While it might be odd to post again so soon about the same game, I felt compelled to work on a new post regarding Batman: Arkham Knight. This time though we'll be focusing solely on the story and nothing more. I'm only doing this because the story(and some Batmobile gameplay) are the only real issues I have with an otherwise perfect game. And frankly I only take issue with some of the story elements because of things that were said multiple times in the lead up to the release of this game by Rocksteady themselves. Be warned now, this is going to heavily delve into the story itself and will include many spoilers for Batman: Arkham Knight. Read only if you've completed the game or if you just don't care about being spoiled on the story.
With the disclaimer aside now we can dig into the story behind this game. That does require just a little background though. From a personal standpoint, while I love the Bat universe and everything it entails, I was less than thrilled by the fact that WB Games Montreal's Arkham Origins pulled the wool over our eyes by making The Joker the secret villain of their game. This comes from a standpoint that Rocksteady's Arkham Asylum and Arkham City had just used this character as the primary villain and then killed the character at the end of Arkham City. Bold story move but it worked. Now while the Joker is certainly referenced in Arkham Knight, no one really wanted to see him make a 4th run as the villain behind the story. While he does play a part in the story, the how and why is actually much more compelling than just outright using the clown as the villain of the story.
But herein lays the problem with this game. With the Joker deceased in the Arkham universe, there's sort of a power vacuum that needs to be filled and none of Batman's other rogues really have the clout or notoriety to fill that spot. What was crafted instead was a concept of the Scarecrow teaming with many of Batman's other rogues in a plot to take the Dark Knight down. Scarecrow would be mainly aided by a brand new character that Rocksteady had been allowed to create solely for the game; a character they would dub the Arkham Knight. The concept seemed great from the get go. Here Rocksteady was making a dark mirror of the Batman. Promotional arm showed the character menacingly along with the Scarecrow and previews alluded to the Arkham Knight leading an army to wage war on Batman and Gotham city in general. This was basically a near two year build up for this mystery character that Rocksteady was bringing to the Bat universe.
Fast forward to the reveal of the character in the actual game this year and well, it did live up to some of the hype. We're treated to a unknown voice and masked character on the screen for a majority of the game, expertly voiced by one Troy Baker. The Arkham Knight is similarly styled to Batman but with more of a military slant to the character's costume. The cowl is more mechanized and includes a voice changer while the cape is absent. The character forgoes the full plated design for a plated upper body armor approach paired with military fatigues. It ties together the idea that this character has led an army to Gotham's doors and bulldozed it down in an effort to destroy the Batman. And what helps to make this adversary unique is the fact that from the get-go, the dialogue over the radio chatter between Arkham Knight and Scarecrow alludes to the fact that the Arkham Knight is someone from Bruce Wayne's past and that he knows everything about him.
This sets the stage for some rather interesting encounters throughout the game. The first actual encounter has the Knight notifying his militia on how to actually attack Batman based on the entry points of his plated armor. This is further driven home later in a second encounter that sees the Knight taking full use of this knowledge as he actually fires off a round into Bruce's side after surprising him and pinning him to the ground. Over the course of the game, it becomes clear in the story that the Knight was worked his way into Bruce's head as he and Alfred struggle to identify who could possibly be behind the mask.
It's actually an interesting teardown of Batman that we see happen over the night as the events of the game unfold. But it isn't until midway through the game when we finally meet up with the Tim Drake version of Robin that the story beats start to fall into place. And it's here that things start to become heavy handed in the hints that they drop. Inside of the Panesea Studios building that Batman has turned into sort of a base of operations for his Joker protocol which spun out of events of Arkham City where people were treated with Joker's infected blood, we're treated to a number of semi interactive cutscenes that depict the torture and eventual death of one Jason Todd, the second Robin at the hands of the Joker.
Anyone who's familiar with the story of Jason Todd knows that in the comics he was the second Robin. The character was a significant departure from the first Robin, Dick Grayson, who was portrayed as more of a straight arrow as opposed to Todd who was more of a hot head. Eventually this led into a storyline where Todd was abducted by the Joker where he was tortured and subsequently killed by the clown, a fate that was decided upon via a fan poll in the comics. It was safe to say that Jason Todd wasn't very well liked by DC's reader base at the time. Fast forward to modern day comics and the character has been revived for new audiences and actually found a place in the modern day DC universe.
With that little history lesson done, we can go back the main matter, which is Arkham Knight's depiction of Jason Todd's torture and eventual "death". Fairly gruesome and mature, hence the game's MA(Mature Audiences) rating. But it's a piece of the puzzle that falls into place so far into the game that it leaves little doubt of the identity of who the Arkham Knight actually is. The Jason Todd scenes are just a little too on the nose. And we get the full reveal later on in the game, revealing that the Arkham Knight truly was the troubled Jason Todd who had assumed Bruce had left him for dead. While it's a serviceable revenge story for the character, I can't help but mention that the story has been done in the comics already and brilliantly adapted in the DC animated universe with Under The Red Hood(with Todd voiced by the awesome Jensen Ackles). The twists of course being that each story has a different reason for Todd's resurrection.
Now I have no qualm with Todd's return. I find the Red Hood character to be quite compelling. There are plenty of Batman-type characters out there dishing out vigilante justice, but Todd has a certain unique quality to him. The problem here is the fact that Rocksteady had carte blanch to create their own villain to take on the Batman and they opted to go with a Jason Todd storyline. It's a rehash that seems unnecessary. Having Todd use the Arkham Knight as a stepping stone to becoming the Red Hood seems like an odd development for the character. There's also the fact that part of Todd's motivation is that Batman "allowed" him to die at the hands of the Joker. But in the Arkham universe, the Joker is already dead at this point. A big part of his motivation has already been resolved, leaving us with a very simple revenge plot against Bruce.
Because of this some of the story feels a little generic in terms of Todd's motivation and the fact that the villain is Todd comes across as kind of a cop out in itself. It just feels like a wasted opportunity to play with the Batman mythos. In an age where people are looking for brand new takes on existing characters, this seemed like one that we didn't really need. Even moreso because the lead up and design of the Arkham Knight felt like they were done exceptionally well. This is a character that easily could have been adapted to cross over into DC's actual comic verse, much like Harley did after her inception on Batman: The Animated Series. There was massive potential here and in a way I felt let down that we just got another interpretation of the Red Hood. And that's not to take anything away from Rocksteady because it's a great game. Right now it stands as a game of the year contender for 2015. And while I take some issue with the story and some gameplay choices, the sum of its parts still combine to make a solid gaming experience.
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