Here’s Why Batman: Arkham Collection Is Still The Best Superhero Game Franchise

Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham franchise, guided by the publishing hand of industry giant Warner Bros. Games, is no longer a series that’s in active development with more pertinent titles, but you know what they say, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

And what happened was the birth of quite possibly the greatest superhero video game franchise ever made, built from the ground up with glaring passion that’s only seldom found in the day and age we live in today. 

If you’ve somehow managed to miss out on the main Arkham games, now just might be the time to crack open that wallet a little and immerse yourself in a trilogy like no other. That’s because Steam has the entire collection on sale for about $9 at the time of writing and let me tell you something.  

This is the best $9 you’re spending on video games this year.” 

The Batman: Arkham Games Are Still Extremely Relevant

Despite the first game in the series — Batman: Arkham Asylum — coming out back in 2009, which is way over a decade ago, all the Arkham games pose themselves as utterly relevant to this day, save for a few instances with the final iteration in the series that has put some people off.

That’s because, unlike Insomniac’s Spider-Man IP, where the devs played it too safe with the sequel’s overall storyline, the Batman games follow robust storylines, with Arkham Knight, the culmination of the trilogy, actually sporting a darker-than-usual tone with the background of its antagonist. 

Couple that with engaging gameplay, Rocksteady’s attention to detail, and the amazing atmosphere of the Arkham games, and you have at your disposal a set of titles with fantastic replayability. For those interested, here’s a cheat sheet for what you can expect to find in each major Batman game. 

Asylum For The Atmosphere, City For The Story, Knight For The Gameplay

That’s the beauty of it right there. Fans of the Caped Crusader ought to give all of these masterpieces a go for a taste of something different in every title. “Each game perfects a different aspect. And that’s what makes them special,” affirms one u/Lucifer_Mrnngstr on Reddit, as they’re joined in agreement by a thousand others. 

Batman: Arkham Asylum isn’t an open-world game and is a semi-linear action-adventure where you have to go through a series of different stages over the course of its gameplay. Despite this free-roam restriction, you’re always left wanting more, trying to ponder what awaits you as you finish up one room and go into another.  

In this form and manner, I’ve found Arkham Asylum to offer the best atmosphere out of the trilogy, not to mention one of the best atmospheres to be present in any game ever. So, when you’ve wrapped things up with the first game, move on to Batman: Arkham City for a thrilling narrative and a fresh dose of revisited combat and gameplay systems. 

Finally, make your way to Arkham Knight when you’re done with the previous two games. There, you’ll find an entirely different way of traversal available at Batman’s disposal—the Batmobile. Although the latter sometimes comes across as a double-edged sword, meaning that vehicular gameplay often gets repetitive, the mechanic is still quite innovative and delightful to play around with in the streets of Gotham. 

The Numbers Don’t Lie 

Yeah, so, just scoot on over to Metacritic and you’ll find out real quick that Batman: Arkham City, arguably the best game in the franchise, ranks way above Marvel’s Spider-Man or its sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for that matter, coming in hot with a 94 Metascore. 

While I understand that reviews are not 100% depictive of a game’s overall quality and can rarely be misleading as well, given how preferences differ from one user to another, the contrast in scores is fairly prominent for one to discount it that easily.  

https://www.reddit.com/r/InsomniacGames/comments/18vx2fa/which_games_do_you_like_more_the_batman_arkham/

The Misfortune Surrounding The Franchise Now

Here’s another incentive why you shouldn’t be skipping out on the icons that the Batman: Arkham games are—they’re not getting any sequels in the same vein anymore. Quite unluckily, Warner Bros. Games is now jumbled up in the live service department, saying that it wants to convert its “biggest franchises” into live service format.

This obviously includes the Arkhamverse, with the latest iteration in the franchise coming in the name of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a third-person shooter with live service elements. Of course, when you come off a trilogy of Batman: Arkham’s stature, and then thrust something like Suicide Squad upon its fan base, your expectations are going to be far from being met. 

So Rocksteady thinks WE are the ones being toxic for being angry at how Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League violated everything the arkham games built.
by inMauLer

Until and unless WB Games changes its course and takes up the revival of these legendary Batman games seriously, you’re stuck with Suicide Squad and all the relevant live service games that are coming after it. On the flip side, another IP belonging to the publisher is in the works, Wonder Woman, and it’s been said to be exempt from the live service genre. 

Takeaway

Putting it all into simple words, do yourself a favor and try out the Batman games before they get pulled from Steam’s latest sale promotion. That way, you’re getting extreme bang for your buck and one whale of a good time prowling Gotham City as the Dark Knight. Having played the trilogy about a dozen different times over the years, I’ll be personally booting up Arkham Knight soon to grab some of those last Riddler trophies—those are not an easy task though.