Before I expound, here's the quick rundown...



Pros:



Gameplay - Batman has never been more fluid nor has had a bigger arsenal of moves and gadgets. The brawling is better than it's ever been, and much more has been added to predator mode. Combine that with all of the added Batmobile interaction, and you can't help but feel like Gotham's savior.



Graphics - After all of the updates since launch, Arkham Knight is one of the best looking games available on consoles. At least on PS4, the framerate remains solid even when there are 50 different things happening in a single frame (quite literally). The draw distances are detailed, the lighting and effects are gorgeous, and the animations and physics engines are impressive.



Presentation - The story is dark and gritty, the voice acting is nothing less than perfect, and the game maintains a scope that feels quite epic, even though it all takes place in Gotham City.



DLC - In agreggate, I think the DLC is a worthy package. It all works together to add a lot more to your Arkham Knight experience. I particularly enjoyed the Batgirl and Catwoman Arkham Episodes, along with the Season of Infamy main game expansion.



Cons:



Gameplay - The Batmobile, unfortunately, also detracts from the main game experience. Several scenarios force you to use it, and the drone warfare can become incredibly tedious. Sometimes the controls for the game in general can also be overwhelming. Just when you think you get the hang of it, there are ten more button combinations to remember and master.



DLC - Even though in aggregate the DLC is hefty, many of the individual pieces are a bit underwhelming.



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For all its effort at playing it safe with what has worked for the series in the past, Arkham Knight is definitely the best Batman game ever made when the smoke pellet clears. The story is as strong (if not stronger) than it's ever been, the fighting has somehow improved on an already superior brawl system, the voice acting is nothing less than excellent, and the inclusion of the Batmobile is HALF awesome (more on that later).



As is typical with a major licensed game like Arkham Knight, you can't rely on the reviews of the game when it debuts. After multiple updates and a ton of DLC, Arkham Knight is probably at least 25% better than it was at launch. A LOT of fans and media critics slammed the game for its pricey Season Pass, and then slammed it even more as that DLC came to us in very small portions. However, in aggregate, the DLC is actually pretty impressive. You get six stand-alone mini-stories called "Arkham Episodes" wherein you get to play several different characters both before and after the events of the main game, in addition to all of those characters becoming playable in most of the challenge maps. You get a great in-game expansion called "Season of Infamy" that adds four new "Most Wanted" missions with four of Gotham's most notorious villains (I'll keep it spoiler-free). You get several multi-character "Challenge Packs" that include challenge rooms from almost 50 different locations from game (some across all of the Arkham games). Then you get a ton of skins and all of the previously stated movie-themed Batmobile tracks. Is the DLC worth the $40 price tag? Relative to Season Pass pricing for other games, no, it's not. However, a case can be made that DLC for games has traditionally been "underpriced" anyway, so I had not problem throwing down an extra $10 for a package that rounds out the greatest Batman game (and probably best superhero game) ever made. Furthermore, the DLC was supposed to have ended in December, but Rocksteady threw in one more challenge pack and a the Batman Inc. suit skin as a thank you to fans. All in all, there's a good amount of content here.



At the outset I mentioned my one biggest gripe with Arkham Knight. The Batmobile is both the game's biggest blessing and its biggest curse. Inclusion of the Batmobile as a stand-alone device is fantastic. Driving around the city at high speeds (especially later in the game) and ramming bad guys off the roads is exhilarating. As you upgrade its features you start to gain more control, more speed and eventually you can use it to launch you into a glide that will carry you halfway across the city. Using the Batmobile free-form and with impunity is when it really WORKS in Arkham Knight.



But when you're forced to use the Batmobile during several points in the main game--that's when it fails in several instances. The biggest of these instances is the modern tank vs drone warfare. The Batmobile has two basic in-game modes: road vehicle with missile capabilities and tank vehicle with an array of military capabilities. It's cool blasting relentless numbers of military drones for the first few times they coordinate with the main story, but then when you realize that roughly 1/4 of the game is said tank warfare, suddenly it almost becomes a deal breaker. Some players may love this aspect of the game, but for me it was tedious and practically destroyed my hands a couple times (you'll see what I mean when you engage in your first battle with fifty drones). It's super intense, but not really in a good way. Furthermore, the "tank" aspect of the Batmobile actually ended up hurting the developers in the end as they were not able to incorporate ANY of the tank functionality with MOST of the awesome Batmobile DLC skins (e.g., the '89 Batmobile or even the Tumbler from the Dark Knight trilogy). This proves incredibly frustrating for many reasons, not the least of which means that you probably won't be using any of the sweet DLC skins until after you complete the main game. This makes much of the otherwise cool DLC seem like a poorly planned afterthought.



I do, however, like how the Batmobile is used in The Riddler missions of the main game, and though difficult, his insane courses are pretty fun. Add to that about 30 obstacle tracks with immersive themes from all of the different Batman films (except for Schumacher's neon nightmare of crap) and 10 more in Scarecrow's dream world, and the Batmobile does sort of make up for the modern warfare tank garbage.



So in the end, Arkham Knight is about three times more game than any of its predecessors, along with current gen graphics at a solid frame rate. If you like Batman like I do, then immersing yourself in his plight doesn't get any better.