The story starts not too long after the events of Arkham City. We see the Joker’s body loaded carefully into a cremation oven. As the flames consume his body, his grin seems to glow even brighter. Gotham City Police waits to see who will fill the power vacuum but nobody steps up. A tense peace pervades Gotham City. Arkham City is dismantled and Bruce Wayne’s money is donated to repair the damage. Without warning, Scarecrow returns to the spotlight with an improved fear gas. His attack is senseless and he threatens further terrorist actions, pledging to flood the entire city with fear gas. With such a credible threat, the city starts to evacuate with only a few of the GCPD sticking around to try to keep the peace. With the streets now empty, the gangs of Gotham rise up as looters and rioters.
The story begins with Batman arriving at the batsignal to meet with Commissioner Gordon just as Gordon hangs up the phone with his daughter Barbara who has boarded the last bus out of Gotham. The two speak briefly about whether Scarecrow would actually set off a chemical weapon in Gotham. A call comes in about a missing patrol car but when Gordon turns back around, Batman is gone. We find out that Barbara Gordon lied to her father as she is assisting Batman from her base at the Clocktower. Batman easily tracks down and saves the cop from looters but they are almost run down by a military-grade armored jeep. The vehicle matches the description of one linked to Scarecrow. Batman summons his new and improved Batmobile via remote and then roars after the vehicle in hot pursuit. Batman races through the city and eventually disables the target vehicle.
Batman interrogates the driver of the vehicle to get information about Scarecrow. He gets the location of a hideout in nearby Chinatown. Batman takes a pure sample of the new fear gas off of the soldier and sends the information to Barbara to analyze. Batman heads to the hideout to find that Scarecrow has Poison Ivy captive as she is immune to his fear gas. Batman goes to take Ivy in but they are stopped from leaving by soldiers and tanks rolling up on them. Batman operates the Batmobile by remote and displays its new tank mode. With the enemy tanks being drones, there is no need to hold back. After wrecking waves of tanks, Batman takes Ivy back to GCPD lockup for her and Gotham’s safety.
Batman goes to the Clocktower to use Barbara’s computer to analyze the new fear gas compound. They figure out that instead of tracing the ingredients of the compound, they can try and trace the specific manufacturing process that would be needed to make it. Batman and Barbara use several radio towers to search for and find the manufacturing energy signature. They discover it at Ace Chemicals. During this, Batman debuts his new gear which is basically Bat Armor. Batman relays the probable location to Gordon but Gordon says that he stationed men there. Something is very wrong.
Batman rushes to infiltrate the Ace Chemicals plant to rescue the police officers and skeleton crew left behind. Once there, he finds that a full-blown paramilitary force has been using the plant as a staging ground. Analysis of their markings matches rumors of a force training in South America led by somebody named the Arkham Knight. Batman comes face to face with this Arkham Knight while trying to track and rescue Ace’s skeleton crew. The Knight taunts Batman and leaves him to fight more drone tanks as his army ships out.
Batman goes deeper into the plant to stop Scarecrow. It becomes clear that the explosion of gas will not only encompass Gotham, it will cover the entire Eastern Seaboard. After a brief fight, Scarecrow tells Batman to let him go in return for Barbara Gordon’s life. Alfred chimes in to say that he has lost contact with Barbara Gordon. Batman selflessly risks himself to load a neutralizing agent to the tanks. As he puts in the last tank, he turns around to see the Joker pointing a gun at Batman’s head.
We suddenly flashback to Commissioner Gordon arriving at the rundown Panessa Film Studios. He is let into an elevator that takes him down to an underground laboratory. He sees five enclosures. Four of them are taken up by entertainment personality Johnny Charisma, Queen Industries executive Christina Bell, prizefighter Albert King, and boarding school principal Henry Adams. Everybody but Henry displays physical and personality characteristics reminiscent of Joker. Batman informs Gordon that these four slipped through the cracks when people were infected with Joker’s blood. Batman has Robin working on a cure. Meanwhile, the four subjects are basically becoming Joker. Gordon notes that one cell is empty and Batman says that the last patient will be there soon.
Back in the present, Batman is pestered by the Joker who is clearly only in Batman’s mind. Batman is the fifth infected patient and seeing and hearing The Joker everywhere is a symptom. Batman escapes Ace Chemicals as it implodes but no gas is released thanks to Batman’s efforts.
However, it is clear now that Barbara Gordon has been taken by the Arkham Knight. Batman breaks the news to Gordon who angrily accompanies him to the Clocktower. Once there, the Joker seems to induce a hallucination in Batman of the time that he shot Barbara Gordon, the incident that put her in her wheelchair. Batman reveals to Commissioner Gordon that Barbara has been helping him in his fight. Gordon angrily rebukes Batman for endangering his daughter and causing her to be put in danger. Gordon goes rogue and leaves Batman to try and track the kidnapping on his own.
Batman tracks the vehicle that took Barbara and finds that it has crashed not too far away. Through forensics, Batman discovers that Barbara caused the driver to crash in order to stash some of the militia’s tech before being recaptured by the Knight. With the help of Lucius Fox, Batman uses the hidden tech to infiltrate the militia’s network and track the Arkham Knight into the sewers. Batman receives a worried call from Robin who offers to join the fight, worried that he has not heard from his girlfriend Barbara. Batman tells him that she is on special assignment and that he is still needed to research the cure. Joker taunts Batman for not telling Robin and for his failures.
Tags: Arkham Knight, Batman, Rocksteady Games, Summary, Video Games
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