It has been about five months since the last new trailer release for Batman Arkham Knight. That changed earlier this week when Rocksteady Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive released a brand new trailer for Arkham Knight. The video provides a good chunk of gameplay footage from the Ace Chemicals stage in the game. A good deal of the video contains footage from the hands-off demo preview at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo. I want to recount and analyze the trailer highlights for my most anticipated game release of 2015.
The trailer showcases what appears to be Batman’s first confrontation with the armored villain, the Arkham Knight. The footage depicts Arkham Knight taking orders from the Scarecrow. As in earlier trailers, the story has apparently positioned Scarecrow as the main villain. By all accounts, Scarecrow will be the mastermind of the villainous plot in the game. However, the Arkham game franchise has thrown twists in such plots before. In Batman: Arkham Origins, all the materials suggested the Black Mask was the mastermind, and that turned out not to be the case. Some videos for Batman: Arkham City suggested that Hugo Strange was the mastermind behind the game; and that also changed later in the game.
Arkham Knight is portrayed as an armored mercenary type who has raised his own private special ops army. Not only that, he wants vengeance on Batman. The footage reinforces my belief that Arkham Knight is either Damian Wayne or Jason Todd. In the comics, Damian Wayne was Batman’s biological son. In the game universe, it makes sense that Arkham Knight would want personal revenge on Batman, perhaps blaming him for the death of his mother, Talial al Ghul, and grandfather, Ra’s al Ghul, in Batman: Arkham City. That said, it is also completely possible that the identity of Arkham Knight is a completely new character. He could be an amalgamation of existing characters. There is some dialogue in the trailer from the Arkham Knight. He sounds like a young, brash and arrogant character, but his voice is hard to place.
The trailer provides a nice look at the game’s tweaked combat system. The new Environmental Takedowns and Fear Takedowns look awesome. Batman can go from a glide through the air and smash through a skylight window to take down some punks. Batman has seamless interaction with the Batmobile. He summons his vehicle by remote and takes it into battle at the Ace Chemicals building. The graphics and animation in action look spectacular. It really looks like the game is taking full advantage of next-gen tech.
Batman Arkham Knight will finally be released on June 2, 2015. The game will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.
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