Batman: Arkham Series Retrospective (2017 - Obsolete)

Hey folks, thanks for stopping by! This video is almost six years old, and as I mention, the first time I'd ever tried any sort of longform video. I've learned a lot about media criticism and video making in the time since, so if you're not aware, I've been working on redoing Arkham videos using what I've learned since this original Retrospective. So far I've completed 3+ Hour videos on Arkham Asylum and City individually which you can find on my channel. Please enjoy this far less intense, far shorter Retrospective if you'd like to, but to see my newer and much more in-depth works about the games, check my channel, or the links below. Arkham Asylum - https://youtu.be/78rihmLw6cc Arkham City - https://youtu.be/B8SBwkhMHS0 Videos on Origins and Knight will appear on the feed at some point when I'm able to make them (since these videos take a very long time for me to produce), so make sure to subscribe if you want to catch them. Thanks!

You know what I've thought about? There's a color for each game. Green for Arkham Asylum Blue for Arkham City White (snow) for Arkham Origins Red for Arkham Knight

I think you missed the point of Arkham City's story. It's designed like a season of 24, a day of complete hell, draining the protagonist physically, mentally and emotionally. That the protagonist gets bamboozled after victory, every success turned into a failure and continuing to stack up the odds because the suffering of our protagonist in the face of evil makes it so much more satisfying to triumph over it and is the core of the Batmam character. He suffers for the people who don't care.

Origins was not as bad as people say it is

Did you just say Arkham asylum was just fine? Blastephomus!

Okay I'm fine with the idea that City isn't a great story-based experience, but saying that it does not hold up? Absolute BS.

Okay, I need to address the Arkham City part of this retrospective. First off: What the hell is this man talking about? Has he gone absolutely insane? So there's only a handful of plot points where he acts smart and is proactive? Taunting the League of Shadows Assassin into giving him a trail to Ra's, planting a tracker on her, tricking Ra's into thinking he'll join them and taking his blood, punching out Penguin (a player interactive moment btw), Saving Catwoman, saving Ra's and then having him stab only himself (lol fail), pouring Mr. Freeze's coolant until he gives up important info, deliberately hosting a press conference so Hugo Strange takes him into the prison, interrogating Quincy Sharp to spill details on how Strange was able to create Arkham City, tricking Bane into helping him collect titan and then trap him And these are just what I can think of at 2am. I'm sorry, but what game has this fellow even played? Batman never struck me as an idiot. He's part of a larger system of large interests that he responds to. Complaining that he doesn't drive the plot is stupid because he is enforcing law by definition - which means wrong needs to happen before he is tasked to make it right. This is the entire idea of law enforcement: Crime happens, the police respond. I loved this video up until this part. Seems like you took crazy pills

0/10 why didn’t you talk about the best Arkham game, Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate for the Nintendo 3DS

I think I can pitch the story of Arkham Origins: Batman hunts down Black Mask and learns of a new villain called The Joker who is unlike anything Batman has dealt with before.

Asylum- best setting/atmosphere City- best character design (including cat woman) Origins- best boss fights Knight- best gameplay/combat

The story of Arkham origins is the origin of batman and the jokers relationship. Its not a lie, its in the title. The assassins are outlined in a cutscene within the first 20 min for the same reason that they are not suppose to be the main story, they are the inciting incident. They are merely the vessel to get the joker to batman. The story changes when they meet, and joker takes an interest in batman. To your points about the worlds, the open world appeared to be a result of lack of developement time. In my opinion, theres alot of enjoyment in feeling like the city is in its normal state (Not evacuated or in a prison), yes i acknowledge the the storm but still. The blackgate sections to me were a love letter to arkham asylum, and i genuinely look forward to those sections every time i play this game.Yes, arkham origins doesnt fit within your "dungeon" thesis, i think the story is a fantastic narrative celebrating both games and the center two characters within the series. Idk man, feels like your a rocksteady fan big time- you barely criticized about the horrid tank gameplay of knight.

Even tough I disagree with almost everything you said, I respect that you made this video. You had an opinion and wanted to share it. And for those who are super mad about this, it's an OPINION

"That's not a dungeon! It's a straight line" Oh, this guy probably hates Skyrim.

It kind of sounds like he just wants Arkham city to be a telltale game where the player controls the narrative.

About your problems with city : A typical Batman vs joker even odds fight isn’t what rocksteady was going for in city they were going into a night of Hell setup which has a lot of potential and certainly isn’t not Batmany. Batman is constantly beaten down because this is Arkham city it’s a town run by criminals so of course it’s gonna be unfair which is essentially what rocksteady was going for, a feeling of unfairness and that couldn’t be communicated if the plot had Batman keep fighting and winning. Secondly I think the player can be to blame for a lot of stuff that goes wrong for Batman. The joker and Batman’s relationship is more of a mind game then a fist fight so while Batman got nocked out by the joker THE PLAYER is the one who fell for jokers trap same with me freeze and penguin but at the same time PLAYER is the one who defeats the joker me freeze and penguin.

Arkham Origins quick plot breakdown: this is the time in Batman's life where he's transitioning from taking down mob bosses and thugs and into the more "masked" villians fans of the series know and love. This is a "year two" Batman story where he's been on the scene for a while but has been handling mostly low life criminals and mafia type organizations. Joker's entrance into this story, along with a few of the other characters, marks the time when Batman is up against a very special type of foe: a masked/costumed character just like himself.

Wow you didn’t show Arkham Asylum much love, and that surprised me a lot. It does a lot of things way better than any other game in the series. 1.) Using Riddler challenges to expand the universe and our perspective on the characters inhabiting it (this game actually made listening to video logs feel worthwhile. It didn’t jus tell me about what was going on in the lead up to this game, but who all these villains were as characters) 2.) forcing you to search for a way into a building; no other Arkham game forces you to really take a route besides the front door. The only time I can think of you having to innovate a way into a building outside of Asylum is taking the chimney to get into the Steel Mill. And even then Alfred straight up tells you to take it. Every other building you jus clear the area and enter. 3.) makes traversal through the Asylum constantly feel unique. With the other 3 games, you can simply glide from one objective to another. There isn’t much to make one trip across the map feel different from any other. Your path thru the Asylum is never the same. Whether it’s crazies roaming the land, vicious plants to watch out for, snipers to beware of, being forced to find a new way into a building etc. You could get into buildings from the sewers, get in from the front door, get in from a service hatch on the roof, it was always different. 4.) forces you to be strategic with free flow combat. Although the combat of Asylum is a lot slower than its sequels, that also forces you to pay more attention to where you’re striking. In the sequels, I tend to ping pong around in big fights, jus smacking “X” until I see a certain enemy that I have to do a special move on. Batman moves so fast that a lotta times I can avoid an attack just by striking at an enemy on the other side of the screen. In Asylum, when I was surrounded by enemies I felt overwhelmed. I needed to control my positioning and prioritize my targets. In the sequels I never felt that pressure, even when surrounded Batman always felt so fast that I could jus strike before anyone even really touched me, and get to the thugs carrying weapons whenever I could get to them. In Asylum the high security thugs (ones carrying knives) felt dangerous, and they were easily identifiable. It didn’t take much for me to mark him out as a priority. In the sequels, most weapons can jus be picked up by any random thug. So even when I take down the most dangerous guy in the group (the one holding the weapon), it really doesn’t feel like I made any progress. There was never anything as satisfying as watching the animation slow as Batman arm dragged a knife weilding thug in an orange jumpsuit and breaking his wrist, knowing that particular type of enemy was down for the count PS: if you’ve made it this far into my comment, I really respect the fact that you made this video. I love that you can form and articulate your opinion on a piece of art. Everyone seems to be able to state their opinion, but articulating why we have our opinions are becoming harder and harder for a lot of ppl in this internet age

City’s story was awesome. Your point is that the player isn’t the one that drops the cure. That’s called a quick time event. They suck. It had a good story even if the player doesn’t do everything. Sometimes the coolest thing in a game is when something unexpected happens that the player has no control over. Most people know about the Batman lore anyway so I understand that one of your point is it would not make since if you didn’t but that’s what the game is made for. Batman fans which know the lore.

"Do you want to know something funny..? After everything you've done, I would have saved you." Legendary line.

Arkham origins has some great boss battles, I would say the best of the series ( apart from the Mr freeze battle in arkham city), the only problems I had with origins is the technical issues, the arkham series is awesome overall, your problems with the series are very nitpicking and things players really don't think about, we just have fun and enjoy it