The release of the Spider-Man video game on the PS4 was, as Marvel would describe it, spectacular and amazing. Fans and critics alike have praised the game for just about everything from gameplay, writing, to visuals. Coincidentally, by the time this game was released I had just finished playing Batman: Arkham Knight, another superhero game that was critically acclaimed. The Spider-Man and Batman games are both very similar to one another (a good video that goes into detail about their similarities can be found below.) and are arguably some of the best renditions of their respective universes, but this blog post will be focused more on the latter than the former. I might make a separate blog post for Spider-Man's universe once I get my hands on the game.
It's difficult to talk about the Batman Arkham Knight video game without bringing up the other two games in the Trilogy: Batman Arkham Asylum and Batman Arkham City. It's also worth going into the separate prequel game of the series, Batman Arkham Origins. We'll ignore the mobile spin-offs and the VR video game for this blog post.
Batman Arkham Knight is a three-year-old video game but it's still visually stunning and satisfyingly fun to play compared with some of the more recent releases. Its tagline in trailers and at the back of the game's box art reads "Be the Batman" and the game makes you feel exactly that. It's also the video game in the series that ultimately leaves an impact for all the fans that joined in for the ride because its the finale to the trilogy.
I truly believe that the Arkham universe is the best universe every created for Batman outside of the comics. Although the Dark Knight trilogy is arguably the most popular rendition of Batman, I can easily say that without a doubt the video games easily trump the movies.
Batman, as Rocksteady has created him, is very spot-on. He's analytical and logical, almost to the point of being cold as he hardly shows any emotion. He's a silent protagonist, but he does have a few lines, unlike other video game heroes. His body language is strong; he stands tall even as he broods, his every movement carries a sense of bravery and shows no hesitation. To top it all off, he's voiced by the most iconic voice actor for Batman: Kevin Conroy. No one would argue that Batman has been portrayed poorly in the Arkham Games.
And you have to admit: The bat logo in the Arkham games is the best bat logo out there.
Not only is it one of the most bat-like of the logos, but it also fits snuggly on the barrel-chested dark knight. As iconic as the bat insignia with the yellow spotlight around it is, it's not very practical. Batman prefers to sneak around baddies and hide in shadows. Obviously, he wouldn't run around brandishing the symbol on his chest so carelessly, but it's the most tactical when he removes eye-catching colors from his suit.
And then there's Batman's batsuit. His suit has changed from game to game, but I'd like to go into detail on the suits he used in Arkham City and in Arkham Knight, in that order.
Batman's Arkham City suit doesn't look very different from his suit in Arkham Asylum, which obviously took some inspiration from the suit in Batman: The Animated Series. What I particularly like about the suit in the video games is that the creators were given the choice to add more specific details to the suit and they did exactly just that. Batman isn't just a man running around in a cheap-looking, skin-tight spandex bat costume. He's a man running around in expensive-looking, skin-tight spandex bat costume. The suit isn't bulky at all, but if you take a close look at the material, you'll notice that it seems there's some expensive chemistry hidden beneath the fabric of the batsuit. It's lightweight look definitely makes it look like Batman relied more on his intrinsic physical and mental capabilities than on gadgets, however.
Batman's suit in Arkham Knight looks even more expensive. It's sleek, metallic and it has working inner mechanisms within. Each component on the suit serves a purpose. His insignia on his chest is meant to psychologically trick thugs with guns to shoot at his chest, which is where the armor of the batsuit is the strongest. Batman's gauntlets are equipped with blades, which he can rely on if he needs to cut people loose or objects quickly. The cowl is bulletproof, and it has Detective Vision which allows the Dark Knight to see through walls and assess threat levels. Batman's cape lets him glide around the city, obviously. It isn't mentioned in the video game but it's mentioned several times in the comics that the cape is fireproof. It also isn't mentioned in the video games at all, but I like to think Batman's long ears act as antennas that help him hear all the different things the thugs say in the streets despite them being several meters away.
The batsuits aren't the only thing that looks expensive on Batman in the Arkham verse; his gadgets and equipment all look crazy expensive too, which is as it should be. The Batmobile, the batarangs, the batclaw, are all heavily customized, with fine black paint, and intricately crafted Bat insignias. Batman isn't afraid to utilize all the items in his arsenal without a second thought, which gives the impression that he's willing to spend on all of his toys a second time... And this has been proven in the video game. Much later in the story, the Arkham Knight obliterates the Batmobile, and Batman doesn't even shed a tear. A little bit later when he's under fire from a rain of bullets from a thousand drones, Batman just calls down a second Batmobile from the sky as if it were nothing. Rocksteady made sure Batman looked like he spared no expenses on his hobby.
Rocksteady also wasn't afraid to add a bit of muscle mass on the dark knight. The guy is the epitome of physical perfection, and they did a good job making him look fit for that title. Other renditions of Batman, especially in some of the animated movies, make him look remarkably heavier and wider in girth as if he was a bodybuilder that ate jars of peanut butter after workouts. If you think about it those body types given to Batman don't work at all, because building your body up to that size isn't practical especially if the person is going to be undertaking a lot of locomotive actions. Bodybuilding is all about looks, instead of functionality, why would Batman want that?
Rocksteady Studios ate, breathed, and lived the Batman mythos to put as much reference and accuracy into the video games as much as possible. One of the examples of these references is the nod to the existence of Bat Woman, even though she was never shown on-screen and she didn't play a role in the story at all. Each location name in the video game is a nod to previous reincarnations of Batman. Nothing was ever made up out of the blue that doesn't pay tribute to the Dark Knight.
These easter eggs are also evident and heavily detailed in the first game: Batman Arkham Asylum, which was contained in the eponymous mental institution for the troubled. Nobody expected the first game in the series to be as successful as it is, so although there were several easter eggs here and there, it was more of a nod to stuff that happened in the comics, on ever-so-slightly hinting that they did happen. The one thing that really did happen they didn't show on-screen that plays a huge part on one of the characters is Barbara Gordon's life-changing encounter with the Joker in The Killing Joke, which paralyzed her lower body and turned her into Oracle. Since this wasn't shown onscreen, nor was it mentioned in detail, we just have to assume it played out exactly as it did in the comics.
This is in stark contrast to the last game in the series, Arkham Knight, which was the one game to complete the universe of Arkham. It caps off the trilogy with as much information as they can put in to create a universe of their own. Rightfully so, because the whole game was based in central Gotham, Batman's home turf teeming with rogues. This time, Barbara's encounter with the Joker and how it happened was made evidently clear.
There are even bits and pieces of information and easter eggs from other superheroes in the DC universe. Some examples are when the thugs talk about Superman or the poster of Keystone which is where the Flash lives in. These kinds of nods to the other superheroes heavily imply the existence of other superheroes aside from Batman. Which is precisely the case when it comes to all the other mediums about Batman. The Christopher Nolan films, not so much.
Although the games covered a lot of the Batman mythos in its own rendition with spectacular detail, they paid a lot of attention to the comics and recreated what they can faithfully. Albeit there are still several items in the mythos that they can't include, the universe is flexible enough to squeeze the comics in where the games were not able to recreate the scene. The Christopher Nolan films were just a rendition of Batman. His battles against Poison Ivy, the Riddler, his encounter with Bat Woman, and him recruiting Bat girl and several young Robins didn't happen. Arkham Batman, however, did all that. Arkham Batman is one rendition of Batman that really captures almost all of the essence of the character and the mythos involved with him, and I think it's only fair to see an easter egg or nod to the Arkhamverse in the future installments to the Dark Knight.