felt he was ready they moved him up to a pack of tarot cards giving him 78 options to choose from unfortunately he still can't make simple decisions like using a bathroom without consulting the tarot cards which causes him to piss himself on the floor of the Asylum when we first see him so the dice and Tarot cards are a nod to that story and I think it was a cool little Easter egg following this we're faced with a sniper guarding the way to Two-Face Robin has a solution though and it's one of my favorite Gadgets in the game the bullet Shield Robin Shield can soak up multiple gunfire shots allowing him to get up close and slam them with it this also leads to a great cinematic moment as Robin crashes the thug into two faces Lair it's one hell of an entrance and transitions us into a combat encounter against all of two faces men after defeating them we get our final confrontation with Two-Face so the boy becomes a man too bad it's short-lived it wasn't Brave coming here it was stupid you're not the bat never were never will be Tim get ready sorry kid you can't do this all alone foreign let's get this sack of crap back to gcpd we're not getting to that beach are we I think the honeymoon's over Barb despite it not being a boss fight I actually really enjoyed this ending this DLC mission in particular has been more character motivated as we see Tim struggle to live up to Batman's Legacy and how to be his own man while honoring Batman the villains all see him as a child and lesser to Batman which affects his confidence and he's struggling to overcome that self-doubt something I think is relatable I think the final cut scene encapsulates that struggle so I like that Robin is down and out in this moment against Two-Face but manages to still overcome the odds and defeat him I also love that we can see what side two faces coin landed on showing these scar side up meaning that Two-Face would have killed him had he not found the confidence in himself to strike in that moment I also like that Two-Face was the main villain here since he was the villain Robin had to prove himself against in the comics so it's fitting to have him prove himself against Two-Face in the game as well so ultimately I think the DLC Mission itself was good but I really loved the depth it went into Oracle and Robin especially and how the death of Batman has changed things making this one of my favorite DLC missions but that covers all the additional side missions and stories however there's still plenty of content to sink your teeth into outside of these story missions for example the challenges menu which contains even more combat and stealth challenges than any prior game before getting into those though we can first select alternative outfits for each of our playable characters including the Batmobile outside of the two we played in the main story there's a robin-themed Batmobile which actually looks really awesome with its red and gold color scheme there's also a classic 1970s themed Batmobile made to resemble Batman's costume from that era of comics potentially the most badass Batmobile skin though is surprisingly the one themed around the Riddler it's covered in green Riddler graffiti and manages to look really eerie against the dark paint job of the Batmobile outside of that is also a rock steady themed Batmobile which is probably the one I like to use the most the white and black color scheme looks really good but I especially love the transition from black to white is a bunch of bats flying towards the back of the car those are all the Batmobile skins that can be played throughout the entirety of the game but there are still some others that can be used exclusively during challenges or in the open world after defeating all the villains since these skins aren't compatible with the game's battle mode these Skins are mostly from the movies like the 1960s Batmobile as well as the 1989 Batmobile those ones in particular get their own DLC race track which we'll discuss momentarily but first I want to look closer at the ones that don't like the Batmobile from the first game Arkham Asylum up until now we've only been able to look at it but getting the ability to drive it is really exciting especially if you want to wear the Batman outfit from the game alongside of it the same goes for the Batman v Superman movie Batmobile which is probably the closest to the game's version of the Batmobile it's the most tank-like and takes up a lot of space so it's a lot of fun racing through the city in this Behemoth one detail that I really love about these Batmobiles too is that Rocksteady used these sound effects from their respective movies so that each Batmobile feels distinct and true to its film here's an example with the Batman v Superman Batmobile he's had enough [Applause] the same goes for the other movie Batmobiles which you get a better sense of in their thematic DLC race tracks we'll start with the 1960s Batman race track which in my opinion is the most fun of the bunch the theme song for the show plays during the entire race and the entire track is littered with little nods to the show for example there's a giant canister of shark repellent that will spray as you pass by a nod to that very intense shark fight scene that we discussed in the Arkham City video the shark repellent bat spray [Music] you can also drive next to a cardboard cutout of Batman and Robin scaling a building another fun little detail I also love how you can pull up to a drive-in movie screen and watch the intro to the TV show as Batman and Robin use the Shakespeare bus to enter the secret door to the Bat Cave to become Batman and Robin this entire race track is so atmospheric and you can tell that Rocksteady had a blast creating it it just exudes fun and it's so enjoyable to drive through foreign [Applause] I really enjoyed the next DLC track 2 which is themed after the Christopher Nolan Batman films primarily Batman Begins unlike the bright and cheery 1960s Batman theme this one is a lot darker to match those movies Rock City nailed it too because I think it felt the most nostalgic during this track during this race my mind kept going back to that big Batmobile Chase sequence from Batman Begins as Bruce attempted to get Rachel back to the bat cave while being chased by police like in the film you'll be transitioning from the rooftops to Gotham's freeways regularly and I felt like I was reliving that scene like I mentioned earlier the sound effects of the Batmobile go a long way to sell that feeling too with the booming blast of the thrusters to the sputtering sound of the wheels as you drift foreign there's also a moment where you can drive into the bat cave by hitting your thrusters and Diving through a waterfall this felt especially thematic and always made me want to yell thank you there's still another DLC track though this time themed around the Tim Burton Batman films these tracks were a blend of the Batman 89 film as well as Batman Returns which is where you begin as you drive through a snowy Cemetery with the glow of the Moon Lighting the level you'll also race past a bunch of duck carts something the penguin used for transport during the Batman Returns film you'll also find the Joker's Parade from the Batman 89 film complete with the green and purple cars on the street and gas-filled balloons in the sky this section in particular feels like driving right through the movie and I'm loving rocksteady's attention to detail I'm also really enjoying getting to drive through penguin's Lair with all the Penguins with rocket strapped to them and like with the previous Batmobiles the sound effects and background music really go a long way to sell the atmosphere and pull you in foreign [Music] [Music] there are also some separate missions exclusive to the PlayStation consoles featuring scarecrow race tracks in these you'll drive through a nightmarish Gotham hallucination covered in a fiery orange Hue you'll have to dodge the attacks of a giant scarecrow and race through the city to reach him eventually you'll make your way into a combat Arena to face him you'll have to shoot scarecrow to damage him while also juggling the malicious tanks he's sending after you after doing enough damage to scarecrow he'll disappear and you'll face him in a similar way through the other two scarecrow nightmare missions these were actually a lot of fun and some of my favorite Batmobile missions in the game I think the thematics and the visual creativity of these missions are what are really pulling me in but the gameplay itself is enjoyable too it's fun racing through Gotham while dodging all these scarecrow injectors popping up from the ground and each of these scarecrow fights at the end were a good challenge but not overwhelming it's a shame these didn't make it to the other platforms because I think these are missions that everybody would enjoy Beyond those missions though I want to talk a bit about the batmobile's overall game play and how it contributes to the game I talked about this a bit in the part 1 video stating that for the most part I enjoyed using the battle mode and fighting militia tanks I also enjoyed chasing APC vehicles at high speeds through Gotham while also side swiping enemy vehicles to take them out in general I think the batmobile's gameplay is good there's just too much of it I'm sure I'm not breaking any new ground by criticizing the Batmobile in Arkham Knight but I do think the hate it gets is a bit overblown I've seen people that really knock the game because of it stating that the Batmobile ruins the game and I can't agree with that or at least that wasn't my experience the Batmobile was definitely overused though to the point of becoming tedious had Rocksteady dialed back the amount of Batmobile required missions I don't think it would be as big of an issue and I kind of relate it to the Riddler trophies collecting Riddler trophies can be fun at times since there are some really creative puzzles but since there are 243 of them it becomes really tiresome after a while the Batmobile feels the same for the first half of the story I was enjoying the Batmobile but as I kept having to slow down the story and take out tanks or complete what felt like were never-ending amount of side missions I started to get worn down I think another issue is that the batmobile's combat mechanics just aren't varied enough to sustain a large amount of missions what I mean is that I felt like I was doing the same things repeatedly during battle mode Dodge shoot Dodge shoot Dodge shoot even after unlocking new weapons for the Batmobile I still felt like this was the main combat Loop which became a bit tedious Batman himself essentially has the same combat loop with the free flow combat system but there are so many different attack types that you're attempting to react and respond to in these encounters that it still manages to feel fresh during each playthrough Batman also has a lot of different combat options to handle situations however the player wants which also help to keep things fresh the Batmobile doesn't have those same amount of options and Randomness to its fights so each encounter felt the same some of these Batmobile combat missions can get pretty tough too especially towards the end of the game when you're juggling large quantities of enemies including flying drones and tanks that can fire tracking Rockets it can be easy to get overwhelmed in these moments and your reflexes are definitely put to the test so if you're someone who wasn't enjoying the Batmobile fights in the early game and kind of checked out from it that I could easily see how frustrating these later battles would become me personally I actually enjoyed the Batmobile for the most part but I still felt it was overused and needed to be dialed back I wasn't having rage moments during the Batmobile missions but I definitely had moments where I felt like encounters were going on too long I even recall looking at the enemy quantities at the top right corner of the screen and feeling bummed out if it was a large amount of enemies not because I felt like it would be too much to handle but because it meant I would be dodging and shooting for a longer amount of time so I think that's a bad sign but just to kind of wrap up my thoughts on the Batmobile I think the overall design of its mechanics were good and I'm glad it's in the game I never avoid using the Batmobile and actually find it to be a fun addition however you're forced to use it too often during the story and side missions to the point it just starts to feel tedious and repetitive which is a shame but I think that's enough beating up on the Batmobile so let's get back to Batman and the rest of the bat family we'll first take a step back and look at the different alternate outfits that you can select in the game Batman has a ton to choose from so I'm just going to pick out a few that I think are noteworthy to start off I went through the long hours to unlock this suit for the video so I just want to show it off to make it feel worth it that suit is the prestige suit which is essentially the same suit that you use in the main game but with a golden bat symbol when I put it like that it doesn't sound too rewarding but it's something so I'll take it to unlock the suit you have to reach 240 completion of the game that means beating all the main story and all the side missions during your first run and then completing all of them again in New Game Plus rock city did have some mercy on us though since all of the Riddler trophies you find during your first playthrough carry over into New Game Plus thank God you also have to complete the DLC side missions twice as well though so you can unlock the suit unless you have the DLC so it may not seem like a big reward for the time spent and it's not something I'd recommend grinding for but this game is a lot of fun and highly replayable in my opinion so it's a nice little reward for those that enjoy the game and want to complete it again in New Game Plus looking at some of the more legit skins though let's start with the movie Suits in this case Batman 89 we have the movie Batmobile skins so it's especially thematic to pair your Batmobile skin with with its corresponding Batman movie skin the movie Suits all look incredible too and ended up being some of my favorites to use in the game alternate outfits show up in the game's cut scenes as well making things even more cinematic at times I even imagined to myself that this game was a sequel for the Batman I chose to play as as if Michael Keaton's Batman was now dealing with the Scarecrow so I was mentally going full nerd with these suits but it was a lot of fun it's also really nice to see Michael Keaton's Batman with the ability to turn his head another movie suit that we get in the game is Ben Affleck's Batman v Superman suit which to my surprise looks really great in this game prior to its release I thought it would look too bulky or not really fit the game but it actually looks incredible it's probably my most used suit honestly and I love how you can see all the details of the gray parts of the suit like all the stitching and wear and tear so I was really impressed with this suit's implementation then we have what I imagine to be everyone else's favorite to use the Christian Bale suit from The Dark Knight movie this one is incredibly detailed as well with all the different pieces of armor on top of the mesh it's like you can see every little detail of the suit flawlessly it's shockingly good and looks great during gameplay this is another one that I really enjoy playing through the story with and seeing it in cut scenes makes it feel like you're playing through a fourth movie that we never got next let's look at a couple comic skins starting with zero and R out of all the skins in this game I imagine this is the one that people saw and went what the hell is this it's legitimately from the comics though and it's not a scarecrow themed batsuit we know that Batman has contingency plans for everything and during Batman rip we learned that he had a contingency plan for for getting psychologically attacked that solution was a more ruthless backup personality named Batman Zur and R zurinar was a planet that Bruce saw in a hallucination that contained another Batman so Bruce based this backup personality and costume on him another fun inclusion that I don't think we've seen in Prior games is Batman's first appearance suit complete with long pointy ears and awkward gloves this is a really fun alternative outfit to play as lastly is the Batman Beyond skin this version of it is much more armored than what I'm familiar with from the comics and animated series but I've got to say it looks awesome it's easily one of the more intense looking outfits in the game and one of the best suit designs by Rocksteady in my opinion there are plenty more Batman suits outside of these many of which we've covered in other videos so now let's look at outfits for the other playable characters starting with Robin I think he has some great alternate outfits too for starters there's the new 52 outfit a suit that has Robin fully covered up with sleeves and pants not something that's always common as we'll see with the next suit that suit is the Bert Ward Robin from the classic TV series it's not one of Robin best looks but I appreciate the lengths rocks that he went to to bring it to life I also think it's hilarious how pale they made his legs look I can't say that it's a suit that I use often but when I do I have to admit how funny it is to kick the enemy's ass in booty shorts next is the original Tim Drake suit from the comics thankfully featuring pants Tim Drake Robin is actually the first Robin to wear pants instead of shorts a change that I really appreciate potentially my favorite Robin outfit in the game though is the one year later Robin skin a comic outfit that has him in a primarily red suit with some gold trim moving on to Catwoman though she sadly only has a couple outfits the first is her outfit from the 60s TV series further allowing you to play the game in this theme although you'll need to be on Playstation to complete this all the way since the Adam West Batman skin is unfortunately PlayStation exclusive along with the Justice League 3000 skin which is based on the suit used by a cloned Bruce Wayne in the comic of the same name Catwoman's final skin is her outfit from the 90s another great look that I don't think has been featured in the prior Arkham games it's one of my personal favorites so I'm happy to see this one make it into the game next up is Nightwing who has limited alternate outfits as well outside of his default is the red variation which debuted in the new 52 comic series his last outfit is his look from the Arkham City game which is pretty similar to the Arkham Knight version but with subtle differences like a smaller mask and more Fallout Boy hair it's not my favorite and I don't hate it but I definitely think that rock city did a much better job on Nightwing's design in Batman Arkham Knight we can also select an alternate skin for Harley Quinn and we can choose between her default outfit from the main game or select her classic Harlequin Jester suit no matter how much Harley's look has changed over the years I always come back to the suit maybe I'm just nostalgic over the Batman animated series and her early appearances in comics but it's such a striking suit that always looks great and it's no different in this game our last character with alternate outfits though is Jason Todd and you can switch between his red hood appearance from his DLC Mission or you can play as the Arkham Knight these are good suits to use but I was a little disappointed that we didn't have a couple other options especially since they're already in the game firstly I would really have loved to have used the suit he was in during our final boss fight against him in the stripped down Arkham Knight suit with the red helmet it's such a badass look so I'm disappointed it wasn't carried over into being a playable outfit another outfit that I think would have been really cool to use is the robin outfit that we see him being tortured in at panessa Studios it looks unique from the other Robin skins in the game and I think it would be so interesting thematically to have this Robin wielding guns during gameplay there's an innocence to the robin symbol and outfit so it would have been really striking to see a robin wielding guns I think that would also further drive home the idea of just how far Joker was able to turn Jason Todd in an attempt to tarnish the symbol so I think that would have been a really awesome alternate outfit and since both it and the other Red Hood outfit I mentioned are already in the game I'm a bit disappointed they're not playable but anyway now let's talk about the actual gameplay as well as the challenges like in the prior Batman games you can complete combat and stealth challenges to try and obtain the high score this game is no different but there are some noteworthy additions that make this game's challenges stand out to start even though certain missions default to a certain character you can use any playable character in each Mission I believe this was an update that was added to the game after launch and I'm really glad it was because it adds so much variety to the gameplay there were plenty of missions that I play as one character and think I wonder what it would be like to bring Nightwing into this fight or any other character for that matter a lot of the missions have different features such as a fight ending if you take a hit or battling an infinite number of enemies so testing out characters in these different scenarios with was a lot of fun and really upped the replayability for me one detail I figured out accidentally is that some playable characters also have a special ability that can be triggered using the same buttons you would use to dismantle an enemy's weapons using Batman for some of the other characters it triggers an area of effect attack for Catwoman it causes her to fling her whip around her damaging all nearby enemies for Robin he'll swing his staff in a wide Arc clearing the area around him Nightwings is easily my favorite though since he'll Ricochet has a scream of stick around the room damaging multiple nearby enemies I don't think the game calls this out as an ability for you to perform maybe it does and I missed it but regardless they're a lot of fun to trigger and it makes these characters feel even more Dynamic some of the environments are pretty unique too especially the ones that return from previous games on the right you can read quotes from fans who rode into Rocksteady their picks for returning combat Arenas this led to levels like Crime Alley from Arkham Asylum and the Monarch Theater from Arkham City becoming playable the most interesting returning level though is the Iceberg Lounge which contains a hidden boss fight when the mission starts you'll notice that Killer Croc is now front and center in the background this is different from the Arkham City version where he's sitting off to the side drinking penguin is also visible in the Arkham City version but he's nowhere to be found in the Arkham Knight one that's because you can actually fight Killer Croc in this Arena if you can get a high enough score this sounds fun at first but trying to reach the point where this fight triggers was a huge pain in the ass to actually get Croc to jump out you need to achieve a score of over 1 million which is a lot harder than it sounds you basically need to perform a Flawless combo without getting hit or dropping the combo at all which for me was a combo over 500 it doesn't technically need to be one continuous combo chain since you can still pick up the combo and continue on but you're better off restarting and trying again if you drop it because it's harder to get that combo going again deeper into the fight it's also incredibly easy to drop the combo since you'll be facing enemies with shields and stun batons as well as electrified enemies so if you accidentally attack one of them head on or if the game misinterprets who you're targeting the combo is done so it was really frustrating to get that score and it took me many hours and many failed attempts before I was able to finally successfully trigger Croc ultimately I think I just had a really lucky run and like I mentioned it took a Flawless combo of a little over 500 to get there a maddening amount after you reach that number though enemies will stop spawning in and you'll have to clear out the remaining henchmen once you do you'll get a cut scene from Croc as he jumps in need a little help Nightwing jumps into and this battle becomes a team combat Mission Against Killer Croc it plays a lot like the Killer Croc DLC side mission where we Dodge his attacks and perform team takedowns to damage him the actual fight itself isn't too hard thankfully since you'll likely be pretty winded by the time you reach this point it's still a fun boss fight though and it's exciting to see Nightwing jump in after you beat Kroc the rest of the combat challenge continues but Nightwing will stay leaving you with an infinite team combat challenge ultimately I think everything after Killer Croc emerges is a lot of fun I like the infinite waves with Nightwing in the Killer Croc boss fight I just wish it wasn't so mind-numbingly difficult to get there I managed to do it once after hours of attempts and as much as I enjoyed the boss fight I never want to attempt this again it was way too stressful and not worth it even if I wanted to play it again I don't even know that I could because it was so difficult to get there I really wish Rocksteady had made this Easter egg more accessible maybe with like half the needed score maybe even something like a score of 300 000 would be better I don't know but over 1 million was way too much for a couple reasons firstly I think a lot of players will never get to experience it because it's too demanding to accomplish I honestly would have given up after a couple of hours but I really wanted to be able to show it in this video I wouldn't recommend anyone else try it either unless you really just want to be able to say you did it once otherwise it's just not worth the time secondly if you enjoyed the fight and want to experience it again it's incredibly difficult to replay if the required score were closer to three hundred thousand you could at least reasonably reach that score on another playthrough even if you got hit or dropped the combo the way it stands you're probably going to do this once and never again so as you can tell I wasn't very fond of this Easter egg because I think it should be something that's more accessible to all players it wasn't fun to accomplish and even though you get a team boss fight after achieving that score it wasn't enough of a payoff that I felt it was worth that time and stress which is frustrating because I'd love to play this fight again in this level but I'm never going to regardless I can still appreciate the novelty of hiding a boss fight in a mission like this and maybe the point was to make it an extremely difficult task that only a small percentage of the player base would experience either way I'm just happy it's done while we're on the topic of combat though I want to briefly discuss the combat mechanics of Arkham Knight and how they compare to the prior games the free flow combat system has been around since Arkham Asylum and is an incredible Innovation on the part of Rocksteady that plenty of other games have tried to replicate going into Arkham Knight it's hard to think of how they might improve upon it especially without inadvertently hurting the gameplay thankfully I think they pulled it off Batman's combat feels familiar yet better than ever he has plenty of new animations and it feels like he's often striking harder than in the last games one of my favorite new inclusions is the throw counter where you can counter an attack and launch an enemy in your desired Direction it allows you to control the battlefield more efficiently and it makes Batman feel like an absolute Powerhouse we also have the new ability to pick up enemy melee weapons and it's really satisfying to beat them with their own weapon they serve a more practical purpose as well though since they can strike through enemy defenses typically certain enemies can't be attacked directly like enemies with a shield or stun baton as well as the giant brutes to damage them you have to perform extra steps like stunning them or jumping behind them some levels have quite a lot of these enemy types and it becomes really tedious jumping over everyone to not get hit weapons provide a solution to that since you can now pick one up and strike all of these enemies like normal to prevent this from becoming too overpowered though there are some limitations the first is the pickup animation which is a bit slow and leaves you open for a moment this makes it a bit of a risk to grab a weapon so you have to be mindful of your timing an aspect that I really like the other limitation is that the weapon will break after a few uses so you need to make the most of your time with it I think these limitations were really smart because they provide a nice element of risk versus reward and it prevents the problem Arkham Origins had with the shock gloves where the weapon was too powerful and let you bypass the core gameplay mechanics so I think this was done very well there's also much more depth to the gadgets giving you more flexibility with how you use them for example as you're gliding towards a group of enemies you can fling a bunch of gadgets at them to weaken them ahead of your approach you can also use gadgets more effectively during combat by holding the gadget button when you quick fire it instead of it affecting one enemy it will now affect all nearby enemies this was incredibly satisfying to use for things like freezing a group of enemies in place or shocking a group of them you're given so many additional combat options in Batman Arkham Knight and Rocksteady did a tremendous job of elevating the already Innovative free flow combat system still I have one minor criticism that kept creeping into my mind while playing and that's that I'm still missing a more in-depth martial arts battle WB Montreal's Arkham Origins game actually had a mechanic for this against their martial artist enemy type this enemy would counter your attacks forcing you to counter their counter and it provided a really fun back and forth between the two of you that enemy type felt more skilled and it forced you to really focus on the battle and what the enemy was doing so I was really disappointed that we didn't have anything like that in Arkham Knight I know this is a minor criticism in the grand scheme of things than that I was just glowing about all the great enhancements the Rocksteady did include but I was surprised that mechanic wasn't one of them especially since it could have featured so nicely with certain enemies like the Arkham Knight and Deathstroke I know I'm not alone and wishing we could fight them hand to hand and WB Montreal's martial artist enemy type provides a great blueprint to make that happen in all fairness though Rocksteady did start to include some more exciting melee boss fights in the DLC but I'm still craving those great back and forth style martial arts battles like we got in Arkham Origins while we're on the subject let's talk about the fights in Batman Arkham Knight compared to the prior games as a quick refresher in my Batman Arkham Asylum video I criticized rocksteady's boss fights in that game stating that they weren't very exciting and didn't stand out from normal combat encounters however in Arkham City the boss fights were incredible and one of the biggest highlights for me in that game for Arkham Knight it feels like we're starting to dip back towards Arkham Asylum territory again the boss fights are definitely better than an asylum but I'm not finding that any are blowing me away like in City some of the fights are decent like the final stealth Mission Against Jason Todd The Riddler battle and the team fight against Killer Croc but the rest are just kind of okay it doesn't help that a lot of them are vehicle-based through the Batmobile it's not all bad though since I do like a lot of these cinematic and story driven conclusions like the side missions for asriel and raishal ghoul getting to choose how a story will end is a nice inclusion and not something we've seen in the rest of the series so even though these aren't exactly boss fights I do still categorize them as satisfying conclusions regardless the boss fights in general are a step backward in my opinion and I think the best boss fights in the series still housed in Batman Arkham City and Arkham Origins let's take a step back though and return to the challenges menu since there are a couple Predator missions I want to briefly discuss one of which was Nightwing and Robin High Flyers a team Predator Mission up until now I had only been doing stealth missions with Batman and surprisingly I think it's way more of an engaging experience without him Batman is the master and has all the gadgets as he should but when he's removed and you're forced to play as the other characters who are more limited they have to lean on each other a lot more during this Mission I found myself examining Robin and Nightwing's gadgets more closely and tried to formulate a plan to utilize them both together for example you can have Nightwing uses voice synthesizer to Laura henchman into a room you can then switch to Robin to use his remote hacking device to lock that same henchman in the room even simple things like this can be tricky though because you have to time when you're switching them out and the order that you do things I thought this was a lot of fun though and added a new layer of strategy to the stealth missions I liked it so much that I wish I could sub out Batman for other characters since he can do everything himself without Batman and I like that I have to cooperatively use both characters and find ways to make them mesh which makes it more of a puzzle with Batman in the mission he becomes a crutch to the point you don't really need to use the other character that much so it's a bit disappointing you're locked into specific characters in these missions since it would have been a lot of fun to piece different pairings together overall though I'm so glad that rock city Incorporated all these team missions because it freshens up the combat and stealth missions significantly and with the vast amount of playable characters in this game it greatly enhances the replayability there are a couple other Predator missions that I want to call attention to as well because I think they're really unique one of which was an inclusion based on a fan request by Arkham Knight 4 member zor which was for an endless Predator mission zor was right because this is such a fun challenge instead of just clearing the room and Calling it Quits more enemies will spawn in as you take out the others these new enemies will be more challenging than the last and you're also on a timer meaning that you'll have to move quickly or risk running out the clock you'll get more time by taking out enemies so you're incentivized to take them out quickly and efficiently it's a great Twist on these standard Predator missions and forces you to react to the evolving landscape and think ahead to the best of your ability even better you can use any of the other playable characters in this mission to test your abilities with them as well another interesting challenge level in the game is the Wayne Manor Predator Mission however it's not really the mission itself but an Easter egg within it if you explore the manor you'll come across a piano you can have Batman input a secret tune which opens up a hidden compartment in the wall foreign to start the piano being used as a key could be a reference to Batman Begins where Bruce used the same method to access a hidden elevator in Wayne Manor in the game though it's not a secret room but instead a hidden whiteboard with Bruce's notes regarding an investigation these notes seem to suggest that he's investigating the death of someone who potentially knew their killer and that there's a witness he needs to find this sounds an awful lot like the mystery you're solving in Batman Arkham VR which is a prequel to the events of Arkham Knight in that game Nightwing has been murdered and Batman is hunting for the killer Batman thinks that Nightwing knew his killer and Batman also realizes that there was a witness who saw everything this pretty much forms the backbone of the story and you'll be investigating this murder throughout the game obviously Nightwing is still alive in the main game though so he's not actually dead due to this we can assume that the events of Batman Arkham VR were an early hallucination that Batman experienced due to Joker's infected blood I don't want to spoil the ending of that game in case any of you want to play it yourselves but I think it informs a lot about Bruce's mindset set an Arkham Knight so maybe we'll explore that further in a Batman Arkham VR retrospective down the line since there are additional links between this game and that one that I'd like to discuss in it maybe when the psvr2 comes out and VR recordings will hopefully look better on screen so we'll return to this whiteboard and Arkham VR in a later video as we close out the gameplay section of this video I also want to explore the open world a bit and talk about the details within it for example I'll be jokerized Billboards and statues that you can see while under the influence of Joker's blood these randomly trigger while you're exploring the city and some of them are really subtle I like how creepy they are and I would always just catch one in the corner of my eye and have to examine it it's a really creative idea by Rocksteady and it makes the exploration more exciting there are also an insane amount of Easter egg locations many of which are very obscure starting with some of the more obvious ones there's a building for lexcorp this is a reference to Superman villain Lex Luthor who seems to have expanded his Corporation into Gotham the same goes for Oliver Queen owner of Queen Industries like Bruce Wayne Oliver Queen moonlights as a vigilante in this case green Arrow speaking of Green Arrow there's also the Black Canary Club a reference to the Vigilante Black Canary AKA Dinah Laura Lance who had a relationship with green arrow in the comics Black Canary was also a member of the birds of prey along with Barbara Gordon and you can actually find messages between them and Huntress on Barbara's computer another interesting location to visit in the game is Paulie's Diner which you can enter again after the chaos of the opening level everything's a mess and destroyed and there's just an overall sad Vibe as you walk through it it's quite the contrast from the bright and fun atmosphere of the beginning of the game and we can see just how devastating scarecrow's attack was for the people in the diner I also thought it was cool that you can find the old cobblepop manner back when penguin's family was considered high class like the Wayne's now the home is derelict and crumbling a nice visualization for how the cobblepot name has fallen over the years even more painful for penguin is that Wayne Tower can be seen looming large over the city always in View From The Manor there are also locations that give us evidence on villains from previous games such as Bane in a shipping container we can find Bane's suit in a crate finding it gives you info on Bane's whereabouts since the last game and we learned that he's managed to quit his addiction to the Venom formula the drug that gives him such Incredible strength he's also returned to his homeland the island of Santa prisca which is currently overrun with drug cartels after his return Bane focuses efforts on cleaning up send by killing 12 of the most powerful drug lords on the island afterwards he turned his attention to the prison he was born in panadura we also learned the fate of another villain from Arkham City Solomon Grundy after his defeat during that game he was presumed to be dead and taken to the morgue in the Bios we learned that Grundy revived once again and managed to break free from the morgue and is now back in the world somewhere you can also find a little room in Gotham containing a wanted poster for Grundy along with a creepy record playing the nursery rhyme that Grundy's name is based on Wednesday Grundy must be popular with the people of Gotham since we can also see an advertisement for a show about him the ad also states that Bert Weston is playing Solomon Grundy and he's another actor from the comics who eventually becomes a criminal in the comics Bert Weston becomes the villain film freak who attempts murders based on popular movies for example attempting to stab a woman in the shower like the classic scene from the film psycho thinking about it now this could actually be a fun character to see as a villain in a future movie we can all also find The Hideout for calendar man littered with dates from the calendar much like his cell in Batman Arkham Asylum as well as a cell in the Batman the long Halloween comic series on calendar man's whiteboard he has images of Batman suggesting he's been following his movements and there's also a calendar with Halloween circled in the Bios we learned that calendar man had plans of his own to kill Batman on Halloween but scarecrow beat him to the punch still calendar man was present for the death of Bruce Wayne like he promised as we saw in the final cut scene we also learned the fate of Quincy sharp who was the warden of Arkham Asylum in the first game until he was drugged and manipulated by Hugo Strange to become mayor of Gotham and initiate Arkham City since he had a hand in creating Arkham City sharp was imprisoned and in the Bios we can read about a moment he had while in jail as part of Hugo Strange's brainwashing of Quincy sharp he occasionally shows up as a hallucination to him offering him guidance in this instance the vision of Hugo Strange tells sharp to tie his bed sheet to the ceiling and hang himself from it so presumably Quincy sharp follows through with these actions and kills himself in prison so pretty dark end for that character character as far as some of the more obscure locations you can find in the game let's take a look at a few to start you can find the Royal Flush Gang poker room and not to the Royal Flush Gang in the comics as you'd expect by the name they're essentially a card themed super villain group and they premiered as villains of the Justice League there's also the store called kg Bagels a reference to the super villain kg Beast you'll also run across a building called gambies and I believe this is a reference to Paul gambi from the comics who was a tailor who specialized in making suits for Super Villains we can also find a bar called the stack deck which is a reference to the bar and criminal hangout of the same name in Batman the Animated Series next to it we can see a shop called Blaze Comics which is a fictional comic publisher often associated with releasing the Booster Gold comic series there's also a music shop that you can find called musicmeister's musicmeister is a villain that was introduced in the Batman the Brave and the Bold animated series and his power is that he's able to hypnotize people through his singing voice we can also find a shop called Ocean Master Sushi a reference to aquamanville and his half-brother Ocean Master there's also a magic shop named zatana a reference to the magical superhero zatana zatara she's been a member of the Justice League as well as the team justice league dark which deals with the darker and more mystical side of DC Comics the last Easter egg I have for you is this bench in the botanical gardens it's in Memorial of Alec Holland a scientist from the comics in those Comics Alec died in the swamps and his Consciousness fused with the plant life turning him into Swamp Thing both Swamp Thing and poison ivy can control plant life thanks to the connection to an elemental Force called the green so I think it's fitting to have him as an Easter egg in this location there are definitely plenty more environmental Easter eggs like this one and I love how in-depth Rocksteady went with all their nods to DC Comics lore it makes Gotham feel more Central to the DC Universe and it makes the world more fun to explore but now I think we've spent more than enough time discussing the DLC and gameplay of Batman Arkham Knight so now let's get into the audio design [Music] foreign in my opinion the voice acting in the Arkham games has never been better than how it is in Arkham Knight that's probably a pretty bold statement but I think everyone turned in tremendous performances that also applies to Batman's voice actor Kevin Conroy who is sadly passed away recently at the age of 66 just to further celebrate his work I want to briefly talk about his journey to becoming such an iconic voice for Batman believe it or not Kevin actually didn't start in voice acting I was instead performing in various live-action roles on TV such as the show tour of Duty and the 1982 TV movie A Midsummer Night's Dream Batman the Animated Series was actually his first ever voice over audition and what's crazy is that Conroy originally intended on auditioning for the role of police detective Harvey Bullock since he felt his voice fit that stereotype the best thankfully he was instead brought in to audition for Batman and was hired on the spot and a special feature from the Animated Series Conroy describes his audition I had no experience with animation and um and I just went in basically on a voiceover audition I said well let me just come up with some voices let me just try some stuff so I started came up with this appearance very dark and this I went into this whole other place that no one else had gone to I guess and I could saw them all running around in the booth and I realized that I had touched a nerve it's crazy to me that his first ever audition just so happened to be for Batman a role that he wasn't even going for initially it almost feels like destiny that he was brought to this role he's so perfect as Bruce Wayne and Batman though so it's no surprise that he won the role over the other 500 people who auditioned and it's also not surprising that he would go on to voice the role over the course of the next 30 plus years in Batman Arkham Knight he's just as good as ever bringing a dark troubled and determined Batman to life through his voice in a behind the scenes video for Arkham Knight Kevin describes where he wanted to go with Batman in this game and you even get to see him record a couple lines this part of the trilogy is a much more psychological challenge for Batman he's being ripped apart and he's fighting for his identity for me as an actor it was a blast to get to flex those muscles go to hell where is he talk or I'll Crush every bone in your body Batman Arkham Knight is one of my personal favorite Batman performances from Conroy outside of the Animated Series because I think he's able to capture multiple angles of Batman as Bruce struggles with multiple psychological conflicts throughout the game such as the internal battle with Joker the emotional torment of losing Barbara and close relationships falling apart Bruce is also struggling with these factors all while trying to maintain his composure and confidence to Triumph once again that can be a lot to juggle as an actor but Kevin does it effortlessly which is why I wanted to take a moment to celebrate Kevin's tremendous work on this game as well as all the work that he's given us over the past 30 years it's incredible how many lives he's touched through his work and how for so many people including myself he will forever be our Batman thankfully this won't be the last time we hear Conroy voice Batman since it was revealed that he reprized the role for the upcoming game Suicide Squad killed the Justice League foreign Vengeance I am the Knight I am Batman also returning to the series is once again Mark Hamill the iconic voice for the Joker like Conroy Hamill first started voicing the Joker in the Animated Series as well becoming for many the quintessential voice of the character Now what is it is in town talking about uh your fish I told you not to speak and a special feature for the Animated Series Mark describes his thoughts on voicing the character specifically his thoughts on the importance of Joker's laugh which I found to be really interesting his laugh should be like a musical instrument it should sort of illustrate his mood it could be ominous and intimidating he could be gleeful and with wild abandon but I didn't want to just have one rope laugh using the Joker's laugh as a way to convey emotion is a really clever idea and I think it's another example of why he's so good in the role he just really gets the character the same goes for his performance in Batman Arkham Knight Hamill manages to bring a lot of Charisma to a character who has done such horrible things and the Joker is a joy to watch throughout the game I really enjoyed Joker taunting Batman through every step of the game and I got the sense that Hamill was having a lot of fun with the role force him to slave over your cure lots of he gets himself killed out there you won't have to tell him about Barbara it's win-win from here though I want to focus on voice actors who are newer to the series all of which I think do an incredible job as well Mr Gordon is both a father a friend and obviously someone who is trying to save his City it took just 24 hours for us to lose control of the city tonight Gotham's relying on one man to save us all that's right the Hitman Mike Ehrman Trout from Breaking Bad is the voice of Commissioner Gordon I think he does a really great job in the role too and I'm surprised that I didn't recognize his voice throughout my entire playthrough I also think his voice really suits Gordon and that this is probably my favorite portrayal of him in the series another potentially recognizable face is John Noble voicing scarecrow John is probably best known for his time in shows like Fringe and Sleepy Hollow but I really admire his performance in this game it's a big contrast from the Arkham Asylum scarecrow and I know others prefer that voice but me personally this is exactly what I wanted from scarecrow this version of scarecrow has evolved a lot since Arkham Asylum and John Noble does a great job portraying the Menace and terrifying determination that scarecrow has to seek Vengeance on Batman even just watching Jon read these lines gives me chills and it's also interesting to contrast that with his actual voice outside of a booth the man's a psychopath seriously but he's also brilliant he's actually quite a reasonable man in the way he talks but he's very disturbed this demonstration used just five ounces of my latest toxin tomorrow will seem like Child's Play rocksteady's Behind the Scenes video also gives the spotlight to the new Barbara Gordon voice actress Ashley Greene Ashley is probably best known for her time as Alice Cullen in the Twilight movie series she does a great job as Barbara too though and I like how her voice is able to capture Barbara's different personality traits on the one hand she's able to capture that kind of Innocence that Jim Gordon sees in his daughter but she's also able to blend that with Barbara strong will and confidence as both Batgirl and Oracle so I was ultimately really happy with Ashley's portrayal as Barbara there's also Mark Ralston who voices Deathstroke in both Batman Arkham Knight and Arkham Origins he has a great voice for Deathstroke but you'll also recognize mark from another popular superhero game Spider-Man PS4 where he voiced Norman Osborne Peter Parker how the hell are you another actor that's in both Spider-Man PS4 and Batman Arkham Knight is Scott Porter who voiced Harry Osborne in Spider-Man PS4 and Nightwing in Batman Arkham Knight this was the first time Nightwing had been voiced in the Arkham series I think Scott did a great job of capturing Nightwing's playful confidence without taking it too far Scott is no stranger to playing comic book characters either since he's also voiced Star-Lord and cyclops and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and more recently he's voiced the Winter Soldier in Marvel's Avengers as far as DC though he even voiced Damien Wayne in Injustice 2 the character who coincidentally killed Nightwing in that continuity but finally I just want to call out one more voice actor and that's Dwight Schultz who voices Professor Pig in this game pig ended up being one of the most fascinating characters for me not only thanks to his gruesome murders but also due to the wonderfully unusual voice that Dwight gives him it's so perfectly weird for a character like Pig and I found it to be really captivating pig is like K pig is like God pig is here to fix us all we've talked about Dwight and other superhero games as well for example his time as the vulture in Spider-Man one today you die Spiderman but like I said the entire voice cast of Batman Arkham Knight did an incredible job so this was just a sampling of some of the talented voice actors and performances in the game I think the voice performances of characters are a very important aspect to get right in any game since they go a long way towards pulling you into the moment and empathizing with that character so I'm really glad that rock city was so thorough with their casting and I think it really paid off continuing on though this is where I would usually play Clips regarding these sound effects and music in the game but I'm going to have to skip over that for this video if I'm being totally honest it's been kind of a battle to not get these sections to flag in YouTube's copyright system for the Arkham game specifically so unfortunately we'll have to skip it this time around as far as my thoughts on the music and sound design though I think this was another area that everyone involved excelled in the music by Nick Arendelle has continually improved over the course of the series and I think he's managed to create some really impactful tracks in this game the sound effects are equally immersive as well with everything sounding very impactful and realistic so overall I have no complaints regarding anything involving the audio but now let's start to wrap things up conclusion [Music] online I'm often surprised to see such conflicting opinions of this game many love it and others deem it as the worst in the series I think a lot of that criticism is aimed at the Batmobile which admittedly is overused with combat that isn't quite exciting enough to Warrant the amount of time you'll be using it in the game still I think that aspect is weighed too heavily and blinds what the rest of the game has to offer which in my opinion is a masterpiece Rocksteady pushed themselves to their limit and delivered an incredibly ambitious game not everything lands perfectly but I think the majority of it does to start there's the gameplay that feels greatly enhanced the combat feels more aggressive and smoother with plenty of new and satisfying additions that elevate the combat over the prior games I also love how cinematic Everything feels even the way the camera follows Batman now feels a lot more natural and immersive with some great animations to go along with it the traversal is much faster and smoother as well which pairs nicely with the larger open world the graphics are another standout feature for me as well and look absolutely beautiful throughout the entire game even rivaling new releases by today's standards there's also a vast wealth of content dive into outside of the main story replayability is always an important factor to me in games and you could spend plenty of hours exploring Gotham Beyond the main story with side missions the various DLC content and all the challenges additionally there's the new game plus mode if you want to experience the game again but with a greater challenge this is the Arkham game that I returned to the most out of all of them and it's the one that I know I'll continue to revisit over the following years it's so much fun to play the story is engaging and I enjoy playing it every time I return still I've given the game some criticisms like not implementing some of the standout combat mechanics and Arkham Origins the predictable Jason Todd reveal and the overuse of Batmobile however none of those hinder my experience enough to prevent me from wanting to replay it again the game as a whole is incredible and I'd recommend that anyone play it or revisit it and I especially recommend playing it on the PC if you have a more modern gaming setup ignore all the bad Buzz around its PC launch and try it for yourself it's the best that it's ever been so ultimately I give Batman Arkham Knight a 10 out of 10 which I know to many of you probably seems a bit exaggerated but let me explain I debated on scoring it lower primarily for some of the Batmobile tedium but to me a 10 out of 10 game doesn't mean it's a Flawless game it means that it's an ambitious game that stands above the vast majority of other games and is successful in most of what it's attempting I think that applies to Batman Arkham Knight and don't want to penalize Rocksteady for pushing their boundaries instead of going the safe route and in all honesty the Batmobile isn't poorly implemented it handles very well and I enjoyed a lot of the chase missions and combat sections there were just too many of them so had there been less of them in the game I don't think this would have been a problem for me so I stand by my score for this game and I think it was a fitting finale to rock cities Arkham series speaking of which what's been going on with Rocksteady and Arkham since this game's release we spoke about this briefly but Rocksteady did release another Arkham game in this continuity After Arkham Knight which was Batman Arkham VR however it looks like there was originally going to be a more legitimate continuation of the Arkham Batman series but developed by WB Montreal who developed Batman Arkham Origins this game was unfortunately canceled but some info has leaked online the story would have featured Damian Wayne taking over as Batman for his father in my Arkham City retrospective I speculated that Bruce and Talia might have had a child together during one of their hookups in Metropolis leading to the birth of Damian Wayne it doesn't look like the plan was to keep Bruce Wayne dead either since there's also a concept image of an older Batman with a beard it's intriguing to think of where this game might have taken the Arkham continuity and why it was canceled but I imagine this game was ultimately transitioned into the newly released game Gotham Knights developed by WB Montreal however despite how it looks Gotham Knights is not based on the Arkham continuity and exists in its own universe as I mentioned briefly a bit earlier though the Arkham continuity will continue on in the hands of Rocksteady through their new game Suicide Squad kill the Justice League which takes place following the events of Batman Arkham Knight it was also revealed that Batman is indeed alive in that continuity and not only will he appear in the game but he'll also be voiced by Kevin Conroy as his final Batman performance so it'll be great to hear Kevin perform the role one last time as well as see what Batman's been up to since Arkham Knight but I think that wraps up my thoughts on Batman Arkham Knight man this was a long long couple videos so thank you so much to everyone who watched this far in it means a lot to me and I hope you enjoyed it as far as what's coming up next we're going to transition back to Marvel and revisit a classic Spider-Man PS1 in the meantime you can check out the rest of my Arkham retrospective series if you haven't already or the many Marvel retrospectives that are available as well if you enjoyed this video I'd also appreciate it if you gave it a like since it helps the channel and you can also subscribe for future content but anyway thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Always Nerdy

Views: 310,129

Keywords: batman arkham knight retrospective review, batman arkham knight dlc missions, batman arkham knight side missions, batman arkham knight easter eggs and secrets, batman arkham knight a matter of family batgirl, red hood, nightwing, robin, always nerdy, rocksteady, kevin conroy, mark hamill

Id: pNbHlkTRT_Y

Length: 142min 38sec (8558 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023