This is the end of trilogy mouth and now for the final review: Batman Arkham Trilogy! This is what happens when a company takes a twist of Metroid-Vania into a brawler; The invention of Bat-viania, a dance-like combat system that's focuses more on perfect timing than mashing buttons like in most fighting adventure games! There's a reason the series is highly acclaimed to the point of imitation from games like Sleeping Dogs; It's just the format works for action games!
It all starts with Batman, as THE batman, is driving in the bat-mobile with the joker arrested after taking the mayor hostage. Before that, Black Gate prison had a fire and had to transfer the majority of thugs into Arkham. Batman knew something wasn't right, but delivers The Joker. However, Harley Quinn kidnaps the head of Arkham, Quincy Sharp, and took over with her sexy nurse outfit on, and all hell broke loose! The joker takes over Arkham with his Titan formula monster men and it's up to batman to stop the madness.
This game help start the series off, as batman must explores Arkham and later picks up new gadgets from either from his Bat-storage or what he invents on the fly like the charge-pluse gun which shoots nonlethal bolts which open and close some doors. And that was just a small taste of the bat-gadgets the player. The combat is very simple from timing your punches, dodges, and counters; However, it feels really slow and it's really easy to lose the combos. Thankfully, the Wane upgrades helps as it boosts gadgets, Batman's Armor, and help improve the gameplay. Along the way, Eddy Nigma, known as The Riddler, leaves trophies and puzzels for those completionist and helps with leveling.
After the events, Joker is suffering from blood poisoning from the titan formula and is slowly dieing as a result. Bruce Wane, in the meantime, is trying his best to close Arkham City down as many criminals has escaped and has occupied the city. However, Hugo Strange has figured that Bruce Wane is Batman thanks to an outside source and, with his private army, kidnaps Bruce and sells him to Penguin. Bruce Wane then escapes and fights as Batman to regain control of the city with the help of Catwoman; who is more interested in robbing Two-face blind during the chaos, but helps anyways because it would benefit her.
The game is more refined as there's more new gadgets and a new stunt-combo system as it helps build combos when fighting goons. The Batvaina evolved into a more open-world. It's not bad, it's just very jarring and different from the past game. The Riddler is also back, and this time the riddles are all over the city! This time, you have to catch him as he token Gorden's police team hostage. Solving enough riddles will help catch him and save the police. The gliding mechanic, which existent in the last game, has been refined to help travel around the city. It also has an upgrade when the player complete the training set by Wane Interprizes and it helps. However, if going for completion, it's best to go after the side missions first as there's a point of no return after one point in the story.
In the end, The Joker dies before Batman could have gave him the cure to his blood poisoning because joker made batman drop the cure, breaking his chances of survival. Harley blames Batman for his death and plots her revenge. It has been months since the events of the last game and things where calm for a time until a fear toxin bombing in a local diner occupied, causing death and injury which lead to the city being evacuated to the villains. All the sudden, a private army occupies Gotham with the help of The Arham Knight, who seem to know Batman from the inside and out. Things go beyond crazy than they ever before.
However, while they did center the game-play to the point where it is easier to complete, but it's the only way to get the real ending of the game. While alternative endings, or in this case real endings, in metroid-vania games, usually handle well. Its not here. The problem is the Riddler; While normally some of his puzzles are ok, some of the racing portions of the game didn't fit his personality. And speaking of, while some parts of the Bat-Tank was challenging, it felt more of a transformers than Batman game. However, if the player read the comics, the plot twist in the end is just very bland, making the game not really worth completing 100%.
In the end, I would recommend this trilogy whenever they go on sale. However, the Disk-Locked Content isn't worth in the long run as they are too short and not worth the effort. This is a series that inovated the Metroid-vania series into something new and somewhat refreshing. This is the last trilogy that RockSteady will be official working on for Batman as it will probably be handed down...God help us all....
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