Batman: Arkham Knight's Greatest Sin Shows We Still Need A Sequel

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Batman: Arkham Knight was the closest the gaming space has come to realizing the city of Gotham, but as it fell short of being a living, breathing metropolis — with most civilians evacuated following Scarecrow's emergence — it shows that a sequel is necessary. Only two of the Batman: Arkham games took place Gotham City proper (the other being Arkham Origins), but both of those games had plot-oriented reasons that tried to explain away the lack of citizens. Though Gotham Knights developer WB Games Montréal seems to have addressed the population issues present in the Arkham series, it takes place in a different universe and doesn't feature a playable Dark Knight. It still feels odd to be five modern Batman titles deep and not once see the whole gamut of what Batman: Arkham's version of the World's Greatest Detective can do.

Playing as Batman, the Arkham series gradually expanded to allow him to explore an ever-growing cityscape that would change based on the events that transpired across the story. While Batman: Arkham Asylum kept the player in the confines of the iconic halls of Arkham's home for hellions, the sequel expanded to include a prison-like city that sectioned off a part of Gotham City. The lack of a bustling life of NPCs in these titles made sense due to the technical limitations. However, that changes once the setting expands into Gotham proper in the following two entries. Batman: Arkham Origins' open-world used the excuse of a snowstorm allowing the GCPD to enact a curfew, enabling Batman to traverse a snow-covered Gotham unimpeded. Unfortunately, that excuse doesn't carry over as well to the second title, Batman: Arkham Knight.

Related: Batman: Arkham — The Complete Timeline

Batman: Arkham Knight's excuse