The Batman Arkham Series | The Ultimate Critique - Luke Stephens 

Check out my new critique of Batman Arkham VR, the worst game Rocksteady has ever made: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8HX2ZIIwZZ8.html

when you're 2 hour 16 minutes in and Luke's asking you to hear him out

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

“Made me think just how cool a Rocksteady Suicide Squad Game would be” boy if he knew

*"You've injested enough toxins to drive ten men insane! What are you?"* That line always stuck with me, showing how unstoppable Batman is.

Luke: "I always play these games on the hardest difficulty" Also Luke: "I was stuck on this part for an entire hour"

Hugo Strange’s voice actor absolutely outdid himself

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?

Joseph Anderson: Release a 4-hour Witcher critique Luke Stephens: Release a 3-hour30 Arkham critique My quarantine is going good.

A rocksteady suicide squad game, mans ahead of his time.

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.

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

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

I love your work Luke, but did you REALLY just say the Scarecrow Nightmare levels weren't cool?!

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

"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

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

"A man named Paul Dini". The guy basically helped shape the childhoods of 90s kids with his excellent writing on Batman: The Animated Series 😆

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!"

2:46:01 insane thing to say with hindsight

Last time I was this early Adam West was playing Batman.

Can’t actually agree with the scarecrow critique. As a long time batman fan playing that mini game was amazing

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

The Arkham Origins cutscenes make me think that they should’ve made it an animated movie.

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...

I like how Batman's main conflict on Arkham Knight was with neither Scarecrow , Jason or even Joker , it was with himself

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

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.

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.

Origins is criminally underrated, being younger playing city and asylum they were definitely my favourite games

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.

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.

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

That moment when Luke’s critique is just as long as a Lord of the rings movie O.O

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.

I always thought origins was called that because it explains why the asylum was reopened in the credits. You know... Arkham origins

“A suicide squad game made by rocksteady would be cool” Buddy, I’ve got news for you

"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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

"Joker is the only character you can't wait to see more of" Scarecrow? Croc? Harley? No? Just me?

The way Gordon says, "What the hell happened in there?" sounds like Peter Griffin to me.

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.

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 :)

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.

“Calling forward” is actually called foreshadowing

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

The Batman Arkham series is nothing short of a masterpiece!

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.

This man just predicted the entire suicide squad game (in the Arkham Knight section)

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

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

Just finished playing all 3 games, and this vid is still going

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I remember when the demo for AA came out. Played it to death. My personal favorite is the inverted takedown.

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.

Goddamn Kevin Conroy’s voice is amazing

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.

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!

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.

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

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!

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

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

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.

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.

Funny how Arkham Knight had a similar launch to Cyberpunk 2077 and both companies had the same response

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.

It’s got an oddly appealing art style, I love how dark it is. The only model I didn’t like too much is the older Gordon one in the original Asylum, I thought it was quite ugly.

God, thank you so much for your videos. This vid is 2 years old, but today I saw it again once more just because it's just really entertaining. It's always awesome to binge watch your videos!

can I just say your work is incredible, I genuinely enjoyed every second of this video. I was thinking about your critiques and tbh I actually never saw these flaws probably because of two things: one being nostalgia and the other one being I was so delved into the world of the Arkham games that I never really sought out to find flaws. All in all your critiques are hella warranted and its interesting to see your point of view.

"Whenever a character that is super important and has a lot of fan support behind them gets killed off, you need to approach it in a respectful way, otherwise people will get upset." -Luke Stephens 2020, more relevant than ever

Did Luke predict Rocksteady Suicide Squad game??

Great voice work!! It’s very refreshing to hear a genuine talent and passion for the material. Thank you Luke!

Great video man! This video, along with a few others, inspired me to make my own kinda review/retrospective on Arkham Asylum. Thank you for that! :)

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...

Talks about if rocksteady made a suicide squad game. He predicted it

little did we knew that RS was about to kill the Batman in "that way"