This was the last Arkham game I played of the four, because i'd got into the series with City and I was alive and arguably sentient enough to remember what I recall being pretty heavy distaste for this game around its release. Now things have cooled off since then and i see a good amount of praise for this one, particularly I see a sizeable portion of fans say this has the best story of the whole series. And when I first played this game, while it was still my least favourite of the series, I enjoyed it a good amount. This time around, that was not the case. That being said there are things I enjoyed here. The combat is roughly the same as before and so is the stealth, two generally agreed upon strong points throughout the franchise. However, it seems like past a certain point they do just throw enemies at you repeatedly as a roadblock, and each time these groups of enemies are at least half made up of the really tricky buggers who will fuck with your combo significantly if you aren't lightning fast. I've never been the best at games and I will be the first to admit that, so it does definitely come down to a get good scenario, but I never had this much trouble in City or Asylum and I played those on normal just like I did this one. I have no complaints with the stealth really, that has always been the very peak of the series to me and I am totally onboard with every new trick they throw your way to force you to get creative with taking out guys. I love the jammers, mined gargoyles and everything. While we're on the gameplay aspect, I think the boss fights can be mixed but there are definitely some really good ones. Deadshot is better than his City battle (though that wouldn't have taken much), Deathstroke's fight is awesome and feels like a genuine battle against an equal footed opponent, and Copperhead's fight is very entertaining visually with all the Copperheads showing up and her contortionist fighting style. That said, I got sick of Bane after the first time, I don't really enjoy that running attack at the best of times, much less when they put a bunch of the ridiculous tricky enemies on top of it, and though the final Bane fight is super creative, i've never been able to reach it without being extremely frustrated so i've never been able to enjoy it. As mentioned I love the stealth so if it was in a better game or after something less annoying than how I find the Blackgate section towards the end i'd probably be able to find it fun, unfortunately i've just not had that experience. Now onto the story. I love Batman as a character, have since I was a child and since grown to really appreciate much of his wide cast of rogues and the stories surrounding them. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy this story. That said there is a lot to enjoy here, and a hell of a lot of potential in it, but I feel a fair amount of that is missed. The corrupt police stuff is great, and the natural thread of Batman learning to co-operate with Gordon who is the only non-corrupt cop on the force is very fun. There's great potential in characters like Black Mask who had not been explored at all in this series to this point, and great potential in the first contact with the Joker. Unfortunately, the potential in Black Mask is not explored here either as he is barely in the game, instead being the Joker in disguise for much of the story and his appearances are limited to being a little bitch who Joker is easily portrayed as above. Joker beats him easily in a fight, makes him kill his girlfriend, steals his gang and kills everyone who refuses to join him, probably also walked into his office and wiped his arse on the curtains. I like Joker a lot and i'm fine with him being presented as a threat, but it's a shame it came at the expense of a potentially interesting main villain just so he could be the big bad of yet another game in a row. Considering the only other time we see Black Mask after this is Red Hood literally killing him, so long Black Mask you will be forgotten. Back to the Joker, i'm not a huge fan of his portrayal here. That's less about how he is presented because I understand he isn't going to be the Joker of City yet, but more in the fact that I find it hard to see this series' Joker and then hear not Mark Hamill. Hamill is synonymous with many voice-overed Joker adaptations for a reason; he's incredible as the Joker, and Troy Baker (no offence to the guy who is a great voice actor) doesn't work for me. His voice sounds all off, and I don't find his writing as strong as it were for Hamill either.
I've realised i've rambled a lot here so i'm going to cut it short here. At the end of the day I have a lot of opinions about this game because I love this series, so naturally I want to love this game. There are definitely things I do still love about this game too. Unfortunately, there's a lot I dislike, and a certain portion I really can't stand, that drives me away from this game unlike the two prior that I would happily play over and over. I'm disappointed that I can't like this one as much, but overall it's not a bad game. It just isn't entirely for me, and not what I love about this series.