Story so bad it made me come back to backloggd after months to write a review. They should have kept Paul Dini as a writer. Story section is full of spoilers
Story
This story has 2 modes, boring shit or illogical nonsense. Jason was kept in an abandoned wing of Arkham, the same island Batman knows well enough to have a secret Batcave in? The island he constantly visits and keeps track of? Somehow no guards were ever sent in to check on an abandoned area of an infamous building? When Batman received the video of Jason's "death", he never came to Arkham to retrieve the body? Jason had multiple chances to kill Batman in the game and conveniently flubbed every single one? Jason was barely mentioned before this game and the story wants to act like its not obvious who the Arkham Knight is even though you get a bunch of flashbacks that Batman wasn't even around to see because now Joker blood can transfer memories, physical properties as well as his personality?
Whoever wrote this game forgot that the reason his blood was dangerous in the last game was because it had TITAN, a dangerous chemical in it and that the cure for it had the Fountain of Youth(Lazarus Pit) in it. Even if his blood could pass on his personality and appearance, you'd think the Lazarus elements in the cure would negate that for Batman.
Scarecrow needs ACE Chemicals to produce his large batch of fear toxin (the only big chemical plant in Gotham and Batman somehow didn't immediately guess) only seizing the Cloudburst later on as a back up plan, even though he could have seized it while Batman was investigating ACE and immediately use it. The fear toxin also doesn't make Batman experience mind bending hallucinations anymore, it just makes the Joker appear in his head (except when Babs dies he can now hallucinate again). The final scene where Scarecrow unmasks Batman is so dogshit its insane, Scarecrow straps a beltless Batman to a gurney and drags him to Robin and Jim. Batman and Robin, the dynamic duo can't escape from this? Batman has so much high tech in his gauntlets (that he was allowed to keep) but nothing to escape containment? Robin can't escape from basic ass rope? Even with his hands tied Robin should own Scarecrow's ass, in this exact scene after Bruce is unmasked Jim knocks out Scarecrow with one left hook. Even if they had more secure containment, Bruce could have just asked Nightwing to follow him and break him out.
Bruce only loses here and gets his identity revealed because the devs were done with Batman. The lives of all his allies are in constant danger now because of their association with Batman and we get some stupid vague ending about Bruce blowing up but but but he's still Batman and he uses fear toxin now (every single criminal is going to figure out this new shtick in 5 weeks).
This game treats every member of the Bat family like shit. Barbara is there to get fridged halfway through (jk she didn't actually die), Tim is there to be useless and date Barbara for some reason (they don't speak to each other even once and this relationship is used for cheap drama), Dick is there to look cool and also not do anything important and Jason is there for shitty retcons that make previous games worse.
Gameplay
Combat is tight as hell and enemy encounters are kinda puzzles to deconstruct with gadget use. Origins gets criticized for not having any new gadgets but there isn't much new here either afaik, the voice synthesizer is new but you can only use it in certain locations so that's not really a selling point. Stealth is really op now cause of Fear Takedowns though but gadget+stealth is still so fun and satisfying. Batmobile....
Music
Nothing memorable besides like a cover of the Arkham City theme and the track Predator which is pretty good
Conclusion
Only gave this shit 2 stars cause the combat and stealth are really fun, glad I got this game for free from Epic Games and I'm very glad I didn't have to pay for all the suit dlc and story dlc and yadda yadda yadda. Also I had to look up the ending cause for some reason after the final Scarecrow encounter the game told me I was 13/14 done with Most Wanted missions and I had to finish the final one to see the ending, that final one being Riddler. Nuh uh
Story
This story has 2 modes, boring shit or illogical nonsense. Jason was kept in an abandoned wing of Arkham, the same island Batman knows well enough to have a secret Batcave in? The island he constantly visits and keeps track of? Somehow no guards were ever sent in to check on an abandoned area of an infamous building? When Batman received the video of Jason's "death", he never came to Arkham to retrieve the body? Jason had multiple chances to kill Batman in the game and conveniently flubbed every single one? Jason was barely mentioned before this game and the story wants to act like its not obvious who the Arkham Knight is even though you get a bunch of flashbacks that Batman wasn't even around to see because now Joker blood can transfer memories, physical properties as well as his personality?
Whoever wrote this game forgot that the reason his blood was dangerous in the last game was because it had TITAN, a dangerous chemical in it and that the cure for it had the Fountain of Youth(Lazarus Pit) in it. Even if his blood could pass on his personality and appearance, you'd think the Lazarus elements in the cure would negate that for Batman.
Scarecrow needs ACE Chemicals to produce his large batch of fear toxin (the only big chemical plant in Gotham and Batman somehow didn't immediately guess) only seizing the Cloudburst later on as a back up plan, even though he could have seized it while Batman was investigating ACE and immediately use it. The fear toxin also doesn't make Batman experience mind bending hallucinations anymore, it just makes the Joker appear in his head (except when Babs dies he can now hallucinate again). The final scene where Scarecrow unmasks Batman is so dogshit its insane, Scarecrow straps a beltless Batman to a gurney and drags him to Robin and Jim. Batman and Robin, the dynamic duo can't escape from this? Batman has so much high tech in his gauntlets (that he was allowed to keep) but nothing to escape containment? Robin can't escape from basic ass rope? Even with his hands tied Robin should own Scarecrow's ass, in this exact scene after Bruce is unmasked Jim knocks out Scarecrow with one left hook. Even if they had more secure containment, Bruce could have just asked Nightwing to follow him and break him out.
Bruce only loses here and gets his identity revealed because the devs were done with Batman. The lives of all his allies are in constant danger now because of their association with Batman and we get some stupid vague ending about Bruce blowing up but but but he's still Batman and he uses fear toxin now (every single criminal is going to figure out this new shtick in 5 weeks).
This game treats every member of the Bat family like shit. Barbara is there to get fridged halfway through (jk she didn't actually die), Tim is there to be useless and date Barbara for some reason (they don't speak to each other even once and this relationship is used for cheap drama), Dick is there to look cool and also not do anything important and Jason is there for shitty retcons that make previous games worse.
Gameplay
Combat is tight as hell and enemy encounters are kinda puzzles to deconstruct with gadget use. Origins gets criticized for not having any new gadgets but there isn't much new here either afaik, the voice synthesizer is new but you can only use it in certain locations so that's not really a selling point. Stealth is really op now cause of Fear Takedowns though but gadget+stealth is still so fun and satisfying. Batmobile....
Music
Nothing memorable besides like a cover of the Arkham City theme and the track Predator which is pretty good
Conclusion
Only gave this shit 2 stars cause the combat and stealth are really fun, glad I got this game for free from Epic Games and I'm very glad I didn't have to pay for all the suit dlc and story dlc and yadda yadda yadda. Also I had to look up the ending cause for some reason after the final Scarecrow encounter the game told me I was 13/14 done with Most Wanted missions and I had to finish the final one to see the ending, that final one being Riddler. Nuh uh