Come with me back to 2015. The second Avengers film is tearing up the film charts, Adele was saying Hello, and a little game called Batman: Arkham Knight was having the worst time ever. Released on PC in a truly atrocious state, it wasn’t long before it was pulled from sale for a few months for the game to be spruced up and put back out there. Eventually what we got was one of the most improved PC ports ever, but it took quite a while and its reputation never quite recovered.
It’s a shame because now Batman: Arkham Knight is definitely the perfect way to end the Arkham trilogy (I’m wilfully ignoring other titles here). The open-world game pits you against the Scarecrow, voiced by Fringe and Lord of the Rings actor John Noble, as you battle for the heart and soul of Gotham itself. Filled with action, stealth takedowns, and the rainiest streets seen outside of Blade Runner, Arkham Knight is a truly thrilling entry in the series and a great way to say goodbye to Kevin Conroy’s Batman.
It wasn’t always that way, though. Originally the game barely worked on PC, with players experiencing terrible performance across the board. This led WB Games to pull the plug on the title, taking the unprecedented step of removing it from sale from Steam and other online stores. Considering this was the long-awaited sequel to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, you can imagine the upset all this caused fans. Between June and October of 2015, it wasn’t possible to buy the game and those who did already own it on PC weren’t able to properly play it.
Then it finally returned, PC patch in hand, and all was forgiven – except for those Batmobile racing parts. Nine years later it still holds up thanks to a city that looks truly stunning and a set of systems and game mechanics that continue to feel fresh and fit together almost perfectly. It’s a game that lends itself to hammering the screenshot button, with rain splashing off Batman’s cowl and running rivulets down his cape in exactly the way any brooding hero of the night would want.
Thanks to the Steam Summer Sale players are beginning to cotton on to the fact that the game is great, with player numbers shooting up. According to SteamDB the game has a 24 hour peak player concurrency of 5,660, which is the highest it has been for a while.
Batman: Arkham Knight is currently 90% off until Thursday July 11 which takes its price down to $1.99 / £1.59 down from $19.99 / £15.99. If you’d like to check out why I’m being so effusive about a game about a man dressed as a bat punching people in the street, head over to Steam to see for yourself.
You can also take a look at our guide to the best Batman games on PC as well as our picks for the best superhero games you can play.
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