Six years ago, Rocksteady managed to prove to the world that not all licensed games are bad. Two years later, the British not only updated the status of the best superhero game by releasing a continuation of the story, or rather, their vision of Batman, but also conquered an entire genre, if the term “smart blockbusters with a good story” is generally applicable in the industry.

The developers each time found something to surprise, simultaneously expanding the game world exponentially, and the final part of the trilogy was no exception. How Rocksteady shocked the players in the Batman: Arkham Knight project - read in our review.

“No one cared about me until I put on the mask.
The Dark Knight Rises

This city deserves a better port

Gotham is captured. Civilians have been evacuated, but the police are unable to resist the chaos that has engulfed the streets of the city. Even Bruce Wayne is not capable of anything - this time he is confronted by a force with which he was not ready to fight. Nobody was ready...

Unknown villains blocked the streets, setting a speed limit of "no more than 30 frames per second", some hackers loaded the Assassin's Creed Unity program code into the Batmobile, which made it almost impossible to ride on it, and all attempts to look around, what is generally happening around, rest on wild blur of everything and everything. Any way to resist evil leads to death. The world is doomed.

“Do I look like someone with a plan? I know who? I am a dog running after a car. I wouldn't know what to do if I caught up. So I just do. And that's all."

Not too pretentious? It's just that all of the above is only partly true, but the news that sales of the PC version were suspended indefinitely was impossible not to respond. In short, the patient's diagnosis: extremely low performance, lack of some graphic effects, limited image settings. There were also some bugs and crashes to the desktop.

Not only the port failed, but also the release. Not only was the preload opened late, but also all the files had to be downloaded after the release, because the distribution kit (as well as on disks) turned out to be broken. The lack of Russian subtitles was added to the number of general failures, but this problem was quickly fixed.

Now it's clear why some publications gave the game "ten out of ten".

Against the backdrop of the general panic associated with the game, I was lucky in a sense. The game works tolerably, and if it doesn't crash when loading the menu, then critical problems for the passage no longer arise. During the chases, the FPS sometimes drops to 20 frames, the flight animation periodically crashes, and there were material corpses in the backstory add-on, but all this is from the category of unpleasant trifles, nothing more.

The most annoying thing is the non-switchable motion blur. That is why you see pictures of such poor quality: it is impossible to capture the plasticity of Selina Kyle in the dynamics of the battle or a spectacular jump during the chase, because it turns out at best.

From the eyes of the defender of Gotham, no one and nothing will hide. How can you hide here when he can "x-ray" everything through walls within a radius of several kilometers?

And since we are talking about the eternal (the hashtag “worst ports in history”), then no, the release of Arkham Knight is not the worst thing that came out on the PC. At least there is mouse support here (yes, this is a reference to the ancient resident evil 4), and in general, neither the control nor the camera is satisfactory. Fisticuffs on the keyboard have become much more convenient due to the redistribution of combo keys, the only thing that confuses is the presence of Alt and MMB in the techniques.

The precedent with a massive return of money and, as a result, the removal of the game from sales is indicative. Someone will say that the step is commendable, but this will hardly make it easier for buyers, because in a similar situation, Ubisoft gave free game, and here they managed only an apology. Surely this story will end well, but there is already reason to think about whether to continue to buy pre-orders from Warner Bros.

It doesn't matter who we are. What matters is our plan.

Once again I emphasize that the "Knight of Arkham" - the last part in the trilogy (Origins, released by WB Games Montreal, was the backstory), which means that in this game all the dots under the question marks should be placed - in the history of the Titan virus, the legacy of the Joker, and in the fate of the masked avenger himself.

At the same time, for those who once missed the previous games, what is happening will not seem like complete nonsense (subject to minimal knowledge of the universe). Rocksteady's presentation is reminiscent of Nolan's film trilogy: the stories of the characters are connected, but each film is a separate episode with its own characters in the lead roles, and it is primarily about the villains.

A hopeless situation? Not really. The fact is that the Batmobile is not only combat unit with destructive power, but also just a radio-controlled machine.

This time, a certain Arkham Knight appeared in the right corner of the ring. All you need to know about him is that he is the commander of a group of militants who occupied Gotham, and a real expert in Batman's behavior and combat techniques, which we will be able to repeatedly verify. It is best to refrain from discussing his persona, but if you can't wait to take a dose of spoilers, check out the Wiki.

Jonathan Crane wormed his way into the ranks of his allies. It was his toxin of fear and threats to spread the poison throughout Gotham that forced the authorities to evacuate the population. Now the streets of a huge metropolis are filled with criminals of various stripes, and unmanned tanks patrol the roads. This city definitely needs someone, either a hero or a huge bomb, as Ra's al Ghul would say.

Edward is tired of brainwashing Batman alone, so now he will also be entertained by Selina Kyle. This is such a game of "cats and bats".

The presentation style has remained unchanged: the developers do not abuse long introductions, but immediately throw us into the cycle of events, where everything unfolds rapidly and without time for a break. Rescue a policeman, catch up and interrogate a witness, hack into the security system - for ten minutes the dark knight can visit three districts of Gotham, having managed to do something important there.

The story is still presented as a detective, and even though most time we see on the screen nothing but an action movie, the writers managed to intrigue, focusing not only on the personality of the main antagonist. Several times the plot will really surprise you, giving out discouraging pirouettes, which will kind of confuse you and lead you to the question “what is going on here anyway?”

In the new chapter of the game, the dark knight had to team up with the Joker. In a sense, for sure.

If anything is frustrating, it is the unreality of what is happening. It is foolish to demand plausibility from a game created based on the universe from comics, but in some places the authors still go too far. In order not to blurt out anything superfluous, I’ll just note that the action often goes beyond logic and common sense, in contrast to the same screen adaptations of Nolan, where there were far fewer errors.

The second point is the significance of all history for the universe, or rather, its absence. No matter how much we knock the crap out of street thugs, no matter how many supervillains we catch, it is unlikely that something will change globally in Gotham. New games, books and adaptations will come out, from other authors with their own version of what is happening, and the battle will continue again, and against the same, once again "resurrected" villains.

No true despair without hope

The property of the "Knight Arkham" was the Batmobile. For the first time in the series, we can drive through the streets of Gotham on wheels, knocking down everything in its path, because this is an infernal chariot that can single-handedly deal with an entire army of drones, and even “knock out” people with packs of electric discharges.

For the sake of these changes, the game world has also been expanded - from now on, all of Gotham is available to us, divided into three large zones. And here lies a rather big catch: there is more space, but the content remains the same - side tasks in the game are plentiful, but they are not much more than in Arkham City, as well as Nygma's trophies. The situation is the same with the perception of the game world - you move so fast that you won't even notice the surrounding beauties, even adjusted for the damn blur.

The biggest open world for the entire history of games about a person in the guise of bat. The views from the flight of the scanners are impressive.

But the way the search for secondary tasks is designed is admirable. No one will kindly mark you all the places where the next chain of assignments begins - most often you yourself are looking for work for yourself, focusing on the eye or ear. Burning buildings testify to the atrocities of Garfield Lynns, and operatic music, for example, is always played at the crime scene by a mysterious killer.

The mission statement is also top notch. Edward Nygma has prepared another batch of puzzles, including obstacle races on deadly tracks; Harvey Dent is trying to make a fortune by staging raids on Gotham banks, but Oswald Cobblepot, as usual, does not learn from his mistakes, continuing to sell weapons to scoundrels. Everyone needs their own approach, and preferably creative.

Side Quest Wheel. Progress, description, distance to start point - perfect. And why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

Enough in the besieged city and places where success is achieved by brute force. Towers, roadblocks and mines are scattered throughout Gotham, militant commanders in armored vehicles are monitoring the chaos in the streets, and bandits have kidnapped the fire brigade for some reason. These are lessons of a smaller caliber, short and uncomplicated, but even a frontal attack does not always work in them, sometimes only ingenuity or dexterity helps out.

There is only one complaint about optional content - now it is not completely optional. The number of quest chains completed to the end now determines how detailed the final cinematic will be, and to see the denouement in all its details, you need to close all the cases in the "Especially Dangerous" category. There is logic in this, but it is not very correct to push those who play for the sake of the plot to engage in routine.

You are flying calmly around the city, not touching anyone, pulling yourself up on a cable, when suddenly ...

If you say a word about story missions, they have changed more than others. Firstly, long levels in enclosed spaces with a bunch of local fights have practically disappeared - several times you will find yourself in relatively chamber spaces (a factory, an airship, a film studio), and even there the point is not so much in battles as in finding a way. Secondly, boss battles have been almost completely abolished: there are overgrown enemies and a helicopter with a health bar, but this is the same “almost” - battles, like in Origins, were not found here.

Did it get worse? Not at all. The main tasks are most often short, the action in them, as mentioned earlier, develops rapidly: the authors constantly throw up something new - this applies to both enemies and situations. Demining bombs in the background of the Joker's performance, lifting the Batmobile to the roof, playing with stabilization on the airship - small masterpieces in the big Rocksteady spectacle.

Mini-games have remained quite sophisticated. You have to play around with DNA chains, scan fingerprints on CCTV cameras and synthesize voice, as now.

The value of the game for fans of the universe is still undeniable. As you progress through the game, you open a dossier of characters, as well as their three-dimensional models, key characters can change their appearance in the game menu on the “showcase”, and collecting Nygma’s trophies will allow you to get hold of a collection of colorful sketches with the image memorable events, attractions of Gotham and its inhabitants.

This add-on: the game's first story expansion was given out for pre-order. In the shoes of the insane Harleen Quinzel, we have to free Ivy from the Bludhaven Police Department, who has her role in Crane's insidious plan to capture the city (yes, this is the backstory). Entertainment for a maximum of half an hour, is remembered only by the fight with Dick Grayson. Otherwise, nothing special.

How about focus?

Fighting in Batman has always been interesting: an abundance of tricks, interaction with the environment, the use of unusual devices, a variety of enemies - all this turned a seemingly ordinary brawl into a kind of puzzle, where skill is as important as reaction.

Naturally, in the final part of the trilogy, this element of the game could not be left without improvements, but the first thing that catches your eye is that there are an order of magnitude fewer battles with fists. Yes, no one forbids warming up with endlessly reborn punks on the streets and in the gateways, but when you are sitting in a bulletproof car ... Oh yes, the Batmobile - that's why there are fewer fights.

The ability to communicate with people increased to the level of "master".

You will spend a good third of the game behind the wheel of your iron horse, destroying enemy tanks and chasing criminals, approximately from your face. This is because in this position you are practically invincible: the drones burst in one or two hits, their fire is easy to dodge, and the foot soldiers can’t do anything to you at all.

The balance of power changes when the dark knight personally enters the arena. It’s not a problem to defeat a platoon of ordinary fighters, but if a couple of thugs and a shield bearer worm their way into their ranks, and the most cunning ones try to stab with a knife, cheer up with a stun gun, or throw something heavy, you can’t get off with counterattacks alone, and jumping, receiving an attack from above are used , distraction, with a special approach to each.

Fool! What chance does he have with his shotgun against the sole of his boot?

But here, too, the developers have invented a number of things that greatly simplify the game. The first of these is a terrible decisive blow. By approaching a group of enemies undetected, the Nightguard can knock out up to five ordinary enemies with one simple combo. And although the technique does not work on thugs and the like, it’s worth a lot to make “minus five” even before the start of the battle.

The second point: in a number of fights you fight in pairs - with Selina, Drake or Grayson. You can switch between the hero and his companion with the click of a button, and after a series of effective attacks, a double decisive blow becomes available, where the duet knocks out one of the opponents with a spectacular finishing move. Such brawls look spectacular and beautiful, but the complexity in them sags wildly.

Harlin has a lot of interesting tricks in her arsenal. It’s even a pity that with such a study, we were not allowed to use it longer.

The dark knight also uses his superiority through tricks. The remote hacking device is somewhat reminiscent of Aiden Pearce's miracle phone: you activate mechanisms, hack turrets, explode something when an opponent passes by, thereby doing the dirty work without getting your hands dirty at all. But the destructor allows you to disable firearms, which will make it easier to fight with armed opponents.

The funniest thing is the speech synthesizer. Having imitated the voice of the villain, you can order his henchmen to check some object (after having mined it with a destructor), force them to leave the post, or open the voice lock yourself. The only pity is that there are not many places to use this thing, and you get it closer to the end of the story.

Scoring challenges are an integral part of the Batman series of games. This time they are there too.

In parallel with the fight for the freedom of Gotham, our hero is pumped. And while experience drops for each successful battle, more Waintech points are given for side tasks, from investigating murders to clearing mines or clearing towers. The points themselves are spent on learning new techniques, strengthening protection against different types damage, improving acrobatic skills and technical devices.

The Batmobile is also friendly with various improvements, but the most “tasty” improvements are offered to us according to the plot, albeit a choice. We will be able to equip our “tank” with a CPU virus that hacks enemy drones, an EMP that disables all enemy equipment in the area, or simply strengthen auxiliary weapons. There are also standard upgrades for Waintech points that make cars stronger and more durable.

Conclusion

Even without taking into account the problems of playing on the PC, Arkham Knight leaves a positively ambiguous impression. It would seem that everything was done for the top five, but in this case it is a five with a minus, because they fell a little short in the details. Somewhere there was not enough complexity, somewhere they miscalculated with the scale of the territories, somewhere they could not clearly present the story, which in general leads to a feeling of some kind of dissatisfaction.

In some sense, the success of previous Rocksteady games prevented unconditional success. The bar was set too high, and while the game did not disappoint in any way, it was expected of a little more than it turned out in the end. But even if the developers have not come close to the ideal, this series remains the best that has come out in the genre in recent years and most likely will remain so for a long time to come.

Verdict: this genre does not need a new king, because the old one is doing its job well, and the wind of change, apparently, will not blow soon.

Rating: 8.8 ("Excellent").

Vitaly Krasnovid aka Dezintegration

We are grateful to:

• Nvidia for providing the key for the game.

• Batman Arkham Knight Performance Test
  Summary testing of twenty-one video cards and forty-five processors in a pair of resolutions and two operating modes.


• Discussion of the game at the conference site.

Last year, one of Gotham's most famous detectives celebrated his 75th birthday in a big way. The Dark Knight first appeared before his devoted readers in the 27th issue of Detective Comics back in 1939. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, and the canonical hero has undergone a lot of transformations: from yet another clone of Superman to a gloomy crime fighter of our days. Separate fame was brought to him by dozens of different adaptations with eminent Hollywood actors in the lead roles. However, for a long time he was accompanied by frank failures, especially when it came to video games released by big sharks business for only one thing - additional profit, which could be easily obtained using only one image of a well-known character. Everything changed dramatically six years ago when the little-known British studio Rocksteady entered the scene and showed the world the unforgettable Arkham Asylum, and then expanded its concept in Arkham City, definitively proving that Batman games can be of high quality, if you only want it. Now on store shelves you can see Batman: Arkham Knight- the company's "swan song" in the Arkham series, after which it will develop a completely new project that has nothing to do with the Batman universe. But was she able to justify all the hopes placed on her before leaving for a well-deserved rest? And yes, yes, but with some caveats.

« This is how Batman died.". It is with such disappointing words of the irreplaceable commissioner Jim Gordon that the main narrative in the game starts, although it seems at first that everything seems to have just begun to return to normal. No wonder, because the genius of the underworld with a downward smile on his face has been dead for a year now, and the rest of his "comrades" in the team hid in the corners, licking their wounds, after the last unsuccessful skirmish with our protagonist. But Batman does not believe in a happy outcome after the death of his sworn enemy and is firmly convinced that sooner or later someone will again want to plunge Gotham into an abyss of chaos and violence. And the last one is not long in coming: Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) suddenly rises from the ashes, secretly gathers all the remaining villains and invites all of them to unite for the sake of one “great” goal - to crush Batman at any cost and finally desecrate his face in the eyes of ordinary people. In the end, the latter must understand that behind the frightening mask of a superhero is the same person with his own weaknesses and fears.

Arkham Knight

Of course, a gang of thugs (Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, Firefly and Riddler) agree with such a plan and active preparations for its implementation begin. Scarecrow, along with his new assistant in the person of the Knight Arkham, slowly plants bombs with "fear toxin" throughout the city, and the rest replenish their personal armies recruits and preparing other parts of the encore program. At some point, the mayor's office of the city finds out about this and urgently orders the evacuation of the inhabitants of the metropolis. In a matter of hours, they manage to take the last ones out of the godforsaken place, and on the streets of Gotham a real hell begins with murders and robberies. This is where our hero comes to the rescue, personifying justice and law.

It is worth paying tribute to the screenwriters of the project - they again managed to put together all the best of Batman's life and not lose some gloss. The pathetic speeches of the antagonists and mass terrorist attacks look great against the backdrop of subtle psychological games and the internal struggle of Batman himself. A smooth start quickly gives way to an exciting middle and ends with a completely atypical ending. Watching everything that happens is not easy and interesting, I want to pull each tense dialogue into separate quotes, and review some especially rich scenes several times in a row. Excellent production and excellent directing hides many of the roughness and secondary nature of some of the events from the final chapter in the life of the Dark Knight.

However, there are also significant disadvantages, which should be discussed separately. It would seem that, actors more than enough, but for some reason all the screen time is given only to the Scarecrow, the Arkham Knight, the Gordon family and Batman itself. Others appear on the screen only to then abruptly disappear and no longer appear until the very end of the passage (or remain as simple bosses from additional missions). You should not count on the sensible appearance of Bruce's assistants in the fight against crime - Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman have the same small roles in everything that happens. Of course, such a strange move by the writers can be explained by their desire to make more space for the stylish Arkham Knight, after all, the “new” hero of the series. But how can I tell you, at the same time, without going into too much detail ... you already guess about his true identity by the middle of the game, and the moment with the “breaking the covers” leaves nothing but disappointment behind. It’s good that the script writers understood this from the very beginning, so another “secret” character was added to the story, who easily pulled out the whole game and put a bullet in his intriguing relationship with Batman.

And all this happens against the backdrop of luxurious new scenery. The new part of Gotham is divided into three separate islands and impresses not only with its scale (five times larger than the previous city from Arkham City), but also with some unimaginable amount of small details. The moon slowly emerges from behind the clouds and a bewitching picture opens before us: a huge city brightly lit by various neon signs, the night sky of which helicopters and airships proudly surf. Dense smoke billows from sewer grates and factory chimneys and envelops the nearby alleys, while lone figures of balls depicting characters from children's horror stories float below (the city was getting ready to celebrate Halloween). Gotham wants to be studied thoroughly, but it’s hard to take your eyes off everything you see, and thanks for this should be said separately to the talented artists and designers of the project.

The modified Unreal Engine 3 is responsible for the graphics component, which produces an excellent picture on next-generation consoles: from detailed drawing of characters to realistic physics of Batman's cape behavior and unique lighting. Long reloading of levels or detailed drawing of the area will not bother you - all this is a thing of the past and happens instantly. There are practically no subsidences even unloved by many. Batman: Arkham Knight manages to squeeze out a stable 30 frames per second with rare drawdowns, and then only during particularly active pursuits of enemy vehicles.

True, this medal has its own back side- no matter how beautiful the city seems, it suffers from its own emptiness and standard tasks to clear the territory from invaders (even the "towers" found a place). There are few interesting events outside the main storyline, and defusing another bomb or rescuing firefighters takes place more instinctively than with true pleasure. Unlike the same Arkham City, some missions in the third part for some reason were also tied to certain pieces of the plot, from which the game at some point simply does not allow you to complete the search for "Especially Dangerous Criminals" until one or another stage.

On the other hand, side quests with villains should be enough for everyone without exception. Bruce Wayne has a lot to do: find a terrible bat flying around the city, and blow up the Penguin's weapons warehouses, and stop the Two-Face gang, trying to rob all the famous banks of Gotham, and much more. Basically, the missions are played according to the same scheme, but with a high-quality production, a pleasant alternation of different segments, interesting scenes and good dialogues. The chase is abruptly replaced by a stealth mission, and then another fierce battle with an entire army of hooligans and vice versa. The game does not stop for a minute, and the developers all the time throw up new situations and radically change the situation. The only pity is that there are practically no bosses and a detective mode in the game. Serious opponents can be counted on the fingers, and the talents of our excellent detective are rarely used, but at least aptly. What is worth deciphering the code using old recordings from video cameras or searching for the cars you need using a Bemobile scanner.

By the way, about the last. The new transport in the hero's arsenal is now an integral part of the game itself and the main ally in all endeavors. The first appearance of this colossus is one of the most memorable moments in the game, and then it only gets more fun. You can do whatever you want with it: you saw a large springboard in the distance and decided to prove to all of Gotham that there is no one better than you in high jumps and tricks, please, no one forbids you from doing this. If you want to abruptly eject from the driver's cab or destroy obstacles (trees, barricades or even some pieces of buildings) with the help of built-in machine guns and rockets, no one will say no. You will even be allowed to jump out of the car at full speed and jump into the windows of certain nearby houses so that you can knock down unsuspecting adversaries.

The Batmobile is the only vehicle available to Bruce in the game, so you don't have to worry too much or puzzle over where it was last parked. By pressing just one button, you can call the car at any time convenient for you. The car itself will determine your location and reach the desired point on the map. Finally, it can be turned into a real tank, equipped with a machine gun, a 60mm cannon and a couple of other gadgets. Drone battles are quite simple, but this does not change the fact that it is very fun to participate in such simple and short “checkers”, given the abundance of explosions and sparks on the screen. The developers managed to keep that very middle ground that does not let you get bored or look at the Batmobile with disgust every time. Of course, a couple of times the authors overload tasks with stupid races from one end of the city to the other, but this does not in the least prevent you from getting a lot of pleasure from crazy trips with the destruction of everything and everything. In addition, the machine can be controlled remotely as well, making it a great tool for solving various riddles left by Edward Nygma and some tests.

But we are not united by the Batmobile alone, so we will turn all our attention to other fundamentals of the gameplay of the series - hand-to-hand combat and covert elimination of armed opponents. In fact, the developers have brought their proven formulas to the ideal, removing all unnecessary and leaving only the most necessary. The classic "two-button system" has been simplified a little more and diluted with pleasant little things in the form of new tricks and the constant use of improvised means. For example, not reaching the ground, Batman is able to throw several batarangs at enemies, and landing spectacularly roll over and finish off the remaining enemies. Or throw one enemy at another. And he can also disarm bandits and use their own weapons against them (clubs, boxes, and more). In almost all duels, you are required not so much attentiveness as a sense of rhythm, as in the same combat dances. The pace of the game has changed a bit and is faster compared to the previous installments, and on a higher difficulty level, without careful planning of tactics, you will quickly be knocked down.

Among other things, the game has a new technique "terrible multi-hit", the essence of which is simple: main character jumps out of cover, and time around slows down, allowing him to deliver a decisive blow to three to five opponents at once. But such a trick can only be done with a small caveat: all three or five must stand side by side, and Batman cannot be caught in their eyes. The developers also reworked the superhero's jumps into cover: now, when you see some unlocked grate, you can press one button, and Batman will automatically dive into the ventilation shaft hiding behind it. Over time, new, more dangerous enemies appear (especially the ubiquitous doctors), and the game is filled with new chips and features. In addition, Batman himself can be upgraded, and his arsenal is replenished with new gadgets. The new speech synthesizer is especially good, allowing you to give false orders to opponents on behalf of villains or open previously inaccessible places.

From time to time, his partners join the main character, and then another novelty comes into play - the Dual Play system and the ability to constantly switch between heroes. This happens quite rarely, and there is not much difference between the characters, but it is spectacular and beautiful, with a bunch of cool tricks and tasty critical hits on the faces of adversaries. A real show awaits you with incomparable animation, convenient controls and the best hand-to-hand combat choreography in the last few years. After completing the main campaign, the New Game + opens, which will be able to offer you new modes and the most high level difficulties.

invasion

However, everything seen would not be perceived as a whole without two inalienable things - beautiful musical accompaniment and, without exaggeration, a brilliant selection of Western actors for the main roles. Two well-known composers, Nick Arundel and David Buckley, were responsible for the excellent orchestral soundtrack. You could hear the works of the first one in the first two parts of the series, and the main themes, although reminiscent of some Arkham City compositions, still differ in new motives and choral parts. The work of the voice actors, except as delightful, is difficult to call. The team of “oldies” (Kevin Conroy as Batman, Tara Strong as Harley Quinn, Troy Baker as Arkham Knight and Two-Face, and, of course, Nolan North as Penguin) was joined by a group of far from “newbies” in their profession. The role of police commissioner, James Gordon, went to the famous serial actor Jonathan Banks (Mike from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul). His daughter, Barbara, this time is voiced not by Kimberly Brooks (it is her voice that can be heard in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City), but by Ashley Greene, who many know from the films of the Twilight film franchise. John Noble ("Edge", "Lord of the Rings") managed to get Scarecrow at his disposal, and Scott Porter ("Friday Night Lights", "The Good Wife") - Nightwing.

As for the domestic localization made by the SoftClub company, this is the third case in our memory when we did not find practically any major complaints about text translation. Comparing the translation with the original text, we can say with confidence that the translation team managed to translate tons of text normally without any serious distortions (not counting the riddles of Nygma). And you can separately thank the company for not inserting Russian voice acting, which would definitely not be able to reach the level of the original.

And finally, as usual, it is worth mentioning the trophies and the coveted platinum. There are a total of 76 trophies in the game, divided into 68 bronze, 6 silver, one gold and one platinum (including all expansions). Collecting them will not be difficult if you get used to the controls well and learn how to use the gadgets from Batman's arsenal in time. The most difficult trophy of all possible can be only one - "Achieve 69 stars in Augmented Reality trials", everything else is easily collected for the first passage. If we count the repeated passage, then it will take you about 50-60 hours to do everything about everything, depending on your skills and abilities.

The review is based on the digital version of the game for PlayStation 4 provided by Softclub. All screenshots presented in the material are taken directly from the specified system.

Western Internet portals dedicated to gaming give the Dark Knight the highest marks. However, we are far from such enthusiasm. While Batman: Arkham Knight is a great conclusion to the sequel, Bruce Wayne will have to contend with the flaws of the game's creators.

Game Batman: Arkham Knight - Reviews

It felt like Batman: Arkham Knight was pretty darn good, it was a juicy and confident action game. However, the game was far from perfect.

Throughout the game in gloomy Gotham, it seemed that Rocksteady was running out of time. Only a few months were not enough to eliminate strange errors.

Flaws Batman: Arkham Knight

For example, PlayStation 4. Throughout the game, I never managed to connect to the PSN servers. This problem is relevant for every player who purchases a licensed copy. Of course, Batman: Arkham Knight is a single player game, but the package included software elements that could provide a social component, but they did not work, even a few days after the official release.

Another controversial issue was the fight. The combat system has endured only minor changes and remains as good as in the previous parts. One thing in this part added a lot of major battles. Many scenes are frankly reminiscent of the second part of the film The Matrix, where the hero has to fight alone with an entire army of copies of the Agent.

Here the picture is similar, but if we take into account the combat system, sharpened partly for "stealth" and partly for the battle with small groups of opponents, then the situation becomes somewhat more complicated. Other than that, the very beginning of the battle certainly looks impressive. But after a few fights, the fight starts to tire.

Emphasis on gameplay with the Batmobile

Batman's signature vehicle, the developers have worked just brilliantly. The Batmobile has wide functionality and an extensive arsenal. Heavy weapons have become indispensable in a collision with heavy enemy equipment prowling everywhere.

The synchronization of the vehicle with the owner is also striking. There are a number of possibilities here, such as remote control, using the car as a launcher or cover.

And again, they clearly went too far with the frequency of collisions and the scale of battles. At first, the opportunity to use the entire arsenal brings puppy delight, but when the tank battle reaches the scale Kursk Bulge, then the continuous clattering of the keys already has time to get bored.

Atmosphere

Here everything has become more impressive. The whole game is replete with shots, explosions and other attributes of an action game. The developers are making full use of the new resources, but... This Batman is already too far from what the fans of the series loved so much. It has lost that bleakness of the story and the vibe of noir.

Around is constantly full of opponents, the city is teeming with enemy heavy equipment and every now and then you have to shoot or fight. Such a number of collisions can cause a glut even among fans of continuously firing in different directions throughout the game, not to mention fans of the Bruce Wayne universe itself, in which such violent activity is completely inappropriate. However, we have to admit that even with these shortcomings, the last part of the sequel looks decent.

As it turns out, the Arkham series can be interesting even without the Joker. The developers did a great job with the psychology of the Dark Knight himself. The player is expected by both an interesting plot, and perfectly shown sincere torments of the hero.

Here, this is perhaps the most weighty argument in favor of the game, and not action and battles. It just can't wait to find out what's going to happen next. The authors keep gamers on their toes throughout the game. This is truly an achievement.

For what else special thanks to the creators - this is for the fact that the game does not end after the end of the main plot. After him there are many interesting free-ride missions. And there is also a New Game + mode with fully unlocked skills and devices.

Outcome

Batman: Arkham Knight is definitely worth checking out for all fans of the action genre. A good graphic component, a city in which you can move freely, an excellent soundtrack.

There are also many secret bonuses. Despite some flaws and excesses, this is a great addition to the series. And a worthy ending.

Batman: Arkham Knight Game - Video Trailer

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For many years, Bruce Wayne served with honor and dignity as a masked avenger, a dark knight, terrifying and on petty robbers, and on the big tycoons of the underworld. Bruce dedicated his life to fighting crime and the distraught representatives of Gotham's criminal circles. But where did all these madmen end up?

Arkham Asylum is where sooner or later Gotham villains find themselves. The place is one of a kind. Its history is shrouded in dark secrets and urban legends, in which there is a terrifying amount of truth. Here more often they finally lose their mind than they are healed. Truly, "a house of sorrow in a sorrowful land."

The walls of Arkham feed on the madness of their inhabitants. With each new tenant, the hospital is gaining strength, and Batman, without knowing it, has become the most faithful servant of the clinic.

my time in hell

But this time there will be no walls. There will be no barbed wire. There will be no people with rifles around the perimeter. An entire piece of Gotham is in the hands of those who have long been eager to tear it apart - those with whom Bruce has fought many times, but each time was not able to deliver the final blow.

But he broke his legs and jaws, twisted his arms and cruelly played on the nerves of the scoundrels who had embarked on a slippery path. The idea of ​​that very bat costume was born not so much because of the desire to remain incognito and protect one's surroundings, but from the ancient desire to break the will of the enemy, frightening him with his appearance. But under the mask of horror hides a common person with your feelings and fears.

In the context of the situation, Wayne can hardly be proud of the fact that he never kills.

And such a person was found. Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, lurking after the events Arkham Asylum and risen from the ashes in the new "free" Gotham. His goal is somewhat different from the goals of other antagonists of the Dark Knight. He does not wish death to Bruce Wayne - he does not care who is hiding under the mask. To die follows the very image of the avenger. The citizens of Gotham must see that they entrusted their lives not to a superhero, but to common man, as weak as they are.

In a giveaway with death

Trying to let out the fears of Batman and force him to fight is the main theme of the game. Throughout history, Bruce has been subtly trying to break both outside and inside. Watching these attempts is interesting, but Batman still goes along the chosen path, without flinching a single muscle on his heroic face. Painful memories, ghosts of the past, friends forced to suffer helping Wayne - nothing unsettles the Dark Knight. He is always cool. “You have the mind of a killer, admit it,” they would say to Bruce one day. He will only remain silent.

Sometimes something in Batman still moves, but these rare experiences do not entail anything.

The storyline is collected from all conceivable and unimaginable stamps of comics and superhero movies. Crane's tiring bombastic speeches, the threat mass terrorist attack, kidnappings, betrayals - most plot twists are easy to predict. If you watch Nolan's The Dark Knight and prepare a bowl of popcorn before starting the game, there will be no problems with the perception of local history, but digging into it is strictly not recommended - you can be disappointed. The plot warms up only closer to the denouement, but here the situation obliges - the final of the trilogy, after all.

However, secondary scenario turns can easily be overlooked in the production. In the three years since the release Arkham City, the developers have noticeably grown above themselves: videos from Arkham Knight can be combined into a separate film and put into cinemas.

Eventful (and explosions, of course) scenes are complemented by a perfectly matched orchestral soundtrack (it doesn’t stick in memory, but it gives depth to the episodes) and the masterful work of a virtual cameraman. There can be no complaints about Rocksteady here - if we borrow from Hollywood, then only the best.

But even a sensible production does not hide the acute shortage of actors. Batman, as always, firmly portrays the lone wolf, persistently rejecting the help of Robin and Nightwing, so on " bright side”, except for Batman himself, for almost the entire game we observe only the classic team of Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and Lucius Fox.

On the opposite side is almost the same picture. In addition to the Scarecrow, the titular Arkham Knight plays a prominent role, and even a couple of familiar villains. All the others are shown to us for a minute and abruptly removed from the main plot. Want to more Penguin and Harvey Dent? Feel free to go through secondary tasks. This, of course, upsets: Harvey, with the help of the Scarecrow, could notably delve into Bruce's head. And there are other worthy candidates among the "minor" villains.

Perhaps they did this to free up more screen time for the Arkham Knight. The villain is still completely new, invented in close cooperation with DC Comics, and in general, judging by numerous interviews and shows, the developers are proud of the new character.

And how should I put it... in vain? The Arkham Knight is a terribly boring type. You expect composure from a harsh avenger, not complaints and a broken voice, but throughout the game he only whines about how Batman ruined his life and must pay for it. There is almost no mystery in the Knight either - players who are well acquainted with the universe can easily figure out who is hiding under the mask by the middle of the game.

In those rare moments when the Knight does stop whining and starts acting like a cold-blooded professional, he becomes a tolerable character. And stylish, that's for sure.

Artists Rocksteady in general, as always, at their best, the updated costume of Batman is just a feast for the eyes.

However, there is one twist in the story that introduces a character who could well be considered the protagonist. final chapter Arkham trilogy. He easily and naturally draws on himself the whole story. Moreover, the turn gives rise to a separate storyline - it is tightly intertwined with the main events, giving them flavor and leading the story to a powerful, memorable finale.

City drowned in mud

With the production, everything is fine not only in the commercials, but also in the plot tasks. Sometimes we are offered to indulge in exceptionally extravagant deeds. For example, to defuse bombs, trying not to catch the eye of a villain who enthusiastically performs a song. Or explore an unfinished subway line in an attempt to awaken an ancient plant.

Traditionally, a lot of attention is paid to detective stuff. Pathfinder game, video analysis, restoration of the chain of events in the spirit of Remember Me- everything is done extremely simply, but it helps to feel like "the greatest detective in the world" well.

But more familiar things, like beating villainous muzzles and quietly tracking down opponents, with hide and seek under the ceiling, this time not so much. Because almost half of the attention was pulled over by the Batmobile.

Sharpness driving adds destructibility. Chasing the next villain, you don't have to worry about the scenery getting in the way: the Batmobile knocks down trees, fences and benches, smashes columns and monuments into crumbs, and even famously breaks the corners of buildings into bricks.

The vehicle is not just for fast movement, not just a bat-Roach, but a full-fledged basis of the new mechanics. The sensations from it are quite comparable with the sensations from the machines in some parts of the same Need for Speed.

The Batmobile noticeably plays the suspension, if desired, it easily goes into a controlled skid and famously bounces on bumps. Rocksteady strikes the right balance between fun driving and easy handling: racing around Gotham, knocking bus stops and careless criminals, insanely fun - a great way to unwind between story missions. For complete happiness, only a bat-plane is missing.

But a high-speed armored car is just one of the incarnations of the Batmobile. At any time, it can be turned into a real tank, pouring heavy fire from a machine gun on enemy vehicles and showering them with shells from a powerful cannon.

What is happening is partly reminiscent of Transformers performed by High Moon. True, there the battles looked more like fussing with plastic toys (fun, but somehow not serious), but here everything is grown-up. The clanging and grinding of metal, sheaves of sparks, walls flying to dust and a deafening roar in our ears - a couple of years ago we would not have thought that we would ever describe a Batman game with such words. At least release a separate game on such mechanics.

Enemy vehicles are motley: some fire homing missiles, which should be shot down from a machine gun, others fire at three lines at once, and someone can only be "knocked out" by a shot in the exhaust.

As for hunting and fighting, everything has remained almost unchanged. Tracking down and carefully removing villains, hiding on gargoyles and in ventilation shafts, is still interesting, but it is worth considering that the balance has changed a bit. On medium difficulty, Batman can easily take out a couple of automatic bursts, and in most cases you can go ahead without worrying too much about stealth. A good option for those who love Batman but don't like stealth action games. True, you won’t feel like a real Dark Knight - you don’t even have to remember about tactics and bat gadgets.

But at a high level, careful planning and the active use of available tools are indispensable: Bats becomes more vulnerable, and opponents partially get rid of deafness. Victory not with reflexes, but with your own inquisitive mind, gives completely different emotions.

Set of gadgets from the times Arkham City almost did not change. The only interesting novelty is a speech synthesizer that allows you to give false orders to opponents on behalf of their superiors.

Another notable addition is the "terrible multi-hit", the ability to knock out up to five opponents at once in succession. It turns out very noisy, but spectacular.

Drak this also applies to the fullest. On an average level of difficulty Arkham Knight- simple two-button beat'em up. The battles on it require not so much attention as a sense of rhythm - strike, strike, dodge, counterattack, strike - and feel more like playing a dance simulator.

Whether business high level of complexity. Here you need to keep your eyes open and think with lightning speed.

I cut down these two at once, I stun the thug. Until he comes to his senses, I shoot at his partner from a shocker. Two men armed with bats are pushing from behind. Somersault to the side, the first one gets hit in the forehead with a betarang, I pull the second one with a hook and, dodging, with all my strength I put my head on the electrical panel. In the meantime, the thug comes to his senses and throws his partner, stunned by the shocker, at me with a flourish. Step aside. The poor fellow crashes his head into the wall, and a fire extinguisher is already flying at the thug. A dull metallic thud. The fight is over.

From the outside, it still looks like a dance. But it feels almost like a real-time tactic.

There are no trains to Gotham.

Gotham is amazingly beautiful. Cold glass and concrete boxes stretching into the sky hang over gloomy alleys full of rats and dirt. The neon-lit streets groan in the endless pouring rain. The developers conveyed the spirit of the city that gave birth to the Dark Knight perfectly: Gotham wants to be explored, looking into every alley and every doorway. Moreover, you will not find two identical streets here.

And the sadder to realize that the city is empty. It's just a decoration, made with maniacal attention to detail, but lifeless. Its goal is to create a mood, to surround the hero with a natural environment for him. No more.

It so happened that in recent times developers began to devote less time to optimizing PC versions of games, at least the number of mediocrely ported games on PC has increased significantly. While poorly optimized PC games used to be the exception rather than the rule, they are now the norm. Each new part of Call of Duty, some projects from Ubisoft like Assassin's Creed: Unity and even the latest Quantum Break are all just a spit in the face of the entire PC player, the usual disrespect and negligence on the part of both the publisher and developers. And okay, if everyone downloaded games from torrents, then I wouldn’t even say a word, but many people buy, pay their honestly earned money, and besides, someone buys very expensive hardware for these very games. an expensive computer, installed a licensed OS on this computer, bought and installed there the very game that you have been waiting for so long and, perhaps, for which you have assembled this computer, and instead of giving you positive emotions, it gives you a bouquet of various freezes , glitches and crashes.I think that it is precisely the abundance of technical problems that the main problem modern PC gaming, and not the absence of any special exclusives or the abundance of shareware trash, as many people believe. In the end, for the sake of a few exclusives, you can buy a console, and no one forces you to play F2P, but when you can’t play normally, not because your hardware doesn’t pull, but because the developers were too lazy to optimize - this is it and there is a real problem and tragedy for all of PC gaming.

But still, this is a thankless task, to play games today at the time of release, and then, having completed the game, start pouring mud on it and underestimate its ratings only because of technical problems. In the end, you can wait for all the patches that will fix all or almost all of the significant problems of the game and start enjoying it to the fullest. At least personally, that's exactly what I do, I start playing a game only some time after the release, when I'm more or less sure that everything is in order with the game.

Due to the optimization of Batman: Arkham Knight there was a lot of hype, many even said that "this is the worst port in the history of PC gaming" and people complained about the developers to the last, i.e. the release of the last patch, and they continue to complain until now. For this reason, I very often postponed this game until later, I was very afraid to spoil my impressions, because last year it was this game that I was most looking forward to, not The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, not Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and not anything else, namely Batman: Arkham Knight and don't ask why, it's just a matter of taste. But in the end, when all the patches came out, and my patience finally ran out, I still sat down to play this game, and now that the game has been completed and I have finally formed an opinion about it, I am ready to share my impressions of the final adventure with you Batman by Rocksteady.

"The Dark Knight as the most popular comic book hero"

I have never been a big fan of comics and superheroes in general, but I have always liked the image of the Dark Knight, if only because this hero looks the most alive and real character against the background of all other fictional comic book characters. The tragic story of the death of Bruce Wayne's parents, incredible willpower, constant struggle for the truth, high intelligence instead of superpowers and the principle of "restore justice, but do not kill anyone" - all this, and much more, makes Batman a truly special character. Well, the well-known, noir Gotham, a number of colorful characters, legendary villains and really interesting stories filled with deeper meaning and morality, turn the initially children's tale into a more adult work that reflects our harsh and even cruel reality. All this made Batman a cult character, and thanks to Christopher Nolan's brilliant film trilogy about the Dark Knight, the image of Batman and his story became truly legendary and settled in the hearts of millions of people for a long time. After all, The Dark Knight of 2008 is considered one of the best films in the history of cinema and is on the list of most popular (and not only) tops, which means at least something.

I got to know the Batman Arkham universe from Rocksteady much later than the rest, probably somewhere in the middle of 2012. The thing is that for a very long time I was skeptical about games based on comics, especially about superheroes, having played various "masterpieces" about the Hulk, Spider-Man and other superheroes, I for a long time lost the desire to waste time on any games of this kind. kind. For this reason, I missed the highly successful Batman: Arkham a sylum and only some time after the release turned his attention to Batman: Arkham city. Great trailers, the highest ratings from critics, as well as ordinary users still made me try this game and of course, I was quite surprised, because the game was really a success. I can't say that I was in some indescribable, cosmic delight from Arkham city, but still, it was definitely one of the most memorable gaming experiences and this game stands apart in my list of favorites.

After I completed Arkham City, I never got around to doing Arkham Asylum and to be honest, I haven't done it yet. As for Arkham Knight, I can’t say that I was initially looking forward to it, no, I was just wondering what else the developers from Rocksteady would come up with and how this series would end, but that was only until the developers posted the first gameplay video games. After the developers first showed the general public the first gameplay videos and just epic trailers built on the game engine, my degree of anticipation skyrocketed. Stunning design and graphics, explosive gameplay and mega-epic nature of everything that happens on the screen, all this was very captivating, and sometimes it even seemed that it was some kind of well-staged CGI cartoon. Yes, I was delighted with the videos, but they were still just videos, and today many developers like to embellish reality, for example, Ubisoft. So, until the very release, it was not clear whether this game was as good as in the trailers and whether the developers had deceived us.

"Truth Above All"

Not at all, the developers did not deceive us in the slightest, the game turned out to be as good as we were promised. The first minutes of the game literally cause euphoria, amazing design, graphics and some incredible attention to detail, all this is very impressive. The developers did a lot of work on the visual component, a very detailed, beautiful city, from the variety of different buildings in which the eyes just run up, the Batmobile, which is made so meticulously and in detail that you can see the nuts and various gears on it, Batman's cape, which develops very beautifully over city ​​and from which raindrops flow, and of course, smartly staged cut-scenes of the CGI cartoon level, which gradually flow into the Gameplay, are there many games now that can be described in this way? I don't think.

In general, it is possible to describe the visual in Arkham Knight for a very long time, but it is better to see once than hear a hundred times, because when you fly over the stunningly beautiful and at the same time gloomy Gotham, in the role of the Dark Knight, with an open cloak and from which raindrops flow , or you rush at full speed through the same city on the Batmobile, and in these moments you understand that this is the NextG EN which many have been waiting for. What is most interesting is that all this beauty was made, albeit on a modified, but still on a very old Unreal engine 3 engine. How the developers managed to make one of the most beautiful games of our time on such an old engine is not clear to me, but I I bow to their skill and once again say without exaggeration that Batman: Arkham Knight is one of the most beautiful games of our time.

Although particularly meticulous players here may not find the best textures, not the most a large number of polygons and not the most best animation in some scenes, yes, all this is also present here, but, in any case, this is the result of huge work on a very old engine. So in this case, it’s a sin to quibble, because a large number of developers, having the most modern and “graphical” engines in their arsenal, end up doing things that you don’t even want to look in the direction, but here you can say NextG EN , and even on the old engine. Yes, and as my good friend, who works in the game industry, “Design decides” said, and he turned out to be right, because in this case the design really decides and competently hides all the weaknesses of the engine.

"Variety as one of the main features of the game"

Now we can talk about the gameplay itself. gameplay. This time, the gameplay pleased us more than ever, because in addition to all the variety that was in the same Arkham City, now the developers have added to the game large city and Batmobile, as well as a number of some innovations. Now the game is trying to please absolutely everyone and it’s not bad at it, here you have very spectacular and exciting battles, even more spectacular and exciting rides on the Batmobile, very good stealth, detective mode, as well as missions from the Riddler that can make you you move your brains, all this variety greatly dilutes the gameplay and does not let you get bored for almost a minute. Combat in Arkham Knight is also good, as before and even better, our gg during hand-to-hand combat still skillfully switches from one enemy to another, breaking their bones one by one and spoiling their "cute face", only this time he has more techniques and various tricks in stock. Personally, I liked the "Dreadful Decisive Strike" the most, when you can knock out three opponents in turn in Slow Mo mode, trust me, it looks very spectacular and gives a lot of fun, although this trick also simplifies the gameplay, but still not enough to panic.

Also a nice moment was the opportunity to play as Robin and Nightwing, which we were given during the passage of some story and additional missions. There were few such moments, but I had enough of them, especially during such missions, I liked the opportunity to switch on the go and see group finishing moves, which also look very spectacular. And you can also say thanks to the developers for the opportunity to play again as a cat woman, because she so skillfully demonstrates her expressive forms to us, well, she also copes with the enemy quite well.

The main gameplay innovation is of course the Batmobile, driving it around the city, making sharp turns and admiring the city at the same time is a real pleasure. The chases on it are very good, driving, spectacular and exciting, what can I say, even driving sports cars in the latest Need for Speed ​​\u200b\u200bis not as much fun as driving a regular Batmobile in Arkham Knight. For example, while riding around the city, you can notice enemy vehicles and, if you have a desire, start a pursuit. Having started the chase, the real fun begins, other militants immediately join you, who strive to throw you to the sidelines, or simply destroy you. You race at full speed, trying to fit into sharp turns and at the same time destroy annoying opponents, and destroying one of them, the Slow Mo mode turns on just in time, which increases the degree of epicness and fun to heaven. In general, as I said earlier, it is better to see once than hear a hundred times.

But the use of the Batmobile is not limited to simple rides and chases, because by pressing just one button, our futuristic, armored sports car turns into the fastest tank in the world. This transforming tank is ideal for destroying enemy vehicles, ranging from simple infantry fighting vehicles to various helicopters and drones that can destroy our Batman in an instant (if he forgot to hide, of course). In general, we have to use the Batmobile, both in standard and in combat mode, quite often, in various situations where we have to use it just a huge amount, of course I won’t talk about everything, because it will take me an eternity. But there is also a downside, the fact is that the Batmobile takes us half of all gameplay time and it’s quite fair that this annoys many players, because no matter how good the rides on the Batmobile are, sooner or later they get bored and sometimes you just want to wave your fists, but at these moments the developers say "no! Ride or die!" and that's it. But personally, the chases themselves almost never bothered me, but skirmishes with countless enemies on vehicles with the help of the Bat-tank really got boring sometimes, although not so much that I wanted to turn off the game.

As before, most missions can be completed in two ways, the first is to go to the enemy face to face and without thinking twice break all his bones with various tricks, the second is to turn on the brain and try to gently and imperceptibly eliminate it. In the first case, the main thing is to press the buttons in time and in the finale admire the spectacular finishing off of the enemy, and in the second, skill, attention and some kind of tactics are already needed, without which especially "harmful" enemies in especially difficult missions will kill you once or twice. Some missions are almost impossible to pass without stealth, and while passing the game quietly, you constantly need to use various gadgets, of which there are a large number. Various gadgets, such as a boomerang, a thermal imager, a smoke grenade and a cannon with an electric charge, open up a huge number of options for completing the same level. Knowing how and most importantly where to use certain gadgets can greatly facilitate the passage of certain missions and make the passage of the game in stealth mode more entertaining.

You can also talk about the gameplay of Batman: Arkham Knight for a long time, but I will summarize and describe it as follows: "Diverse, damn exciting, but not without some flaws."

"The monotony of secondary missions as the main drawback"

Now it's worth talking about the most significant drawback of this game, or rather, about a few monotonous secondary missions that artificially stretch the gameplay. If in Batman: Arkham Knight it is quite possible to turn a blind eye to the obsession of the Batmobile, and the lack of serious boss battles, and too little "Detective Mode" in the gameplay, at least many did not pay attention to these things at all, then here it is very difficult to turn a blind eye to the monotony of secondary missions. The developers have created a huge city and there really is something to do in it, but exactly until you complete the story campaign and until you get tired of completing secondary missions, and most of them will most likely get bored after a while.

The game has a number of certain secondary missions, for example: you need to prevent robberies in the city, rescue all firefighters, defuse all bombs, destroy all enemy posts, investigate mysterious murders and, of course, you yourself must choose which one you will go through next. Well, just imagine, you look at all this diversity and choose something most suitable for yourself, “I’m going to save firefighters,” you think, get into the Batmobile, go to the crime scene, take out a squad of mordovorots, save a fireman, listen to his eulogies, You get moral satisfaction and that's it. Then you get back into the Batmobile, go to the crime scene, take out the brawler squad, save the fireman, listen to his eulogies, again get moral satisfaction and this process is repeated again and again and again. In the end, you get tired of rescuing firefighters, and you think "hey, there are so many more interesting tasks here, I'll go to complete them", you get into the Batmobile, go to a new task, and there is the same deja vu effect, you are forced to do exactly same. Well, to hell with it, I wouldn’t say a word if the developers completed each “quest” on time, but only some additional tasks finish on time, and most of them are so stretched and repeated so often that the passage of the game turns into usual silliness.

Well, the biggest mistake on the part of the developers is to force us to go through all these tasks in order to see the true ending of the game. Simply put, in order to see the true ending and the coveted credits, you need to defuse the nth number of bombs, towers and it's no joke, but you need to find more than two hundred Riddler trophies! This is just a catastrophically huge number, and I think that many of you ended up simply breaking down and downloading the coveted safe file from the Internet in order to see the very, true ending of the game.It’s worth making a reservation right away, because many of you, having seen all of the above, may think that secondary missions are terrible and not worth playing. No, the side missions themselves aren't that bad, they're just too repetitive, but nothing more. If you go through side missions in between story missions and don’t leave them for later, then the process of passing them will still be exciting and you are unlikely to get bored. But if you decide to go through the whole story first, and leave the side missions for later, as I did, then in this case you will get tired of going through them after a few hours, or even faster.

Although there were really good and even excellent side missions, these are all Riddler tasks in which we need to save the catwoman and do not be afraid of 243 trophies, because you need to collect them in order to see the true ending of the game, and not to to save our beauty. Riddler's tasks turned out to be really interesting, varied, exciting, and most importantly, sometimes they make the brain work, and not the most attentive players risk getting stuck on some levels for a very long time. And to tell the truth, most of the Riddler's tasks were no worse than the story ones, and some were even better, at least it was always pleasant for me, after another massacre, to get into the Btmobile and go to the "Mad in Green" in order to decide his next riddle.

"A story and characters we want to see on the big screen again"

As for the story, everything is more than fine. The plot in Arkham Knight is one of the main trump cards of the game, because the overall drama, very interesting twists and chic presentation set the tone from the very beginning of the game and do not let you tear yourself away from the monitor until the very end. The way the developers present us with certain moments is very impressive, starting from the first appearance of the Joker and ending with the final meeting with the Scarecrow, everything is very emotional and colorful, and some scenes are so good that they want to revise, well, or replay again, again and again. again. The cut scenes themselves are staged simply gorgeous and calmly pull on a CGI cartoon, and one would like to ask the developers to make a separate movie on the game engine. The story in Arkham Knight does not blow up the brain like in the same BioShock: infinite, but that's even good, because here such a brain explosion is simply not needed. The game has a number of key, unexpected moments that are not dumped on our heads at some specific moment, in the form of a large psycho-emotional burden, but are presented more and more gradually, in portions, which is very, very competent.

In spirit, the story told in Batman Arkham Knight is very reminiscent of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Here is the same occupied by terrorists, half-empty Gotham, all the same cold-blooded militants, all the same main villain, the main objective who break Batman from the inside, not kill, the ambiguous second villain, whose true face we only learn at the end, well, Bruce Wayne himself and his internal struggle. Batman: Arkham Knight is really somewhat reminiscent of Dark Knight: Rises, but only slightly and there is certainly no direct plagiarism here, the stories are still completely different, the heroes are different, the villains are different, the atmosphere is very different, there are only minor similarities that most of you just won't notice.

Speaking of characters, everything here is at a decent level. All the characters are very well written and, perhaps, each plays a significant role in this story. I really liked the main villain "Scarecrow", this is a very colorful character, his creepy image and no less creepy voice are really capable of instilling horror, I think few people would like to meet a guy like this in real life. Watching him is very entertaining, his constant balanced, calm, unflappable behavior, interesting and creepyreplicas, inhuman acts, very interesting dialogues and the goals that he pursues, all this is very inspiring and makes him a very memorable character. I personally really liked this version of the Scarecrow and it can definitely be called one of the best villains in the history of video games, although for some this may be an exaggeration, but still, I would really like to see this guy again and not only in new ones. games from the Batman Arkham series, but also on big screens.

Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, is also good, his internal struggle is shown by the developers perfectly. You empathize with the main character and even sympathize throughout the game. This time, he has to fight not only with an army of militants and bandits commanded by their crazy employers, but also with himself, his own mind, his fears, doubts and even memories that appear at the wrong moments and who strive to break our hero, which they sometimes even succeed in doing. Batman this time is especially hard, because the scarecrow knows where to push, knows everything about him weak spots, knows about all his inner fears and weaknesses, in many ways, of course, thanks to the second main villain, the Knight of Arkham.

The Arkham Knight was not 100% successful, he is also very colorful, but only up to a certain point and, of course, he is very far away from the Scarecrow. If the Scarecrow is a villain without any “But” there, then the Arkham Knight is a very pretentious character who, although outwardly looks excellent, which is worth only one costume, but in itself he is not so interesting, and even more so no horror and does not cause fear. In general, the story with the Arkham Knight is very similar to the story of Kylo Ren from the seventh episode of Star Wars, when the main villain is taken seriously equally until he takes off his mask. Although everything here is definitely not as bad as in the last episode of Star Wars, here no one will laugh at the main character and he, although sometimes he behaves recklessly and emotionally, is far from crybaby and hysteria of Kylo Ren. Simply, if you initially do not know who is hiding under the mask, then you will definitely expect much more from this character.

There are a number of other equally important characters in the game - Commissioner James Gordon, his daughter Barbara Gordon (aka the Oracle), Robin, Alfred, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and, of course, everyone's favorite and brilliant Joker. All these are the most important characters, and each of them in one way or another will significantly affect the further course of events in the main story campaign. All other characters in the game are not so important, because their influence on the main storyline is simply negligible, or completely absent. Such popular characters as Two-Face, Penguin, Deathstroke, Nightwing, Catwoman and the Riddler appear here mainly in additional missions and have practically no direct influence on the plot of the game, of course, there is not much point in talking about them. There are more whole line other characters, not even the second, but the third plan, you can get to know them personally when you go through the game.

Yes, the story, characters and presentation in the game are chic, as well as almost all other aspects of the game, and I deliberately did not short description plot, so as not to accidentally spoil anything and spoil your experience. No words about how the story began, what twists and turns, which of the characters and most importantly "how" influenced the plot, no clues about who the Knight of Arkham is and generally absolutely nothing. I told only about my own thoughts and impressions and I think that this is quite enough, and if you are impatient to find out what is happening in Gotham occupied by two terrorists, then you should pick up a gamepad and find out for yourself.

The musical accompaniment in the game, of course, does not reach the level of Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore or the same Steve Jablonsky, there are no such gorgeous compositions as in Crysis 2, Modern Warfare 2, the Dark Knight or the same Transformers, but the soundtrack available here is also very fit. Everything is according to the canons here, during the fights and in the most active and intense scenes we listen to the epic sound, and in calmer scenes, of course, whatever is calmer. Calm music playing in the background is usually not memorable at all, but some tracks playing in some of the most active scenes turned out really good, but not so much that I wanted to listen to them separately, such as the amazing "Epilogue" or "SOS New York" by Hans Zimmer for the Crysis 2 game. Sometimes you even feel that Nick Arundel and David Buckley tried to imitate the works of Hans Zimmer (for those who do not know Nick Arundel and David Buckley are the main composers of Batman: Arkham Knight) and yes, they have it turned out good, but nothing more. I personally still lacked truly epic music in this game, at one point I just turned on the soundtrack for The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises and played to this gorgeous music. Trust me, driving around Gotham and chasing to such amazing tracks as "Molossus", "Why do we fall suite" and "Rise" is a real and unique pleasure.

Of course, I can demand a lot from the publisher and developers, but damn it, why can’t we invite truly eminent and legendary composers to write the soundtrack, who will write music not only “supporting the atmosphere of the game”, but also one that the hunt will listen to separately . In general, to put it simply, the music in Batman: Arkham Knight is very suitable and even epic in places, but there is nothing supernatural in it, it maintains the atmosphere of the game very well, well, I don’t want to listen to it separately.

And, of course, we can't help but mention just the coolest, really great, new Batman costume, which is codenamed "Batsuit v8.04". In my understanding, it was in Batman: Arkham Knight that the most successful incarnation of the Dark Knight turned out, and not only among the Batman Arkham series of games, but even among cinema. The Dark Knight from Batman: Arkham Knight in a new suit is really a very colorful and pretentious character, in which there is not a drop of absurdity and any stupidity, which, unfortunately, is so inherent in this character in other works. External image Batman looks even more advantageous here than in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and let the fans disagree with me, but there the Dark Knight was still a somewhat ridiculous character, but there is no absurdity in sight here, at least I did not notice it.

Although, if you don't like "Batsuit v8.04" for some reason, then you can choose another one at any time. The game still has a huge number of completely different costumes for every taste and color, ranging from the costume from the animated series "Batman Beyond" to the costume from the latest creation of Zack Snyder's "Batman v Superman". You can even run around in a suit from the 2008 film The Dark Knight, but for those who don’t have enough, there is an opportunity to change the Batmobile in the game, of course there are not as many transports as there are suits, but the already existing copies will be enough for you . You can also play as Harley Quinn and even the Arkham Knight, but in order to get all these "goodies" without exception, you must have a license and buy all the add-ons, otherwise you won't be able to run around in Ben Affleck's costume.

Well, now about the painful ie. about performance, I played the game on a computer with the following characteristics: "Nvidia GeForse GTX770 2GB, Intel core i5 4670, 8GB Ram, Windows 10 Pro" - this, of course, is not a top solution, but it is far from the weakest either. I played at full Full HD (1920 * 1080) resolution, at the highest possible settings for this system. in the game, almost everything was turned to the maximum and almost all the additional goodies from Nvidia were included, except for the textures, they stood at my usual level for the reason that they require a video card with a large amount of memory. Well, what can we say, in the end, about the performance? Personally, for the entire time I played the game, there was not a single bug, lag or crash, and you won’t believe it, but the game worked just perfectly, without jokes and exaggeration, even the FPS didn’t sag anywhere. All this, of course, was a pleasant surprise, because so many people are experiencing problems with the game even now and even on computers that are not inferior to mine, and I just launched it, set the maximum possible settings, clicked on "New Game" and enjoyed the game literally until the very end without knowing any problems. Although, I will not now summarize and say that the game is bad or good optimization, because I do not know exactly how the game works on other computers and I may just have been lucky. I will just say that my game worked perfectly and I did not experience any problems.

On this note, I think it's time to finish my story about this game, sum up and put an assessment already, in short, "make a verdict." Batman: Arkham Knight, this is a really great game, large-scale, spectacular, epic, insanely beautiful, diverse, exciting and has a great storyline, but at the same time it has a number of minor flaws, as well as a couple of significant disadvantages - these are not the best side missions and obsession of the Batmobile (yes, I still didn’t turn a blind eye to this), and also don’t forget about the disgusting start of sales on the PC and the state the game is still in, because many people still complain about the game, while having a license and very good iron. If you have a console and for some reason you haven’t played this game yet, then you should definitely buy it, but if you have a PC, and even not the most productive one, then you need to approach buying the game more carefully, although on PC, the game is now very cheap and you can buy it for only 500r, and the Premium version, which includes all add-ons, is only 1000r, so in which case, you are unlikely to lose much.

In general, Batman: Arkham Knight is a worthy conclusion to the legendary trilogy from Rocksteady, it is Best game in comics and one of the best incarnations of Batman in general, this game is definitely no worse than Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and definitely better than most film adaptations known to us, not counting of course The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. This is a grandiose game, which, to become an unconditional masterpiece, did not have quite a bit. All things considered, I'm giving this game a 9.1/10, and I think it's a well-deserved rating, even considering all of its shortcomings.