We’re now free to explore three islands of the dark and intermittently stormy Gotham City, which is given character and color by its many bright neon lights and noticeable landmarks like the Chinatown district, Wayne Tower, and Ace Chemicals. Here and there a few cheesy, wooden lines pop up, mostly in the side quests, but the same is true of nearly any game of this size. Plus, several strong performances gave it personality: the unsettling monotone voice of John Noble makes this the eeriest version of the Scarecrow yet, Mark Hamill returns for some excellent, darkly hilarious posthumous Joker lines and reenactments of some of the most famous scenes from the comics, and of course the definitive Kevin Conroy stars as Batman. While the mystery of the identity of the Arkham Knight (a militarized anti-Batman who serves as co-antagonist along with the Scarecrow) fizzles out, there are other surprises to fall back on that kept me engaged in the twisting story. The plot does stray a little too far into the supernatural for my tastes - in that I generally find the Dark Knight at his finest when the threats he faces are at least remotely grounded in reality - but in doing so it drives wedges between allies and delves into Batman’s psyche in an interesting way. Roughly 12 hours’ worth of story missions do a great job of playing up the long history between Batman, the three Robins, and Jim and Barbara Gordon.
