Requiem for a Generation: The Greatest Games of the Last Console Generation

Greatest Series:  Batman, The Arkham Series.

Christopher Nolan wishes.  He may have fooled the popcorn stuffing masses, but he couldn’t fool me, and he couldn’t fool himself.  He lies in bed at night crying, just praying he’ll dream of a world in which his movies were as good as the Arkham series.

At least that’s what I like to think.

My first experience with the Arkham Series (Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Origins) occurred one day when I came home from some place and my brother had gotten a new Batman game I hadn’t heard of called Batman: Arkham Asylum.

I remember being very impressed by the graphics and game mechanics watching him play it.  When I played through the game myself, I was sucked in by the open world aspect and fun story.

The game play was varied and fresh.  You don’t simply grind through a dungeon – fight a boss – repeat.  You explore, fight some bad guys, complete tasks, explore, fight, and when you do face a boss the format of the showdown is different depending on the enemy.

Arkham Asylum was an imagining of the Batman universe that felt authentic while also happening to be a really fun game with oodles of replay value.  The game makers took the time to create an interesting and deep world of characters and it shows.  By itself it was one of the best games of the last console generation.  Looking at is as part of a series and it is just the beginning.

The Arkham series not only gives fans the Batman they deserve but the villains to go with him.  The Joker of course, but the villain that shines especially bright in the series is Bane.  No longer is he some stocky Englishman with a mask and a speech impediment.  He is reborn in the Arkham series as the hulking, Mexican, criminal genius leading a group of fanatical mercenaries on quest to destroy Bruce Wayne.  He also has a totally badass soundtrack.

Where the games distinguish themselves as a series is there ability to keep the characters and open world spirit of the game intact while introducing enough knew aspects to keep it from feeling too familiar or growing tiresome.  Each game has a distinct storyline but is also able to keep an overarching plot and conflict (Batman and the Joker) to keep things relevant.

(This scene is awesome)

In every game, the mechanics improve, the world expands, and the story supplies plenty of new thrills and twists.  Arkham Origins wasn’t just one of the best looking games of the last generation, it was also one of the best sounding.

The best game in the series is probably the second installation, Arkham City.  A flood of new characters are introduced in front of the backdrop of a world that is easily three times the size of Asylum’s.  The leap forward is just astounding.

These games are really, really good looking.

Arkham City also gives fans another thrill by having a multi-story campaign in which the player splits time between Batman and Catwoman (who never looked as good as she does in this game, eat it, Anne Hathaway).  It effectively turns the game into two for one.

Where other series fall victim to redundancy (Call of Duty), or are unable to hold the story together (Mass Effect), or both (Bioshock), Arkham remains strong throughout.

The Arkham series hits everywhere you want it to and leaves you excited to see where it is going to go next.  Christopher Nolan should be so lucky.