The Batman Arkham Series | The Ultimate Critique - Luke Stephens
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
- Twitch: / lukestephenstv
TIMESTAMPS:
Introduction - 0:00
Arkham Asylum - 0:55
Arkham City - 44:02
Arkham Origins - 1:44:05
Arkham Knight - 2:08:23
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#gaming #Batman #BatmanArkham - Hry
Check out my new critique of Batman Arkham VR, the worst game Rocksteady has ever made: czcams.com/video/8HX2ZIIwZZ8/video.html
No one mentioned the "suicides". Who were they?
not the worst arkham game though. blackgate critique when?
@@LamiNalchor njbinihhiihhihihihihihohohohhohhohhohohihhhiibbbbobobbbbboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboboobobobobobobobobobobobobobobobobobbobobboobobobobobbobobobobobobobobobobobobobin
M mm. I’m no ojjj
@@grimatheedgyfelldragon5468 I’m gonna go listen I jjust I jhate be I jlove jget you I jcan’t want I jjust jdo jI you I jcan’t you I jain’t love I jdon’t lol I j
@@zejackal Pardon me?
when you're 2 hour 16 minutes in and Luke's asking you to hear him out
sure diego
cracked me up, Timothy.
Regards
Tim(without "othy") :D
Oo ooo
ooo
I’ll
Yo
***🖤🎶My heart plays Guts🎶🖤***
I don’t know about you but facing Killer Croc in the sewers for the first time in Asylum was absolutely exhilarating and terrifying at the same time
Nothing like Steve Blum voicing a monstrous villain to scare you shitless
When I first played that it's was like 1 am and I was maybe 10 shit had me capping my pants
@Diego Moran I was scared when I faced the final Bane boss fight in Origins. That was intense.
@Diego Moran No way that you didn't get scared by that manbat jumpscare.
The finally bane fight in origins gave me similar chills.
“Made me think just how cool a Rocksteady Suicide Squad Game would be” boy if he knew
@@ArKnightham Game sucked ass and flopped
Games as a service strikes again😭
hahahahah for real dude
*"You've injested enough toxins to drive ten men insane! What are you?"*
That line always stuck with me, showing how unstoppable Batman is.
Batman has taken physical mental and verbal abuse. Being injected with a huge dose of fear toxin is nothing to him.
Either that, or he is already some form of insane.
He dresses as a bat and beats criminals up he definetely is insane
@@tyrellwilson9334 I guess years of exposure/aquired immunity plus a single minded quest for justice is comic book reasoning enough for overcoming a drug that somehow targets specific phobias. Bruce has the physiology to complete and possibly win in every Olympic event, so that isn't even the beginning of how much they stretch the limits of human potential. I figure that the drug can't break him because he is already broken in such a way that is able to maintain structural integrity, like a mountain of tightly packed gravel.
@@Braylon1997 he almost let a fantasy disease turn him into a dead person, pretty sure the toxin did something. you Batman fanboys are the most annoying rats😆
Luke: "I always play these games on the hardest difficulty"
Also Luke: "I was stuck on this part for an entire hour"
LOL I never thought to put two and two together, it makes sense now
Him acting like it's the game's fault is pretty annoying.
@@Ghostigul ik he was doing the same thing for the story tryna say continuity error even though the scenes almost prior are directly related im talkin about the stop joker from becoming immortal critic that was false and just a sign that he dont fr pay attention to the story.
@@joegaming029 i have no clue what you're trying to say?
@@joegaming029 i think he payed attention he clearly loves the games
Hugo Strange’s voice actor absolutely outdid himself
yes! it really fits the tone. Scarecrows's also really good! and Jason Todd (Troy Baker) also really underrated.
Corey Burton is a great VA.
He also voices Dooku in the clone wars right?
@@babaracus9583 yes,I actually thought they got Christopher Lee for Arkham City at first
@@chawza8402 how is Troy underrated
He is in nearly every game
The Arkham Knight does actually call out Batman’s tank when he says “you’re not the only one who can bring a tank to a fistfight. You’re just the only one afraid to use live rounds”
2:58:46
You said Joker sang “only you” to Harley. This isn’t correct. The story is that Joker recorded this for Batman, and sent it without Batman listening to it. Then, from the computer voice, it’s revealed that Batman listened to this message after Joker had died.
In these games it’s told time and time again that Harley doesn’t matter to the Joker at all, and that Joker is completely infatuated with Batman alone. So then why would Joker sing a post-credits love song to Harley, someone he doesn’t care about, over Batman, someone he’s completely obsessed with and the one who gave him meaning?
Christina Bell agrees with you as she took on the Joker's obsession with him.
Ok dude. Chill.
Truth, was thinking the same thing
@@jasonvoorhees310 ?????
A rocksteady suicide squad game, mans ahead of his time.
Why is Shego your profile pic? It looks horrible.
@@SiddharthShenoy Shadow fight pfp???
@@SiddharthShenoy bruh you have an angry bird, sit down.
@@SiddharthShenoy You did not pay me sufficiently.
@@SiddharthShenoy dude I see you EVERYWHERE on CZcams. Star wars theory all of my favorite CZcamsrs your In the comment section. Lol love ya Annie
Joseph Anderson: Release a 4-hour Witcher critique
Luke Stephens: Release a 3-hour30 Arkham critique
My quarantine is going good.
whitelight's 7-hour death stranding review
All i need now is mathewmatosis to release that 4 hour bloodborne commentary that's probably 2 years away
I wish they'd release a TLDR version , like 20-40 minutes but whatever
@@shivanshlolayekar9668 Whitelights channel is so, so so so good.
And Lord knows what Noah Caldwell-Gervais is up to
I like origins in the sense of during the story you can see how the criminals and thugs don’t know if the Bat exists. He’s still the myth. He’s hushed talks and whispers. He’s an urban legend. I love how the story exposes the Bat’s existence to the public of Gotham. And I love how Batman is still trying to find his limits, how far he can push, he much he can bend. You see this with Ricky ‘Loose Lips’ LeBlanc in the very beginning by the Christmas tree. He knocks him out and says “Damn” realizes he pushed too far. And then the next scene, were in Loose Lips’ eyes being hung upside down and look up and only see the silhouette and can experience the fear that Batman instills. I also enjoy how it sort of fleshes out the beginning of Batman’s relationship with Gordon and Barbara. I really enjoy the little nods like that. The one thing I didn’t enjoy was it’s Christmas Eve, and Calendar Man is going to be executed. He gets released by Black Mask, but that’s it. You would think there’d be a case file you’d have to solve on Calendar Man being it is Christmas Eve, I feel as though it’s a missed opportunity on WB Montreal’s part.
Even though Arkham Origins is one of my favorite games in the series, I was also disappointed that Calendar Man did not play a bigger role in the game. I always thought of him as a silly c-lister villain but after listening to him in Arkham City, I was happily proven wrong and was letting wanting more of him. Like you suggested, he would have made a great side mission or even dlc expansion. It was revealed that Judge Harkness, the corrupt judge who sentenced him to death, was eventually murdered by Calendar Man and displayed among the lights and decorations of his home and I think this would have made a great side mission or dlc like you mentioned should have been included and involving the Calendar Man in some way.
I enjoyed Origins. It didn't do anything new, or better, but it didn't need to. Some ways disappointing, like the empty world.
Actually it did do one thing better, from my point of view, the crime scene investigations
The only thing origins improved is making it so you didn't accidentally knock out riddler informants during a fight.
When I first played, I thought that the final mystery docket in the menu was going to be calendar man....instead we got pinkny
@MisterNso so the boss battles aren't better? Story isn't better and well paced?, Dlc isn't better? You didn't play the game and is just saying what these CZcamsrs are saying
This man puts out an in depth review of the entire Arkham series detailing character points of not just Batman but his villains as well, but calls the batclaw the rope caster... Well done my man
this guy said that ra's blood somehow had regenerative abilities wich straight up shows he haven't fucking even watched the game walkthrough because freeze says the cure would have to be synthesized and making it bond with human dna for safe consumption levels would take decades.
and then batman says he knows a guy who has been around for centuries and has a boosted healingfactor - wich makes sense in this comic world because he was using magical fountain to literally cure his own death time and again so no it doesn't "somehow works"
but fuck it he's bitching about things that aren't problems in order to sound intelligent
@@ryszakowy Pretend tough guy 9 year old who just learned how to curse has entered the chat
@@SouthernHavoc curse*
@@SouthernHavoc there's only two curses? 💀💀
He's a Horizon fan.
it's kinda meta how clayface who is a failed actor was down to play along with joker's schemes just for the preformance because in real life the joker is a highly coveted and respected role
Wow I never linked it to the real life aspect of your comment, thanks for your thoughts
Yep, I thought that too. Considering the last two people who have played him have gotten oscars.
@@xShotgunSurgeryx jared leto and Alan tudyc?
@@internettraveler8666 lmfaoo
@@internettraveler8666 to be fair Jareds take isn't actually joker.. it's a shattered and broken robin lol..
1:07:00 earlier in the game Thalia tells joker that she can make him immortal, so this point was not brought up out of nowhere
Yup a small detail he mustve missed.
KUPOkinz he missed a few important small details, but he also address small details
plus batman probably noticed they were right above the lazarus pit
@@internettraveler8666 i dont see how he would know that they were above the pit, unless he had extensive knowlege of every foot of the city, down to how the underground laid out under the surface, i wouldnt say impossible, just very unlikely, especially considering he didnt know the lazarus pit was even there, considering he had to use drone footage to see the enterance and seemed not suprised but like he didnt know there was a sword needed to open the door
Randomname460 he might not have knew the Lazarus pit was under the theatre until he saw it himself but by then he could’ve lined the maps up
I dare say Arkham series really aged well up to this day. It played to its strengths and gave us the best Batman game series that we sorely needed.
Now I need a Superman game I Wana feel like the man of steel himself
"hired a man named Paul Dini".
Dude. Paul Dini worked as a producer and writer for the phenomenal Batman Animated Series, alongside Bruce Timm. Both of these guys are legends.
Also, the darker tone of Arkham Asylum came as no surprise to readers of the comics, as the first game is heavily inspired by Grant Morrison's and Dave McKean's "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth", which is as dark and unnerving as Batman gets, even more so than the game. So DC probably ordered Rocksteady to follow the comic's aesthetic, or the devs pitched it that way themselves. In short, Batman comic readers at the time were delighted to finally have a game with a faithful adaptation of this version of the character.
Damn, I missed that, anyone got a timestamp of the ignorance? lol
Bro you can’t expect every fucking Batman fan to know who the man is lmao
@@charlesmeniru5082 Yes you can lmao. Most dedicated Batman fans know the names of creators who had a big impact on the evolution of the character. Only someone who just watches the movies and plays the games (a casual fan) would be unaware of who Paul Dini is.
Did Luke not go on to say that Paul had tons of in depth knowledge about Batman’s lore, which is one reason why Asylum was so good? Granted he didn’t specifically mention TAS but he still gave him some props
It is also based in one of my favorite Batman comics, Hell on Arkham Asylum.
in Arkham city, after beating up the guys in jokers steel mil thing for the first time, you can hear Harley faintly say, "oh puddin, you look so much betta! oh wait, that isn't actually you is it?" and joker yells at her saying "BE QUIET HARLEY! you're gonna ruin the surprise!" if I didn't have subtitles on and was taking my time, I would've missed that line moment completely.
Where?
@@theonlyjoe_ after fighting their goons when you first get side the room with their office area. just wait for a bit and listen closely if you don't have subtitles on. you can only just barely hear them.
@@rockno right. I’ll keep an eye out
@@theonlyjoe_ right after beating the one arm hammer dude, probably found it already but yeah haha
Last time I was this early Adam West was playing Batman.
"do you know what's funny? after all you've done, I still would have saved you"
"you know what? that is pretty funny"
that's incredible, just that small bit of dialogue
I honestly enjoyed the way the batmobile was implemented, because it was something so different. Even if it was a bit overused it was still something new, and also offered a different way to traverse through the map other than gliding.
why is everyone saying batmobile was overused
it was in the right amout in the game that has giant city
@@ryszakowy a part of it (from what I’ve seen) is that the fact that tank battles don’t really fit Batman in general, and I agree.
@@ryszakowy it was overused. As a guy that played through I can tell you without googling. Deathstroke and the bomb sections. He uses the Batmobile to capture firefly. His fights with Arkham knight’s tanks. The Joker section (cuz I still count the live round tank). Even at a point in time, you couldn’t solve a puzzle without it, or you had to clear the way just to get the Batmobile through a section. GCPD final fight. Even when it gets destroyed, it’s remade a few scenes later. I just think it’s implementation wasn’t thought through. Rather than a tank section, I would rather them have just made it a car (I prefer the asylum design imo), and use it for transportation and occasional scenes.
@@ryszakowy I love the game, including the batmobile, but it definitely was overused.
I'm very tolerant towards the tank battles, but by the end, there are so many that don't really expand on the tank idea.
4 tank bosses (helecopter, Cloudburst, Excavator, Deathstroke), and only 2 are good in my opinion. Add in like 4 cobra segments, plus Riddler challenges, normal rank battles, bombs, Firefly, etc there so much revolving around the car.
Unlike hand to hand combat, batmobile combat gets stale quickly because you have less agency. On foot, you have so many options, ranging from gadgets, combos and stealth.
The batmobile does get upgrades during the story, but at least in my experience, most of them I never really noticed.
And don't get me wrong, I found the batmobile really fun, but unfortunately a lot of what it does, Batman could already do in previous games.
So while it is fun, it out stays its welcome through over reliance
Can’t actually agree with the scarecrow critique. As a long time batman fan playing that mini game was amazing
I'd say the actual minigame is nothing special gameplay-wise, but I agree that the Scarecrow's presence and all his non-gameplay gimmicks were great.
The minigames were really repetitive. I mean all you had to was wait for scarecrow to look the other way and then shine a batsymbol at him which seemed to defeat him everytime somehow.
Isht Kundu it’s mainly just metaphorical. I assume the bat symbol even being there just symbolizes that heroism will always win, or that as long as the bat is there, scarecrow will never win
@@josephedwards6406 while that may be true, it still doesn't make for a good gameplay mechanic
@@josephedwards6406 it's also revealed in Arkham Knight when batman injects scarecrow with his own fear juice, he sees batman in his 'nightmare' and is terrified so that could be why
Arkham Knight could've been received much better if the devs gave us a healthy balance of all the new mechanics they introduced. I felt like there weren't enough fear takedown or dual combat segments. The bat mobile would've been more tolerable if it was more tailored towards simple traversal & more chase sequences like the 1 we got at the beginning. Using it in puzzles was creative in and of itself.
Yo I watch you're Spider-Man PS4 videos
The Batmobile wasn’t the only problem. The story itself was awful, just a poor man’s “Under The Redhood”.
@@stepkickking9868 i really liked knight's story even though the red hood storyline was seen a mile ahead of time
Honestly, gameplay wise Arkham Knight is the STRONGEST installment by FAR! The problem comes in the opportunities the game gives you to use them.
Weren’t enough? The fear takedown was a dynamic mechanic though? You can use it in literally any encounter where enemies haven’t spotted you yet. Even enemies on the street. All those tower side missions?
I love watching Croc get out of that elevator in Asylum. That scene just makes him one of my favorite Arkham villains. "CROC OLD BOY!"
Another little detail, related to Clayface, when you fight the “Joker” in a moment of the game when he is “cured” and you use the detective mode you can see that he doesn’t have any bones, that’s why that is just Clayface hired by Joker to fight Batman and make him think that Joker it’s cured, the first time I saw that he didn’t have any bones because I accidentally used the detective mode I thought it was just a bug, but then when he reveals that it was Clayface I kinda understand but I still thought for sometime that maybe it was just a bug lol
I like how Batman's main conflict on Arkham Knight was with neither Scarecrow , Jason or even Joker , it was with himself
Er Lee technically the joker in knight was just a part of Batman’s mindset. The real joker was always dead since city, but he’s basically representing all of the mental issues Bruce has as a hallucination
@@josephedwards6406 yes that was my point
I Liked To Think That Nothing Physically Can Stop Batman But Something Internal ( Joker ) Can Stop Him. Without The Joker Hallucinations Batman Could've Stop Scarecrow On The Airship And Many Other Times
@@Damian_1305 why did you capitalize every word you typed?
I like to see Knight as the game where being the finale Rocksteady explored the consequences of Batman, much of the plot stems from it and it leads to the ultimate ending.
"A man named Paul Dini". The guy basically helped shape the childhoods of 90s kids with his excellent writing on Batman: The Animated Series 😆
The Arkham Origins cutscenes make me think that they should’ve made it an animated movie.
It.is.an.animated movie but even better where you play and control the experience
2:46:01 insane thing to say with hindsight
I always thought the Joker was singing Only You to Batman, not Harley. I even looked it up and relistened to it and, I didn't hear the Joker say anything about Harley. Just sayin...
He absolutely was singing to Batman. That is definitely the intention that most people agree on.
It was in Batman's *personal* messages; so yeah, it was definitely meant for Batman.
Of course it was for Batman. The Joker loves Batman, not Harley.
I seriously doubt anyone ever believed it was for Harley, so I'm not too sure why you're implying otherwise.
The Algerian I’ve got multiple friends and also forums that say “joker is singing to Harley “ which he isn’t its to Batman
I love your work Luke, but did you REALLY just say the Scarecrow Nightmare levels weren't cool?!
Production Journal I always thought they were some of the best bits
Production Journal I just thought they were scary like my god lol
Production Journal I found them about annoying but still cool in its own way
@Darren Mcclean
They are. That shit to me is as Canon as Leto's joker.
I think the point he was making wasn’t that they weren’t cool but that they weren’t as cool as they would be if they were more integral to the plot. They’re required side levels.
The 1:06:44 says stop joker from becoming immortal because Talia is offering Joker access to the lazurus pit, which would give him pseudo immortality. This plot point is brought up multiple points throughout the story. The fact ra's was dead and then reawoken, the fact that zombie ra's regains his power through the use of the pit in a cutscene, as well as Talia literally saying "we will give you the secret to immortality", and Joker reacting to the situation in awe. The joker doesn't need to say "oh hey batman btw I'm going to become immortal" when that was the entire purpose of Talia taking the joker away from bruce before the start of protocol 10. She's taking him to the lazurus pit.
When I played Arkham City for the first time, as a 12-year old, I was BLOWN away by the plot twist. Shit was in-fact crazy.
Origins is criminally underrated, being younger playing city and asylum they were definitely my favourite games
Origins is my favorite arkham game😶. That rooftop GCN fight hits me everytime
Lliam Shane 😂
Craig Stewart origins had better boss fights than Arkham knight
Origins is literally just a worst Arkham city lmao how is it underrated
tanner wade2000 keep telling yourself that 😂😂🤦♂️
1:07:01
I have an issue with this. We did know that Joker was going to become immortal because the entire reason Talia is with Joker was due to the "follow your heart" scene where Batman essentially says "Don't do it, he'll be unstoppable!" after Talia offers invincibility to the Joker if he spares Batman, and Joker goes "You mean she's actually telling the truth!?", so Batman most likely figured the 'show' was the moment the Joker became immortal due to Talia showing him the secret of the pit. Remember, the
Lazarus Pit is underneath the theatre. Joker wanted Batman to come to the theatre. It makes much more sense when you realize it's written out like that.
I like Luke's videos but its weird mistakes like these that make me question If he actually played them. Like how he thought the only you song was for Harley, when it was a voicemail joker left to batman in arkham city.
Also says Joker the immortal on the marquee. Hard to see because of lighting but you can catch a glimpse of it. Late but just found this video and am a big Batman and Arkham series fan.
@@elitezenkai9435 I'm paraphrasing here, but it's also quotes like "you judge a game by a mix of what you expected it to be and what the creator intended for it to be". Like no, you judge a game on what it IS, not what you wanted it to be.
Yur
@@SpencerP96 the point is that what you want it to be is created from those two things
Arkham Origins was probably the one I had the most fun with. I really enjoyed the cutscenes and the boss fights and how the relationship between Batman and Joker started
Arkham knight waaaay better and underrated the smooth gameplay and graphics are breath taking to this day
@@inyouremomsass929 facts man. Arkham knight is so underrated. Everyone always shits on it because of the tank fights but they weren’t even that bad. The combat was so smooth and the predator missions had so many new environments you could use to take down enemies. The game was a little bit too easy though even on nightmare difficulty
City wipes the floor with each and every one. Arkham city is a top 5 video game all time
@@thesweetermonster3453 facts
@@thesweetermonster3453 definitely not top 5 but yeah it’s the best in the series
I always thought origins was called that because it explains why the asylum was reopened in the credits. You know... Arkham origins
The end of Arkham Knight feels like the finale to a 25 year relationship between Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill on their time with Batman and Joker, and for that it will always be my favourite of the three
“A suicide squad game made by rocksteady would be cool”
Buddy, I’ve got news for you
I got bad news it’s a wb game not rocksteady
@@robertwilson6438 gotham knights is a wb game. Suicide Squad kill the justice league is being made by rocksteady you got it mixed up
@@robertwilson6438 I’ve got good news it’s really a Rocksteady game.
@@DarkSpartanFTW isn’t it also an Arkham continuation?
@@jbrasylol221 it's set in the same universe i believe
Man I’m not sure where you’re coming from with Scarecrow at all in Asylum. I thought the scarecrow parts were the best and very valuable to the story to really put you into Batman’s headspace. He’s also the most evil character I can think of, making people kill themselves and not putting his victims out of their misery when gassed just shows the dark depths he goes to inflict psychological hell.
I know! Implying that Scarecrow wasn't very evil in Asylum makes him sound like a complete psychopath! 😂
As someone who holds the rocksteady Arkham games in the highest regard and, has gone through each game multiple times, the batmoibile in the Arkham Knight, was absolutely fantastic. Sure there are some shortcomings however, Rocksteady innovated each game as they went on. I have to give them props for taking a risk that maybe most wouldn’t like. Once I got how the batmobile worked, used for puzzles, and navigating the map in a different way, it wasn’t as bad in my opinion. I know I’m one of the minority here but, these games are incredible in their own way.
I couldn't agree more. I think it gets way too much hate.
I agree
I didn't like the batmobile at the start of the game but grew to love it. Honestly, after the first 1/3 of the game, I really didn't find it to be overused at all
Yeah Arkham Origins is the least innovative of the bunch. It was nothing more than a Narrative Expansion. It expands on Batman & Joker's history and even goes beyond to explain why Bane is the way he is aesthetically. 1 thing I'll give WB Montreal is that they managed to implement their own original gimmick in the form of the Electric gloves. Even though it was just a refurbished version of the power up made from Armored Edition it was still their creation. And it was utilized in creative ways.
@Christian Tompkins yeah I got a bit annoyed when he said the fights where only quickly time and not anything special in origins. He didn't bother mentioning the shit boss fights in arkham knight tho, fighting deathstroke in the bat tank sure was cool lol..
Thought the crime scene moments were pretty cool and original, where you could construct almost this puzzle of what happened and then rewind to find more things pertaining to the crime.
Don't forget about the rewinding and playback in detective mode. That was added in origins and I think it's pretty awesome
When I first played batman arkham city it had bat mode cuz I played on the wii u so I find electric gloves just like that
@@oliverbart749 Yep, that feature definitely deserves a mention.
Why didnt Strange kill Batman when he first kidnapped him? Simple Ra's al Ghul didn't want him dead he's never wanted him dead really
You have to remember this in Arkham city. Before you play as cat woman, Thalia tells joker that she has a way for him to become immortal. Batman heard this and that’s how joker got Thalia in the first place.
Someth8ng really cool is that the Tyger guards don't get terrified of you. They're the only enemy type (besides the heavies in arkham knight). The reason being that strange actually brainwashed every single member to beat batmans fear tactics and remove their instincts towards fear.
"You need to play these games on the hardest difficulty get the full experience"
Bold of you to assume I'm even good at the game on regular difficulty, let alone the hardest.
That got me, Im the same way
I play games on the easiest difficulty and still end up ragequitting! # DspJR 😂
But do you really need to hardmode all of the games, though? Do you really? Doesn't it make you feel more like you're Batman levels of good if you play on all the easiest modes, since Bats can easily just bash the enemies like whoa without flinching?
I think the Arkham series should have had adjustable difficulty for both combat and the stealth segments. To me on Normal mode, the combat was a little too difficult and the stealth was a little too easy. It'd be nice if they had it like in Silent Hill 2, where you could adjust AI intellect for stealth, puzzle, and combat difficulty as you desire.
@@cactusmalone absolutely correct
@@jmerrick2012 bro what
That moment when Luke’s critique is just as long as a Lord of the rings movie O.O
Not long as an extended one though.
Or endgame
Not talking shit about Luke, this is great content-and nothing I could ever hope to do - but you could fit 3 of these in one of MauLer's critiques
zach burt not really the max he has ever done was 4 hours.
the true villain of animal crossing boring.........
Arkham City, the ending was sort of revealed at the beginning of the game with the very first image you see....( if you had the Cat woman DLC). The painting called "Cain and Abel, the duality of man" echos the same pose as Batman caring Joker.
You did a 3 hour Documentary, that is not only interesting, attention grabbing, and also hitting key points in the games narrative and gameplay mechanics. How are you only at 194k Subs, you deserve at least a million
re: Drones
1. Knight either assumed the KnightMobile was gonna be similar to the AsylumMobile or Batman was using the AsylumMobile, which means originally he thought the drones would wipe the floor w/ it (supported via Militia dialogues)
2. Fear Gas necessitated drones b/c what use is it if your operators are choking
3. 3 billion dollars may have afforded more drones than manned tanks, so it was better to lock down the city with up to 500-600 tank drones which I can not remember the name of
Re: 2.
Except it didn’t because scarecrow didn’t care about the well being of the soldiers as it is hinted at through solider dialogue you overhear that some squads were on ground level when the cloud burst went off and they didn’t address that point sooner. Also advanced vehicle ventilation systems can still filter out the gas as seen with Batman’s car when he was in the fear gas cloud and the Arkham knight operating the cloud burst, but also the gcpd building ventilation systems filtered the fear toxin otherwise they’d be gassed as well. So it’s assumed you can implement advanced ventilation to combat it and therefore have manned tanks.
Even then all you’d have to do is have the first tanks you send onto batman be manned before the gas hits.
Edit: re: 3.
Makes sense because drones are cheaper and arguably more deadly being operated by AI which can compute things a lot faster than humans. Honestly it would of been fine if the Arkham knight didn’t claim to know how batman thinks or know Batman’s moral code.
@@emarythomp scarecrow knew he needed protection and throughout the story you know Arkham Knight doesn't want to have batman die very early on at the start in a cheap way so I guess that's why they used unmanned drones but they are being operated by humans just remotely.
@@emarythomp The reason Batman’s car filtered out the fear gas was cause of the nimbus battery, his main battery was fried otherwise. Honestly I don’t even know how GCPD filtered out the fear gas so I can’t say anything about that
Rocksteady’s Arkham Trilogy is one of my favourite trilogies in gaming. They managed to improve upon everything they done the last time. And actually, Arkham Knight is my favourite. Why? It has pretty much everything, and you can tell none of it was phoned in, every pixel, graphic, design, everything was taken good care of. Yeah, say what you will about the Arkham Knight’s identity and Deathstroke’s inclusion, I was 12 when this game was released! Can you imagine the hype that was behind this for such a stupid little kid like me? Who wasn’t even old enough to understand Joker’s countless innuendos! The hype was real, and I’ll never forget theorising, plotting and finally playing the game with my childhood friends, and I’ll never forget it. Thanks, Rocksteady, for everything you gave us, my highest admiration for all your employees who spent countless hours perfecting each individual bat-pixel.
The best is City but I do agree that Knight is underrated. This trilogy goes up there with Assassins Creed’s Ezio trilogy for sure
G2A had Knight steam key pre orders for £16, & I got one. Presumably they got wind that it was an AWFUL port & desperately tried to get them sold. Used g2a all the time in 2015 until I started hearing bad things so bought off other sites after that
@@heart_of_a_daedra3649 G2a and Kinguin are both legitimate sites. If you stopped buying from them, that's unfortunately your own loss.
Scotia’s Channel I was 8
i am fine with the tank to this day tbh, its fine with me
I found this series absolutely fascinating, and loved hearing a different perspective on the series. However, I was late to the party, having only played through the series a couple years ago in one go. Instead, I'm a classic Batman fan that grew up reading the 60's comics and even loving the campy Adam West movie, but always personally envisioning a darker and more grounded theme to the universe. Due to this I was absolutely overjoyed when Christopher Nolan's series truly realized the potential of a brutally real world, not to mention the Joker. Thats why, despite its short comings, I have to say that Arkham Knight was actually my favorite of the series. It was full of twists, hallucinations, and a more abstract and psychological approach to creepiness that I felt pulled the seiries together for an epic culmination. I felt that instead of being in your face, it was more subtle and left the player contemplating the world more and even forcing sympathy for the various villains we had met. All this being said, I can see why, as Luke says, this installment would fall flat for some people and I found it interesting to hear his reasoning. However, I would encourage anyone that plays or replays it, to think of it not as a continuation of the series but rather a culmination,; one that allows the player to relish and appreciate what had come before. This (to me) leaves the "bat-tank" sequences as merely a fun little distraction that a player can fool around with in between intense moments of narrative clarity; breaking up a heady, abstract and personal experience with points where the audience can let what happened sink in while somewhat mindlessly destroying bots. All in all, this comprehensive review gave me a new way to look at the series, but I would suggest that anyone playing or replaying it, tries it with this in mind as well.
3hrs and 25mins later, I have no regret on spending my time watching this, great video. I appreciate and respect all of your views and opinions, this was a nice way to revisit the series without actually playing the games. Thanks :)
“Calling forward” is actually called foreshadowing
1:47 Unfortunately, if on your very first playthrough, you do this, you get screwed over by Rocksteady when playing the next games.
You get used to the fights without all the prompts (counter icons etc) and then City forces you to go through a whole playthrough with prompts forced on, and so does Knight.
It doesn't really screw you over though, just makes the new game seem easier at first, until they throw all the crazy new enemies at you later.
@@mikesannitti6042
Not really.
I honestly felt like I was forced through a very annoying, baby mode playthrough, before I was allowed to enjoy myself.
I did not feel for a second that combat prompts were warranted at all and only started to enjoy the combat on the second playthrough, once I had the possibility to have them turned off.
Oh dats so sad
It doesn't screw anything for me apart from making those games much easier which can be annoying
@@thealgerian3285 i can't imagine being that bothered by them. Asylum is a much easier game though, even without indicators. Multiple enemies can attack at once in City, enemies can throw stuff at you- even from off screen- and there's just so much more complexity to it.
I loved the scarecrow parts! It shook it up perfectly. When the image on the screen would shift & a character’s body would change...it would make me so nervous because I knew what was coming. It was some of the most chilling bits for me.
this video is 2 years old i don’t know why i’m commenting but i always took strange kidnapping bruce in public as a way of making sure he can’t fight back. strange knows he’s batman. if there’s ever a time to capture batman without a fight it’s when he’s out of costume and surrounded by cameras and reporters
This man just predicted the entire suicide squad game (in the Arkham Knight section)
Well i immediately disagreed with the statement that this is a grounded Batman. It’s dark, but very cartoonish, it’s more like the batman animated series if anything. I wonder if Luke saw the batman animated series? Arkham has much, much more in common with that show than it does to The Dark Knight (a comparison hr makes).
well the writer (Paul Dini) is the one who writes the Animated Series so that may explain anything.
for me, if not because of his writing with the help of Hamill and Conroy, the game might be as stand out as now.
Yeah, it's more similar to the Burton movies and BTAS. The only game of the quadrilogy that seems more grounded and partially ressembles Nolan's vision is Origins.
I thought arkham asylum was amazing when it first came out but when I launched arkham city for the first time it blew my mind.i had never been so happy as a batman fan
The Batman Arkham series is nothing short of a masterpiece!
Just finished playing all 3 games, and this vid is still going
Riddler trophies and everything
Of course not xD
@@echodork8963 lmao
3? Do you not concider arkham origins a game?
@@apsu8115 ive played it, its not bad. But irrelevant compared to city and asylum. So i treat the arkham games as a trilogy
Not to nitpick, but "Only You" was being sung to Batman. Joker had left it as a message to the phone number he gave to Bats in Arkham City.
I don't care what Luke or anyone else says.. I thoroughly loved the Batmobile in arkham knight, I feel they did what they could with the limited size of the game map, it was more than just a method of transportation, it fit well with the army of drones and vehicles the arkham knight had, it meshed PERFECTLY with transportation with how it was another gadget in your tool belt and was symbiotic to your suit, it was fun to drive and race, to transform and unload as a tank, etc. The way it was introduced was one of the few moments in gaming history that made me cheer (along with physically raising my sword in Zelda Skyward Sword) Even if I'm the only person in the world who enjoyed it, no one will convince me otherwise. Just because it could have been different or better in a bigger open world, doesn't mean it wasn't fun for what it was. Going in with the right expectations is the real issue, I think most people jumped in with very high and very specific expectations with regards to the batmobile
I have no idea why but this was so entertaining to watch. I sat there for 3 hours tonight just watching the reviews back to back. I’m obsessed with the nostalgia aspect that the earlier Arkham games had for me and this video really brought me back to my childhood. I had honestly forgotten about this series and now I might end up picking Asylum up on PC. Great vid
With regards to Copperhead, the implication *IS* that she hopped down and punched and toyed with Batman, repeatedly. He was just hallucinating more Copperheads, due to the poison.
I can see where you're coming from with talking about the Scarecrow sequence. And I respect your opinion, but I personally disagree. I thought the Scarecrow parts were the most immersive. Especially that last one when they broke the fourth wall and made you think the game crashed
🙌🏼
In case he doesn’t find out, the reason Mayor Sharp made Arkham City is because Hugo Strange hypnotized him and was doing so before Arkham Asylum. Sharp is the voice of Amedeus Arkham in the first game
I have played City so many times now and I found this after completing it for like the 5th time:
I went back to where the final boss fight was, and if you notice it’s the theater that Bruce Wayne and his mom and dad went to before they got killed, if you ho to that area there is one of the best hidden easer eggs in the game in my opinion, where if you follow the area where his parents get killed, you as Batman see a chalk outline of his dead parents and a letter and flowers from Dr. strange giving his “condolences” and after reading it you can pay respects to his parents by just kneeling down and putting your hand on the ground where they once laid dead, no music plays and you just are there, this moment of just, it’s hard to describe like sad anger if you feel for Batman, like look at it and watch it it’s crazy good.
The way Gordon says, "What the hell happened in there?" sounds like Peter Griffin to me.
I can’t be the only one who enjoyed the tank gameplay. Granted it was totally overused. But at its core it was fun. I enjoyed it when I wanted to use it. And the driving around the city was tons of fu me specially with the destructiblity of the city.
Would have been fun as a side activity
You aren’t I enjoyed it a bunch and Luke does say that it is a good concept (here: 3:05:03) but his argument (and many others I’m assuming) is that it’s put too much as the main focus. And I have to agree somewhat that the bat mobile was pretty overused even tho I liked the combat
No challenge and objectively boring
I also enjoyed it. The same way you had stealth and combat segments on foot, you also had stealth and combat segments in the Batmobile. It's a core part of the gameplay, not just a one-off gimmick or minigame.
I liked it a little, but I felt it was overused. Half the story is tank battles, and they just... Don't feel like batman.
It's never spoken but the stories you can collect through the riddler challenges explain a lot, like hinting that the bat tank was Joker making batman more aggressive
Truly this is "The Ultimate Critique", what a wonderful video, I've always come back and listen to it again, awesome work Luke!!
Luke in Arkham City after Raishal Ghul "commits suicide", after a couple hours I came back to that spot and his body disappeared from the fence
Either he escaped or it's just a post-game mistake. I prefer the former
@@DrDolan2000 same
@@DrDolan2000 but wasn't he in one of the DLCs for Batman Arkham Knight, or was that just the League of Assassins
@@melodylittle6628 It was both. The DLC from what I remember was focused on Talia and the League but then you find out that Ra's is under the hospital and the Lazarus Pit is all weird and shit. Sorry, been a free years since playing but yeah, Ra's is in it.
@@freddiesmith984 ok thanks bro
"Joker is the only character you can't wait to see more of"
Scarecrow?
Croc?
Harley?
No? Just me?
Yeah I agree! The Joker is fantastic but Luke underplays how good the other villains are.
Just you
@@NarutoStorm3Rocks A lot of people like batman for more than just when he fights the joker
@@OrangeAtomicRugTM i know, it's ironic...
@Dark well she is
For me, arkham knight is my favorite game ever as of now. I genuinely almost cried when I saw the end credits roll, thinking “god I never took the time to really think of how actually insanely good this series is. But everything must come to an end right? So I held back my tears thinking rocksteady will keep making amazing games even if they aren’t part of the arkham series.And at the same time, I’m happy the series didn’t get dragged on too long to eventually become a villain. RIP arkham series you will forever be in our memories.
When you said Rocksteady tried to make the Killer Croc section in Asylum stressful. Actually blew my mind. It's so true. When you first experienced it. It was stressful. But every time after is so easy and non stressful. Never even looked at it like that.
In regards to the Hugo Strange fight in the tower. I actually felt that this was one of my favorite boss fights in the game precisely because it didn't arbitrarily change the rules or use some very obviously "gamey" mechanical twist to make you feel like you are in a boss fight. When I first played the game, I was expecting some big thing where Strange gets a big heath bar and you have to do some contrived, convoluted fight where he has a set of specific moves that he loops and you have to learn the pattern and get some sort of special attack in between those move loops. I was relieved to see that it was just another stealth part and that Strange wasn't really a physical threat on any meaningful level. It was a nice change.
To be honest. I think the weakest part of the Arkham games are the boss fights. The normal flow of the games are great but when you suddenly get locked into a boss fight, it is like you have pulled into some early 90's NES or SNES game where every game has to have a boss fight at the end of the level and every boss fight is convoluted for the sake of being convoluted. It would have been better if the mechanics for fighting the main villains was less about being a typical boss fight and more about using mechanics to explore them as characters.
The new detective/crime scene investigation mode where you recreate the events of the scene was a really cool new added feature that continues into Knight.
Yeah, but its accuracy was really f*cking stupid. I mean they might as well have given Batman the ability to see into the past.
Funny how Arkham Knight had a similar launch to Cyberpunk 2077 and both companies had the same response
I remember when the demo for AA came out. Played it to death. My personal favorite is the inverted takedown.
I remember the first time i discovered AA demo at a gamestop in detroit. Peak ps3 years
Due to copyright trouble, I'm not getting a dime from the ad-revenue on this video. If you could consider pitching in even $1 on Patreon (www.patreon.com/LukeStephens ) I would be extremely thankful.
Enjoy the video regardless.
Love you all!
Luke
Luke Stephens it’s coming up as a dead link on my end?
Anyway thanks for this! I’ll pitch $ your way once I get though.
Love these games.
thats4thebirds me too
K
@@thats4thebirds It's just the extra parenthesis at the end. If you delete it it'll go through
@@thats4thebirds no you won't/didn't.
I feel like I'm the only person on the internet who didn't mind the tank battles. Once you figure out that the cannon can one shot most enemy tanks with a well aimed shot to the chassis those battles go by a lot faster and I feel like the tank battles don't dominate the game nearly as much as other people think.
tbf I didn't care for the batmobile's execution at first but I found on a second playthrough I enjoyed them much more. May be just me tho
Yeah, I’m the same way really, It may just be that such I’m a huge Batman fan I’m just happy to be playing as Batman, but I really didn’t mind the batmobile, I thought it was dope as shit, the whole Arkham series were games that I could just sit down and play for hours, and games like that really aren’t around anymore for me
You're definitely not the only one I enjoyed it because it was something so different.
Same I enjoyed the tank sections and there is an element of strategy to them to keep getting better. There is a good learning curve to it.
same here. the no pilot thing is also doesn't make sence but it is really fun and engaging.
exceot Cobra section, fuck that
I liked all of the tank encounters except for the arkham knight and deathstroke ones. These guys can both match batman physically and would have been way better as hand to hand bosses than just tank bosses.
I have played all 4 main games,didn't play the 2D ones, loved every single one and their dlcs. I got 45 minutes into the video and got so nostalgic I went and bought the Arkham Collection on my PC a couple days ago. Thank for reminding why these games are so great.
I thought the name Arkham Knight was a good combination of nightmare (Scarecrow) & the Arkham Knight himself. Also the fact the game is all about the “night” the Batman died. So it encompasses a lot of the story’s themes!
Goddamn Kevin Conroy’s voice is amazing
don't forget
Mark Hamill (Joker Trilogy),
Troy Baker (Joker Origin, Arkham Knight),
Scarecrow's,
Hugo Strange,
and Nightwing.
Profffessor Pyg is also pretty fitting but that dude is fucked up
1:07:44 they say it in the steel mill sequence when Talia comes in. She says she'd give Joker the gift of immortality
Interesting watching this after Suicide Squad KTJL came out lolll
40:40 you're actually incorrect here. Croc shows up periodically, but making too much noise doesn't prompt him to pop up, it prompts an instant game over. You will die if you run too long.
You didn’t mention the whole section in Knight spent on Stagg’s airship and some moments in Penessa Studios, which really brought the nostalgic elements from Asylum and I think are some of the best parts in the entire franchise.
The studios part with Harley gave me so much nostalgia. Just played through it again yesterday.
little did we knew that RS was about to kill the Batman in "that way"
While I love all 4 Arkham games, I think Origins had my favorite main story. Watching him meet his rogues for the first time and growing as a man and as a hero was awesome
Did Luke predict Rocksteady Suicide Squad game??
I'm a huge fan of this series and I fully appreciate your deep dives, but man, you not being a fan of Scarecrow in Asylum and telling us that you used mouse and keyboard to play it (?) is making me quesiton if I can get through this...
Oof, can't say I like the Asylum critique at all, actually. I don't understand why so many people choose to ignore the challenge rooms when critiquing Arkham games. They're fundamental to the game as a whole and make a lot of the criticisms moot. Not only are they the best way to replay sections of the game, they serve as that impetus to experiment with the predator combat that you were missing since the medals force you to use all your tools. They also add to the goal of exploration with the metroidvania style riddler trophy collection, because many challenge maps are locked until certain trophies are found. Exploration isn't just trophy hunting, it's to gain access to concrete and substantial gameplay rewards. And saying Asylum doesn't have a lot of Easter Eggs is just factually wrong. They're everywhere, and most of them are better than just references, they're riddles that count towards progression.
@@mikesannitti6042 I agree with the challenge rooms but what's wrong with Kb&M?
@@g2.a6 it's very clearly not how these games were designed to be played, as he pretty much states. Even 10 years ago it was pretty common to have a controller on PC. Trying to play a 3rd person brawling action game like that seems like you're looking for trouble.
@@mikesannitti6042 my first playthrough was through a mouse and keyboard. as a kid who didn't have a console really. i never got used to using a controller, i never found a difference nor even thought of it as an arguement. i don't know why you mentioned it, if the game is also available on PC, it means the developers want it working...on mouse and keyboard.
@@DM_2145 he mentioned it in his review. thev default mapping creates problems that a controller wouldn't.
This video made me a fan i can't lie I've not seen such an analysis of one of my favourite games. Great job
In Arkham City, the whole reason Joker has Talia is because she came to joker after the rubble fell on Batman and told him about the pit. Maybe you missed that in the scene.
Talks about if rocksteady made a suicide squad game.
He predicted it
I was around 16 for the Arkham city twist and I only started seeing it coming right when he “died” and I literally told my friend “I bet that’s clay face and not even the joker.”
I dont *mind* the Batmobile sections, but I also don't enjoy them all that much. Whenever they come up I just kinda think "oh alright" blast through it then get on with the rest of the mission
The fact I could watch this whole thing in one run no ads warrants a fat subscribe great reviews great opinions keep it man ya gotta new fan!