Examining The Batman Arkham Series | Asylum, City, Origins & Knight
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- Опубликовано: 12 июл 2024
- Who thought at release the Batman Arkham series would be one of the best of the last 15 years?
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Since the series inception almost 15 years ago, The Batman Arkham series has since offered some of the best gaming experiences. Titles that would have noticeable influence on other titles from other studios. Yet, few could come close to what the series had to offer. Four games in total (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins & Arkham Knight), each have their strengths and weaknesses.
It's funny to look back at how a studio with one game under their belt at the time had the keys to the Batman franchise. Licensed games could be all over the place in quality. But to produce titles that were GOTY worthy, and some of the best games in the last 15 years? Talk about a welcome surprise.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Prelude
01:16 - Batman: Arkham Asylum Intro
03:59 - Arkham Asylum Gameplay
06:17 - Urban Chaos: Riot Response Mini-Review
07:35 - Arkham Asylum Gameplay Continued
17:07 - Arkham Asylum Plot & Highlights
27:49 - Batman: Arkham City Intro
31:51 - Arkham City Gameplay
41:29 - Arkham City Plot & Highlights
1:04:29 - Batman: Arkham Origins Intro
1:10:30 - Arkham Origins Gameplay
1:16:44 - Arkham Origins Plot & Highlights
1:43:22 - Batman: Arkham Knight Intro
1:46:50 - Arkham Knight Gameplay
2:00:15 - Arkham Knight Plot & Highlights
2:29:58 - In Conclusion
Additional Footage:
• Batman: Arkham City Additional Footage - • Batman: Arkham City - ...
• Batman: Arkham Knight Additional Footage - • Batman Arkham Knight -... , • Batman Arkham Knight K...
• Batman: The Animated Series (Tim Curry Joker) - • Tim Curry as Joker 🦇 O...
• Batman Returns
• Bayonetta
• Better Call Saul
• CollegeHumor: Batman Can't Stop Thinking About Sex - • Video
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - • Video
• The Dark Knight
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Mafia 2 - • Mafia 2 - Nolan North ...
• Paul Dini Interview: • Batman: The Animated S...
• Resident Evil 5
• Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League - • Batman's Death Scene i... , • The Squad meet Poision...
• Urban Chaos: Riot Response
• The Wire 
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I think Origins is better than Asylum and Knight, personally. Deathstroke is one of the best boss fights I have ever seen in a game. And the Bane fight at the end is excellent.
IT'S THE FREAKING BAT!!!
31:20 Bane posting in an arkham retrospective? You are a big guy
UUUU
I think the problem with Jason Todd in Arkham Knight is less that it's obvious and more that they tried to act like it wasn't obvious. If batman appeared to figure it out immediately but was in denial that would have been more interesting from a character perspective. He could try to remember what happened to Jason from his perspective and how much he tried but it wasn't good enough.
I don't think it's necessary for him to have been a secret or a big reveal. I think it's more important how the characters deal with that.
I love Arkham Asylum as a love letter to everything Batman, especially the animated series. So I couldn't take the overall story saga too seriously. But damn, did they make the Stealth Takedowns and being a Bat Predator better than Batman Begins. And future developers take note, do less with the Twisted Metal Batmobile sections with Non-lethal cannons and smart weapons. Lastly, sad that WB is Quadrupling down on Live Service Games.
Asylum all the way. It has the REAL, OG Harley Quinn. I don't know what is wrong with everyone else's ears but Tara Strong's interpretation of Harley Quinn is awful. I can't stand listening to her. But it constantly gets heaps of praise by gaming media and youtubers alike.
@Channel-gz9hm Tara Strong was fine when she first started voicing Harley, but circa 2015 she, for whatever reason, decided to make her voice progressively sqeakier and squeakier to the point where it's nails on a chalkboard.
I really wish Hynden Walch was the new default voice for Harley Quinn these days.
A bit surprised this didn't touch upon Arkham Origins' PvP multiplayer mode, cause that was an experience.
Here's my brief recounting of it. It was chaotic, but also fun. Working, but also broken. It was 4 Joker goons vs 4 Bane Simps vs Batman and Robin. The criminals had to pretty much just play TDM against each other in TPS setup while Batman and Robin had to take them out to fill a fear meter at which they won. It was asymmetrical gameplay at its finest. It also led you properly feel like one of the thugs in the game, looking up at Gargoyles to see if Batman's there, looking out for traps. Taking Batman out temporarily was also the only way to reclaim your team respawns. So when you're the last man standing and the hero comes in, you gotta clutch against Batman. Also with enough points you got to get Bane or Joker in. Bane would do a ton of melee attacks and a rocket launcher. While Joker had a magnum and some gun that fired like a shotgun from horizontal clip (a la the Hotchkiss).
The lore actually supported this mode as while reaching certain level thresholds, you'd get videos from the Bane or Joker, telling you how you're his elite troops. The Joker ones in particular were great, cause he sounded just as surprised as you were, that his elite troops survived.
The non-fun bit was... Matchmaking was broken. You could literally sit all day in matchmaking and find nothing (AROUND LAUNCH), so you had to manually invite your friends to join and they'd invite their friends and once you had a 5stack, it would match you. Also, the game straight up didn't save your progress and one trophy required you to level up your guns to MAX level, but your gun levels reset each time you booted the MP mode up. So I had stay in the MP mode for like 5 hours to level a gun up on the Joker side. Also matchmaking was always a race to be Batman and Robin. But ultimately I did get the platinum PS3 trophy on it, and it's still one of my rarest, due to how unplayed/unplayable the multiplayer mode was. And now the servers are down.
It was one of those "add a multiplayer mode into it" games, like God of War Ascension, ACBrotherhood and the like, but it was honestly pretty unique. With some polish it would prove to be more fun than Suicide Squad.
That's all. Although ask me anything if ya want. I'll try to get to it.
Aren't the servers offline? He said he didn't play origins before this, so he unfortunately never got to experience it.
100% Nostalgia but Asylum is the best superhero game made.
"The Catwoman sections in Arkham City feel like DLC spliced in at times..."
Funny you should say that. Because they were DLC, or at least they were treated like that on Day 1. You bought the game new, or you had to buy the Catwoman DLC.
Was literally gonna comment the exact same thing when I heard that 😂
That meant that I had the robin dlc but not catwoman, even though one was essential for city's story, and the other is additional
Granted, it's on me for getting it 2nd hand, but still
35:48 Put this man into Fallen Aces
I personally rank the games as follows:
1) Arkham City
2) Arkham Asylum
3) Arkham Origins
4) Arkham Knight
City I consider to be the peak of the series for improving the mechanics established in Asylum and giving us an extremely versatile Batman to play as a result and creating an open world but doesn't lose its tight focus because of it.
Asylum may not be as open as its sequels and Batman may not have much to play around with but the game is designed around those limitations and gives us a tight, focused experience with its metroidvania design.
Origins may not offer much in terms of innovation but it does offer the best story and boss fights in the series as a whole. Not to mention the casefile missions help to really solidify Batman's status as the world's greatest detective and the Batwing fast travel makes traversal throughout Gotham more convenient.
Knight, while technically sound and mechanically speaking is the best in the series with everything being polished to near perfection, ultimately falls short of greatness due to overreliance on the Batmobile, underwhelming side quests, nonexistent bosses, disappointing story that relies on everyone being an idiot, and open world bloat. But with all that said, it's still a fun time and looks and plays better then most AAA games coming out today.
In conclusion, I love all these games and can go back to any of them and still have a good time all these years later (mostly Asylum and City).
P.S. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I always go out of my way to collect the Riddler trophies in all 4 games. I need help.
It's always tough ranking these games since they are all so great and I love them all. But one thing about Knight is I always find myself replaying it more then the other ones and going back to it much more. It's the most replayable game to me to just boot up and mess around with anytime Im in the mood for some Batman
Being honest I’m really not on board with this Arkham origins revisionism. The combat is still good and the story is great by Arkham standards, but it’s just a very uninteresting experience due to its map and middling side missions imho. Alongside the lack of refinements/innovation I don’t think it really sets itself apart enough from City in a way I’d like. The shock gloves also further trivialize combat which I wish they didn’t do. Knight is much more enjoyable to me, although I’d still put City and (probably) Asylum above.
@ShimmyYaBro Different strokes for different folks I suppose.
Baneposting reference?
The masketa man strikes again.
Weer dunheir and joker posting are great as well.😂
No Joke the fake glitch had me leggit scared. I rushed to turn off my console afraid it was fried and fully knowing I wasnt gona get a new one any time soon. I think I didnt even boot up the game for awhile until I finally did one day only to be met by this new intro. seriously great stuff
I am infinitely curious how something this great doesn't have more views.
Really appreciate the long retrospective breakdown of each Arkham game. Great video🙌
Awesome video man you are one of my favourite content creators! Love this series!
I’m new to your channel.
Just watched all of your RE Videos.
You’re doing a fantastic job my friend. Absolutely love your content.
YAY this is my favourite game series, especially Asylum and City. Awesome video!!!
Easily the best games. Paul Dini helped write the stories. Dude's a big reason the animated Batman, Superman and Justice League cartoons were very damn good (90s to early 2000s). I also love every DC comic book he's written! Wish more people knew about him.
Amazing content, binge watching all your vids during my insomnia after work lol
city was the first one I played so it's the most nostalgic to me. city and origins are my favorite in the series.
Exactly what I needed
35:46 Great impression lol.
44:44 Jonkler Jumpscare
Just redownloaded the whole series yesterday what perfect timing 🎉
This is wild lol. I just downloaded Arkham Asylum last night and I’m absolutely loving it, and now this video shows up in my feed😁
this was a nice treat, and reminded me how much i loved arkham city.
The models for origins are kindof nuts, i remember looking at them in the gallery and realizing how wonky the anatomy was. Bane's boots, even before his titan mode, are comically large.
Holy shit, another influx of arkham videos from youtubers id never expect!
Hate to say it, but hearing Tim Curry's Joker audition makes me so glad he got bronchitis
Bro 💀
I just started my shift at work. Perfect timing.
This deserves more attention
Your 'thug bits' gave me a sensible chuckle, excellent video as always! I never played the games myself but this was a thoroughly enjoyable watch looking at an iconic series.
Thank you for this dad, i wasnt expecting it
I finished each of the Rocksteady titles at least four times each, and twice at 100% completion. I "platinumed" Knight. Origins I played twice and 100%ed it once. Safe to say, the Arkham games are pretty much some of my favourite games ever and I really like it here in the Aylum! 😅
Did you touch the Origins multiplayer mode?
@@ZekeAxelWould have tried it, but I honestly actually never got into a single real match. Guess it must have been reaaaally good. I had the "complete Edition" on Xbox, though. So it was a while since release and it seemed the multiplayer didn't keep many people playing.
Not a real multiplayer guy anyway, so I admit I gave up trying rather quickly.
@@CarloGlobo I posted this in a separate comment, but MP was broken at launch. We had to daisy-chain invites to fill up a matchmaking lobby. But a later patch kinda fixed it.
And the multiplayer mode was unique and actually kinda fun.
I didnt know about the "he's right behind me" trick holy shit. I've beat this game like 3 or 4 times xD
Asylum over City for me. I just much prefer the isolated, claustrophobic atmosphere over the combat improvements. The sense of time progression feels better in Asylum too, thanks in part to its small-scale story. It's just a much better complete package that got so much right on the first try and holds up incredibly well. Boss fights were garbage though, I'll admit that ...
I am sick to death of all the Arkham Knight bashing, and I'm so glad you didn't do that here. I'm glad that you said that Origins has the best written story, because it sincerely worries me that most people don't realize that City's story doesn't make a lick of sense. While I agree that Arkham City is, overall, the best of the four games, Knight remains my favorite. It does have the lowest lows, I agree, but the highs are so high that I can easily overlook the game's numerous shortcomings. The only thing about the Batmobile that I strongly dislike is the Deathstroke "boss fight." That, perhaps, is the lowest low of them all. However, it is disappointing that there isn't more the player gets to do with Batman's sweet ride. In an alternate universe in which Rocksteady released their sixth Arkham game last month, I'm sure the Batmobile gameplay is stellar, and the freeflow combat is better than we all could possibly imagine.
Nice henchmen impersonations :D
No mention of Arkham Origins: Blackgate? (Also, the most frustrating part of Arkham City was playing as Catwoman in the Iceberg Lounge and eventually getting overwhelmed by all of the weapons because she can't dismantle them the way Batman can.
Considering the fact that Arkham asylum came out in 2007 or 2008 the dark knight was out so I think that’s where detective mode came from which is pretty cool!
We’ve come full circle
Am I mishearing or is he referring to the Batmobile as the Batman in the Arkham Knight gameplay section?
a boulder punch review... ON THE ARKHAM GAMES. christmas came early guys
I never got the sense that batman came to the sudden conclusion about Joker being behind protocol 10, I'm pretty sure he's just referring to the sniper shot taken at catwoman. Either I'm missing what you're referring to in that scene or you might be interpreting it different.
This series was indeed epic. I do have a minor complaint about it, but its entirely a hindsight thing and just a thing I think would have been better, rather than what we got being bad. I think it focused too much in Gotham city. Sure, that is Batman's normal life, but he gets to go around the globe, or at least around the US, quite often too. Three out of the 4 games are Gotham open worlds. It feels a tad samey visually and thematically. I think the series could have gone even longer with just some change of scenary, and also allowed for some more metroidvania-esque entries too outside of Arkham asylum. Maybe Mr Freeze or the Penguin holed up in some old Soviet facility in Siberia hatching some scheme, and Batman wants to stop it before it even gets back to Gotham. We'd get to see new costumes, new gear, all designed for such an environment, and we get to have Asylum again without repeating the same in-universe location. Or maybe the league of assassin's is up to something in an ancient desert facility that is a mix of ancient stone architecture and modern enhancements and security shenanigans. Much easier to last longer when you can simply move sideways rather than trying to top up the previous one but inside the same city and its same locations.
18:42 these game over screens were inspired by jak and daxter.
When you died in those games..Daxter would stand over you taunting you to get up.
I disagree about the batmoble being a negative and yes clunky controls while driving but the way it was integrated into the story was fine imo and I also thought the tank combat was fun enough and also I equally enjoy the transversal around the city as the batmoble to be almost on par as enjoyable as flying.. but I also love the Riddler puzzles in ALL the games and yes I have done them multiple times each.. so maybe I am just crazy lol
Favorite presentation is City. Favorite plot is Origins. Favorite setting is Asylum and favorite visually is Knight. So much so that the very first day I saw gameplay for Arkham Knight I went out and bought the game on ps4. Which happened to also be on my birthday lol
I fear for spoilers as I'm still to complete the final game.
But I must support those which deserve it. That'd be you, Mr Puncher if Boulders....
Holy KINO
To me, The Riddler is not just the final boss of Arkham Knight, but of the entire quadroligy. Think about it, he shows up in every game and most people will leave him for last is a 100% playthough because of the collectibles.
It's pure trashy game padding
Lets not delude ourselves
@@lukemorgan6166 Ridder is optional. Most people will only beat the main campain and then stop. And when it comes to Arkham Knight, you can just watch the true ending cutscene on RUclips. However it does make sence why you need 100% completion in order to get tje true ending.
Loved all the Arkham games. Its a shame they stopped making them.
It's funny how you release this right after Mayo's video
Catwoman's sections are a DLC bro
Never forget what they took from us
Having played through city late last year, the only thing, other than better boss fights I wish they had was thugs just straight giving up. I wish that near the end of the game, a group of guys would see batman land and then just put their hands up and surrender.
Regardless of Suicide Squads abomination of Poison Ivy.
Ivy could easily always come back to life anyways. She's basically immortal cause the The Green will just regenerate her body over time
My mom brought me asylum from her coworker when i was sick at home. Said thanks, but thought to myself how shit superhero games are. Well.... I got platinum for each now. Thanks mom.
I’m really not much of a gamer & have also never played any of the Arkham games. Haha so why am I even watching this. And why am I loving it so damn much.
Guess that’s how bad our entertainment has gotten. Where video games I’m not remotely familiar with have me totally sucked in & actually caring about the story and characters. And yet you couldn’t pay me to even watch new projects from my favorite properties, franchises, characters, and movies.
I got the entire trilogy on sale and made it all the way to the tunnel excavator fight against the Arkham Knight, which is where I dropped it out of mere frustration. The batmobile has always been more of a net detriment throughout the game until then, and it doesn't help that the tunnel controls somehow manage to top every previous batmobile section in terms of sheer awfulness. I knew that I couldn't stomach the amount of attempts it would take me to get through that section, so I uninstalled the game, with no intention of ever revisiting it. And that's a shame, because it offers the best gameplay when you're on foot as Batman, in the trilogy. I wish more games would have enemies that dynamically adapt to your cheesy strategies.
It's like this was made for me.
Great games
Joker's reveal in knight is such a genuine jump scare, it's really great. but for the rest I was there going "really?" Especialy with Hush and no Zsazz. Asylum was fantastic and City on a replay for me lost a lot of charm. Also, I will defend Origin as it has my boy Anarky in it! not a game, but the Beware the Batman tv show turned him into both a joker analgue and a reverse Joker and it was really cool. I wish I could have seen how it played out if it got a second season.
Zsasz going missing kind of sucks just because he was there in Asylum and City but Professor Pig basically takes his role as the typical crazed serial killer villain.
A great series of games that ended in a whimper
Probably the most powerful version of Batman taken out by a single bullet from one of his more nonsense rogues
"That part": A sewer level. It has to be a sewer level.
I'm that guy. Asylum is the only one I like. Just can't get into the whole open world faff! Asylum is so well...directed? Paced? It just has an energy that the others miss, at least to me.
Origins is the best. I love all of them but you can't say that its the worst. That goes to asylum even though i love that too.
You an Jared sound similar its spooky peace out!
Well the catwoman sections WERE dlc, but today they are bundled with the goty edition
DLC that was cut out of the main game to push...what was it called again?
That first owner-code malarchy that the industry tried to push for a very short time in order to combat reselling.
Point being,it was likely always intended as part of the maingame till WB got greedy(er).
Arkham Origins is one I revisit quite a bit actually, think it’s overhated.
It’s becoming overrated
@@ShimmyFr You think so? I feel like a lot of people still ignore it.
@@ShimmyFr I disagree, at most it's still underrated. I mean it's basically Die Hard if it was set in the DC universe, I have a traditional to play the game over the Christmas holiday, plus the modding scene is doing some incredible visual upgrades and gameplay tweaks.
1:59:32 No, actually Batman just wanted sick racetracks to drive around so he just let him do his thing 👍
An actual good Batman game.
asylum is the best
Examine the man games next
I hated mike as commissioner gordon
i support you so much for holding off for an hour and a half before making an are they stupid joke
Nothing will ever get me to do those stupid riddler trophies
29.06 he's not running for a MAYOR!!!!! 😡
Let's fuckin goooooooo
arkham knight was the only one in the series i didn't finish because i hated the batmobile sections
Asylum is great but city is amazing imo
let's goo
Rocksteady needs win right now. How about a new batman gam. But it's the animated series with its art style.
Arkham knight would’ve been the same premise if Paul dini wrote it.
He was just writer…not a creative.
The Arkham games were planned out by rocksteady meaning they had an outline and characters they wanted to use and they just hired Paul dini to help them bring that vision to life.
Idk why people act like dini had more creative vision than he did.
Everybody always praises the living hell out of Asylum and City but I found the writing to be really tame and even bad in some spots. Origins and Knight were the ones that actually had good character writing. It got to the point where I was wondering if I was playing the same games as the others. Wondering if people actually hate good character writing since they shit on Origins and Knight but praise Asylum and Knight. Kind of blows my mind how bad the writing was in Asylum and City.
oh H*ck a 2 1/2 hour boulder 🅱unch video let's goooooo🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
2 hours and 30 minutes? Seems a little short for all games, I think you should do each game this same length at least;)
I am subscribed to DreamcastGuy, how did ya know?!
I know a lot of people were pissed off about how batman was killed in Suicide Squad but after playing through the whole Arkham series again out of spite fr Suicide Squad, I am fine with how they killed him especially after playing Arkham Knight, best gameplay sure but the worst story in my opinion, batman was a complete moron in Arkham Knight, so I say the way Suicide Squad killed him is justified.
huh
What's up with the hate for completing Riddler-questlines. If it's too tedious for you, that's fine, but why such a strong opinion...
Maybe not considered a mainline game, but Arkham Origins Blackgate for the PS Vita and PS3 is for sure the worst Arkham Game.
the era of mediocre ps vita spin-off games was sure something
There's no way it's worse than ktjl.
@@Cr3zant Only if you count Kill the Justice League as an Arkham Game. I personally don't and never will.
@DigiMaster236 It is. KTJL is at least a somewhat fun to play.
@@irishcreamconnoisseur that's seriously a laughable statement. If someone asked me if they should spend $70 and play KTJL, I would simply suggest playing Fortnite because that what it is essentially.
The longest review of the entire Arkham series. My favorite will always going to be Arkham City, and these games still looks good after 15 yrs. It's so strange that Rocksteady went from making the best Batman games to making the worst Suicide Squad game ever. These are the guys who killed off Arkham Batman.
Man, Hush was such a let down in these games.
All that set up, for nothing.
I really, really wanted Arkham Knight to be Thomas Eliot. He figures out Bruce is Batman, uses his own family's fortune to become an unhinged mirror .
Nice to hear another person recognize that Origins' writing is a step above Rocksteady's. Not to take away from the beautiful moments in Knight, but overall WB Montreal really knocked it out of the park with the main plot.
Yeah Origins strongsuit was the script
In Arkham Knight, I kinda wish we have an extended boss fight with Deathstroke where you chase him around buildings and a 1v1 fight at Port Adams 🤦🏻♂️ just wishful thinking
You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain.
Especially if sweet baby inc gets hold of you
Haha yeah man that sure is a quote from the batman franchise
@@teamstarpugyou see madness is like gravity.
All it takes is a little push!
@@iHaveTheDocuments Don't let yourself be fooled - that company is merely a symptom and not the cause.
There are plenty of people within the actual developer studios (higher ups and workers), who share the exact same viewpoints of S.B. and select their future employees by looking for DEI criteria - not to mention all of the financial incentives through stuff like ESG.
S.B. is simply a dedicated company of commissars.
2:22:27 So wait? Why is Todd being Arkham Knight dumb again?
Please don’t take this in a bad way do you edit your videos yourself, just because I notice you say the wrong game when talking sometimes , not a huge deal because thankfully your visuals help us understand you mean city when you say asylum for example
The Alfred Batman speech at 1:31:18 in Origins is a ripoff of Breaking Bad's "I am the danger" speech.
Chris redfield is batman
Correction, origins is no longer the worst in the series….by a WIDE margin
Nora is such a babe!