Marvel’s Spider-Man Is Still The Best Batman: Arkham Successor

Gotham Knights attempts to follow up the beloved Batman: Arkham franchise, but Marvel’s Spider-Man is a much more effective successor series.

While Gotham Knights attempted to deliver an experience worthy of the Batman: Arkham franchise, the Marvel’s Spider-Man series is still a more worthy follow-up to Rocksteady’s trilogy. The beloved Arkham series delved deep into the Dark Knight’s mythology to create an ideal and interactive version of Gotham and its denizens. Gotham Knights tried to push that formula further using a cast of young sidekicks, but Marvel’s Spider-Man managed to be even more faithful to the Arkham legacy.

The entire Batman: Arkham series, and particularly Rocksteady’s core trilogy, focuses on making players truly feel like the Dark Knight himself. The first game in the franchise, Arkham Asylum, established a gritty tone and engaging gameplay mechanics that would carry the series to massive heights. The series’ Freeflow Combat system lets players rhythmically beat huge groups of thugs to a pulp, while Invisible Predator sections let Batman terrify criminals and pick them off from the shadows. Expert voice actors in the Batman: Arkham games flawlessly adapt the Caped Crusader, alongside his large supporting cast and rogues gallery, and each game delves into the hero’s complex psyche through iconic hallucination sequences.

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Gotham Knights Failed To Live Up To Batman: Arkham

The recently-released Gotham Knights was developed by WB Games Montreal, the developer of Batman: Arkham Origins, but the project largely fails to capture the strengths of the Arkham games. Gotham Knights repeats Batman: Arkham’s annoying story trope by introducing a surprising new villain partway through, but it fails to recreate the franchise’s tone and faithfulness to its source material. Gotham Knights puts a more lighthearted spin on the Dark Knight’s world, and the open-world superhero simulator also only features a handful of villains that feel less complex than their Arkham counterparts.

Gotham Knights also ditches the Arkham franchise’s Freeflow Combat and Invisible Predator mechanics, and this is a detriment to the experience. Batman: Arkham’s simple and rhythmic combat is replaced by an action RPG system which gives enemies specific levels and grants heroes upgradable gear and weapons. This Gotham Knights RPG gameplay makes the experience needlessly complex, with combat feeling less tight and impactful than it did in Rocksteady’s games. Even boss fights, which WB Games Montreal nailed in Arkham Origins, are reduced to lackluster damage sponges in Gotham Knights.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Is The Ultimate Arkham Successor

While Gotham Knights fails to live up to the Batman: Arkham franchise, Marvel’s Spider-Man is the series’ perfect successor. The core gameplay in the open-world superhero game, and its sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, sees the web-slinging hero fight crime using rhythmic melee combat and aggressive stealth. The games also deliver a truly authentic yet modernized version of Spider-Man alongside allies like Aunt May and villains like Doctor Octopus. Like the Batman: Arkham games, Marvel’s Spider-Man also features dream sequences that delve into the wall-crawler’s psyche and a wide selection of alternate outfits pulled from his long history.

Insomniac has stated that Batman’s Arkham games inspired Marvel’s Spider-Man, and this influence is easy to see. Like Rocksteady, Insomniac delivered a modern yet timeless adaptation of one of the world’s most beloved superheroes through the use of rhythmic combat, stealth, an insightful story and masterful writing. These adaptations of the Dark Knight and the webslinger, portrayed by Kevin Conroy and Yuri Lowenthal respectively, are seen by many as the ideal versions of these comic book icons. While Gotham Knights tried to build on the foundations laid by Batman: Arkham, the Marvel’s Spider-Man series is a much more effective follow-up to Rocksteady’s work.

More: What Gotham Knights Can Learn From Spider-Man (Not Batman: Arkham)

Source: Batman: Arkham/YouTube, Marvel Entertainment/YouTube