Batman: Arkham Knight

1. Summary

More than a decade after release, players still love Arkham Knight, with two catches that keep coming up. Gotham's rain, neon and character detail surprise people who expected a 2015 game to look its age, and the freeflow combat and predator stealth are often called the best in the series. A recurring line is that this game makes them feel like Batman, helped by the gliding, the gadgets and a voice cast led by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Some reviewers are console players buying it again on PC, often for a few dollars in the trilogy bundle.

The catches are the Batmobile and the Riddler. More than 1,000 reviews mention the Batmobile, and the argument is about how much of it the game makes you do. Driving and racing have real fans. The tank battles, tank stealth against Cobra drones and tank boss fights are what thumbs-down reviews bring up most often, in about a third of them. Then there is the Riddler: reviewers say all 243 trophies and challenges must be finished to see the full ending, and some who recommend the game say they gave up and watched it on YouTube. Story opinions are split, boss fights draw steady criticism, and a smaller group of PC players runs into crashes, a 90fps cap and awkward keyboard controls. The advice that comes out of the longer reviews is to play it, expect a lot of tank, and decide early whether you care about the true ending.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Gotham looks remarkable for a 2015 gameHigh

Reviewers keep comparing the graphics to recent releases and finding the older game ahead: "How does this 2015 game have better graphics than modern titles?" and "10 year old game graphics better than 99 percent games now" are two of many such lines. They point to the rain on Batman's suit, the neon-lit streets, the cape physics and the character models, and several mention stopping just to look at the city. Some credit the art direction and post-processing more than the raw tech. A few agree it is pretty but find the city empty, since the story evacuates its civilians and leaves only militia and gangs.

The best combat and stealth in the seriesHigh

Many reviewers call the freeflow combat the peak of the Arkham formula: smoother than Asylum and City, with more counters, environmental takedowns, gadget combos and tag-team fights with allies. Fear takedowns get their own praise in predator rooms, and several reviewers say they boot the game up just to fight. Reviewers with complaints elsewhere often make an exception for it: "Combat is the best in the series, but the story and boss fights are really mid". A few dissenters find it too easy or too smooth compared to the rougher older games, and some say the late-game enemy mix (medics, shield tasers, brutes) interrupts the flow.

It feels like being BatmanMedium

"You are Batman in this game, and you can do all the amazing stuff Batman's known to do." Short and long reviews say some version of this, and the details they give are gliding with the grapnel boost, perching, interrogations, and enemies who panic when they hear you. Traversal gets its own praise ("Gliding over Gotham never gets old"), and some prefer it to the gliding in City and Origins.

Voice cast and the Joker in Batman's headMedium

Kevin Conroy's Batman comes up often ("Kevin Conroy voices Batman and it's perfect."), and some reviews double as tributes after his death. Mark Hamill's Joker, who appears as a hallucination in Batman's mind, draws a lot of praise as part of the story, with one reviewer calling his performance "chilling, clever, and weirdly charming". John Noble's Scarecrow and Troy Baker's Arkham Knight also get mentions. A smaller group finds the Joker overused in a game that was supposed to move on from him; one recommender wrote "Love this game but Joker needs to never speak words again".

Cheap on sale and kind to modest hardwareMedium

Players report buying it for a few dollars or as part of the Arkham trilogy bundle, and one called it "the biggest steal of the decade" at that price. Several reviewers say it runs well on older graphics cards, gaming laptops and handhelds ("Played all on steam deck oled with no issues."), and a few play it on Linux. A smaller group has the opposite experience, covered under the PC problems below.

Mods and extra suitsLow

PC players praise the modding scene, especially suit mods and a community patch that adds suit slots and fixes. "All I can say is that it is 1000000 times better with mods." A few warn that too many mods can cause crashes.

Side stories and Most Wanted villainsLow

"The Most Wanted side missions are really great." Some reviewers name Professor Pyg, Man-Bat, Two-Face and the Mad Hatter as highlights, and DLC owners praise Season of Infamy's Mr. Freeze arc. Others find the same missions repetitive (see the open-world busywork point below).

Where players are split

How much Batmobile is too muchHigh

Reviews that mention the Batmobile include both complaints that it is overused and praise for it, often in the same review. Driving and racing through Gotham are mostly liked. The disagreement is about how often the game turns everything into a tank fight: drone battles that keep coming, Cobra tanks you can only hit from behind, Batmobile puzzles and Riddler races, and boss encounters fought from the driver's seat. One player summed up the critical camp: "The Batmobile should've been an occasional thrill, not a required tool for everything from combat to boss fights." The defenders are vocal too ("the batmobile hate is overblown. Really fun game and not a waste of time", "I'm one of those weirdos that actually likes the batmobile combat sections."), and several say it grew on them after a few hours or that the complaints online made them expect worse. Many positive reviews carry a short version of the caveat, such as "Too much batmobile tho :/". The pain points players name are the Cloudburst fight and Cobra stealth tank sections, rooftop wall-driving in the main story, the camera during chases, and the handling until players find the battle-mode toggle or the first-person view.

The story and the Arkham Knight revealHigh

Fans call it the most emotional and personal Arkham story, built around Scarecrow's fear toxin and Batman's own breakdown: "Some games let you play a hero. Arkham Knight lets you understand the cost of being one." Detractors call it the weakest writing of the trilogy. Some say the Arkham Knight's identity is easy to guess ("Anyone even slightly aware of the Batman mythos could make a guess as to who he is."), and others point to underused villains like Hush, Deathstroke and Scarecrow himself, plot holes, and a feeling that the writing lost something after Paul Dini's departure, which several reviewers name. One recommender put the split in two sentences: "Story-wise, it's the weakest entry in the series. Gameplay-wise, it's the best." Comparisons with Arkham City run throughout, and in them City usually wins on story while Knight wins on gameplay.

The Arkham Episodes DLC and season passMedium

DLC owners disagree on value. Season of Infamy, which reviewers describe as extra Most Wanted missions in the main game, draws praise ("Season of Infamy was very cool, every quest in the DLC had a lot more care crafted into it"), and several reviewers name Batgirl's "A Matter of Family" as the best of the standalone episodes. The character episodes for Catwoman, Harley, Red Hood, Nightwing and Robin are often described as 10 to 30 minutes long, and some reviewers say they are not worth full price: "Don't bother with the DLCs, they are way too short, badly designed and are not worth your time." Several reviewers report crashes in the DLC, including at the end of the Batgirl episode.

What frustrates players

243 Riddler trophies lock the full endingHigh

Reviewers point out that the trophies were optional in earlier Arkham games, while here the full Knightfall Protocol ending requires every Riddler trophy, riddle and challenge, including Batmobile race tracks and puzzle rooms. They describe hours of hunting after the story is done, and some say they gave up and watched the ending online instead. "I want to talk with the rocksteady employee that thought locking the true ending behind 6 hours worth of riddler scavenger hunts was a good idea," wrote one, and another: "Would have been a masterpiece if it were not for the mandatory 100% of 200+ mind numbingly tedious Riddler puzzles to unlock THE ENDING OF THE GAME!!!!" Some complaints are mechanical: puzzles that only trigger from an exact spot, line launcher points that won't register, and the final race. A minority enjoys the hunt and finds the trophies more varied than in past games ("riddler trophies are NOT that bad"), and some players who went for 120% or 240% completion call the reward worth it.

Boss fights that missMedium

Complaints about the boss fights often turn up in otherwise glowing reviews. Players describe big villain showdowns that became tank sections or quick-time events: Deathstroke's fight happens in the Batmobile, Firefly is a chase, the Arkham Knight finale is a stealth encounter, and Scarecrow gets no real fight. Reviewers who loved Origins' Deathstroke fight or Asylum's Scarecrow sequences make the comparison. "I wish the boss fights were hand-to-hand combats rather than Batmobile vs Tanks." A few name the Killer Croc fight or the Mad Hatter storybook sequence as the exceptions they wanted more of.

PC crashes and performance problemsMedium

Some reviewers recall the broken 2015 PC port and say the patches fixed it: "It took years of patches to arrive at this point, but Arkham Knight is finally stable enough to earn its place as the conclusion to the Arkham Trilogy." Technical problems still turn up in a smaller share of the negative reviews, often from players who barely got started. They report crashes and fatal errors (one names BUILD_JULY_2012, and others hit one at the end of the Batgirl episode), black screens or failure to launch, stutter while driving the Batmobile through the city, and a 90fps cap ("If you want more than 90fps you will have to unlock it with the ini files"). Progression bugs come up too, such as the Stagg airship soft lock ("Stagg airship bug still in the game"), and with no manual saves a bug or a crash can cost hours. As one reviewer put it, "This port has come a long way since its disastrous launch but there are still some glitches and bugs that are game breaking."

Keyboard controls and combat targetingLow

PC players who use mouse and keyboard report that several actions share keys, many binds cannot be changed ("you simply cannot rebind various key functions"), and combos like Alt plus a number key are awkward mid-fight. One player's advice is "Make sure to buy a controller before you buy this game", though a few report Xbox controllers not being detected. Separately, a few reviewers find that combat auto-targeting picks the wrong enemy at key moments ("the autotargeting in this game is hilariously bad"), breaking combos and wasting gadgets.

Repetitive open-world busyworkLow

Some players find the side content padded: militia checkpoints, watchtowers, mines, bank robberies and drone waves that must be cleared many times before a villain is caught. "Every mission you get is just like a check list," complained one reviewer, and a recommender still felt it could become "checklist-objective after checklist-objective." A few compare it to Ubisoft open worlds and say the tighter Asylum and City suited the series better.

3. The player conversation

The tone is overwhelmingly warm. Most reviews are one-line verdicts, Batman quotes and running memes ("I am vengeance", "Is he stupid?", "jonkler"), which say little beyond enjoyment. The debate happens in the longer reviews, which often run the same way: high praise for the look, combat and atmosphere, then a caveat about the Batmobile, the Riddler or both. Negative reviews are rare but detailed. A recurring kind comes from fans of the earlier games who wanted more time on foot and found the tank sections, the Riddler requirement and the boss fights a step back. The thumbs-down group also includes players with only minutes or a few hours logged, whose complaints are crashes, launch failures or controller problems.

Returning players are easy to spot, some on their second or third platform, replaying on PC at higher frame rates or clearing a backlog purchase from a trilogy sale. Several newcomers who started the series with this game write enthusiastic reviews. Some players who went through Asylum and City first say the Batmobile and the story let them down by comparison ("Do not play this right after playing Arkham City or you will be disappointed"), and Arkham City comes up throughout the conversation. Some reviewers also measure Knight against later Batman and DC games and Insomniac's Spider-Man, usually in Knight's favor.

The conversation held steady over time. Every full week from mid-August 2025 to late September 2026 landed between 92% and 99% positive, and the busiest weeks came around the late-December 2025 holiday sale and late June 2026. The September 2026 weeks sat at the low end of that range (92% to 95%). The older reviews mixed into this slice tell the PC port's history: several 2015 reviews were edited years later to say the game had been fixed.

4. What the developers could do

1. Make most tank combat optional. The Batmobile is the topic negative reviews raise most often and a frequent caveat in positive ones, and players ask to skip or shorten drone battles, Cobra stealth sections and Batmobile puzzles in the main story.
2. Unlock the full ending without all 243 Riddler trophies. Some reviewers say they quit the hunt and watched the Knightfall Protocol ending on YouTube, and others who finished it still call the requirement tedious.
3. Fix the remaining PC crashes. Reviewers still report fatal errors (including BUILD_JULY_2012 and one at the end of the Batgirl episode), black screens and launch failures, and some pass around their own workarounds.
4. Allow full key rebinding and better controller detection. Keyboard players report shared keys and binds they cannot change, and some controller users say their Xbox pad is misread or not detected.
5. Fix progression soft locks and add manual saves. The Stagg airship bug and other stuck quests left some players choosing between a restart and quitting, and autosave-only progress made crashes more costly.
6. Raise or remove the 90fps cap in the settings menu. PC players with high refresh monitors point others to an ini edit, and some report frame-time stutter while driving through the city.
7. Improve combat target selection. Reviewers describe Batman attacking or firing gadgets at the wrong enemy, which hurts in late fights full of medics, shield enemies and brutes that punish mistakes.