Neon green and red lights flash as Batman maneuvers the Batmobile through loop de loops in a gaudy underground racetrack. On the streets of Gotham, giant, bulbous tanks strafe around each other shooting at the speeding Bat-vehicle as it tries to escape. Onscreen, a computer-animated Alfred appears and gets snippy with master Bruce.
This is a description of the things I did in a demo of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Knight, due out this June on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. And if any of the above sounds a whole hell of a lot like the camp film Batman & Robin, well, that's because it's eerily similar. If you were a fan of that Joel Schumacher-directed 1997 nipple fest or the open-world distractions of the 2011 video game Arkham City, then that gameplay might sound pretty awesome. But for a fan of Batman: Arkham Asylum like myself, however, this sample of Arkham Knight was disconcerting.
For its new entry in the series, Arkham Knight, developer Rocksteady chose to double down on the open-world exploration of predecessor Arkham City, giving players an expanded metropolis and a souped-up Bat-vehicle to explore it with. The face-lift that open world's received on the new PlayStation 4 hardware is truly impressive. The streets, thugs and heroes of Arkham Knight glisten with detail and reflected light. Batman's dank, wet world is gloriously represented even if it feels like you've been on these streets before. In fact, if Gotham seems overwhelmingly familiar when you start playing, that's because the city, though significantly bigger, does indeed borrow architecture from the last game.
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