Batman Arkham Series: The Greatest Game Series of all Time?

Before the release of Batman Arkham Asylum in 2009, superhero games struggled to live up to the high reputation that the franchise holds, but since that and another three games afterwards, there is now discussion for it being the best gaming series of all time.

When the Dark Knight was released back in 2008, many predicted a game would follow suit. A game was expected to be released by AAA company EA Games, but production fell through and it gave indie company at the time Rocksteady to have a steadier production process.

Fans were sceptical about who was producing the game, but when the game was eventually released a year after The Dark Knight, fans were more than surprised on what was put in front of them.

Released on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, Batman Arkham Asylum was a breath of fresh air, with the free roam around the whole of Arkham Island being the main source of fun, the level of freedom all fans had been craving.

The combat made the general player feel they were the caped crusader, especially with all the stealth sections. It gave fans something that was much needed in the superhero universe and that is the perfect Batman experience.

No game is perfect however, plenty of glitches during cutscenes and a lack of creativity with boss battles lets it down.

With such a successful first game comes demand for a sequel and it was provided to the fans of the genre with Batman Arkham City. This game is still regarded as the greatest superhero game ever made, despite being released nearly 11 years ago.

This game took what the first one did wrong and perfected it, but also added to the formula to make it what it was. A fantastic level of difficulty is mixed with challenging yet fun sequences that are perfectly mixed together which also make for arguably the greatest story told in gaming history.

Batman Arkham City is seen as one the greatest video games of all time, winning multiple game awards in the process, including the game of the year in 2011 and a BAFTA for the greatest action game in 2012.

Rocksteady knew it would be a heavy task to one-up this game, so they took their time with their next release. In the meantime, WB games thought that they would take their own spin on the Arkham Series, with a prequel game set for release in 2013 titled: “Batman Arkham Origins”.

Widely regarded as the worst game in the series, it gets given harsh treatment due to the high level of quality of the two previous games. It still holds up well as a solid title as it gives a good story arc into how Batman came to be in this universe and how the likes of Joker became involved, showing the Clown Prince of Crime’s origin story later on in the game.

It is most certainly the weakest release out of all the Arkham games, but is still very much a fantastic game that lives up to its title of providing the origins of the biggest characters in the series.

The next title for Rocksteady was eventually released in the summer of 2015 for the next generation of consoles, including the PS4 and the Xbox One.

This is most definitely a next gen Batman experience, the graphics are still regarded as some of the best that these consoles have ever seen, with a good mix of realism and cartoonish moments throughout. The sinister design of Scarecrow is widely regarded as to why the game ended up being a PEGI 18 when the other games were only a 16.

The crazed professor is widely regarded as one of the greatest Batman Villains of all time, and with Joker out of the question after the events of Arkham City, it was time for someone new to step up, step forth the Arkham Knight.

Someone with a personal vendetta to Bruce Wayne, the Arkham Knight was introduced to the Batman Universe for this particular reason.

This game is an example of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and it expands with a bigger story to tell and more to explore with more side-quests.

The biggest introduction in this game was without doubt the Batmobile. It offers the user a different experience to the other games as the Batmobile sets up in a battle mode to fight enemy drones and tanks, which make for some enthralling sequences which, although may get repetitive, still hold as a fun time.

Arkham Knight is certainly the most ambitious title out of all the previous releases, but somewhat misses that perfected spark that Arkham City held, it still won the BAFTA award for British Game in 2016 but nowhere near the honours that the previous titles won.

Since 2009, this series has remained wildly consistent, and despite a few nitpicky moments, it is regarded as the greatest superhero gaming series of all time, and there is plenty of discussion for it to be seen as the best of all time for all games.

Arkham City and Asylum would later get remastered versions for the PS4, PC and Xbox one after Arkham Knight was released and the updated graphics and added content provide the player an even better experience to what was already a fantastic series.

Rocksteady said that Arkham Knight would be the last Batman game they release, but it’s not the end for their universe. The Suicide Squad is set to be released within the year which has been confirmed to be of the same universe.

It certainly is a topic of discussion, but these series of games really hold up as one of their own in the gaming world.