Game End Summary
Notes: I have decided to both put game end summaries into the game’s tag and to reblob them to my personal blog, for...advertising purposes. So, HUGE Batman: Arkham Knight spoilers under the cut!
Yeah, so I really enjoyed that game and that ending. Sure there was something of a lag monster, but I was the one who ignored my game saying “um hey you’re graphics card??? wtf why are you even bothering” so that was really my fault.
So let’s start with the gameplay. The stealth? it was the same as it was before, except with the “kill lots of people at once” and I think other gameplay options are nerfed but i’m not sure. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. The punchiness was absolutely exactly the same as before (except for explosive gel? which has always been weird and they have not fixed that problem). The tanks: fun, but not more fun than stealthiness, so it was a net negative fun? because they mostly took from stealthy sections to have enough time for all the tanky sections, which was unnecessary? Also Cobra tanks was fun, but did not succeed on being tank+stealth, so sorry rocksteady. You failed at what you were trying to do there. But I still had fun, so I guess you succeeded. But in general, the gameplay is not new, and so I won’t spend much time on it. I had fun gameplaying, but I didn’t have more fun than I had in Arkham City. Oh well.
But yeah the plot was interesting and well done and while it followed tropes that were well known they subverted the tropes in the right places to keep the game engaging yet comfortable
which was really what this game was going for. not new, not unique...that was Arkham City’s job. This game is engaging yet comfortable, and it pulls it off really well. It has scarecrow giving the same boring speeches as Strange did in the last game, which really is a disservice to the scarecrow but makes sure you know what you’re dealing with, etc. It takes you into the jokers shoes and makes you scared which was impressive considering these are not your fears you’re facing and there was no individual plot element that hasn’t been done a million times but they were still not the normal routes to take. In general, if there were three paths to go, storytelling-wise: the nice paved route, the small dirt one, and just randomly into the wilderness, then this game took the small dirt path over and over again: not the one that we would normally go on, just out-of-the-way enough to surprise us, while making sure to stay on a safe route which would take us to the expected destination. And it was windier than it would have been, but it did get us to the normal place in the end. Almost. It was very nice. It wasn’t groundbreaking, it wasn’t completely shocking, but it was pleasant. It was a well done finale.
OK but let’s go back to subverting tropes in the right places. Because I want to say something important: subverting a trope strengthens and affirms the trope itself. Because you know what? This game is terrible to women. Let’s go through the women in this game:
Catwoman: The Damsel in Distress. Trope sorta subverted when she helps you at the end, but see bold above
Oracle: Fridged. Trope subverted when she turns out to be not dead, but see bold above
Ivy: Sacrifices herself; dies on her terms, but I’m not convinced her death (and entire heel/face turn) is in character? it wasn’t really delved into bc who cares about a woman’s motivations
(i care motherarschlochs)
Random female thugs: uh no what batman can’t punch girls that would be Bad so no apparently every girl in gotham left when only most of the guys did?
Random female police officers: they exist. it’s not enough.
and yeah that’s every single girl in gotham. Some nameless (well named, but that’s besides the point) police officers, and three people stripped of their character and their agency. THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
I had a lot of fun playing this game. It did what it set out to do marvelously. I am impressed by rocksteady.
On the other hand, I am incredibly disappointed by rocksteady. You could have done so much better. Goodbye, Arkham series. Your women deserve better.