This is a great game, but after the level of its predecessors (not counting Origins) i'm a little conflicted on some choices. In terms of the actual gameplay, that being the stealth and combat, this is probably the best the series ever got. Many of the additions to combat such as the environmental takedowns and satisfyingly taking down charging enemies with a batarang were great touches, and even though there are a few annoying combo breaker enemies and fights it never reaches Origins levels. By that I mean it's never the aim of the combat to intentionally break your combos, more make them more difficult to earn but all the more satisfying when you do. This is a point for both combat and stealth, but the Fear takedowns are awesome. Perhaps the most welcome addition to a Batman game is that sudden ability to pick off up to five guys at once in rapid succession, a very entertaining ability that I fully utilised at every given opportunity. Stealth also has more enemies designed to mess with you, such as the drone pilots, those who can detect your stealth mode, medics who will revive anyone you pick off and "reflective armour" enemies who you can't see with stealth mode on It can be sometimes aggravating if you jump headfirst in but if you're taking your time to plan out your attack, it's satisfying to have these extra challenges to plan ahead for. It's all geared towards you thinking smart, being patient and planning as well as you can and it's very very satisfying to do a stealth section perfectly. While we're on gameplay it would be hard to talk about this one without mentioning the elephant in the room; The Batmobile. While I don't hate it as much as others i've seen, I understand why there is considerable distaste for it. We'll come onto it a little later but side missions based around fighting endless waves of tank drones and doing annoying races get tedious after a while, the former being a very large part of the side quests if you are looking to do them all. I didn't despise it but I would often take the opportunity to get there via conventional means, especially since the upgraded grapnel boost meant you could jet across the cities three islands with relative ease even without the need for a huge car. The story is a little weaker than before (again not counting Origins) but definitely has its high points, Scarecrow is genuinely quite menacing throughout and totally different to his memorable Asylum appearance. The Arkham Knight I must say they didn't handle in the best way, this kind of reveal is best with prior foreshadowing and to my knowledge this is the first time Jason Todd is ever mentioned in the series, and the way they approach it is so on the nose that his reveal becomes very obvious. I'm also not huge on the fact that the Joker is essentially the main villain once again, as despite your interactions with the Knight and Scarecrow, he's the final fight of the game and spends the whole thing as your main point of conflict. That said, any excuse to have Mark Hamill's interpretation of the Joker at his very best, tearing into Batman (and every other character)'s entire ethos throughout in memorable ways. Many of the side missions stick to the whole Militia takeover of Gotham and are centred around the Batmobile, but some of the ones that aren't are amazing. I'm particularly thinking of Pyg, who has maybe the best side quest in the entire series save for Zsasz. I think that probably says more about my interest in very sinister characters than anything else but it's a fantastic mission, truly creepy and with a great finish. Then again, there are also ones like Deathstroke which is a total disappointment after how great he is in Origins, and the Riddler who I once again neglected to complete. City was just so much of a hassle that it put me off trying this time round, despite the Riddler being a decent insecurely written character it didn't spur me on to finish things.
I think I rambled a bit too much like the review of Origins but point being, this is decidedly below City, and personally I think I prefer Asylum too, but this is a great game that reaches into fantastic area now and then. A good end to a legendary series.