When comparing Batman: Arkham Knight vs Batman: Arkham City, the Slant community recommends Batman: Arkham City for most people. In the question“What are the best Action-Adventure games on Steam?” Batman: Arkham City is ranked 11th while Batman: Arkham Knight is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose Batman: Arkham City is:
Due to detail-oriented environments, varied characters and great voice acting, the game can draw you in completely.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Excellent free-flow combat system
Batman: Arkham Knight still uses the combat system pioneered in the very first Arkham game, but with various improvements. It is intuitive, highly responsive and supplemented with power-ups, combos and ability to use gadgets to add variety and depth.
Pro A pretty great story
Takes inspiration from so many areas of past Batman lore and creates a more interesting interpretation of a classic story. There's some pacing issues occasionally and it goes on a little too long at points, but is more than redeemed by a compelling overall plot, excellent voice acting, and interesting characters.
Pro Large city to explore
A large city comprised of three separate islands makes up the area playable in game. It's filled with side missions and collectibles, giving you a reason to explore outside the story missions while also making the city of Gotham feel alive.
Pro Ability to drive around the Batmobile
Arkham Knight has the open world aspect of the previous game but has now introduced the Batmobile for use on the street with a full weapon loadout. It's fast, beautiful, controls well, and converts into a tank for some combat missions that are almost as fun as the standard hand-to-hand combat. The moment when you rocket off a ramp and shoot a hundred feet into the air out of the driver's seat into a glide over skyscrapers... it's great.
Pro Incredible sound design
From gigantic booms and explosions to the quiet, more nuanced details of rain or the wind flying past you, this game sounds amazing.
Pro Immersive world
Due to detail-oriented environments, varied characters and great voice acting, the game can draw you in completely.
Pro Excellent free-flow combat system
This game's predecessor pioneered a new kind of free-flow combat system that's intuitive, highly responsive and supplemented with power-ups, combos and ability to use gadgets to add variety and depth.
Pro It's enjoyable just to traverse the city
The movement system feels fluid, free and exhilarating.
Pro Challenge maps and lots of side missions can be used to break up the gameplay
There are quite a lot of side missions players can play to break up the story segments of the game. Even better is that they are still accessible when the main story is completed.
Cons
Con Lackluster, short DLC story missions
Don't buy the season pass unless you can find it on sale. It's not bad, but not worth an extra $20, and certainly not the $40 it cost before price drop. (FYI, you get a complete experience without the DLC - it truly is extra content, not main game content cut out and repackaged.)
Con You need to collect every single Riddler trophy/challenge to get the "true" ending
Some people don't mind the Riddler missions, but it can definitely become annoying for others.
Con Still occasionally a little buggy on PC
The game can crash occasionally, but it was only ever after a failed combat segment, and the game autosaves often enough that you shouldn't lose any progress. It's certainly not nearly as bad as it was at launch.
Con Had been withdrawn from sale
Possibly the first release (certainly the first AAA release) to be digitally withdrawn from sale. Buyers were refunded.
It was reinstated months later, but the port was not much better and still had terrible performance issues.
Con Detective Mode investigation segments and the like are still boring and not good
Sometimes to push the plot forward the game will force you to do some "investigating," which basically comes down to a stupidly easy 'Where's Waldo?' minigame. It's not bad, but it doesn't really add much to the experience and feels kinda like a waste of time.
Con Batman's movements feel stiff
Just as in the first game, Batman's movements when walking around feel very stiff and a bit jerky.