AUTISM TIME!!!!

I love making lists so here is a list of my favorite Batman Arkham games in order (not including SS: KTJL bc I'm not gonna play it, also not including Arkham Shadow bc I'm in the middle of playing it.)

1. Arkham Origins

2. Arkham Knight

3. Arkham Asylum

4. Arkham City

I just pissed everyone off :3 but I have reasons.

When I started playing Arkham, I actually don't know what I started out with, I remember playing Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum but never beating them bc I was a dumb little kid who could barely read. I remember the exact point I got stuck at in Asylum was the first ever riddle.

SPOILER TIME!! SPOILERS FOR ARKHAM GAMES!!

Arkham Origins

Origins was the first one I played once I actually started buying my own games. It was first chronologically so I played it first. It is THE best Batman game. The boss fights especially with Deathstroke, Copperhead, and Bane are immaculate. I wasn't around when the game originally released so I didn't get the disappointment of "oh, it's just Joker again" with the Joker reveal. I really liked the story and it introduced me to characters I would've never cared about like Firefly, Black Mask, and Shiva. I think Bruce and Alfred's dynamic in this game is absolutely amazing and Bruce's brutality here is only rivalled by Knight.

Arkham Knight

Knight was the most recent one I've played (excluding Arkham Shadow) although I originally planned to wait until I was done with Arkham Shadow. I don't get many chances to play on VR though so I went ahead and played Knight, and it almost beat Origins for the best game. First of all, the first thing I noticed was the SHOTGUN sounds that Batman makes when he beats up people. Instantly I was hooked, unfortunately I had parts of the story already spoiled for me so I knew that Jason Todd was the Arkham Knight but I had no idea how good the story would be. At many points in the story I felt like there was no way they could raise the stakes even higher, the Barbara Gordon scene had me genuinely shocked (until they ruined it later by saying "it was actually fear gas" but whatever). The completion reward you get for 100% the game is absolutely amazing, I felt like I had to complete everything or I didn't get to see what Knightfall was. The riddler trophies were a bit annoying but it made me feel smart when I solved some of the trickier ones. 

The only reason this isn't higher on the list is because of my issues with Knight, issues that mainly come in the form of glitches. I am a completionist so it absolutely enraged me when I found out that none of my achievements in game were being counted because I was playing the Steam version with a controller. For some reason it kept saying I wasn't connected to Steam, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, I tried a bunch of things but nothing worked. I ended up using Steam Achievement Manager to give myself all of the achievements I should've gotten. This was the only major glitch I had, minor glitches were infuriating too. 

NEVER go try to attack a Riddler informant across a bridge, as soon as you get to them they stop being marked as green (so you can't interrogate them). You only get 2 riddler informants per area at one time because they become cautious so that adds to the infuriation in an already kind of tedious process of hunting down informants so you can hunt down Riddler trophies.

Arkham Asylum

Yes, I really prefer Arkham Asylum over Arkham City. I have beaten Arkham Asylum twice for a reason, I love the game. I beat it on normal and hard and I had so much fun doing it. For being developed in such a short amount of time with a developer that had just entered the industry, it was a masterpiece. The only things I don't like about it aside from the things missing from later entries (which ofc I don't hold against the game) are the boss fights. Specifically the titan fights, Poison Ivy fight, and the last Joker fight.

First the titan fights, the first titan fight is extremely easy, intentionally so as you literally can't die in this section. That's for story purposes though, I understand that. What I don't understand is why Bruce Wayne just keeps wanting to kill himself, bro always jumps over an enemy straight into the path of a Titan when I try to dodge out of the way. Maybe I just suck at the game but having small enemies along with the Titans is just so annoying.

Then for the Poison Ivy fight, it's extremely repetitive. It was the first boss I actually had trouble with and I genuinely thought I wasn't going to be able to beat her during my hard mode playthrough. A lot of people like this boss fight (I'm guessing because when you die you get to see Poison Ivy up close y'know) but I just can't stand it. She has two attacks, a stupid vine grab that covers half the battlefield and her pod attacks. I know there's a way to avoid the pods but I can't seem to avoid one when I'm throwing a batarang. But yeah, the entire battle is dodge, dodge, dodge, ok shoot your batarang and dodge some more. They add in enemies to make it more interesting but really they're just annoying. The strategy is to just let the vines handle them and attack any stragglers. She also has this weird moan when she gets hit? I think that's just for the male players...

Lastly, the Joker fight. Personality and story-wise it makes some kind of sense and it does some important set up for City but seriously? Titan Joker? It seriously sounds like someone in the board room at Rocksteady let their kid pick the final boss fight. I am so glad that they had the sense to make Batman resist the Titan instead of making him Titan Batman. Really it's just a goon fight, you start off with a really easy attack from Titan Joker until he pisses off and makes his goons fight you. That's really it, he throws some stuff in the arena and you batclaw him down to punch him. The best part about it is the cutscene at the end where Batman literally punches Joker with a fucking explosive gel on his fist.

Arkham City

This is usually people's favorite game, but to me it is the worst in the series and I mean it. I couldn't even finish the post game bc of how absolutely awful the Two-Face fight is. It is really just Origins but with worse gameplay (and I can't really fault it for the minor improvements Origins made). The whole idea of Arkham City seems absolutely ridiculous to me and that's saying something for a Batman game. 

I have a question for the plot of Arkham City, how in the hell did no one else in the US do anything about it. Like I get prisoners have no rights in the US, but making a large portion of your extremely large city a prison? In New Jersey (where Gotham is canonically located)??? There is no way in hell the governor, or the president, or a senator, or literally anyone didn't look at this and go "nah". Quincy Sharp is the mayor, which isn't really that high up in the US government. Like maybe I missed something in the plot, I must have if this idea is to be believed.

The Penguin section was pretty annoying for me, I got killed multiple times by him and had to look up what I had to do. You have to get so close to him to mess up his gun, and you have to do it twice??? Freeze's equipment is absolute dogshit and would not be practical in any combat situation. The Solomon Grundy fight was ok, not as hard as I had originally been led to believe by Clownpuncher139 (love him btw, not casting any shade). 

There are parts of City that I do like though, I liked the Ra's Al Ghul section even if it was a little stupid. The Joker scene at the end is absolutely amazing with the Cain and Able imagery. I really like combat as Catwoman (just please never make me do stealth with her again). I just wish I could love this game as much as other people do, but overall it's not for me. I see why people think it's a good game but for me, I have much fonder memories of the other Arkham games.

Oh yeah, and Arkham Shadow is pretty good so far too.