Ten Things From The Arkham Knight Trailer

From the trailer we’ve seen, we here at Planet Needless have deduced a few things that stand out to us. Look below.  

1)      Bat to Basics: From Arkham Asylum to City Batman has stuck with the Kevlar outfit that blended reality with comic style extremely well. Arkham Origins saw a change to a more plate armor sort of deal. However, that was to represent the early days of Batman’s career when he was still DIY’ing a lot of his stuff.
From what we could see from the trailer, Batman has more of an armor vibe again. What’s more interesting is that the new batsuit seems to draw some inspiration from the one worn in the “Injustice” video game. An interesting choice indeed.

2)      The Joke Seems To Be Over: This is sort of a no brainer (spoiler: Joker died in the ArkhamCity) but he wasn’t present in any of the advertisement for Origins either. Everyone went into that game thinking Black Mask was the main baddie only to find out it was the J man and the beginnings of his insanity. Again, it made more sense for Origins to have Joker because he was alive and this doesn’t. However, would DC allow a game of Batman to be made without the Clown Prince present in some capacity. I mean, Troy did one heck of a job taking over as Joker from Mark Hamill- and that’s something I never thought I would say.

3)      Stepping Into Harley Quinn: Like Arkham City before it, preorders get you the DLC to play another character in the Bat universe and have some fun in an adjacent story. This time it’s Harley. Based on the Robin DLC for ArkhamCity, will this be a Harley that is now working on the side of the Angels? Probably not. But it does raise the question: What is Harley Quinn’s quest for Arkham Knight? Has she moved on from the Joker? Is she her own person? Is she in leaguer with Scarecrow? She was beating up cops but then again she could be trying to help and having to deal with still being a wanted criminal. Half of Arkham Origins saw Batman beating up cops, so it could very well be that she’s trying to help with extreme prejudice. What is Harley’s plan?

4)     A Man Alone: It’s odd that after Arkham City had; 1) a side story making Catwoman the Luigi to Batman’s Mario, 2) a late DLC where you could play Robin in an epilogue of sorts, and 3) missions that let you play as Nightwing that there is no mention or sight of the three Bat-Allies (even if one is only one on occasion), where are they now?

5)      How is Batman Handling the Joker’s death: It was the big focus of the Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC that Batman hadn’t been himself since Joker passed on, will that be touched on in Arkham Knight? How has Bruce handled the death of his worst enemy? Is this the reason the Bat-Family is not around?

6)      There is a Change in the Wind: With the move to a more sandbox style than even Arkham Origins enjoyed, how will this change the game mechanics of Arkham Knight. Will it follow in a more Grand Theft Auto style or will it keep it more main mission/side mission objective based story format?

7)       Two-Face and Penguin Are Involved: They are front and center in the action of Arkham Knight but they are also working together. This is a main change from ArkhamCity- where they were actively trying to kill each other for territory, with Two-Face succeeding. It’s rather odd that Oswald would forgive Harvey for leaving him in a display case after the events of ArkhamCity. It seems the villains are coming together to take Gotham down and are doing it under the work of a certain fear specialist.

8)      The Scarecrow is Back and He’s Pissed:  We last saw Dr. Crane in 2009’s “Arkham Asylum” where it seemed Killer Croc had made him a meal. However, there were several easter eggs in “ArkhamCity” that suggested that Jonathan survived and had big plans for Gotham. The Arkham Knight trailer begins with Scarecrow ordering the citizens out of Gotham or face “their worse fears”. How did Scarecrow survive? How is he, after Waylon attacked him? “ArkhamCity” suggests that he has suffered some trauma from Killer Croc’s attack and blames Batman for leaving him to die.

9)      Is The Scarecrow the Main Villain: The trailer suggests that Scarecrow is the big bad of Arkham Knight; but is he? “Arkham Origins” trailer made it clear that Black Mask was the main villain, but an hour in The Joker is revealed to be the real big bad. As a matter of fact, the entire Arkham series has always had a secret mastermind behind everything. Joker’s attack in “Arkham Asylum” was orchestrated by the warden in order to bolster his political career and create ArkhamCity. “Arkham City” revealed that Sharp was a mere dupe for Hugo Strange who was working under the orders of Ra’s Al Ghul, so it is not a far stretch to assume that Scarecrow is merely a figurehead for someone else’s machinations. Will Arkham Knight follow the same pattern of revealing the real mastermind behind the evil? In defense of this idea, it does seem out of Crane’s wheelhouse to be able to unite the underworld of Gotham and launch a giant attack on Gotham as he seems to have done. Is Ra’s back? Talia? Their bodies were missing.  Or is it…

10)  The warning of Azrael: The main focus does seem to be on the fruition of the seeds planted in “ArkhamCity” in regards to the radio warnings and easter eggs pointing to The Scarecrow returning. However, we can’t forget Azrael’s warning that “Gotham Will Burn” and Batman will play a part in the prophecy. In the trailer the Batmobile and Batman leap from the very flame that Azrael may have seen. Does the Order of St Dumas have something to do with this? Are they behind the abandonment of Gotham?

 

It seems what we know or can glean from the trailer only leads us to more questions. Which means one thing; I’m going to this guy.

You stay online; we’ll keep you updated.