Batman Arkham Knight is only a week away, but that didn't stop me from checking out one of my most anticipated games of the year. Playing the game on a PlayStation 4, I tried out a few different modes that are new to the series.
The Batmobile is such a fun car to drive and adds a lot to the game. Yes, you can drive around the city to get around, but it's integral to some of the missions in the game. For example, I came upon this one area where it was being guarded by some sentry guns. Opening the door exposed them to the city streets. It was then that I remote controlled the Batmobile to come in and destroy the sentries so that I could explore the building's interior.
The city is still only populated by criminals so don't feel bad running over people as you cruise around. Switching to combat mode was pretty easy and allowed for a lot more agile control complete with easy side to side strafing capabilities. My brief time using the Batmobile showed that it was a very nice addition to the series and one I can't wait to use in the game.
Having a companion join in combat added a nice new dimension to this aspect of the game. After crashing through a roof, I was joined by Nightwing as he helped me take down a large group of criminals. At certain times, you can do dual take downs which look impressively brutal on screen. You can also switch between your partner at any time during the fight and done right, can yield impressive results. Arkham City had brief bouts of fighting alongside Catwoman, but Akrham Knight looks to take it to another level.
Finally, I tried out a detective type mission in Arkham Knight. The ability to rewind crime scenes like in Arkham Origins is not in the game, but there are other new abilities. Walking up to a dead person on display, I used a scanner to scan the person's body. You have three levels of scanning : surface, muscle, and bone. Each level showed off a clue to the identity of the victim and when you run across one, you hold down a button to scan and retrieve information. It's a nice break from all the fighting and exploration as well as tapping into one of the strengths of Batman, that being one of the world's greatest detectives.
Graphically, the game looked gorgeous. One of the things that really stood out for me was the way the rain ran down Batman's cape. Batman himself looked a little more sleaker with a very cool new costume. As a PC gamer, I'm anxious to see all the new PhysX effects that will enhance the visuals of the game.
Next week will finally see the end of the trilogy that Rocksteady has done such a masterful job with. They did say never say never and that who knows it this is indeed Rocksteady's last Batman game. From the quick time I had with it, it shows a lot of promise in being the best Arkham Batman game to date.
