Batman Arkham Knight And Suspense

I recently just finished my play-through of Batman: Arkham Knight and, to be honest, I was fairly impressed by the game's story and how they handled the tentative end to the Rocksteady Arkham trilogy. It comes as a surprise because of the disaster that was the launch of the PC version. It was riddled with bugs and frame rate issues making it virtually unplayable unless you had a ridiculously overpowered computer. The game was then actually taken off the internet from official sale.

See a different development team worked on the PC port, not Rocksteady. There were so many issues with the game they couldn't properly fix in an reasonable time frame. After 3 months, an interim patch was quietly released to test out if the issues were fixed. When I found out, I swooped in to nab a cheap copy and got to playing. Thankfully, the patch eliminated most of the blatant problems with the game, and I was able to finish the game with very little complaints. Sadly, three months is a long time in the gaming world. So many new games and DLC come out that I doubt many will forget to pick up Arkham Knight when it's re-released for the PC. That, or most people are so burned by Warner Brothers mishandling of the PC launch, they won't pick it up out of protest. (Remember, gaming hasn't gotten very political)

It's a shame though, because Rocksteady has really outdone themselves with the amount of love they have put into this game. They've innovated a bit with the controversial addition of the Batmobile, but kept the core game as familiar as they could. The game creates a very dire and tense situation for Batman, not just urgent like the other two games in the series. Batman is taken to very deep and dark places which is really neat for a Batman fan. In all previous Arkhams, Batman's demeanor and actions seem very confident and in control. In this game, the gamer slowly shows the player that Batman is not in control of this night.

What this does is leave the player in suspense. And it does it very well. Suspense is an interesting thing. It's a tense combination of the fear of not knowing what  is going to happen but knowing that something may happen. It keeps people on the edge of their seats in movies. It makes people keep playing in video games.

Good horror games use more than just scary art and environments to make players stay in suspense throughout the game's length. Some use art direction in sinister characters and carefully placed jump scares. Some strip you of weaponry and make the enemy too strong so that you have to run or hide every time you encounter one (or them).However, it's very difficult to keep the momentum going. A lot of horror games only last 8-12 hours because after a point, the gamer would get used to the tricks.

Arkham Knight doesn't really do either. It embraces a well known comic book character and asks a very unfamiliar question:
"What would scare the Batman?"
The Answer: "If he became the very the thing he feared and if he lost control of his emotions."

Then the game rolls with it.  It uses careful plot progression to keep the story interesting and scary. Building tension is a great way to keep the gamer playing.

Some how Arkham Knight is able to prolong the horror by overlaying the plot with multiple layers that clash with each other. As the story progress, each part of the plot builds up at different times; the player is always in fear of turning a corner or of opening a door. And you're freaking Batman! You shouldn't be. You are supposed to feel powerful, in control, and almost heartless in a way. But with all that goes on, you become confused and depressed. You'll notice how Batman makes impulsive and sloppy decisions. You'll see Batman expressing sadness when interacting with the supporting cast. And that, to most Batman fans, is horror in itself.

Well, I tried my best at selling Arkham Knight without any spoilers. It's definitely worth a playthrough once it goes back on sale. I would recommend this to anyone will to give a solid action game a shot. It's a must for Batman fans.

Anyways, going to go back to reading comics for a while. Hopefully, I'll have a Comic Grab Bag out next week!