Well, its been a couple days since the retailer GAME leaked the news of Arkham: Knight’s existence before WB Games officially announced it later that day. The trailer has encapsulated the whole Arkham series as Thomas Wayne, reads out his final wishes in his own Will to Bruce, leaving Gotham’s future and protection in the hands of a young Bruce Wayne, who makes that promise and turns it into his creed and devotion to become The Batman.
In the time following the announcement a lot more information has been given on the game, which will only be available on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Windows PC, and it seems that Rocksteady Studio has been very busy in the last 3 years. Story wise, Arkham: Knight follows on one year after the events of Arkham City which saw the death of The Joker. We know from the DLC “Harley Quinn’s Revenge” that several months later Batman had become distant from his “Bat Family” as he came to terms with of Joker’s death and was not the same man he was before. Arkham: Knight will see his greatest enemies battling it out to fill the void left by Joker’s death, with Two Face, Penguin and Harley Quinn all looking to take the Bat down once and for all.
Main villain so far seems to be The Scare Crow. He played a big part in the first Arkham game, Asylum, and an Easter Egg in Arkham City gave a clue that he was planning his revenge by having secret shipments of an unknown chemical brought into Gotham by ship. In Arkham Knight, he now plans to unleash a chemical weapon in the City, which as a result sees most of the civilian population of Gotham evacuated to get them off the street. A similar “story vehicle” was used in the stop gap Arkham: Origins game produced by WB Montreal instead of Rocksteady, which saw the threat of the assassin’s gunning for Batman have the people of Gotham staying off the streets.
Rocksteady have reported that the size of the playing world will be five times bigger then that of Arkham: City. One big reason and bonus of this, is that for the very first time in the series, the famous Batmobile will get to be used in a big way to navigate the game world. The trailer shows a Batmobile that appears to be a blend of the Batmobile featured in Arkham: Asylum being destroyed by Joker’s thugs, and the Tumbler from the Chis Nolan Batman Trilogy. A Tank crossed with a supercar with ever faithful jet afterburner blazing. This could be a true delight for fans if not over used or underplayed in Arkham: Knight.
The game will be Single Player only, something Rocksteady has always stayed true to with its Arkham games, that it should be the best single player experience you can have. That means, and I am very pleased as well, that the failed and broken mess of a multi-player mode that was shoe horned into Arkham: Origins using failed Online game developer Splash Damage, has been kicked to the curb permanently. Many, including myself, saw it as a cash cow by WB Montreal and the fact that the mode failed to work on day one and to this day still does not work properly for thousands of fans shows that Rocksteady would never have allowed it if Origins had been there game.
As well as a returning Rocksteady, Kevin Conroy famed for providing the voice of Batman in animation TV series and film and for voicing Batman in the original Arkham games, is returning to voice Bruce Wayne/Batman in this, the final chapter of Rocksteady’s Arkham series. Roger Craig Smith provided the voice of Batman in Arkham: Origins, and whilst I really liked his performance, there is only one true voice for the Arkham Batman. Kevin Conroy.
No doubt more information will flow out leading up to the now traditional October release for Arkham: Knight. I have loved everything I have read about this game in the last two days and the very face that Rocksteady are back to end the series with a new gen title gives me goosebumps.
This is going to be one hell of a Knight for Batman!
Nothing Is True 