Goodbye dark knight
The third and final Batman game from Rocksteady Studios is also the best of the three follow ups, including Arkham Origins which wasn't developed by Rocksteady, to the original game: Batman: Arkham Asylum. Though Asylum is still the best game in the series Knight is the closest to match its level in terms of the overall experience and it makes for a worthy end for Rocksteady's Batman trilogy.
The big new addition to the game is the Batmobile and while it eventually gets fun to use it takes a while to get adjusted to its controls and general feel and weight of the vehicle. The game spends a lot of its opening hours with you in control of the Batmobile and it honestly feels really clumsy and awkward to maneuver. A early traversal puzzle involving the Batmobile does not make the greatest first impression. After the first two hours I turned the game of feeling pretty disappointed: If this is what the new Batman game is all about then it's not for me. Luckily it gets better.
The weakest part of the game might be the first two hours but when the story starts to get going and you get to some of the classic predator gameplay and hand to hand combat it reminds you of why you liked the Arkham games to begin with. The hand to hand combat still plays great and no one does it better than Rocksteady. Heck in my opinion no game has even come close to match the feeling of the Arkham games' combat, not even Shadow of Mordor imo, and it's nice to return to the series that started it all.
Except for Origins, which gets a completely undeserved amount of hate, Knight has the best story in the series. It's full of twist and turns and has a lot of cool call backs to some of the best Batman comics and storylines throughout the years.
It's a shame that you won't get the full ending of the game unless you beat the game completely, and by completely I mean every single sidequest (which is doable but takes a little time and can get repetitive) + solve every riddle and get every Riddler trophy (which is going to take forever and it will get very repetitive and not very fun in the long run) but that being said the ending you get after beating the finale story mission feels very satisfying and as a good closing chapter for Rocksteadys Batman games. If you don't feel like getting every single Riddler trophy I recommend just watching the finale ending on Youtube.
Batman: Arkham Knight is definitely the best game I have played in 2015 so far. That being said there is still some big games I haven't gotten around to play yet, but I would be very surprised if it doesn't reach top five game of 2015. That being said it doesn't get five stars because it does have a few rough spots here and there but that doesn't change that it is still the best follow up in the series. Asylum is still the best but Knight offers an overall rewarding ending.