-But before I do that I feel that I really should stop that fire station from burning to the ground, so I head there and repeat what I did with the earlier one: fire the power winch into the building and rev the engine to charge up the fire suppression system inside, which once again causes Firefly to burst out of a window. He says that Scarecrow promised that Gotham would be his to burn, and that I won't stop him, before rocketing away and kicking off another high-speed chase.
-THIS time I do better against him. Once again he's shooting back at me or, more accurately, he's shooting the road in front of me and making me either drive around the flames or forcing me to drive through them and take damage. But eventually I catch up to him and on this occasion DON'T screw up the takedown when prompted; Batman ejects from the car, landing on Firefly's back and sending him crashing to the ground, where he punches him several times. However, Firefly manages to slip free and rocket away. Looks like I'll have to do this a few more times before he's finished.
-Moving on to the Clock Tower, the Batmobile is driven into a garage where it's lowered on an elevator to be modified by the machinery below. I forget if I said before that the EMP would actually disable the drones, but if I did then I was mistaken since it says that it scrambles their TARGETING systems as well as those of any missiles they've fired at me. I'm sure it's still plenty helpful though.
-Next stop: Botanical Gardens. Next obstacle: three Cobra tanks. While I'm in the middle of trying to destroy them, the Knight poses a question to me: did it hurt, watching Barbara die, powerless to do ANYTHING? After the second of the three is blown up, the Knight says that Barbara worked for me, fought for me, and look what it got her! When the last one is blown up, the Knight says that whatever I'm planning it won't change anything. He'll see me die before the night's over. Meanwhile, Ivy reminds me that I need to get her to the Botanical Gardens in one piece if I want that cure. Yes, I know.
-The gardens are actually very close by. When we get there Ivy takes Batman to a very big tree, admiring it and saying it's (or rather she, since that's the pronoun Ivy uses) been here since before man ever walked the earth. Bit dubious about that part since humans have been around longer than the lifespan of any single tree, but if you say so. Ivy laments that she--the tree, that is--is weak, too weak to help. All the years of pollution and other abuse heaped upon it by humans have taken a toll. Batman asks if they can find another like it, but Ivy snaps that there ARE no others like this any more since they've all been cut down and built over by humans.
-Batman wonders if Ivy can strengthen the tree if she can get to its roots. Ivy believes it's possible, but says that they CAN'T get to the roots because of all the concrete and other crap mankind has placed there. But Batman says that the bigger the tree, the deeper the root. He'll figure out a way, and asks Ivy to wait there as he looks into it. Ivy uses her powers to open a hole in the side of the tree for her to climb into, which she then closes. The tree then sprouts a couple of large branch/tentacle sort of things with large blossoms at their tips. Perhaps those will be used to shoot spores into the air later on.
-That done, Batman gives Lucius a call and asks him if he has any ideas on how to get to those roots. Lucius might be able to help with that if I meet him at Wayne Tower. Then Batman checks in with Alfred to find out what else is going on in the city, because apparently you can never have too many side missions. Alfred informs Batman that Nightwing's on the tail of another of Penguin's trucks, and that I can go to help him get rid of more of the weapons Penguin's supplying to Gotham's criminal element any time I'm ready. On top of that, there's a bank being robbed by some mooks working for Two-Face. Alfred deadpans that perhaps Two-Face has misplaced his coin.
-I can't even get into the Batmobile without Joker interrupting me. In this instance, he's sitting in the driver's seat when I open the canopy. He just won't stand for Penguin and Two-Face causing trouble in "our" city, and asks which of their throats we ought to slit first. Batman just hops into the hallucination-occupied driver's seat and gets moving. Fortunately the hallucination doesn't cause Batman to experience the sensation of sitting on Joker's lap, as the clown vanishes.
-Overheard militia mook chatter: they're talking about an advisor the Knight brought in, a real badass assassin who has only one eye. Well, that certainly sounds familiar.
-Additional overheard chatter: Scarecrow and the Knight are at each other's throats over when the Knight gets to kill Batman.
-More additional overheard chatter: guy says that if Luthor runs, he'll vote for him. Other guy says that he's not running, and if he were, would you really want some billionaire geek in charge? First guy says that Luthor was saying the right things about "those metahuman types". Other guy finally says "Let's not mix work and politics, all right?"
-Even more additional overheard chatter: militia on a watchtower are asking who they follow if this alliance falls apart, Knight or Scarecrow? His friend says that Scarecrow is just a client, nothing more. The Knight is the one to follow, because while the army treated them like used toilet paper, the Knight understands them and trusts them. "Doesn't show us his face," one guy points out. The other guy snaps that it doesn't matter, and tells the others that he was in a real bad place when the Knight found him. The Knight reached out to him and helped him, said that he knew what the guy was going through, knew what it was like to be betrayed.
-Well, apparently even if Joker didn't really take over my body up on the airship, the result was more or less the same as what I was seeing, because the militia are talking about how Scarecrow gassed me and it just made me even more dangerous. They're amazed that I've actually been pulling my punches all this time.
-"So, Batman's not ACTUALLLY a bat, right? It's just that I saw him earlier, and he looked like a giant bat." That wasn't me, genius.
-I rescue another firefighter, and share with him my discovery that Firefly was responsible for the fires that sprang up before today. He says that explains a lot since they were some of the worst he'd ever seen. Batman asks if there was anything linking the previous arson targets, and the guy tells me that they were all abandoned tenements or redevelopment projects. Hmm.
-As I'm gliding around I happen to spot the Man-Bat. I land on his back and wrestle him to the ground where I inject him with the antidote I made earlier. However, it wasn't enough to change him back and he takes off. Batman says he needs to give him another dose.
-Okay, time to return to the main story. I get to Wayne Tower in the Batmobile and ask Lucius to open the parking garage entrance. Strangely, he says that he thought I had already arrived. Uh oh, is there an impostor here? Let's drive in and see.
-There's no fake Bruce Wayne waiting for me, but there IS a shitload of tanks, which Lucius just manages to warn me about before they crash through a nearby wall and roll in to engage. Even with my EMP available I still have a tough time and the Batmobile gets beat up more than usual before I destroy the last tank. Fortunately I survive, at which point there's nothing stopping me from getting the thing Lucius has ready for me.
-What does Lucius have ready? Why, ground-penetrating sonar for the Batmobile, just the thing for detecting long-dead plant roots!
-Batman doesn't want to risk this happening again, so he instructs Lucius to lock the building down and transfer control of the production lines to Alfred. Lucius does so and wishes me luck with the "gardening". Speaking of Alfred, he gets in touch to tell me that I'll need to worry about more drones in the near future; the Knight has redeployed forces that were previously on Founder's Island (that one island that I still can't get the Batmobile onto to do the next Riddler course since the bridge is still out) into the north and south of the city. Batman says he'll be ready for them.
-Now Batman radios Ivy and tells her of his fancy new sonar. She tells him to follow the roots under Gotham, and the she (the tree) isn't dead, just forgotten. Ivy can bring the tree back if I help her.
-I just noticed that in keeping with the tradition of prefixing everything with "Bat-", Ivy is communicating with me via the "Batphone". Which sounds a tiny bit silly when said out loud, in my opinion. There are some mundane devices which you just shouldn't add "Bat-" to if you don't want to sound stupid. Does Alfred use the Bat-oven to cook? Does Bruce wash off the sweat he works up during a hard night's work in the Bat-shower?
-Luckily there are tunnels I can drive into to follow the roots. Inside the tunnels are some drones, but only four so far, no problem.
-The search actually takes me aboveground and through the streets of Gotham, on which there are additional drones, before I finally get to the right spot. As soon as I'm there and Ivy can feel the plant, she awakens it and giant tendril-vine-things sprout up through the concrete and into the sky....and then a missile shoots into the frame and hits one of them! An aircraft carrying a big group of the Knight's mooks has shown up. I felt bad for the plant even before Ivy's agonized scream. She's still conscious, but tells me I have to stop them from killing the plant.
-Ivy says she can make the plant's bark harder than steel but she needs time. Batman should be able to hold them off, though. Luckily none of these mooks have small arms.
-After the fight's over, the plant changes from a vine-like green to a tree-like wooden brown. Ivy is on the line telling me that the plant is fully mature now, and she should be strong enough to neutralize Scarecrow's toxin. Batman hopes that they won't need to find out, though, asking Ivy to stay in the garden; he'll let her know if the worst happens and they need those spores. He then radios Alfred to ask him if he's located the Cloudburst. Nope; the militia are causing a lot of interference that's making it difficult for him to scan for it. Batman asks him to upload the data he's got so far to the Batcomputer near Panessa Studios. Alfred does that and reminds Bruce of all the other crap going on in town that needs to be dealt with, causing the game to prompt me to look at my side-missions.
-One of those side-missions is to look for rioters who've been implanted with brain-bombs by Riddler (how did he manage to do that to so many people without them knowing, I can't help but wonder). As soon as I stand on a pressure pad in the same general area as the next one, the Riddler pops up on a nearby screen and says that surely I have more important things to do than save a recidivist from being blown up. He theorizes that I'm sparing this guy a sudden, violent death just to spite him.
-Speaking of those screens: earlier overheard mook chatter that I neglected to type anything about had one guy saying that between Riddler and Scarecrow frequently appearing to say stuff, he was wishing for a power outage. Another guy said that Scarecrow's face was the last thing he ever wanted to see on one of those billboards.
-That's done, and I go looking for Riddler trophies, and grapple up onto a building and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! GODDAMN YOU, JOKER, IF YOU GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK THEN YOU DIE TOO! Jesus, Joker pulled the same thing as the Man-Bat earlier where his face popped right out of the screen in first person mode to give me a jump scare. After laughing at me, he said that I should've seen the look on my face; the big bad Batman, scared of his own reflection!
-Ivy's alliance with Batman is a topic of discussion among mooks, with some of them cursing her for helping Batman and others skeptical that we'll stay friends for very long before it falls apart. The militia, for their part, say that Scarecrow's designated Ivy a priority target and wonder where she's hiding.
-Overheard mook chatter: "Batman's got a tank, Scarecrow's got lotsa tanks, where's MY tank? It ain't fair, I'm telling you."
-Remember the common criminal mooks speculating that Batman was paid by the government earlier? The militia mooks share that theory, at least one of them, who says that Batman has to be government-funded. Think about it, he says: Gotham's a crime-ridden hellhole and the cops can only do so much because of due process and brutality lawsuits and crap like that. But Batman can do whatever the hell he wants and the CIA or whoever is giving him all his equipment has deniability; "He's just some vigilante." The other soldier says it makes sense, and the first one agrees, promising to forward a video he saw online that explains more.
-Oh. Um, I'm at Panessa Studios, and this looks like the same place I had the apparent dream sequence earlier in which I was playing from Jim Gordon's point of view. There's the same VIP elevator I went down as Jim. God, I hope that Batman isn't really holding people captive down here. Oh, and Joker's waiting by the elevator to make things even more fun.
-Joker tells me that Robin's down there thinking about settling down with Barbara and raising a litter of little rug-bats. Joker's happy for him, really, since Barbara's a lovely girl, although just a teeny bit on the dead side for his tastes.
-On the ride down, Alfred asks Batman how he'll tell Robin about Barbara. Batman says that he's not going to; he needs Robin focused on finding a cure. Alfred says that it was one thing to keep her abduction secret, but not telling her significant other that she's DEAD is just plain wrong. Batman responds that sacrifices are necessary. Alfred tells him that he should consider those sacrifices wisely; if Tim finds out about this and learns that Batman kept it from him, then he'll never forgive Bruce and he'll be lost forever.
-Oh shit, there really are quarantine cells down here with people in them, I suppose including the poor bastard with whom nothing was wrong but who was being held indefinitely anyway so that Batman could figure out why he was immune to Joker's tainted blood.
-Robin asks if things are as bad out there as he's heard, with Batman responding worse. In the meantime the immune guy, Henry Adams, is out of his cell and sitting on what appears to be the bed of an MRI thing. He wants to leave, he's tired of being poked and prodded and tested on, and Robin tries to calm him down both by telling him that it's not safe out there and also by telling him that if he cooperates they'll be done in a few hours.
-Well, for what it's worth, when I talk to Robin he says that he actually IS close to finding a cure to this apparently-real disease that makes people Joker-like. He's isolated the (technobabble thing) in Henry's blood and should have antibodies based on it ready in a few hours.
-Joker is also here, and he dismisses the three people who aren't Henry as fakes, phonies, and charlatans. He says that being here makes him understand how Elvis must have felt, well, after ELVIS died, that is.
-Right, so, after looking around it's time to use the Batcomputer. Alfred can't fly the Batwing over Founder's Island to scan for the Cloudburst because of militia defenses on that island. However, there is one drone on the island that is acting as a relay hub for communications with the defenses. Batman's next move is to get a close look at that drone and see if he can use it to neutralize everything else.
-Oh, Robin does mention he hasn't heard from Barbara and Batman lies to his face saying that she's fine. Robin says that he can be out there helping, but Batman tells him to stay here and keep working on the cure. If I were to guess, I would say this is not only because the cure's important, but because if Robin were out there, he'd stand a better chance of learning the truth about Barbara.
-On the way out, Joker goes into a giggling fit, since he was sure I'd tell Robin the truth. But why break him now when you can CRUSH him later, right? It's classic Joker, says Joker, who goes on to say that something truly beautiful is happening to me. Oh, by the way, I looked through the various notes and shit and discovered that the cure Batman took in Arkham City to stop him from being killed by Joker's blood didn't completely take. Batman himself is in danger of turning Joker-like over time, and not JUST because of the fear toxin.
-Joker disappears from the elevator only to reappear at the exit. He's been rooting around in the bat-infested cave of a mind I have, and he's discovered that I actually believe I can be cured. He chuckles and tells "Bruce" that he should forget about that futile endeavor and concentrate on defeating the Arkham Knight, since it will be my swan song; the very last good thing I'll ever do before I turn into him.
-Heh, overheard mook chatter: the guy can't believe Batman and Ivy are working together. He remembers that Ivy brainwashed him at Arkham Asylum, and to this day he still can't walk on grass without feeling guilty.
-The hub-drone on Founder's Island is flying but not moving very fast, making it easy for Batman to land on it, open it up, and yank something out. The drone ends up crashing moments later. This relay thingy will allow Batman to prevent one attack drone at a time from targeting him. Using this, he can get by the drones guarding the island's radar towers and disable the radar.
-The drone guarding the tower is blinded for about a minute, which gives Batman plenty of time to grapple over, conduct some sabotage, and get away. The Knight, of course, is not oblivious to what has just happened. His subordinate figures it's a malfunction and says he'll send a tech, but the Knight says to belay that order from the idiot (he didn't call the guy an idiot but I'm sure he was thinking it); this was BATMAN. The Knight tells the other tower to get ready for my arrival and to stop me.
-Many unarmed mooks atop the other radar tower, as well as sentry guns they've set up. They're dealt with, and Joker's ready with more to say. He knows how I must feel about the Arkham "Wanna-Bat": just like Joker feels about the "knockoffs" being isolated at Panessa Studios. There can only be one Joker, and it's HIM...well, actually me soon, same thing. Anyway, we need to massacre the lot of 'em and purify the Joker gene pool
-Two of two radar towers down, and Alfred says all that's left is to get rid of the militia's long-range missile launcher. Once that's done he can remotely fly the Batwing over and scan this island for the Cloudburst. Also, the militia said that the radar was the only thing keeping me from bringing the Batmobile onto Founder's Island, so I'll finally be able to do that and pick up the Catwoman-rescuing stuff where I left off.
-Everybody at the missile launcher has guns. They know I'll be hitting them next. One guy is looking forward to it; Batman's used to fighting street punks. Those punks are scared of Batman, but this guy isn't. His comrade tells him not to underestimate Batman, causing him to scoff; he's already heard that from the Knight and he isn't buying that Batman is as unstoppable as everybody makes him out to be. In response to the question of "Do you think he lasted this long on luck?" the guy says yes, actually, and my luck's about to run out. Okay, challenge accepted, you cocky cockface.
-As soon as the missile launcher's guards are all asleep, Batman inspects it and sees that it's too heavily armored for him to destroy with anything he has on him. He'll need to use the Batmobile, so he goes into the control room to lower a defense shield that's protecting the missile launcher and then asks Alfred to lower the bridge onto the island so he can remotely drive the Batmobile into position to fire on the launcher.
-The Knight realizes what I'm doing and orders a number of Cobra drones to stop the car. Which successfully stops my first try as I'm only able to destroy two before the Batmobile's blown up. Second try goes better, and as the Batmobile uses its power winch to pull a ramp into position so it can get close to the missile launcher, the Knight and many mooks have reached the control room where I left Batman and are ready to burst in. But the only one waiting for them inside is Joker, who "surrenders" to them, which of course they can't see. As they wonder how I could have possibly left when they had the doors covered, Joker tells the oblivious militia that I heard them coming a mile away; those pointy ears aren't just for show. Knight radios Scarecrow and tells him that the missile launcher is secure, and the plan can proceed as long as they control the skies. That plan, incidentally, is entering its final phase.
-I have a first person view of all these guys so at first this could be mistaken for a cutscene. But now it's giving me the option of jumping on them. The mooks are telling the Knight I'm gone, with the Knight suspecting otherwise.
-Batman takes down three mooks before he and the Knight both grab one another by the throat and try to overpower each other. Batman demands to know who the Knight is. The Knight says I don't get to learn that just yet, breaks free, and vanishes in a cloud of smoke, leaving his mooks to get KTFO'd.
-Surrounded by KTFO'd mooks, Batman calls Alfred and asks him if he's got any more idea than before who the Knight is. Alfred does not; he's ruled out all former Arkham City inmates, none of whom possess the Knight's skills. It's observed that the Knight has training and a big grudge against Batman, so Batman wants Alfred to check everybody ever committed to Arkham Asylum because of him. Alfred protests that this is an extremely long list, but Batman wants to find out who this guy is.
-As Batman gets back on the computer and lowers the shield so he can resume his attempt to destroy the missile launcher, Scarecrow comes on the PA to ask if I can still see the look in Barbara's eyes as she saw my true self in her last moments. Scarecrow promises more of the same. He's been pretty talkative, by the way, but I haven't bothered to type up everything he says. Say this for Joker: his dialogue is a lot more noteworthy.
-Speaking of: after the Batmobile has destroyed the launcher and the Knight has actually sounded ENRAGED (beginning of a Villainous Breakdown, mayhaps?) the Joker pops up again and suggests that we take turns: I can do some crime scene investigation or do one of Riddler's "OCDelightful" challenges, and Joker can do some hit-and-runs in the Batmobile. He'll return the body when it's my turn again, he promises!
-Overheard mook chatter: "So let me get this straight, the Bat thinks some giant plant is gonna save the city? He really HAS lost it!"
-Oh hey, who here has seen the very first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve? If you have, this might ring a bell: one of the neighborhoods in Gotham is called "Otisburg".
-Joker mentioned investigating crime scenes, and one side mission I've neglected for a long time has been the string of murders with the victims mutilated in an apparent attempt to keep them from being identified. I happen to be near another of the bodies so I take a look. There's a recording of opera music playing near the body, by the way. Anyway, using Detective Vision to scan the victim's skin reveals a wound made while the victim was alive, the murderer making a crude attempt to remove a tattoo from the looks of things. Scanning deeper reveals that they had a kidney removed and also had a steel plate in their head because of a cranial fracture. Batman also notes that the callouses on her hands indicate she was a fighter. This narrows it down to a woman named Ella Montgomery, whom Alfred tells me was last seen in Huntsville, Alabama. (Like the first victim, somebody taken outside of Gotham and brought here.) She had a twin sister who needed a kidney transplant, hence the missing kidney. Sadly, her sister died anyway, and Ella's pursuit of boxing could have been her wanting an outlet for her anger about that.
-Hey, funny story. I was on this island earlier, long before I was able to get the car here, and during that time Batman noticed that another fire station had been set ablaze. But of course he couldn't do anything about it because he had one less Batmobile than required. Well, fortunately for the fire station and anybody who might have been inside, it's taken a really long time to burn down. Like literally hours of real-world time. So I FINALLY drove there and used the winch to activate the sabotaged fire suppression systems, which brought out Firefly again, which resulted in another chase, another ejection from the car to land on him, another several face-punches, and another escape by the villain.
-Oh, something I didn't notice before about Firefly: his suit doesn't cover his whole body. Parts of his head and arms are showing, but I never realized that before because in his backstory he once set fire to a place and ended up getting careless and causing his own body to suffer third-degree burns over 90% of it. So what I thought was material of a fireproof suit was actually Firefly's own horrifically-scarred flesh. Think Freddie Krueger to get an idea of how it looks.
-As it happens, I don't have to wait very long for my next encounter with Firefly. I happen to pass by a burning fire station, the same one that I first found him at actually. As you'll recall, Firefly escaped from me that time, but I guess the game's giving me a do-over. It can be explained away by Firefly wanting to finish what he started before I interrupted him, I guess. Anyhoo, this chase goes better, and it turns out to be the last time I have to pursue him; this time Batman beats him up to the point where he's helpless to stop the Caped Crusader from taking control of his jetpack and flying him to the police station with it. Cash is happy to have Firefly in custody, and I think I'll go down and talk to him, see if he has anything interesting to tell me.
-Oh, Joker is here and mentions that third degree burns are his favourite type of scars. Well, those and mental scarring like Bruce has.
-Speaking to Garfield Lynns (Firefly's real name) doesn't get anything more than him threatening to find a way to get out and burn everything. While he's in mid-rant, Joker appears to tell "Garfield" that fire's great and all, but what about electricity? Acid? Pliers? Open your mind, man!
-Just noticed something I didn't see on my previous visits: there's a sign near one of the cells keeping track of exactly how full the jail is. I know I said it was packed before, but somehow they're only at 35% capacity as of now. 37 of the 97 available holding cells are occupied, and 1 of 11 available maximum security cells (with Ivy let out and Firefly put in).
-Haha, some of the militia in one cell called out to me and said (paraphrased but damn close) "Heard it didn't go so well on that airship! Men here are saying, er, we kicked your ass!" Well, you can believe whatever you want, buddy.
-Oh hey, connected to that, overheard mook chatter: "I hope city hall tries blowing us all to pieces again. I have a mortgage to pay off."
-Another dead body found, also with opera music playing nearby. Now, at an earlier body Batman and Alfred mentioned something written nearby as well, but I couldn't see where and they didn't specify what it was. With this body, however, the word "FAILURE" is very clearly written on the wall next to where it has been strung up. Alfred says he's reminded of a string of murders I dealt with early in my career, also on Halloween night, a rather long one as he recalls.
-Scanning the tissue of this body reveals the following: the victim has scar tissue which was a badge of honor among prisoners at Blackgate many years ago. A group called the "Bludhaven Six" had them. The victim also had a pacemaker, although that's been removed by the killer. The victim also had juvenile arthritis as revealed by a scan of his bones. Franklin Accardo was his name. He was in and out of prison from an early age, mostly due to drug-related offenses. He was serving a twenty-year sentence the last time but was released due to ill health, which is why he needed a pacemaker. Afterwards he moved all the way to Little Rock, Arkansas. Batman asks Alfred to continue searching for a connection.
-Batman again mentions the writing and guesses that the victims so far weren't good enough for whatever the killer had in mind.
-Overheard mook chatter: a mook is claiming that he used to be Joker's right-hand man. The guy he's telling this to believes this claim to be bullshit (smart money says he's right), since the Joker didn't respect anybody except Batman, and then asks why this guy who was so tight with Joker isn't working with Harley now, since she's still alive. The guy's answer is that he never really got along with Harley; he thinks she was jealous of him. If you say so.
-More overheard mook chatter: "We should get out of town. Scarecrow's planning something. I can tell." You know, if I had heard this at the start of the game--wait, no, even if I'd heard a mook say this at the very start of the game he would STILL sound like an idiot, because the game started with Scarecrow threatening the whole city! I mean geez, real keen powers of observation you got there!
-Hey, another strung-up and mutilated dead body! This time the word "IMPERFECT" has been printed on the wall next to it. Batman does his usual "scan the various layers of flesh" thing, discovering a distinctive birthmark on the victim's chest (it's very big as birthmarks go, like larger than the guy's heart, and I wonder why the killer didn't try to remove it like he did the other person's tattoo), a bullet buried deep in the bicep which comes from a particular type of hunting rifle which hasn't been manufactured in over a decade, and that some toes on the guy's left foot have been amputated, apparently after he suffered frostbite.
-The victim's identity: Robert Kincaid, a microbiologist who worked for Stagg Enterprises. There was suspicion that he was shot to keep him from revealing secrets about Stagg's research, although that was never verified. And before he went missing he had taken a teaching post in Atlanta.
-The only commonality between the victims Alfred has discovered so far is that all of them went missing near state parks of playing fields. Noted.
-Know what? I think I'll finally go and investigate that burning bat-symbol on the rooftop and talk to the person who set it up, which I'm betting is Azrael. I've put it off long enough, and he's a playable character in the challenge maps so he probably has some kind of important role to play in the story.
-Yeah, he's up here kneeling by the symbol, and Detective Vision doesn't show me his skeleton. Guess he has something blocking it.
-What does Azrael want? Well, even though THIS Azrael is a different guy than Jean-Paul Valley (it said so in his bio in Arkham City), he wishes to do the same thing that Valley did in the comics: namely, take over for Batman when Bats can't go any more. (Hopefully he'll be better at it than Valley was, if and when that happens.) You see, Azrael says that the "dark days" he alluded to in the previous game are here. Because of seeing a fire in my eyes which will consume me before the night is through (his words), and also because of prophecies and stuff like that, he tells me that soon there will be need of a new Batman. Azrael says that he knows of Batman's code of not killing, so therefore he will adhere to that. He then unsheathes his sword and offers it to Batman. Batman tells him that he'll consider it, but first Azrael needs to prove his abilities, which Azrael agrees to do.
-First part of proving Azrael's abilities: beating up simulated mooks. I'm playing as Azrael now, as you may have guessed, and apparently this rooftop just so happened to have bat-equipment on it that generated a bunch of holographic mooks for Azrael to fight. There's not really any learning curve here, since Azrael appears to have all the same equipment as Batman. Once the last mook is down, Batman reappears and says that Azrael was stronger than he expected. He tells Azrael to signal him when he's ready to take another test.
-Back in control of Batman, he gets in touch with Alfred. Alfred's going to examine Azrael's performance and run some physiological tests on him. He also asks if I really am considering him as a successor. Batman says that we don't know what will happen before all this is over. Ordinarily I'd ask "What about Tim Drake?" but after Tim finds out Batman's been lying to him about his girlfriend he might not want to do his mentor any favours. As for Dick Grayson, I guess he's busy being Nightwing and won't just bail on Bludhaven when it needs him.
-Joker has a theory of who the Knight is: Penguin! He wears a mask to hide the fact that he only comes halfway up the suit. Er, maybe.
-No, forget that, Joker has a different theory: the Arkham Knight is BATMAN! Because there can't possibly be anybody else who thinks that's a good look.
-Okay, time for the next Riddler challenge. For anybody wondering about his motives throughout the series: "The unexamined life is not worth living, detective, and I have been wondering why I let you aggravate me so. You're a cheat and a liar. A dressed-up strongman playing with expensive toys. 'World's greatest detective?' Hah! And everyone from Gotham to Star City believes it! I cannot abide a fraud, detective, a dilettante masquerading among his intellectual betters, stealing every last scrap of appreciation, dignity and respect."
-This setup is labeled "Drain Pain" and Riddler challenges me to lower the water in a pool. But before I do that, he wants me to riddle him something: "What do bats do when they're at home?" There's a thing attached to the ceiling I can attach the power winch to, and then I can back the Batmobile up so that I'm hanging from the winch cable into the (currently about half-full) pool. Riddler says he thinks I'm getting the HANG of it. Har de har har.
-I lower the car further into the pit that has a number of spinning blades attached to the sides as well as one big square on the wall saying it's reserved parking. So I move the car sideways onto that (actually, the sideways movement of the car against the wall causes it to rotate and brings the "parking space" underneath the Batmobile), and it turns out ejecting from there at that angle allows me to glide to the other side of the pit into a tunnel. There's a pressure pad inside which, when stood on, lowers the water level. But I need to do more before it's completely drained.
-After swinging back to the Batmobile, Riddler asks me to look at myself, hanging there in my machine like a particularly ugly chandelier.
-I'm able to rotate the sides of the pit so that the blades move away from another point I can hang from, letting me lower the Batmobile further down the side without getting it sliced up. From there I can move onto another "parking space" and shoot through the wall across from me, creating a hole for me to glide through to get to the next pressure pad. Oh, and Riddler rigged the floor immediately inside the entranceway to give me a shock if I landed on it instead of gliding over. Tricky.
-The pressure pad lowers the water level some more, with Riddler saying that now it's almost as low as Catwoman's chances of freedom, and then invites me to celebrate with his friends: more robots that pop up to attack me. What makes it easier is that they're in firing range of the Batmobile, so I can do a Batmobile-assisted takedown on one of them. (Which is where Batman punches a mook into the air and the Batmobile fires a knockout round at them before they land.) As soon as they're defeated, the floor ceases to be electrified. Riddler insists that he wanted me to destroy his robots, he really did, it's all part of his master plan, so there! (He really did say "So there!" at the end.)
-Riddler admits to toying with the idea of just letting me drop from the thing I'm hanging on when I'm above the spinning blades of death, but decides he won't. I get down to the third parking space, glide across and get on another pressure pad to lower the water level some more. However, on my way back I run into some sentry turrets which weren't there before. They are, fortunately, in the line of sight of the Batmobile's guns, so I can shoot them using the remote control and then get back in the driver's seat.
-With the water all gone, I can see a pressure pad at the very bottom of the pit, which I drop down onto. Directly above Batman are a series of lights representing the cabinets Catwoman has to choose from, so I switch to her again. Catwoman thinks this game is getting old, but chooses the correct key and brings the counter on her collar down to two. Then, to no surprise whatsoever on her part, another door opens for her and Batman to enter together as soon as he gets back.
-Once Catwoman and I are in the next room, Riddler says that after I fail and I'm done mourning over Catwoman's headless corpse, maybe we can do this again with Robin, or my prodigal son over in Bludhaven. How about not?
-There's a pressure pad behind some bars which Catwoman can get to by jumping onto the ceiling and crawling along it, over the tops of the bars. Once Batman is standing on his own pressure pad on the other side of the bars, the floors in front of both of them get electrified. Riddle the Riddler this: "Can a maze still AMAZE if it doesn't have walls?"
-I don't immediately figure out what to do, but Riddler has been good about dropping hints in this game (although I imagine whenever he does he's thinking to himself that I'm stupid for needing them), and says that he couldn't possibly be shining more of a LIGHT upon the problem. And sure enough, when I look at the room Batman's in, I see a sign with a question mark that has many lights on it, only one of which is currently lit up. These lights tell me which spaces are safe to step on, I guess. Catwoman's room has another of these, although currently all the lights on it are dark.
-Oops, got a shock when I tried. Yeah, it turns out that the lights Batman can see tell what squares on the electrified grid it's safe for CATWOMAN to step on, not Batman. And vice versa, so now that Catwoman's standing on the safe square in her room she can see some lights showing where it's safe for Batman to walk.
-Catwoman pipes up that this reminds her of a security system she had to disable when she robbed Queen Indus--wait, no, never mind, forget she said anything.
-Ah, Riddler decides to make things more challenging by causing the signs in each room to rotate, which makes it more difficult to concentrate on the lights. But not impossible, particularly since I can pause the game at any time and freeze the sign when it's properly oriented.
-At the end of each "maze" is a pressure pad, both of which need to be stood on (although not simultaneously) to unlock the cabinet with the key located in Catwoman's room. Once that's done, the barrier between the two rooms drops away and we get our reward: robots, because of course it's robots.
-We turn them all into junk, Riddler exasperatedly tells us to take the stupid key, and once Catwoman's used it and the counter is down to one, she vows to put the thing around Riddler's neck after she's free.
-As soon as we're back in the main room, Riddler says that we must be feeling pretty confident right now, but we shouldn't because we're unlikely to ever see one another again. He tells Catwoman that Batman WILL fail in the next challenge, which is his greatest trial. Without prompting her to, Catwoman talks to Batman, who tells her not to let Riddler shake her. Catwoman says that while Eddie IS an idiot, he's an idiot who's built a lot of lethal traps and she asks Batman to be careful.
-I'm expecting Joker to pop up and he doesn't disappoint me. He tells Batman that this is his chance: she's alone, vulnerable, trapped in an abandoned orphanage! It's so romantic! Speaking of that, Joker went back to the afterlife to see how Talia was doing and talk to her about how I basically murdered the both of them. (That's an...interesting way of looking at things.) Talia began crying, so Joker went to comfort her, and then one thing led to another and...well, you know. Anyway, the two of them just want Batman to be happy. Joker encourages me to tell the pussycat how I feel about her while there's still time; after all, once he takes over my body and locks Bruce Wayne away in a tiny corner of the mind, he's gonna kill Catwoman first.
-The sign outside the next elevator for the Batmobile says "Condamned". On the ride down Riddler says this is the end, for me that is. But he's feeling charitable in the moments before his inevitable victory, so he'll allow me to turn around and drive away if I leave him with a signed statement that he's smarter than I am and I suck and so on and so forth, and of course Catwoman will remain a hostage as a symbol of my failure. You know, I think I'll try that to see what happens.
-Nah, doesn't result in a non-standard game over or anything, just has Riddler gloating that I'm admitting defeat and inviting me to come back whenever I want to reacquaint myself with his superiority. Well, you won't have to wait very long, Eduardo.
-Okay, the course is hard. But not hard enough to cause me the kind of frustration that the Riddler begins suffering when I actually get close to completing it and he starts to freak out that this is impossible. After I finish three laps he makes me do it again, but this time with HIM controlling the various obstacles instead of letting me activate and deactivate them. Now he has me worried.
-GODDAMN. Okay, I can predict what Riddler will do, but I think this might qualify as That One Level on TV Tropes. Let me just have a look. Nope, it's That One Sidequest, but the point is that it's damn hard. Thank Jebus for unlimited continues, because if the game forced me to do the ENTIRE THING ALL OVER AGAIN after every failure I think I'd go crazier than Batman's entire rogues' gallery combined.
-One thing that makes it bearable is the listening to Riddler freaking out when he starts to get worrried I'll succeed. The latest line is worthy of transcription, and he is screaming this one: "STOP. NOT. DYING!!!!"
-Oh, here's another good line after I fuck up: "Too slow, detective! The course has been perfectly calibrated to kill you if attempted at the correct speed." I suppose that's fair.
-Huh, when I finally complete it, Riddler is oddly less angry than he was when I seemed about to do it. He tells me that I did it, fine, now I get the key, those are the rules, and he has to follow the rules, because he made the rules after all. I, um, think he may not be willing to follow the rules....
-I do actually pick the wrong cabinet for the first time ever and see Catwoman go wide-eyed in horror before everything goes black. I wondered for a minute if Riddler was giving Batman the wrong information about where the key was, but I get the right one on my second attempt and the counter on Catwoman's collar changes from 1 to "F". She thinks it's all over, and Riddler says that she's now free...to take his FINAL EXAM. A door labeled "Final Exam" lights up and all the exits are blocked. Catwoman tells Riddler she thought he was above cheating, to which he responds he dissembles, he artfully obfuscates, but he does NOT cheat, as she and Batman will discover when they attempt this final room. He sounds mad, guys.
-Batman returns to the orphanage and asks Catwoman how she's been. She's been perfect, she says, although Eddie hasn't said a word since I completed the last course. Do I ever rub people the RIGHT way, she wonders? Batman deadpans that they never ask nicely.
-Talking to Catwoman gets the following: she asks how Robin is. Batman says he's fine. She asks if he's allowed out unchaperoned these days or if Daddy still keeps a close eye on him. Batman responds Robin's more than capable. Catwoman says that she bets he is; this one's more of a "Fully-Grown Wonder", if Batman knows what she means. (Batman does not.)
-Catwoman also asks how things are out there. Batman says it's bad. Catwoman tells him that he could just leave; he can't play hero forever. Batman says he can try. Catwoman replies that sure, he can, but there's only one place his little martyr fantasy is headed if he doesn't quit sooner or later.
-Oh, Riddler claims that I don't have the correct equipment to complete the room. So I guess Selina will have to take a nap or something as I go out, level up, and get more gadgets and shit. Sorry, Catwoman, hopefully be back soon.
-Not too far from the orphanage I happen to hear more opera music playing, so I exit the car and look around to find a fifth body. The word "BROKEN" is on the wall by this one. Scans reveal that the person was bitten by a shark sometime in the past, a species found only in the waters of north Gotham. (As if Gotham weren't dangerous enough.) They also have an ocular prosthesis, which I thought about calling a glass eye if not for the fact that I don't know what they make those things out of these days. Anyway, the model was only used in a trial five years ago and not mass-produced, so that narrows it down. Lastly, a scan of the bones shows that titanium screws were implanted in the upper arm to repair a fractured humerus.
-The victim here is Lisa Mendes. Alfred laments that she had a troubled life: bouncing around foster homes, drug abuse, etc. She did get into surfing eventually, which is how she ran into the shark. When last seen, she was working for a Christian charity in Tucson, Arizona. Alfred says her disappearance is like the others, and that his looking into parks and playing fields near all the victims shows that there have been some falsified leasing documents, somebody attempting to cover their tracks. Batman tells him to keep on it, since they can't do anything for these people but may still save others.
-Before we continue, I've discovered that the whole "Bat-phone" thing could be a shout-out to the 1960s tv show, which had one of those. Also, "How It Should Have Ended" has a Bat Phone video:
-Riddler is on the PA bugging me to grab the Remote Electrical Charge I put together in Arkham City and get my ass back to the Final Exam room. Well, see, ordinarily I'd just call Alfred or Lucius and ask them to fly it over in the Batwing, but the game won't let me; it wants me to get further in the main story, I suppose. So you're in for a bit of a wait, I'm afraid. Try to cope.
-I found the last captive firefighter on Miagani Island, who is currently being beaten by one mook who has no gun, while several of his friends who DO possess guns look on and enjoy it. The poor guy has no idea why they're doing this to him, and they tell him to guess. Money? Well, money sounds good to them, but that isn't it, guess again. Anyway, it turns out that--much like Ramsay Bolton--there isn't any reason why they're torturing him other than enjoyment. They also want chaos and destruction for its own sake. Well, prepare to get hit with some destruction, shitheads.
-Talking to the firefigher, I mention that Firefly was the arsonist they were looking for and ask him for further details about the fires. Batman guesses there was no sign of forced entry, and turns out to be correct: all security systems and alarms and stuff like that were neutralized. The Fire Chief was pretty spooked about it, and the guy asks if I've found the Chief yet. I actually either didn't know the Chief himself was also missing or I'd forgotten, but I'm betting I'll be able to locate him at the end of this side mission. By now there's one more firefighter to locate on Bleake Island and two on Founder's Island. You might think that this case would be closed with Firefly in custody, but I have a feeling that more is going on here than just Firefly burning shit up.
-Before today I thought that the mooks in this game were smarter than previous ones, since often when Batman drops into a big group of them it causes them to run away instead of fight him. So some of them eventually learned that fighting Batman is a bad idea, good for them. But some mooks do choose to attack instead, and today I discovered that the mooks in cars do something very stupid. Remember how I said that I was looking down at a big riot very early on in this liveblog, and that there were guys doing drive-bys in cars? Well, today one of those cars tried to run Batman over. After missing him, the mooks inside got out. One of those mooks had a gun that he was using for the drive-bys. But when he got out, he LEFT HIS GUN INSIDE THE CAR. Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb.
-All right, main story again. Batman goes to the Clock Tower, picks up and looks at a picture of Tim and Barbara together before putting it down and using the retinal scanner to reveal the computers. He looks at an overhead map of Founder's Island as Alfred reports that he's used the Batwing to do a flyover and that there's no sign of the Cloudburst there that he can find. Then Alfred stops in mid-sentence: he's getting a call from the movie studios and patching it through.
-This is a surprise: Henry Adams is the one calling me! He says that the Bat-place below the studios is under attack. Batman tells him that he needs to lock it down, which Henry is more than happy to do and asks for instructions on how. Before Batman can answer, however, Henry is clonked on the head from behind by none other than HARLEY QUINN. Harley actually looks more normal than usual, since she isn't wearing any weird makeup or anything. I guess they knew Suicide Squad was coming out and wanted her to resemble the Harley in that?
-Anyway, Batman quite unnecessarily growls "Harley Quinn". Dude, everybody knows who she is. Anyway, Harley is glad Batman remembers her after taking away the only thing she ever loved, but now she finds that not only did Batman do that, but he was keeping his very own secret stash of other Jokers to himself! Batman tells Harley not to release them because they aren't stable, and Harley fires back that Batman ought to look in the mirror sometime before he starts calling OTHER people unstable, before ending the call. Batman, of course, needs to get over there PDQ.
-Joker says he TOLD me we should have butchered those second-rate copies, but of course I didn't listen. Well, Joker says, they'd better not kill Robin, because HE had the idea to do that FIRST!
-Harley's mooks are waiting at the elevator at the studios, of course, one of whom asking if he might have a shot with her. The other one says of course not. She's got herself some new Jokers now, for one thing, and even if she didn't she wouldn't be interested in HIM. He's got a better chance with the female Joker down there, two personalities for the price of one. Another mook says that he could put in a good word with the female Joker. "Screw you guys," says the first mook.
-Soon enough they're all knocked out, and Batman tries to use the elevator. However, it responds to his "open" command by saying the voiceprint match is a failure; access denied. Harley laughs and says it was a nice try. Batman can get around this by synthesizing Harley's voice. With what, you may wonder. Well, remember how that militia guy Batman tortured with the Batmobile wheel was impersonating the Knight and had a voice-changer on him? Batman still has that voice-changer, and after some tinkering with it I get a 100% match with Harley's voice.
-The elevator doors are opened once "Harley" tells them to open, but as Batman's about to step inside he overhears mooks. So he grapples out of sight just as Harley and a number of mooks with guns (including another "Heavy") emerge. Upon seeing her KO'd mooks, Harley surmises that the stupid bat-faced loser did this! She radios for a chopper with more men and sentry guns. Then she steps back inside and yells at her mooks not to even THINK of coming back down until Batman's dead.
-Oh, this should be good: turns out Batman can use the Voice Synthesizer to trick Harley's men into believing they're getting orders from her. Meanwhile, Joker is next to him and is chagrined that Harley is wasting time with those "not pale enough imitations" when the real deal is inside Batman. But there's something Joker can't figure out: how did Harley find your Bat-base, Bat-face? As Joker recalls, she could hardly find her own reflection in the mirror when she was with him. Almost like something was holding her back.
-Overheard mook chatter: the enormous boxer almost ripped one of their arms off...but then Harley made eyes at him and he got other things on his mind. The mooks are glad that the Joker in him is the one that LIKES Harley.
-I can't give them any orders more interesting than "check on this thing over here", but it's effective at separating them from one another and making them easier to pick off. And when they're all down, into the elevator I go.
-Holy crap, Joker's in this elevator with me, which isn't really anything I'd say "holy crap" about by itself. The "holy crap" comes from him being strapped to an upright gurney like he was at the beginning of "Arkham Asylum". The Joker thinks back to the good times they had then, me, him, a ward full of psychotic killers. I should feel right at home. Oh, what, I think I'm different because I never killed anybody? News flash: I killed Joker! Joker says he was right there and watched as Batman destroyed the cure for his condition right in front of him. (Of course, he's leaving out the part where Batman only dropped the vial with the cure because Joker had stabbed him.) And then, as Batman was watching Joker choke on his last laugh, he told Joker he would have shared. Well, Joker knows the truth now that he's inside Bruce's mind: he's killed before, and Joker's going to make him kill again.
-At the bottom of the elevator, Harley's mooks are beating the ever-loving shit out of somebody on the floor, probably Robin. Oh no, it's Henry Adams, that's worse. He tells them he isn't a threat, but they don't listen. Robin, meanwhile, is TRYING to fight them all, but can't manage anything better than a stalemate and can't stop Henry's beating. Batman uses the voice synthesizer to open up this door too and join the fray.
-One mook is still conscious and Robin's holding him ready for interrogation. Before I do that he says Harley will come back for him. Um, you don't know Harley very well, do you?
-Batman demands to know where the infected are, with the thug not being able to tell Batman where Harley took them. Batman then asks how Harley found this place. Robin plays good cop and says "I'd let him know if I were you; he's not always in such a good mood." The guy asks how he should know, and says maybe Harley's smarter than Batman thinks. Batman says that's unlikely and knocks him out. Then the two of them go to check the computer.
-The building is locked down to keep everybody inside, and then Batman scans using facial recognition software to find the infected. Albert King, the boxer, is on the Wild West set. Christina Bell is on the Haunted House set with several of Harley's mooks guarding her. Johnny Charisma is on the Sound Stage. So now the Dynamic Duo need to go and recapture them, as well as deal with Harley.
-Speaking of Harley, Robin says that she got in effortlessly; no hack or anything, just breezed right by the security systems. If I had to guess I would say that the Knight told her how to do it; he knows all kinds of things about Batman's operation as we've seen, so what's one more thing?
-Checking on Henry, one of the things he says could be understatement of the century: "Harley Quinn, is that her name? A thoroughly unpleasant lady if you ask me." I'm sure you're not alone in having that opinion.
-Joker wonders if Harley will recognize him in this blank death mask that Batman calls a face. "I mean, it does DO expressions, right?"
-Batman and Robin head further into the studio, with Batman instructing Henry to lock the door and not to open it for anybody except the two of them.
-Harley's talking to us on tv screens throughout the stages, asking if we know what it's like to wake up every day knowing you'll never see Joker's beautiful face ever again. (Batman would consider it a welcome change, I'm sure.) It's been emotional, she says, but now she has three new Jokers, each one perfect in their own right. She knew nobody could replace Mr. J, but now believes she wasn't thinking big enough; Mr. J sent her a gift from beyond the grave! And the best part of it is that all of them want to kill ME.
-Stage B is where Christina Bell is. The mooks behind the door talk about how it's a bad idea to try anything with her, since the first guy who did got his eyes literally scratched out. Harley didn't do anything about it, and she freaks out if anybody seems to be getting any ideas about Bell.
-Batman and Robin are faced with a Heavy in the hallway beyond, spraying bullets at them. Batman's plan is for Robin to wait behind some cover while Batman grapples up, drops down behind the guy, and then jumps him. As soon as Batman does that, Robin jumps him from the front and between the two of them they make short work of the guy. Then they move on.
-You know what? I was writing down all the stuff Christina said and then I thought that this was really stuff you'd have to hear for yourselves. Out of all three "Jokers", Christina's my favourite.
-Robin takes Christina back to her cell while Batman calls Henry and lets him know Robin's on his way and to open the door for him. Joker also pops up and says that this Robin's a real improvement over the last one. Remember Jason Todd, he asks, before going on to say that Todd was always whining and complaining and that we're better off without that loser.
-On the screens, both Johnny Charisma and Albert King are trying to encourage me to go get them first, and then arguing, threatening, and insulting one another. (King's mostly threatening and Johnny's mostly insulting.)
-I decide to go see King first. Unfortunately there are some bars between me and the way forward, and a lot of mooks are on the other side taunting me about how I can't get to them. There's an air duct running underneath the bars but no exit on the side I want to get to. Joker pops up again and gives me a hint, saying that it would be nice if I could convince one of these idiots to open the gate for me. Joker would do it for me, but he can't because I killed him.
-Oh, the voice synthesizer! I tried to target them with it before and it was red instead of green, so I assumed that it was a dead end. However, when I try again and click while it's red, Batman muses that he shouldn't try that while they can see him; even Harley's men aren't THAT stupid.
-Ah, NOW I see why they put the air vent in the floor but put the grate for me to pop out of it directly underneath the bars of the gate. I can't jump out with those bars there, but I can use my gadgets, and it's a great place to use the voice synthesizer since I have a line of sight on the mooks but they aren't looking at me.
-"Open the gate!" Harley's voice tells them. The mook says he doesn't understand why she's telling him to do that. Another one says he doesn't need to understand; she told hiim to open the gate, so he ought to open the gate. He opens it, saying that it doesn't seem right, and he's correct; as soon as those bars are gone, Batman springs out of the floor and does a multi-takedown until there's only one mook left, who's quickly beaten down and knocked out.
-Oh Jesus, in the next room there's a guy in a wheelchair. TIED to the wheelchair. And suddenly he asks if somebody's there, and the subtitles say that this person is JASON TODD. He's in his Robin costume and he has a bag over his head. He begs for whoever it is to help him. Game says to press Space to rescue him.
-Batman, astonished, says "Jason? I thought you were dead." Jason hears Batman's voice and asks if it's really him. Then all of the surroundings are shrouded in darkness, with only a spotlight on Batman, Jason...and the Joker, who walks into the picture and taunts Jason, saying Batman isn't coming to save him. Jason says he'll come, as Joker pulls the bag off of Jason's head to reveal a badly beaten up face. Joker grins and tells him it's been six months, and Batman would have saved him by now if he were going to do it at all. Jason says "screw you", with Joker enjoying that he's still defiant, a chip off the old Bat-block as it were.
-Jason asks why Joker won't just kill him. Joker doesn't want to kill him, not when Jason's HIS new sidekick. He can just picture them out on the streets together, picking fights, preying on the weak. Like Batman and the NEW kid he's got. Joker pulls out a photograph behind Jason's back. Jason says no, Batman wouldn't. Then Joker leans over Todd's shoulder and shows him the photo. Is that not Batman, he asks. The pointy ears are usually a dead giveaway. Jason manages a "no...", and Joker says that he didn't want to show him the photo, really he didn't, but it was the only way Jason could get closure. Besides, says Joker as he pulls out a crowbar, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. He winds up and gives Jason a whack in the chest, sending the wheelchair rolling backwards into the darkness. Joker walks after it and also disappears.
-The room returns to normal, and the game gives me the option of viewing Jason Todd's bio. The picture of Todd accompanying it shows him bloody and hanging from the ceiling by his arms. It says he's deceased. The Arkhamverse bio for Todd is much like what happened in the comics: Jason was an orphan, Batman discovered him trying to steal the wheels off the Batmobile for cash to get food with, and took him in. He became the new Robin after Dick Grayson. I've never read "A Death In The Family", so I don't know if this is how Jason fell into the Joker's hands in the comics, but here's what the bio says: Jason became frustrated with Batman's refusal to kill the Joker, and finally set out to do it himself. Needless to say, Jason wasn't successful, getting himself captured by Joker instead, tortured, and finally killed.
-As if on cue, Tim Drake walks into the room and asks Batman if he's okay. Batman says he's fine and they should move forward and get King.
-King is punching one of Harley's mooks across the room as Batman & Robin open the door. He invites us forward to get our asses kicked. Neither of us say anything to him, so he says even though we're the strong, silent types, he'll have us begging for mercy and crying out in pain soon enough. By the way, Johnny Charisma was telling King earlier that Batman was interested in more than just a fight with some meathead, and I have to say that King is the least Joker-like of the Jokerized people I've seen. He doesn't talk like the Joker, he doesn't look like the Joker at all, and he doesn't make any jokes. Sure, he's really violent and psychopathic, but that's it.
-This fight works as follows: neither Batman nor Robin is strong enough to do any damage to King by himself. And when King charges at us, we'd best dodge it. But we CAN beat up the other mooks, and when you build up enough of a combo as either of the heroes then you can hit King with a double-team that depletes his health bar. After this is done a few times then it changes slightly, with the guy you're controlling being able to hit King several times and King taking a swing at you. If you can counter it, then you can hit him some more, but if King connects then you're sent sprawling away and have to wait for the next double-team move to go back to hitting him.
-You may be thinking "That's all well and good, but what happens if you knock out all the regular mooks? How do you build up a combo so that you can double-team King again?" Well, King is his own undoing that way, because if a mook gets knocked out King will walk over to them, pull them up, and shout at them to get back in the fight. This is enough to wake them back up and make them available for Batman and Robin to hit some more.
-Man, this version of Batman is really best as part of a team instead of on his own, because when he's working with somebody less grim it can result in some entertaining banter. In this case, after King's down, an out-of-breath Robin tells Batman nice work, he's impressed, Batman really held his own back there. Batman responds to this by telling Robin "YOU can carry him." King, by the way, is really large. While Robin was able to carry Christina effortlessly by draping her over one shoulder, he has to pick up King in a fireman's carry, and even then he struggles. "What did this guy eat, a car?!" I actually feel bad for Tim as I listen to him grunt and groan with each step. You can't be bothered to help out at all, Bruce? Man, sometimes you're a total dick.
-As Tim gradually gets King closer to the room with the cells, Batman calls Alfred to tell him that he's almost done and will need to make up for lost time after he leaves the studios, meaning that he wants another Batmobile upgrade. Alfred says he'll prepare one of the upgrades I passed on before, namely one that improves the weapons.
-Johnny Charisma pops up on the screen and is not surprised at all that the big lump of muscle memory failed against me. He asks if I'm ready to see him now, because he has some wonderful games for me to play. Johnny is a lot more Joker-ish than King, as you may have guessed.
-There's a Heavy guarding the way to Johnny. This guy's so bored that he's talking to himself, about how he could really go for a cold one right now, about how he hopes that Bat will show his face, etc. Robin's still busy almost giving himself a hernia carrying King back to the cells and can't help out this time, but Batman is able to get rid of the guy as follows. He crawls through some ducts taking him over the guy and dropping him into an adjacent room. He sprays explosive gel onto the wall, then leaves the room and uses the voice synthesizer to make the guy think Harley's ordering him to move closer to the gate. Walking forward puts him next to the wall that Batman rigged to explode, and one kaboom later Batman's free to proceed without getting ripped to shreds by gunfire.
-Uh oh, looks like we're in for anther disturbing hallucination. Between Batman and the door to Stage C, there's a meathook hanging from the ceiling. Something is hanging from the hook, something with a blanket draped over it. It's poor Jason, isn't it?
-The game doesn't let me do anything to see what's under the blanket, so I go into the next room, which also has a meathook with something hanging from it covered with a blanket, except the blanket doesn't completely cover it this time. I can see legs that look like Jason's. And now it lets me remove the sheet, showing Jason in bad shape. "What do we have here, then?" Joker asks from off-camera. He emerges from the darkness with a BRANDING IRON. Shit. Joker asks Jason if he thinks Joker's going to hurt him. Oh no no no, Joker's not the one who's hurt him, Batman's the one who abandoned him like an unwanted puppy. Then Joker asks some imaginary parent if he can keep him because he'll take such good care of him, etc. Joker switches roles and says "Anything to make you happy, princess, just so you make sure people know he's yours." That branding iron ends in a "J" symbol. Shit.
-Joker lets Jason drop from the meathook and rolls him into the darkness, with a panicked Jason begging for mercy and Joker just laughing, and then a sizzling sound accompanied by screaming. Yeah, I feel pretty unsettled by that.
-Tim shows up and asks what's wrong since Batman looks spooked. Batman says everything's fine Jas--Tim. Tim's surprised, saying Batman hasn't accidentally called him that in a long time, before deciding they should get down to business and deal with Johnny Charisma behind the next door.
-Johnny comes on the screen (this guy used to be a lounge singer before he got Jokerized, btw) and says that he was planning a duet for himself and Batman, so he demands that "bird-boy" wait outside. Batman tells Robin to go in through a nearby vent while Batman goes in the door and keeps Johnny's attention on him.
-The door to Johnny is locked. Robin calls over to me saying I might want to try the keypad, which I hadn't even noticed was there. Feeling a bit embarrassed--that's me, not Batman feeling that way, although he may be embarrassed as well, I don't know--I try the keypad. Unfortunately it isn't electronic, so I can't open it by hacking it. Instead, Batman calls Henry in the control room and asks him to give Batman access to the CCTV footage of this room so he can see what combination Johnny entered. Batman starts to give Henry instructions on how to do that, but Henry picks it up surprisingly fast, as in before Batman even finishes telling him what to do. This is despite Henry initially saying that technology isn't his specialty. Hmm. Well, whatever, we do get the footage of Johnny. We see him press one key before he remembers the camera, turning to face it and making a "no no" gesture. He enters the rest of the combination while blocking the camera's view of the keypad, then opens the door, gives a showmanlike bow, and goes through it.
-Johnny failed to notice there was a mirror next to him. Batman can see the reflections of Johnny and the keypad, and is able to observe the rest of the code that way. He enters it and goes inside. At the same time, Robin goes into the vent. Batman sees Charisma onstage and quietly radios Robin that Charisma is wearing a bomb vest, with other bombs placed around the room. Music starts playing, lights start flashing, and Charisma welcomes Batman to the show. He invites Batman onstage, and says the crowd's so excited it may just explode. (All of the seats are empty.) Then suddenly, Johnny is replaced by Joker, who says "Nobody serenades you but ME, Bats!"
-We'll never know what Johnny is singing, I guess, but here's what Joker sings:
Take me on home to the asylum.
Never alone in the asylum.
Anarchy ruled, it was wild.
But through it all, you never smiled.
Joke's on you, I'm in your head so
Look who's laughing now!
Remember in Arkham City
I killed your girl, so pretty
That was the night you let me die
But when I looked you in the eye
That's when I knew we'd be together
Look who's laughing now!
I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing!
I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing!
Your parents are dead and I can't stop laughing!
What else can I do?
Now I'm part of you.
I am the clown prince of crime
And we've had a hell of a time.
You're part of me, I'm part of you
And now there's nothing left to do
I just can't wait till I'm in control
Who'll be laughing then?
I drove you round the bend and I'm laughing
I'm with you to the end and I can't stop laughing
I killed all of your friends and I can't stop laughing
[LAUGHTER]
Oh yeah!
Think I can taste your fear
Now that my time is near
I'm in your blood, I'm so alive
I only wish you'd let me drive
It won't be long till I make you kill
Who'll be laughing then?
Barbara's dead and I'm laughing
Jason Todd's dead and I can't stop laughing
I'm even dead and I can't stop laughing!
What else can I do?
Now I'm part of you
I drove you round the bend and I'm laughing
I'm with you to the end and I can't stop laughing
I killed all of your friends and I can't stop laughing
I'm cock-a-doodle-do
All because of you
I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing!
I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing!
Your parents are dead and I can't stop laughing!
[LAUGHTER]
I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing!
I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing!
Your parents are dead and I can't stop laughing!
What else can I do?
Now I'm part of you
-During all of this, the player has control of Robin in the background and can move him around the room to disarm all the bombs as Johnny/Joker's busy singing. This stage is circular and it keeps rotating throughout the performance. This means that part of the time, Joker's back is turned to whatever part of the room Robin's in and Robin and dart from one hiding place to another without being spotted. Once they're all disarmed Robin can move in to take down Johnny, but has to be careful to do it from behind since he's still got explosives strapped to his body and will detonate them if he sees Robin coming.
-At the end, Robin sneaks up behind him, unfastens the vest, and yanks it off in one swift motion before pushing Johnny (whom Batman now sees as Johnny instead of Joker) into Batman. Batman grabs him. Johnny realizes he's boned and responds by asking "No encore?" He gets a headbutt as an answer. Robin can't believe that this guy was a professional singer, opining that even Alfred is better.
-Henry, meanwhile, is in trouble. He frantically tells Batman that Harley and her goons are trying to get into the room with him and he's scared of what they'll do. Batman tells Robin to stay with Johnny while he goes and takes care of Quinn. (Bet Robin wishes we'd tackled Johnny first, since then he would have ended up staying behind with King and Robin wouldn't have had to lug him all that way.)
-Joker's outside the room sitting on the arm of a couch and humming to himself. Catchy number, he opines. He tells me he had the singing voice of a soprano once. Well, actually he was in physical possession of her vocal cords.
-There's another gate with mooks behind it in my way. The mooks are wondering what the deal with Harley is and if they signed up with the wrong crew, since they've heard stories of her telling people to do one thing and then changing her mind and telling them to do the opposite. (My personal observation is that they might end up going through the same thing with Two-Face. Although of course in this case it's because I've been using the voice synthesizer.) I trick them into thinking Harley told them to open the gate, with the mooks obeying it but one taking it as further proof of what they were saying; "Keep the gate closed" one minute and then "Open the gate" the next. He thinks she's even nuttier than they all thought.
-At that very moment, before the guy actually pushes the button to open the gate, Harley bursts through the door and tells him that this is why he's not paid to think; it's obviously some kind of Bat-trick. Then she calls out to Batman to show himself if he has the guts. But ROBIN walks up. Harley says look who it is, Batman's little helper. Robin responds that he's alone since Batman figured he could handle Harley by himself; see, Batman doesn't take her too seriously. Robin says he doesn't either. One of the mooks goes "Ooo!" and seems like he's on the verge of laughing at the burn. The mook says that Robin's asking for it. Harley's response is, paraphrased: "Oh, think you're funny, do ya? OPEN THE GATE! FOR REAL THIS TIME!"
-Harley holds Robin at gunpoint (she has fuzzy dice hanging from her gun, btw) while telling him that if he thinks he's taking Johnny back to the cells, he has another thing coming. All these people have Joker in them, so they're HERS, not his and Batman's, and she's taking them. Robin says that it would just be highly irresponsible for him to allow that to happen (almost his exact words; I'm coming to like Robin's dialogue almost as much as Catwoman's). Harley says that Batman took Mr. J from her once. She won't let him do it again.
-Wow, um, this started out funny and then took a dark turn. See, Harley's threatening to kill Robin if Batman doesn't surrender himself. I wanted to see just how long she'd go on before doing it, if she even did it at all. So at first Harley is giving a long monologue, with a bored Robin interrupting to ask how much longer this is gonna go on. Then Harley describes at great length what she could have said more concisely, which is that she's gonna kill Robin if Batman doesn't get in here, and then shouts "Are you hearing this?" Robin says "Oh, he's hearing it," fully aware that Batman is directly underneath them both. Then when I've kept them both waiting some more by NOT springing out of the floor and attacking everybody, Harley tells me that I'd better show myself or else, and Robin's like "Yeah, anytime now would be really good..." Then Harley says she's gonna count to three, at which point she'll blow Robin's head off. It's really drawn out. Like "One!" followed by a pause and then "In case you didn't hear that, Bat-brain, I'm up to one!" and another long pause, and after that "Okay, here comes two!", that kind of stuff. She gets to three, and DOESN'T kill Robin. I didn't think she would. Here's where the dark turn comes. Harley asks if we thought she was gonna do it right then at three, and then she says no, she wanted to savor the moment, she wanted to draw it out just like Mr. J did with Jason Todd. That was Joker's secret, she says, and Joker told her that the stuff he did to Jason was his finest work. And now look at what's happening: another Robin about to die, and Batman not lifting a finger to save him. History has a funny way of repeating itself, doesn't it? And then BOOM. And then a Harley death screen with her sneering at me and saying Mr. J told her Robins die easy.
-All right, no fucking around this time. As soon as Harley's pacing puts her close enough, Batman springs out of the grate in the floor and launches her into the air, with Robin jumping up to hit her with a clothelines that knocks her out cold. All the mooks attack, since nobody puts hands on the boss-lady. But they're soon just as unconscious.
-Returning to the cells, Robin picks up Johnny while Batman picks up Harley. Harley actually comes around while over Batman's shoulder and starts throwing a tantrum, banging her fists on his back impotently like a little kid and telling me I won't get away with this.
-Batman opens a cell to put Harley in and is shocked to see that Christina Bell is dead, as is Albert King. Harley's reaction to seeing two of her replacement Jokers dead is "No no NO!" Batman then says "YOU killed them, didn't you Henry?" He turns around to see Henry pointing a gun at him. He laughs and mocks me for trying to see the good in people...even when they're BAD. (At these words, Harley stands and sidles up next to him and takes her place by the side of the most recent "reincarnation" of Mr. J.) Henry gives a command and the computer screen lights up with a Joker face. Henry grins and says "I guess we now know who reprogrammed your security."
-The cells are all open, and Henry demands Batman stand with Robin. Batman tells him to go to hell. Henry places the barrel of his gun right up against Harley's stomach and insists. Joker appears to register his approval of Henry's actions, and then tells me it's my turn.
-Batman reluctantly stands right next to Robin, helpless for the time being to do anything. Henry laughs and says evolution's a funny thing as he looks down as Johnny. No matter what happens, the strongest always survive. Still, you know what they say about evolution: even amoebas can do it. With those words, Henry puts a bullet in Johnny's head, and Harley screams "What are you doing?!" "Purifying the gene pool," answers Henry. Joker says that even HE doesn't know who to root for now.
-Henry points the gun at Batman and tells him goodbye, that it's been educational. Since Batman's death will mean goodbye to the Joker vision as well, Joker says he's changed his mind and tells Batman to kill Henry. Batman clenches his fist and suddenly, without anybody doing anything, the smile on Henry's face fades. Henry says that that was...unexpected. He lowers the gun and says "You're going to be spectacular." Then he puts the gun to his own head and kills himself, to everybody's shock. Harley takes it the worst, since she's now lost her puddin' for the FIFTH time.
-Robin sees that Batman's eyes have turned green. All the other Jokerized people bore that kind of physical resemblance to him, even Henry at the end. Robin realizes that the empty cell is for Batman, that HE is the last one. However, Batman is still in control. He turns to Robin and says in his normal voice (as opposed to a Jokery voice) that he still has to stop Scarecrow. Once that's done, he'll lock himself in there. Robin protests that if Batman ends up turning before Scarecrow is stopped, then what? Robin's good, but he's not good enough to hunt down and capture the guy who trained him.
-Batman has no answer, and Robin walks out of the shot. Joker is agitated and tells Batman NO, he will NOT do this! Next we see Robin and Joker standing by the cell meant for Batman, with Robin telling him he needs to get in, right now. Joker protests that this is a defeatist argument. (You know Joker, maybe if you hadn't spent the whole night taunting Bruce about how inevitable it was that you'd take over, he wouldn't be so willing to submit himself to this.)
-Batman steps inside and removes his cowl. The good news is that Bruce's head looks about right apart from the eyes; hair's the right colour, skin isn't pasty white or anything, etc. Robin vows he'll stop Scarecrow. But then a call from Alfred comes in and says that the Knight's forces are converging on their location. Robin says he'll stop them. Alfred wonders if he can do it, since there are LOTS of them out there. But Robin's confident he can do it. After all, Bruce trained him. He walks out.
-Inside the cell there isn't much to do. I can look out at the control room, or look at the walls, and it's all first-person. I look at a wall and then turn back to look out the door and see that something's changed. There's a chair in the room. Jason Todd is in the chair with his back to me. There's a camera on a tripod in front of Jason.
-Looking away and looking back causes Joker to appear. He's smiling. He tells me not to worry about Robin. He's certain he won't die...well, eh, fairly certain...oh, that reminds Joker, he never finished his story about Jason Todd! Joker presses the button to open my cell. Batman picks up his mask and puts it back on again, and then walks out the door.
-Everything around Jason turns dark. Joker's voice from off-camera asks Jason if he has something to tell "the nice man". Jason robotically responds "My name is Jason Todd." Joker asks him who he hates. Jason responds "Batman." Now we can see Joker behind the camera, and a lot of screens light up showing the recording being made by the camera, with a "J" brand clearly visible on Jason's cheek. Joker says "Of course you do." Then Joker leers into the camera, asking "Bats" if he heard that, and gloating that the kid's all his, to do with as he wishes. Then he says that he never did ask Jason the big question: who IS Batman, anyway? Jason says "Of course, sir. It's--" BLAM!!! Joker shoots him in the head and he falls backward onto the floor. Joker says he never could stand a tattletale, always spoiling the punchline.
-Joker then repeats a line we saw on the wall earlier, in the hallucination where we saw Joker shoot Barbara and paralyze her. "You see what happens when you drag your friends into this crazy little game of ours."
-Looking away from the grisly scene and turning back, I see Robin--Tim Drake--exactly where he was earlier. By my cell, telling me I need to get inside. I do, and he walks away saying he can handle Scarecrow.
-Joker eventually shows up again outside the door and says that he didn't tell me the Fable of the Robin and the Clown for the fun of it...not entirely, it WAS fun for him, but there's a moral. He says "Let's try this again" and opens the door again, which puts me back with Robin telling me to get inside the cell. I'm honestly not sure what the game wants me to do here; I've tried getting in the elevator, but it's blocked right now.
-Oh, apparently if you stand next to Robin pretending like you're about to enter the cell long enough, then a "counter" symbol will pop up. Clicking it makes Batman grab Robin and shove him inside the cell before he knows what's happening. As the doors close on him, Robin demands to know what the hell Batman's doing. Batman replies "The right thing. Trust me."
-Robin shouts that this is crazy, they can help Batman, he doesn't need to do this. Batman is busy doing something with his gauntlet. Robin tries to radio Alfred and then realizes he can't: "You son of a bitch, you cut my communications!" Alfred calls in to ask what just happened, since he's lost contact with Robin. Batman says it's just a faulty comm and he's looking at Robin now. Alfred is relieved. He says that with all that's happened so far, he feared the worst. My Batmobile upgrade is ready, by the way. Also, the Knight has sent in a lot of his forces to reassert control over the city.
-As if Tim wasn't upset enough right now, the game says that I should press Space to tell him the truth about Barbara. God. Damn.
-Batman says there's something he has to tell Tim. Tim pretty much senses what's coming before Batman even says Barbara's name and his first instinct is denial...not her...but Batman says that Barbara's dead, and he's sorry. Then Tim demands to be let out. Batman says he can't do that. Tim tells Batman to let him out RIGHT NOW. Batman says that they're targeting everybody close to him, and he won't let them get Tim too. Tim then screams "You son of a bitch! You don't get to decide!" Then he yells at Batman to go, get away from him. He turns his back and alternates between burying his face in his hands and pounding the back wall of the cell. Nothing to do now but leave, with the elevator now accessible.
Okay, was wondering, and was planning to finish it no matter what since I started it, but glad I still have readers. :)
Back to the story....
-Joker says wait a minute: if Henry wasn't immune to "Mad Clown Disease" after all, then that means there IS no way to cure it! Oh, I had Robin slaving away working on that when he could have been saving Barbara. It was cruel, selfish, and had horrible consequences! If only I had meant for it to turn out the way it did it would have been perfect. Then he encourages me to go out there so "we" can show Gotham what a real dynamic duo is.
-The Knight's on the radio telling somebody NOT to tell him that Batman's gone, he knows Batman, and Batman doesn't retreat. He's sending in reinforcements and tells them to find him.
-Overheard mook chatter as I land on one of the Knight's drones and sabotage it: they're having a "Who would win if X fought Y?" conversation. According to one, Batman's a good enough improviser that he can take the Knight. His friend asks what about Bane vs. Mr. Freeze, with the first guy enthusiastic about that one; THAT would be a hell of a fight.
-More overheard chatter: Riddler just let a bunch of his mooks go. No severance or anything. That tears it, says another guy: it's time the muscle in this town unionized.
-After I get the car upgraded, Alfred still hasn't found the Cloudburst, but tells me of two new situations that might require my attention. First, there's unusual seismic activity on Miagani Island. Second, he's lost all contact with Lucius and that's suspicious, so he suggests I visit Wayne Tower to see if Fox is all right. That's what I'll do next.
-After stepping into the elevator in Wayne Tower's parking garage, I'm a bit surprised to see that Batman has completely changed his attire on the ride up (or perhaps he stopped on another floor to change, I guess) so now he's dressed as Bruce Wayne. Oddly, his face shows none of the wear and tear it formerly did due to the scrapes with death over the course of the night.
-As Bruce, I go into Lucius' office and sit down to try to log into his computer. Except the retinal scanner tells me that I'm not a match and denies me access. At that moment, Lucius enters and is surprised to see me; he didn't think I'd be back here tonight. Anyway, he's locked down the building as I instructed, and asks what I need. Bruce is strangely silent as Lucius says all of this. And then "Bruce", because this surely isn't the real guy, grabs Lucius and slams his head into the desk before putting his face up to the computer so that it scans HIS retinas and grants access. The secretary opens the door to see what's wrong, and "Bruce" fires a gun at her. It doesn't hit but sure succeeds in scaring her off. Then on the computer screen we see the words "transferring funds". Then the camera zooms out to reveal that all of this is security footage being viewed by Batman in the present.
-It's HUSH. A.k.a. Thomas Elliott, the guy who was in Arkham City in the last game killing people so that he could take parts of their faces and use those to perform surgery on himself to make him look exactly like Bruce Wayne. While Batman discovered what he was up to and found his hideout in that game, he managed to get away. Now he's back and Batman sees him on a monitor in the reception area. He's holding Lucius hostage at gunpoint. Batman calls Alfred and tells him the situation, and that the guy responsible is Thomas Elliott. Alfred remembers when Elliott and I were inseparable. Which, as Batman points out, we still are, except in a different way, since he looks identical to Bruce.
-The receptionist doesn't know any of this; she just thinks that her employer has lost his mind. Anyway, Batman enters the office. Hush refuses to let Lucius go, and tells Batman to bring him Bruce Wayne. If Batman doesn't comply, Hush will bring down the tower. Batman wants to know why Hush wants Bruce Wayne when they used to be such good friends. Elliott responds that Bruce's family destroyed his family, and now he will destroy Bruce Wayne.
-Batman protests that the Waynes stood by him. Elliott reminisces of the great surgeon Thomas Wayne, to think he was once Elliott's idol...until he ruined everything. Batman says that Thomas Wayne did everything he could to save Hush's parents after their car crash. He's sorry about Elliott's father, but at least his mother survived. Hush snaps that Thomas Wayne denied him what was rightfully his...and Batman realizes that the car crash wasn't an accident, it was Thomas Elliott trying to kill his parents. BOTH of them. Hush says he wanted what was rightfully his. Bruce Wayne never had to fight for his riches; he got them handed to him on a silver platter. And he now demands that Batman bring Wayne to him.
-This isn't what I was expecting and definitely not what either of the other men in the room were expecting either: Batman unmasks and invites "Tommy" to take his best shot. Hush can't believe it. Meanwhile, Batman's thinking to himself that as soon as Hush turns the gun on him instead of aiming it at Lucius, he'll have a split second to react and disarm him. To early and Lucius will get shot. Too late and, of course, Bruce will get shot.
-At first I'm too late, and Bruce dies. Second try goes better, and Batman is able to get ahold of Elliott's arm and spin him around into the desk. Since Lucius is now free, he grabs a thing and smashes it into Elliott's face. Elliott is momentarily distraught over the injury to his face (I guess when you work that hard on something you want it to stay intact) before Batman slams him through the desk and things all go black for him. Lucius apologizes for what happened and assures Batman he'll improve security. Batman reassures him that it's fine and asks him if he's hurt. He's not, which he supposes makes him the lucky one.
-As for what to do with Elliott, Batman rules out taking him to the cops, so he tells Lucius to lock him in the tower's vault for the time being. They can give him to the authorities after all this chaos ends and things are back to normal in Gotham.
-The ground is rumbling a LOT. When Alfred said "seismic activity" he wasn't kidding. And the mission select screen says that this is part of the main story, so I'd better have a look. I really hope that Ivy isn't doing this. I want us to stay friends.
-Before I do that, however, I stop by the evidence room in GCPD since I was having trouble with saving a guy whose head Riddler had planted a bomb in. With previous ones I would throw the remote batarang through an electrical current and then hit the guy with the electrified batarang, shorting out the bomb without detonating it. But with this guy I looked all over the area and there was NO electrical current. Finally I looked for the solution, and the solution is this: just shoot him with the Remote Electrical Charge. It works just as well and it's in GCPD's evidence lockup. So I guess I could've grabbed it at any time. Well that's great.
-While I'm here, I come across a display of Mr. Freeze's equipment. A recording of Cash admits that the cops had been using the gun to make ice cream for themselves until the chief caught them and told them to stop.
-So I'm thinking: wouldn't it be a shame if I were to finish the main story only to end up turning all Jokerized before I saved Catwoman? I mean, I doubt that's how it'll all end, but why risk it? Besides which, the Catwoman/Riddler stuff is one of the more fun parts of this game and I could do with some fun after all that grimdark shit. So back to the orphanage to do Riddler's Final Exam. Right after I picked up the R.E.C., by the way, Riddler came on the PA to congratulate me on finally getting it. He mentioned that he would have given me an electricity gun of his own design so I could attempt this puzzle, but all of his designs ended up being, well, TOO effective, if you know what he means.
-Oh Selina, never change. She says that this is it: one last hoop to jump through, and then she'll be free to rob Gotham blind! Er, no, she means "make sure everyone got out". She'll check the art galleries first.
-This room features a "Riddle Square" on the floor made up of many pressure pads, which Riddler describes as being inspired by both a late 20th century puzzle game (Rubik's Cube) and 15th century torture devices (who knows). There are electromagnets all around which, when fired at with the REC, and either push or pull some of the squares with pressure pads into a new configuration. There's one empty space in the square which pads can be moved into, creating a new emtpy space elsewhere.
-Using the REC on one row of pads makes them all move, and Batman says that they need to figure out a way to lock some of them in place. Catwoman surmises that this is what she's there for. There are bars that spring up to prevent Batman from getting close to the pads, but Catwoman is able to get to them by jumping to the ceiling and climbing along that until she's over them.
-There's a laser beam firing down onto one of the pads. The idea here seems to be to move the pads around until the beam is shooting the correct one. I admit that I don't know exactly what I'm doing at first so I kind of stumble my way to the solution, at which point Riddler dismisses it as beginner's luck and then starts a cylinder with blades sprouting from it spinning over the floor towards Catwoman, who has to duck under one of the parts that is smooth instead of bladey. "How is THAT a riddle?" she demands. Batman tells her that you get used to this kind of thing with Nigma. (Oh, and it's bad to drop into the empty spaces, since it's all electric-shocky down there.)
-Now there's another puzzle with TWO laser beams and two empty spaces. By now I've figured out that the idea is to move things around so that the lasers are shooting into the spaces. Once I get it that way, Riddler activates the blade cylinder again which rolls toward Catwoman, who's able to duck under it. Then the blades slide into another position so that Catwoman's in their path and the thing rolls back toward her, forcing her to quickly move sideways so she's under another safe part of it. And then when she's dodged that, Riddler has the thing make a third attempt at slicing her up. Finally it stops and she shouts, justifiably annoyed, that it's still not a riddle. Batman says "You just haven't figured it out yet."
-Riddler wants to do it again. Two more empty spaces, two beams. I do get them in position but, unfortunately, as Catwoman my spinning-blade-dodging is not the best and I die. In the death screen before I get to try again, Riddler says to Catwoman that to be fair, in cat years she had a very good run.
-What I don't immediately realize is that when Batman gets the beams shooting into the right places and says it's done and they can get the key, and Catwoman responds by saying "Oh, you smooth talker, you! Give me a second to compose myself," while dodging the blades, she doesn't have to wait for the blades to stop. After she survives a few passes, Batman tells her that she can leave any time. Catwoman replies "I know that. I just...like dodging the saw blade..." Yeah, I feel kind of dumb.
-At the cabinet with the key, Catwoman invites Batman to do the honors (with previous keys when they were together, you could choose whether Catwoman or Batman opened the cabinet and used the key). Batman breaks it open and unlocks Selina's collar, which finally comes off.
-"You know what the worst thing about this was?" Catwoman says as she holds the collar. "It looked CHEAP." She tosses it away. "Well, handsome, what are we waiting for?" They leave the room, with Selina asking if the entire city, including the mansions, has been evacuated. Batman tells her that Scarecrow threatened everybody. Selina suggests that he goes to save the day while she goes to check if Bruce Wayne locked his doors. "Good luck with that," Batman responds.
-So Catwoman goes to the orphanage's exit and goes to open the door but RIDDLER BUSTS THROUGH IT PILOTING A HUMONGOUS MECHA AND GRABS HER! Damn, I wasn't expecting him to take it well, but I wasn't expecting THIS! Riddler's mech stomps across the floor towards Batman and throws Catwoman at him. He catches her, and then she drops down next to him ready to fight. Riddler summons a shitload of robots (colour-coded for Bruce and Selina, natch) to back him up. He rants that I'm a cheater, a fraud, a bumbling amateur. Look what I've made him do, he goes on. My refusal to yield to his intellectual superiority means that he'll come down to my pugilistic level and MAKE me.
-Riddler has a force field around his mech so we can't attack him directly, at least not right now. He'll occasionally change the colours of the robots so that we have to change targets or suffer the consequences. And sometimes he'll fire a laser at us. Finally, when all the robots are trashed, Riddler says enough, this is beneath him, WE are beneath him, and he walks into the center of the room onto a descending platform. He says that if I want the privilege of fighting him then I must solve every last riddle in the city before the platform lowers and the floor closes up to keep us from following him. Catwoman quips "OR we could just leave you down there, Eddie. Come on, Batman, this cat wants to prowl."
-Catwoman's happy to be outside. Fresh air, freedom, and darkness! How shall they celebrate, she wonders. She knows of some museums...but also some hotels... Batman tells her that there's still work to be done and that the night isn't over. Of course, Catwoman says; count on him to kill the mood. Does Batman ever take the night off, she asks. Does he ever take the SUIT off? Not on nights like this, Batman says; it's what he does. An exasperated Selina says FINE, she supposes she'll go hit an art gallery or two while the big bad Bat's distracted.
-Then Batman asks "You're not going to thank me?" "Why?" Selina returns. "It's what you do." And then she springs up the side of the orphanage and is on her way.
-Grappling up to travel elsewhere I almost literally bump into Joker sitting on the railing I attached the hook to. He says that if I'd killed Scarecrow years ago, Barbara would still be alive. Hell, if I'd killed JOKER sooner, Jason would be alive. There's a pattern here, isn't there?
-The seismic activity? Yeah, it's Ivy and her giant plant. As Batman watches from the car, vines sprout through the road and demolish a trio of drones. The Knight says on the radio that Ivy just couldn't help herself and orders his men to throw everything they have at her.
-Batman admonishes Ivy that she's just given away her location by doing that, since it happened right by the Botanical Gardens. Ivy angrily retorts that Scarecrow has to pay for what he did to her. Batman resigns himself to what's about to happen and tells her he hopes she's ready, because they're in for one hell of a fight any second.
-A drone battle ensues with Ivy taking out the occasional drone with another vine. They're eventually destroyed and the drone commander tells the Knight this. He says that they won't be able to take out Ivy as long as Batman's there to help her. The Knight orders some Cobra drones into the area to either kill me or run me off the road. So now we have to deal with that.
-Ivy tells me to be wary, because they're sending something bigger. I know this already, but SHE isn't hearing the Knight's transmissions so I guess she thinks she's helping. Batman says that the Cobras won't be able to stop them. Ivy tells Batman she won't be able to help him against these drones; she isn't strong enough yet. Hmm, hey Ivy, you starting to reconsider your decision to lash out about now? Seems to me like it would've been best to wait until you WERE strong enough.
-Hmm, this is cause for concern. When I've destroyed all but one of the Cobra drones, the commander says that he can't stop Batman. The Knight, sounding confident, says "You don't need to." So, just keeping me busy will be enough while he gets something really bad ready or something? Well, guess the only way to find out is to blow up this last drone and see what happens.
-Knight just tells me not to think I've won. After that, Batman decides he should pick up Ivy and take her back to GCPD, since it's no longer safe for her here. When Batman tells her as much and that she's coming with him, she says she won't leave the plants. They need her. At that moment, Alfred calls and tells Batman he should take a look at Perdition Bridge. Yup, that's where the Cloudburst is, attached to a big tank. It's emitting an enormous amount of energy. Then there's a big boom and a big cloud. Batman shouts for Ivy to get down as the cloud is about to envelop them and shields her with his cloak as it washes over them.
-I have to say HOLY SHITBALLS, because the entire city is covered in a roiling, opaque cloud of gas so dense that it reminds me more of lava than of gas. Various mooks caught in it start turning on one another as the fear toxin drives them out of their minds. And as Ivy picks herself up her voice sounds strained as she says it's worse than she thought. She says her plants are dying. Batman tells her that it's because the Cloudburst is amplifying the toxin's effects. Ivy says that unless Batman destroys the device, then Ivy's plants and their spores won't be enough to counter the toxin. Batman tells her that she'll die if she stays here with the plants. Ivy--quite heroically I think, even if she cares more about her plants than the people--says that they'll both die unless Batman stops Scarecrow and the Knight, and she returns to her place inside the big tree. She grasps part of the tree with each hand and her veins become discoloured as the toxin's effects on the tree are shared by her. She screams in pain, but stays in place and shouts for Batman to go and take care of the Cloudburst.
-Alfred comes on the line and it looks like the gas hasn't reached him yet, although he does shakily say that he's never seen a chemical agent dispersed so fast. Batman, meanwhile, has grappled high enough that he's above the gas cloud completely covering street level. Alfred tells him that the Batmobile's power core has been shorted out, so Batman can't use that any more. What's the plan? Batman says he'll go after Stagg; he created the Cloudburst, after all, so he ought to know how to stop it. (Um, I kind of thought Stagg was out of his mind due to fear toxin poisoning. Do I have any reason to NOT think that?) Alfred hopes Batman's able to find him.
-The logical place to look for Stagg is back on the airship. There are some militia mooks waiting for me there, but I beat them up. The door's locked and Batman figures Stagg's stepped up security because he expected Batman to return and wanted to stop him. (Again, how is Stagg in any state of mind to be thinking that straight?) Batman will need to open the door using Stagg's voiceprint. Good thing we have that synthesizer!
-Inside the next room, Batman sees the cell Stagg was in and observes that it's empty. Somehow, Stagg got out. There are a number of militia in here, and Batman needs to get rid of them, not only so he can proceed but because he needs to find Stagg before they do.
-After they're all down, Batman turns on Detective Mode and scans for Stagg's fingerprints. Stagg touched a lot of stuff after leaving the cage so it's easy to track him. When I find him hiding under a floor panel he is somehow still sane. He says that the Cloudburst is protected by a Nimbus field and any vehicle without a Nimbus power cell will be fried by it. Batman helps himself to such a cell and then throws Stagg in one of the empty chimp cages.
-The plan is for Batman to return to the Batmobile, plant the Nimbus thing in it, and then go after the tank that the Cloudburst is connected to. Alfred protests that this will mean being inside the fear gas cloud. Batman just says that he'll have to work really fast, before he succumbs to it.
-There's a flying drone waiting to fire on me when I try to exit the airship. But with the Remote Hacking Device I can blind its sensors long enough to get past it.
-I glide over the city to a location the game's directing me to on a rooftop. As soon as I get there Alfred calls to say he hopes I'm not thinking what he thinks I'm thinking, because it would be reckless and irresponsible even by my standards. (I'm guessing that Batman plans to dive down into the gas and land in the Batmobile, or near it so that he can install the Nimbus thing.) Alfred says that even if the gas doesn't IMMEDIATELY incapacitate me, being exposed to it again could cause irreversible psychological trauma. But Batman's mind is made up. He dives off the ledge, and Joker falls backwards at the same time shouting "Wheee!"
-Mooks are fighting each other around the Batmobile, maddened by the fear gas. Batman lands next to it and thinks to himself that he needs to remove the Batmobile's currently installed power core SLOWLY, or the security failsafe will kick in and stop him. So he has to work fast, but he has to do this part SLOW. Yeah, it seems like the only thing which can prevent this plan from failing is Plot Armor. Joker's there as I pull the thing out, telling me that he can feel the toxin seeping into that demented mind of "ours", and that with every breath I take he's getting stronger. Batman ignores the Joker's taunts despite coughing and starting to turn purple and veiny, gets the new power core installed and then gets into the (relatively gas-free) car. Alfred wants to know how he is and Bruce says to just give him a moment. But Joker won't give him a moment, popping up outside the windshield and telling Bruce he isn't looking too good, soon it'll be Joker behind the wheel, and the best part will be that Bruce will be in the passenger seat watching everything Joker does.
-Batman drives off and Alfred tells him that the gas will interfere with any attempt to track the Cloudburst's current location. So Batman calls Ivy and asks her to try to clear away as much gas as she can. Unfortunately, Ivy can't; her plants are too weak. Batman asks if there's another plant they can wake up like they did the other one. Ivy tells him of one underneath Founder's Island, so Batman heads there.
-If it's not one thing, it's another: Batman is able to use the ground-penetrating sonar to find the plant, but in order to help Ivy rouse it he needs to fire off a more powerful sonar pulse than usual. Even when he does that, it still can't penetrate deep enough. Batman asks Alfred for help, and Alfred tells me that I can get closer to the plant by going underground via the subway system. So now I have to drive THERE.
-Oh great, and guarding the subway entrance are MIILITIA TANKS. Of course there are. Of course.
-Knight radios Scarecrow telling me that I took out the drones there but that I'm wasting my time since there's nothing there. Scarecrow says nothing they KNOW of. As I go further in, Scarecrow asks me what he thinks I'll find down there. Hope? I won't find any of that. He says he used to think that chemistry was the key to terror, that the perfect formula could break somebody, but that I proved him wrong. Which is why he's gone to such lengths to make me despair by changing the real world, I suppose; his toxin by itself wasn't enough.
-There's a door that the Batmobile can't get through, but being underground means Batman can exit the car without being exposed to more gas. (That's actually consistent, since the militia mooks have been talking throughout the game about how it would be safe from the fear gas underground.) He enters a ventilation shaft under the floor and goes under the door to see a Cobra tank waiting. He's able to blind it with the Remote Hacking Device before popping out of the grate. He moves past it and proceeds along the tunnel, strategically blinding any drones that might spot him and fire on him, until he reaches a control room where he can open the big door and use the remote control to drive the Batmobile in and blow up the drones.
-How can the world know true fear, Scarecrow ponders, when it has Batman protecting it? Fear is more than just biology, instinct, he says. It's the absence of hope. And with me gone, well, people are gonna have a lot less hope, aren't they?
-Joker wants to know if I'm REALLY still searching for Ivy's ancient shrubbery. Face it, it's over: Gotham's choking on Scarecrow's crazy-juice, Barbara's dead, and Batman's popularity is falling faster than the Flying Graysons on bring-your-child-to-work-day. Why am I still bothering, he asks.
-Scarecrow says that I promised Gotham would be safe, but what does everybody see now? It's covered in his gas, the plants aren't doing any good. I've failed. Scarecrow says he'll turn to me specifically now, not to end my life, but to end my myth, the myth of the hope that I stand for. THAT will die tonight.
-When I'm finally close to the plant Alfred calls and says he apologizes but he STILL has no idea who the Knight could possibly be. Batman says to look at former Arkham STAFF. Maybe it was somebody who was working with Quincy Sharp and Hugo Strange, looking to finish what they started, a co-conspirator.
-At the right spot Batman fires a powerful sonar pulse which "loosens the ground" and allows the plant to emerge under Ivy's control. As it reaches for the surface, it thoughtfully picks up the Batmobile with a vine and carries the car up. So I don't have to go back the way I came, thank god. The giant plant sprouts up through the ground and through the cloud of fear gas. Ivy says it's free. Batman says it's also drawing attention. Yup, it's another battle to protect the big plant.
-With the plant safe and the drones gone, the Knight says now it's time I face HIM. He tells me to just stop, stop acting like a hero, stop acting like I can save anything. Oh, I found another tree? Well, he still has the Cloudburst. If I want to finish things I should come to Bleake Island to meet him, and then it'll be over.
-Ivy comes on the line to say she's cleared away as much toxin as she can, but begs me to stop the Cloudburst before it kills her plants. Batman assures her he'll destroy it, and tells her to hang on. He also tells Alfred to raise the bridges so that the Knight and his tank can't get off of Bleake Island. Batman tells Alfred to use the Batwing to scan the Cloudburst for a weakness. Meanwhile, Batman will get rid of the Cobra drones in his way. Alfred has reservations, since Batman will be trapped with an enemy that has him severely outgunned. Batman says "No, I'M trapping HIM." Such a Rorschach thing to say there.
-The Knight says I've fixed the car and I'm back for more because Batman NEVER abandons his city, right? NEVER gives up? Well, he tells this "savior" that he's wrong. He says Batman isn't the only one who can come back stronger than ever, as he'll show me.
-Initially the Cobras give me trouble, but once I find some tunnels I can duck into after destroying one, I have an easier time throwing them off my trail and start doing better. When there are only two of them left, Scarecrow radios the Knight to tell him that since his escort is almost gone he should withdraw with the Cloudburst. However, the Knight refuses, saying that Batman can't defeat him because the Cloudburst is too powerful. (Oh, Alfred called a minute ago to say his scan of the Cloudburst was almost done. So, maybe not, Knight.)
-Scarecrow asks the Knight what he thinks he's doing. Knight says finishing the job. Scarecrow says this isn't the plan they agreed on. Knight says it's the plan that works, and then he addresses Batman. Knight tells Batman that Scarecrow can choke on his toxin; while Scarecrow wants Batman to suffer, the Knight just wants him dead.
-With the last Cobra blown up, Alfred reports to me that the Cloudburst and the Knight's tank to which it's mounted are both too well-armored for a direct assault. But, there's a coolant system attached to the Cloudburst to keep it from overheating. Batman says that's the key, and Alfred reconfigures the Batmobile's scanners to locate the coolant lines on the Knight's tank.
-As soon as Batman scans the tank and sees where the best places to strike are, he determines that a single shot won't be enough to cause the chain reaction which will take it out, so he needs to hit, run, and then hit again until the job is finished.
-After the first hit the Knight locks onto me and pursues me for longer than I'm comfortable with before I finally lose him. Scarecrow realizes what I'm trying to do and tells the Knight he has to leave, now, so that I can't cause it to overheat. The Knight refuses to accept that I can defeat him. Scarecrow tells him that he'll have his chance to kill me later. Knight says he will not wait any longer.
-Scarecrow snaps that the Cloudburst is not BAIT. It's his, Scarecrow's. And the Knight fires back that Batman is HIS.
-One more hit will do it. Scarecrow tells the Knight this and orders him to retreat. The Knight refuses again, saying this is to the end.
-Now even when the coolant lines are all shot out, it's STILL a tough fight, but finally I win and disable the Cloudburst tank. The Knight drags himself up through the hatch, stunned from the small explosions. Batman grabs him and grapples up to a rooftop with him before a BIG explosion destroys the tank completely, saving the Knight's life.
-Batman's in a bad way and can only lie on the roof gasping, but a second later the Knight is on top of him and trying to strangle him. Batman manages to flip him over and gets on top of him, punching him several times until the helmet is knocked off and JOKER's face is revealed! Damn these hallucinations.
-My perceptions change so that it's not just Joker's head I see, but his entire body complete with purple suit in place of the Knight, literally rolling on the floor (well, roof) laughing. Alfred calls to ask if I've subdued the Knight. "He's...he's gone." Alfred says I don't sound entirely sure. Then Batman calls Ivy to tell her the Cloudburst is gone, and asks her to use her plants to neutralize the toxin. But he can't raise her. Alfred says he's worried I might be too late, since Ivy's plants are being overwhelmed by the toxin by now.
-Scarecrow's NOT happy. The Cloudburst was HIS, and he's going to exact vengeance on me and all my allies for taking it from him. starting with Ivy. who even now is being killed by his toxin, along with her plants.
-Batman reaches the big tree (thankfully it's above the gas cloud) and checks on Ivy. The tree opens up revealing Ivy so weakened that she's on one knee. She drags herself to a standing position using handholds inside the tree. When we see her face she looks very sickly. She takes hold of two growths near her, one in each hand, and tries to do something, but is overcome with pain and collapses. But suddenly the tree stops looking almost dead and is all nice and green again. So...that's something?
-Oh fuck. As Batman cradles Ivy in his arms, she looks up and manages a smile. "Nature always wins," she whispers, before her eyes go milky white. Any doubts about whether or not she's dead are quickly put to rest as her body literally falls apart in Batman's arms, turning into flakes that blow away. But it wasn't for nothing: spores from the tree (and also the other tree, I presume) wash over Gotham. All of the gas goes away. Damn. Why did redemption have to equal death? :(
-Alfred calls to congratulate me on succeeding. Then he remembers I didn't do it alone, saying "You and Poison Ivy." He believes that they underestimated the humanity still within her. That's Batman's cue to deliver the bad news: she's gone. Removing the toxin took everything she had. Alfred is surprised by this, but says that her final act was a noble one.
-So sure, THAT crisis is done, but Batman still has to stop Scarecrow so he can't try something else. Does Alfred have any leads? Nothing concrete, but he suggests I go to the GCPD comms room; they're picking up encrypted transmissions on a SWAT frequency, which is very odd since there are no SWAT units currently out there. Alfred also says that with the gas gone I can get back to the side missions, which were all temporarily locked after the Cloudburst was deployed.
-Scarecrow: "You actually believe you've won, don't you Batman? Savor this fleeting delusion of victory. The Arkham Knight may have fled in terror, but now his army answers to me. For even as my toxin dissipates, it leaves behind a forsaken city, forever tainted by your failure. Tonight, the myth of the Batman dies, and Gotham dies with it."
-He has a point; I do have to wonder how many people are dead now. Well, if nothing else, things look a lot nicer than before. You know how sometimes you'll pick a dandelion when it gets to the puffball stage and blow on it so you can watch all the seeds fly away? Picture a cloud of seeds like that, only all over the place, gently floating along on the breeze. Kind of like a gentle snowfall, except with plant seeds. The aftereffects of Ivy's Heroic Sacrifice are quite pretty.
-HEY, MAN-BAT SIGHTING! Geez, I shudder to think what THIS guy was like while under the toxin's effects. Well, maybe he was flying over it the whole time. Anyway, I land on his back again and give him another dose of antidote. It doesn't immediately change him back, but it does render him unconscious. Batman radios Cash to tell him to prepare an isolation chamber at GCPD, which Cash says he'll have ready. Batman loads Langstrom (still in his monstrous form) into the back of the car and sets off.
-If you were wondering about the reason Langstrom tested on himself, well, his story was added to the various information available to Batman after I solved one of Riddler's riddles. Langstrom was diagnosed with a rare type of tinnitis. It was going to get worse and it was only a matter of time before he lost his hearing entirely. If I had been him then I would have wanted to stop that too. But of course it backfired horribly.
-Once Batman arrives, Langstrom is back in human form, but appears to be in shock. Batman carries him inside the station. Cut to Langstrom in a cell, with Batman and Cash looking in and Cash saying he thought he'd seen it all. Cash asks if Langstrom will be all right, with Batman saying he will be PHYSICALLY. Then the doctor speaks up and asks what happened to his wife. Batman breaks the news that she's dead. He tells Langstrom that the serum changed him, and Langstrom understandably breaks down and wails "What have I done?!" He slumps to the floor sobbing as he repeats it over and over.
-The cop in love with Poison Ivy says that she did it, she saved everybody just like he knew she would! But, poor guy is unaware that Ivy's now dead. He's even written her a poem, if Batman wants to hear it. Pressing Space to keep talking to him is taken as a "yes". I really must share this masterpiece with you:
"Let me be the blossom on your branch
The Aphid on your leaf.
"Let me be the green stuff in your veins,
The stuff that tastes so sweet.
"Let me be your photosynthesis,
Your sun and rain complete.
"Oh, Ivy, let me be, let me be,
Let me be your one and only."
-What does Batman think? Is that too much? Batman has no comment.
-Going back to Langstrom, I can't talk to him right now. I suppose I can't blame the guy if he wants to be left alone. Anyway, since I'm in the police station already I may as well pick up the main story by heading to the comm room.
-Officer Owens is about back to normal by now and not confined to a cell any more. But the cop watching him tells me that he freaked when the gas hit, and they were worried he'd relapse. Got to make sure he doesn't get his hands on any weapons just in case.
-Talking to Owens has him describe it as the worst nightmare you ever had and it doesn't stop, you can't wake up, it just keeps pulling you under. He begs Batman to tell him it's all over, since he doesn't think he can take much more. And he says that the others don't understand, they haven't seen what he has. (Guess the police station was airtight? Overall I think this is a well-written game, but there are some inconsistencies and plot holes.)
-Talking to another couple of cops makes one (female) ask the other how many of his own men Scarecrow probably wiped out when he released that stuff. The guy says that's the thing; the gas releases your own worst fears, so Scarecrow didn't kill them, they killed each other. The woman says either way it shows how much of a psycho he is.
-The same guy cop says he's grateful that I gave them their city back, at least the breathable part. Then he wonders what things are gonna be like afterwards? Whoever wins, nothing will be the same. And that's true; no matter what, Gotham's been through a bona fide disaster.
-Talking to Cash, Batman mentions what Alfred told him about the encrypted message that has the comm guys puzzled. Cash begins to ask how Batman knows that and then cuts himself off because, as he says, it's a stupid question. Anyway, he invites Batman to try and figure it out. Int he comm room one of the officers says that when the gas was interfering with everybody's communications the militia switched to open channels. From what they overheard during that time, it seems that what Scarecrow said is true: the Knight has disappeared.
-The other comm guy can't decrypt the message on the SWAT channel despite his best efforts, saying that those boys really don't like anybody listening in. Batman's able to easily do it, however, and it turns out the guy using it is Gordon. He's asking somebody to help him prepare to go after Scarecrow, because he's found where Crane is and he's going to get revenge for Barbara. Batman thinks he'll end up getting himself killed too, and resolves to stop Jim. Turns out that the game would have prompted me to pick up the Remote Electrical Charge at this point if I hadn't already got it; Batman gets in contact with Alfred, who tells him that Jim's broadcasting from an abandoned shopping mall that has been without power for a long time, so there might be some obstacles. Batman responds that those won't be a problem since he's got the REC.
-Speaking to another lady cop in the comm room has her agreeing with the general consensus that Gordon shouldn't be tackling this alone. She tells me that if Gordon gets killed she's worried that somebody in custody will end up getting lynched by the cops who've been pushed too far already. And it's a valid concern; earlier conversations had some cops talking about how locking the various criminals up is too good for them and they ought to just be killed, and other cops talking about how this whole thing is making some of them talk crazy and forget what they're supposed to be.
-Case in point, although a minor one: a couple of male cops standing guard outside the cells. Talking causes one to say that it felt good telling the militia mooks that their big plan failed and rubbing their noses in it. His friend tells him not to stoop to their level. But the first guy says that the two of them have been taking crap from the militia guys all night, so they have it coming. At least here it's just verbal.
-These are the same two guys who were there when I found the Riddler informant cop, by the way. He's still there in his cell, and talking to him has him say that Riddler's really got it in for Batman. The cop says he's never seen a guy so obsessed; either Riddler's gonna get me or go mad trying. (I believe the "going mad" ship has sailed.)
-Heh, this is a nice line. One cop says that with his hay fever he'd normally be complaining about this much pollen in the air, but screw it.
-Overheard mook chatter: "Be nice if Scarecrow got on one of those freakin' billboards and apologized for gassin' us!"
-I overheard a militia guy say that when he saw the cloud he ran into a restaurant and hid in the freezer. The gas didn't get him but he thought his fingers would fall off.
-I've found another murder victim, with "REJECT" written next to them. Scans reveal: a bleached patch of skin consistent with a chemical burn, most likely something chlorine-based. The victim had tracheal surgery to remove a cancerous growth, and was fitted with a voice box. Finally, she (and we can now tell it's a she) had a rare genetic disorder causing her to have six fingers on one hand.
-Name: Alison Wears. She worked at Ace Chemicals, which Alfred says explains some of her ailments. When last seen she was living at a retirement home near a large park. By now Alfred's able to give me another connection: a circus, the "Circus of Strange" passed by all the locations these people went missing from. Alfred says this circus is run by a "rather suspicious fellow" named Lazlow Valentin. A search for properties leased by this guy is requested by Batman, and Alfred quickly finds that he used to lease a beauty salon here in Gotham, but the lease expired shortly before contstruction of Wayne Plaza began in that area. Batman asks for the location; it's time to end this.
-Gotta say, the game had me thinking this was Thomas Elliott's work, since I hadn't yet seen Hush at that point and Elliott did have the kind of surgical skills which would allow him to remove some of the identifying features of the victims like the killer did. But after he showed up at Wayne Tower I figured he wasn't connected to this. After all, it would be weird to apprehend him in one side mission and then discover that he was the guy I was chasing in a completely different side mission, right?
-Here we are, the "Pretty Dolls Parlor". I anticipate creepy shit inside. Just a hunch.
-It's empty. Opera music is playing. I go further in. Oh boy, I end up at a gate through which I can see the back of somebody singing along with the opera music while performing surgery on somebody else. Detective mode also shows me 15 hostiles in the room, behind the gate, although none of them are visible just yet. I shudder at what this guy may have done to them. I hear "muffled screaming". Then somebody begs to make it stop, and "Pyg" responds by saying he'll make it all better, that pain is just the body's way of saying "thank you". A "Dollotron" responds by saying "thank you".
-This rings a bell. I remember reading a bit of stuff about this guy. He's a Grant Morrison creation, and Grant Morrison has come up with some very fucked up things during his career. I don't remember too many specifics but I do remember my reaction to what I read of Professor Pyg's villainous deeds. I remember finding it very disturbing. All right, let's get Batman in there to stop this fucker and hope that his surviving victims aren't doomed to lives as freaks.
-Batman bursts in and tells Valentin he's done. Pyg (wearing a pig mask to make this situation even more creepy) says no, Pyg not done! Pyg made all of them better, Pyg can make Batman better too. Batman says he's insane (YA THINK?!). Pyg asks "And what are you?" Pyg says he's like God, like clay, and will fix everybody. He backs away and Batman examines the guy on the operating table, whose face is covered in bandages. The guy then makes a noise, gets up, and attacks Batman as Pyg urges him to show Batman how perfect he is. I feel bad countering and knocking out somebody who's been so traumatized. This is gonna suck.
-Then Pyg shouts, from a safe distance now, "Rise up my precious, he cannot keep you down!" And the guy does. Batman privately thinks that they seem to be immune to pain, and he needs to figure out a way to keep them from getting up. Firing the REC at them seems to work; I guess Pyg implanted something in them to make them keep standing up and it gets shorted out.
-After about a half-dozen "Dollotrons" are unconscious, Pyg returns to the room with a butcher's cleaver. He sings that he's coming for me, coming to "make me perfect". He sings "Pyg chop you up and put you back together" as more of his creations surround me. Now, here's what I wasn't expecting him to do: THROW several cleavers at me. Batman can counter them and throw one back, which hits Pyg handle-first and stuns him. (I really would not mind if he got cut, because look at what he's done to these people.)
-The creepiness factor is upped by the Dollotrons shuffling around like zombies. When they attack Batman they move quickly, but when they're not attacking they're shuffling. Damn.
-I eventually lose the fight and the death screen....yeah, less said about that, the better. But the game tells me to use ground takedowns, environment takedowns (e.g. throwing somebody into an electrical thing to give them a shock) or just the regular special takedown you can use when your combo meter's high enough. Finally all the Dollotrons are down and I end up chasing Pyg around his operating table until I'm able to do an environment takedown on him, which means bashing him into the table and knocking him out that way.
-Oh, there are poor people above in cages who haven't yet been "made perfect". Well, I can save THEM and they can go on to lead normal lives if they're able to put this experience behind them, at least. I lower the cages and let them out, assuring them that GCPD will be sent to take care of them. Then I load Pyg into the Batmobile and head for the police station. He comes around and wants to know where I'm taking him. I tell him where he won't be able to hurt anybody else. Pyg doesn't hurt, he says. Pyg heals. Pyg fixes. His Dollotrons are works of art. Batman snaps that they're living a fate worse than death. Not worse, Pyg says, but better. "Pyg make life worth living!"
-What about the people he murdered, Batman demands. Oh, they were too imperfect, too broken, for Pyg to fix. He makes a pig noise and says that they made "mother" angry. Batman tells him that the things which were imperfect and which he couldn't fix was how Batman identified the bodies and was able to track him down and why he failed. (And yes, all of the bodies looked like Dollotrons, so Pyg apparently came to the conclusion that they were a waste only AFTER he did the procedure on them. Lovely.) "No, not fail..." Then. "Pyg show you sick...like to see?" "You've got problems, Valentin," Batman responds. HEY EVERYBODY, REMEMBER EARLIER WHEN I SAID SOMETHING WAS MAYBE THE BIGGEST UNDERSTATEMENT EVER, PROBABLY? WE HAVE A NEW CONTENDER!!!
-At GCPD Pyg begs not to be locked away, since "mother won't be pleased". In his cell Pyg is blubbering that he wasn't good enough, that he can do better, stuff like that. Oh, hi Joker. Joker says that ol' pig-face here's a total lunatic, far too good for this place. He tells Pyg not to worry; when Joker's in control, Pyg will be the first one he lets out. And what's this? He's been put in the same maximum security cell as Firefly? I....uh...I feel bad for FIREFLY here, guys. I mean I don't think Pyg can actually hurt him, but can you imagine having a roommate like that? My skin crawls at the notion.
-I gotta look at this sick fuck's bio. Okay, he was a gifted scientist who suffered schizophrenic break causing him to develop the Pyg personality. He started up his circus to collect victims, and he uses indentity-destroying drugs and invasive surgery to create "genderless lobotomized humans known as Dollotrons". You know, when I was scanning the dead bodies I was wondering why none of the women had boobs and why they all looked alike. Well, now I know; it isn't because the people who made the game decided to only use a single model over and over, it's because Pyg MADE THEM identical. Good lord.
-Officer Owens is about back to normal by now and not confined to a cell any more. But the cop watching him tells me that he freaked when the gas hit, and they were worried he'd relapse. Got to make sure he doesn't get his hands on any weapons just in case.
-Talking to Owens has him describe it as the worst nightmare you ever had and it doesn't stop, you can't wake up, it just keeps pulling you under. He begs Batman to tell him it's all over, since he doesn't think he can take much more. And he says that the others don't understand, they haven't seen what he has. (Guess the police station was airtight? Overall I think this is a well-written game, but there are some inconsistencies and plot holes.)
-Talking to another couple of cops makes one (female) ask the other how many of his own men Scarecrow probably wiped out when he released that stuff. The guy says that's the thing; the gas releases your own worst fears, so Scarecrow didn't kill them, they killed each other. The woman says either way it shows how much of a psycho he is.
-The same guy cop says he's grateful that I gave them their city back, at least the breathable part. Then he wonders what things are gonna be like afterwards? Whoever wins, nothing will be the same. And that's true; no matter what, Gotham's been through a bona fide disaster.
-Talking to Cash, Batman mentions what Alfred told him about the encrypted message that has the comm guys puzzled. Cash begins to ask how Batman knows that and then cuts himself off because, as he says, it's a stupid question. Anyway, he invites Batman to try and figure it out. Int he comm room one of the officers says that when the gas was interfering with everybody's communications the militia switched to open channels. From what they overheard during that time, it seems that what Scarecrow said is true: the Knight has disappeared.
-The other comm guy can't decrypt the message on the SWAT channel despite his best efforts, saying that those boys really don't like anybody listening in. Batman's able to easily do it, however, and it turns out the guy using it is Gordon. He's asking somebody to help him prepare to go after Scarecrow, because he's found where Crane is and he's going to get revenge for Barbara. Batman thinks he'll end up getting himself killed too, and resolves to stop Jim. Turns out that the game would have prompted me to pick up the Remote Electrical Charge at this point if I hadn't already got it; Batman gets in contact with Alfred, who tells him that Jim's broadcasting from an abandoned shopping mall that has been without power for a long time, so there might be some obstacles. Batman responds that those won't be a problem since he's got the REC.
-Speaking to another lady cop in the comm room has her agreeing with the general consensus that Gordon shouldn't be tackling this alone. She tells me that if Gordon gets killed she's worried that somebody in custody will end up getting lynched by the cops who've been pushed too far already. And it's a valid concern; earlier conversations had some cops talking about how locking the various criminals up is too good for them and they ought to just be killed, and other cops talking about how this whole thing is making some of them talk crazy and forget what they're supposed to be.
-Case in point, although a minor one: a couple of male cops standing guard outside the cells. Talking causes one to say that it felt good telling the militia mooks that their big plan failed and rubbing their noses in it. His friend tells him not to stoop to their level. But the first guy says that the two of them have been taking crap from the militia guys all night, so they have it coming. At least here it's just verbal.
-These are the same two guys who were there when I found the Riddler informant cop, by the way. He's still there in his cell, and talking to him has him say that Riddler's really got it in for Batman. The cop says he's never seen a guy so obsessed; either Riddler's gonna get me or go mad trying. (I believe the "going mad" ship has sailed.)
-Heh, this is a nice line. One cop says that with his hay fever he'd normally be complaining about this much pollen in the air, but screw it.
-Overheard mook chatter: "Be nice if Scarecrow got on one of those freakin' billboards and apologized for gassin' us!"
-Well, here's one explanation for how at least one of the mooks on the streets isn't crazy now: I overheard a militia guy say that when he saw the cloud he ran into a restaurant and hid in the freezer. The gas didn't get him but he thought his fingers would fall off.
-I've found another murder victim, with "REJECT" written next to them. Scans reveal: a bleached patch of skin consistent with a chemical burn, most likely something chlorine-based. The victim had tracheal surgery to remove a cancerous growth, and was fitted with a voice box. Finally, she (and we can now tell it's a she) had a rare genetic disorder causing her to have six fingers on one hand.
-Name: Alison Wears. She worked at Ace Chemicals, which Alfred says explains some of her ailments. When last seen she was living at a retirement home near a large park. By now Alfred's able to give me another connection: a circus, the "Circus of Strange" passed by all the locatiosn these people went missing from. Alfred says this circus is run by a "rather suspicious fellow" named Lazlow Valentin. A search for properties leased by this guy is requested by Batman, and Alfred quickly finds that he used to lease a beauty salon here in Gotham, but the lease expired shortly before contstruction of Wayne Plaza began in that area. Batman asks for the location; it's time to end this.
-Gotta say, the game had me thinking this was Thomas Elliott's work, since I hadn't yet seen Hush at that point and Elliott did have the kind of surgical skills which would allow him to remove some of the identifying features of the victims like the killer did. But after he showed up at Wayne Tower I figured he wasn't connected to this. After all, it would be weird to apprehend him in one side mission and then discover that he was the guy I was chasing in a completely different side mission, right?
-Here we are, the "Pretty Dolls Parlor". I anticipate creepy shit inside. Just a hunch.
-It's empty. Opera music is playing. I go further in. Oh boy, I end up at a gate through which I can see the back of somebody singing along with the opera music while performing surgery on somebody else. Detective mode also shows me 15 hostiles in the room, behind the gate, although none of them are visible just yet. I shudder at what this guy may have done to them. I hear "muffled screaming". Then somebody begs to make it stop, and "Pyg" responds by saying he'll make it all better, that pain is just the body's way of saying "thank you". A "Dollotron" responds by saying "thank you".
-This rings a bell. I remember reading a bit of stuff about this guy. He's a Grant Morrison creation, and Grant Morrison has come up with some very fucked up things during his career. I don't remember too many specifics but I do remember my reaction to what I read of Professor Pyg's villainous deeds. I remember finding it very disturbing. All right, let's get Batman in there to stop this fucker and hope that his surviving victims aren't doomed to lives as freaks.
-Batman bursts in and tells Valentin he's done. Pyg (wearing a pig mask to make this situation even more creepy) says no, Pyg not done! Pyg made all of them better, Pyg can make Batman better too. Batman says he's insane (YA THINK?!). Pyg asks "And what are you?" Pyg says he's like God, like clay, and will fix everybody. He backs away and Batman examines the guy on the operating table, whose face is covered in bandages. The guy then makes a noise, gets up, and attacks Batman as Pyg urges him to show Batman how perfect he is. I feel bad countering and knocking out somebody who's been so traumatized. This is gonna suck.
-Then Pyg shouts, from a safe distance now, "Rise up my precious, he cannot keep you down!" And the guy does. Batman privately thinks that they seem to be immune to pain, and he needs to figure out a way to keep them from getting up. Firing the REC at them seems to work; I guess Pyg implanted something in them to make them keep standing up and it gets shorted out.
-After about a half-dozen "Dollotrons" are unconscious, Pyg returns to the room with a butcher's cleaver. He sings that he's coming for me, coming to "make me perfect". He sings "Pyg chop you up and put you back together" as more of his creations surround me. Now, here's what I wasn't expecting him to do: THROW several cleavers at me. Batman can counter them and throw one back, which hits Pyg handle-first and stuns him. (I really would not mind if he got cut, because look at what he's done to these people.)
-The creepiness factor is upped by the Dollotrons shuffling around like zombies. When they attack Batman they move quickly, but when they're not attacking they're shuffling. Damn.
-Talking to Pyg has Batman tell him that he (Batman) expects Pyg to help his surviving victims by telling the cops everything he'd done to them. Pyg says it isn't too late, he's an artist, he can make Batman perfect. At the end of his speech Joker says that this guy's sicker than even his and Harley's honeymoon tapes, but he has a point and maybe I'd look better after Pyg carved a smile onto me.
-Langstrom's availabe to converse with now. Batman apologizes to him for having him confined but says it's the best place for him at the moment. Langstrom agonizes that he was trying to help people and he ended up killing the person he loved most. Batman says that he didn't mean to harm anybody, but Langstrom says it doesn't matter, he still did, he's a monster and he thinks he deserves to be kept in here. Joker has this to say: it occurs to him just now that Kirky-baby never had a choice, but I made the DECISION to be a flying rodent! It's genius!
-Talking to Langstrom more eventually has him say that he feels strange, that he feels something inside him, a presence. Yeah, that sounds bad. Langstrom goes on to ask me about the antidote I synthesized and if I can make one that's certain to be permanent. He's worried about the possibility changing back and killing somebody else.
-Well, back to those missing firefighters. I've found the another one: he and his captors/tormentors are behind a wall I need to pull down with the power-winch. The mooks I have to fight include two Brutes who have stun fists, i.e. gauntlets that deliver an electric shock whenever I hit them or they hit me. But Remote Electrical Charge to the rescue! Zapping them with it shorts out their gauntlets and I'm able to beat on them as normal as long as I don't give them enough space to recover and reactivate the things. (Oh, I suppose grabbing a dropped baseball bat and hitting them with that would work too; it does against regular mooks wielding electric shock batons.)
-Now to find Gordon. Batman drops into a manhole in the street and comes across a pool of water that's electrified. I can't use the Line Launcher to go over it because there's a thing in the way, so I need the REC to shut off the generator making it all shocky. (Although from what Alfred said I was under the impression that the obstacles I'd run into would be the result of not enough electricity, as opposed to too much of the same.)
-Shutting off the generator makes the water safe to walk through but makes bars spring up to keep me from going further after I've crossed the pool. Turning it back on makes the bars go away. Then I grapple up into an air vent and...WOW, Jim really fucked up bad. I'm in a room full of armed militia mooks, looking up at them through the floor, and a battered Commissioner Gordon is in the grasp of one mook.
-The mook orders Jim into the elevator. Jim says that when Batman comes for him they'll need a lot more guys than are in that room. The mook repeats the order with the threat that if Jim doesn't comply then he'll need a wheelchair just like his daughter.
-Can't help but overheard mook chatter since they're literally feet away from my position. Question: why would we need more guys when he's just one man? Answer: guessing you never met Batman. Anyway, they're short on numbers. Where IS everybody, a mook wants to know. Down in a briefing, another mook answers. But nobody told the first mook about any briefing, so he wants to know what it's about. Answer: something about how to kill the Bat. Which raises a question from the guy who wasn't told about the briefing: if their job is to kill the Bat, why are THEY not part of this briefing?!
-Joker appears over the grate I'm hiding in. "Sorry Bats, guess you're not invited!" He suspects it happens all the time, and that Alfred's probably in the middle of some shindig-a-go-go at the Batcave right now. Anyway, Joker's sure I can find SOME way of convincing these dopes to open the door.
-What door is he talking about? Well, I cannot help but notice that one of the things in this room is something that the Batmobile's power winch can pull on. Which means I can get the car in here, which means there's a door I can drive it through, probably.
-Yup, this is a job for the voice synthesizer. The mooks hear the Arkham Knight telling them to open the door. They're a bit surprised by this since they thought that their boss was taken out when the Cloudburst tank was destroyed, but apparently not, so they figure they should get those shutters raised. Hey, the Batmobile happens to be parked RIGHT OUTSIDE. Oh, these poor fools. And remember I don't even need to go back to it, I can just use the remote control.
-Batman has arrived ahead of schedule, Scarecrow announces over the PA to the mooks that haven't been taken down by the Batmobile and are still conscious. He orders the elevators locked down and Batman found. Batman opens a fuse box and pulls some wires which causes a door to open up. Scarecrow asks if I still believe I'm Gotham's savior, since soon the world will see me for what I am, a figment of hope in a world of suffering and pain.
-An unexpected use of the REC since in the past I've just used it to power things up, power things down, or magnetize things. Here, there's a generator I need to stop generating, but I can't actually shut it down. The answer is to overload it by shooting it repeatedly with the REC to make it work faster and faster until it can take no more and explodes.
-Joker wonders where supervillains head to after they've taken a battering. He wouldn't know of course since I never bested him (did you forget about that time I hit you with a fist covered in explosive gel?), but he wonders if the Knight is in some dive bar right now splashing glass after glass of cheap whiskey into his masked face.
-The generator I overloaded powers a giant fan in a pit. Using the same "hanging" trick with the Batmobile I did for that series of Riddler puzzles, I lower the car into the pit, and shutting off the fan means I can lower it past the no-longer-whirling blades. This gets the car in firing range of a weak wall, on the other side, which I destroy, and then use the non-lethal rounds from the Batmobile's smaller gun to knock out the mooks investigating the explosion before I eject and glide across into the room.
-Oh, huh, when I run into regular mooks with stun sticks, the game tells me I can use the REC to disable those too. I sure wish that had worked in Arkham City. (or did it, and I just never tried it? Have to test that later...)
-I'm now above another set of fan blades, which I'll need to turn off so I can lower the Batmobile even further. Scarecrow is asking me how much I'll give to save my friends. Will I reveal my secret identity? (Already done to save Lucius, but maybe that was sequence-breaking on my part.) Will I sacrifice the legend of Batman?
-Oh look at this: more mooks tempting fate! I can't see them since there's a wall between us, but one is asking if it's safe to stand in this water. His friend tells him to relax; there hasn't been any power running through here in YEARS! Yes, there's absolutely no chance of a guy coming along with an electricity gun and firing it into this pool we're standing in, electrocuting all of us! (I added that last one myself, of course.)
-I come across the briefing in my explorations, and the guy giving it says, among other things, that they have a new tactic against Batman, one which the Knight has personally chosen him to test (was this before or after the Knight's defeat in the tank?). It's a vest that explodes if the wearer is rendered unconscious. The other mooks can't believe he's wearing a suicide vest, but the guy says that Batman doesn't kill, not even indirectly, and if he ends up killing the guy in the vest then his "pacifist, crybaby ass" won't be able to live with himself. (Um, I don't think you know what the word "pacifist" means here. And Batman's guilt won't be of much help to you, and he would need to end up being responsible for more than just one death before this form of psychological warfare yielded any effective results; after all, he's blaming himself for Barbara's death already but still pressing on.) But in any case, says the mook giving the briefing, HE was chosen to test the thing so none of the other cowards (his words) in the room have to wear one of these.
-The rest of the briefing covers other anti-Batman tactics, which aren't all terrible, to be honest. First one's easy: protect the medics who will revive you if you get knocked out. Also, it's important to place sentry guns FAST if Batman's around, since they're a lot harder for him to deal with than a regular mook with a regular gun. (Of course I have the Remote Hacking Device now, but I can currently only blind one sentry gun at a time with that.) Third, don't waste ammo firing at center mass with Batman because that's where his armor is thickest; that's why the Bat symbol is there as the Knight previously told some of his other mooks, to draw attention to that point. Shoot him in the arms, legs, anywhere but the chest. Fourth, vantage points like gargoyles and shit. The lead mook asks the others to imagine "Where would I hide if I was that sneaky son of a bitch?" He tells them to shoot these vantage points and destroy them, or to throw sticky-mines onto them. Fifth, if Batman can't use vantage points, he'll crawl through vents. Which is why they have thermobaric charges to throw in there, which will fill the vents with gas and then explode a moment later.
-The leader finishes by saying that Batman has a billion dollars worth of high tech equipment, including surveillance equipment he uses to scan the room. But they are able to track that when he uses it (which I found out some time ago). He asks if there are any questions. One guy snarks: yeah, you know there's no way in hell any of us are wearing suicide vests, right? The leader responds that if they don't want the safety and comfort that only 30 lbs of high explosives strapped to your chest can provide, then that's their risk to take. (These are almost his exact words.)
-Unfortunately none of these guys will get to use the knowledge they've been imparted here, at least not all of it, since none of them have guns, so I can just jump down and beat them all up. There are medics among them, but that's it. As for the guy with the vest, I don't know, but maybe shooting him with the REC will short out the bombs the same way it did with Riddler's brain-bombs? Have to see.
-Well, maybe it isn't that simple; Batman emerges from the vent onto a beam above the room, and observes the leader wearing the vest. He tells the player that he needs to neutralize that guy first, but most of my gadgets are unavailable since they'll all apparently alert the gathered mooks to my presence. One gadget I CAN use is the disruptor, and I get a pleasant surprise: I can't use it to disable the bomb vest, but an upgrade I made to it earlier and subsequently forgot about allows me to shoot some of the medics' gear so that when they try to revive one of their comrades they get knocked out themselves. Cool beans.
-Joker's sitting on a beam nearby, and says they're packing more firepower than Penguin. (Because, remember, Penguin was smuggling arms last we saw him. If I had spent more time on the side mission to stop him then I might not need to bring that up, but I haven't, so I feel like I'd better mention it.) He asks if Batman is thinking the same thing he is, namely that the weapons crate is just BEGGING to be tampered with. And yes, I can shoot that with the disruptor too, meaning that as soon as anybody goes to grab a gun from it they'll be incapacitated.
-There happens to be a curtain sort of thing draped behind the leader. I'm able to drop down behind it and get directly behind him. Batman bursts through the curtain, grabs the guy, and is able to disarm the vest faster than I ever would have guessed. Joker asks the assembled mooks who their money is on. He's betting on Batman, although of course he has a VESTED interest. (Ugh.)
-During the fight one of the mooks is like "Remember the briefing, we can take him!" Then I use the REC, and somebody else says "Nobody said he could do THAT!" Well, it's all over soon enough.
-Joker's being horrible again. He observes that those guys really did their homework, and wonders how they know all this anyway. Do I think Barbara told them? Joker's had experience after all, and he knows how my sidekicks react after a "teeny" bit of torture: "Please, make it stop, I'll tell all Batman's secrets, BOO HOO HOO!"
-I manage to find a way to the generator powering the second fan and overload it too, lowering the Batmobile down and using it to blow open another passage, as well as remove a troublesome sentry gun. Now I'm less than 100 meters away from Gordon's location, but the tunnel won't take me directly to it. Batman asks Alfred to see if he can find any schematics of this complex that might help. So Batman goes further down the tunnel.
-He proceeds by driving along the walls to get over gates, make a jump over a ramp...and then after he lands a GIANT DRILL-TANK DRILLS UP THROUGH THE FLOOR BEHIND HIM, AND IT'S PILOTED BY THE KNIGHT! He quips that he did ask if the vehicle came in black but then he thought, nah, Batman would just get jealous.
-Knight asks if I really thought he was gone. No no, if you get knocked down, you pick yourself up again. He learned that from an "old friend". And the drill-tank is getting closer and closer to the Batmobile. I have to drive in reverse, fast, to avoid getting drilled to death.
-Oh, um, or turn around and drive FORWARD, fast. That works a lot better, since just reversing got me drilled to death. >_> Anyway, eventually I get into a spot where the Batmobile can fit but the drill-tank can't, even with its drill. Alfred radios to tell me that he's afraid there's no way out of where I'm trapped just now. The Knight's remotely blocked all ways out. So Batman concludes he has to fight the guy. Alfred says the Batmobile's armor and weaponry are no match for the drill-tank. But Batman counters that HE is a match, and he'll figure out a way.
-AHA! Here's the way to beat him. These tunnels have explosives planted in them that are left over from when crews were excavating. The Batmobile can drive right under the explosives covering the tunnel walls. But the drill-tank is so big that it can't get through the same space without touching them, and thereby touching the explosives OFF. If I lead the Knight through enough areas like that, I'll beat him.
-Scarecrow comes on the line telling the Knight that everything's in hand after I lead the Knight into a set of explosives and damage his vehicle. Once again, the Knight pretty much tells him to go screw and is determined to chase me until he kills me.
-This is actually kind of tough since staying ahead of the Knight requires good driving to avoid obstacles and I end up dying several times. The Knight eventually says that Scarecrow's right: the world SHOULD see me for the worthless thing I am. But he already knows, and he won't wait any longer.
-Finally the Knight's vehicle has had all the explosions it can take and it can't takes no more. Alfred radios that he's disabled the lock on the exit from this area and suggests I get out of there. I try, but right at that moment the drill-tank shows up again, damaged but still able to demolish my car. The Knight says he did it, cornered me. All those years, all the enemies I faced tried and failed to do this, but none of them understand Batman like he does. Do I think Crane found Oracle on his own? (No, I think you told him.) The Knight says he told him, because he knows everything about me. But don't worry, "Bruce"; he kept some secrets to himself. (Guess who this is if you don't know or haven't already guessed. This would be an excellent time to guess, I think.)
-The only way out is to eject, so Batman flies up and looks down through the hole as the Batmobile is destroyed. The good news is that I'm close to Gordon and the mooks holding him captive. Here's an opinion: after that scene they'd BETTER damn well reveal the Knight's identity instead of dragging it out some more. As I said at the beginning, I know who's under the mask, but I want all the answers, I want to know his reasons, because I never learned those.
-I get under the floor and am in perfect position to do a multi-takedown of some the mooks as I watch them beating on Gordon. I beat them all up, and right when I'm about to untie Gordon, the Knight's voice tells me to turn around. He's there, holding a gun on me.
-FINALLY, THE REVEAL! Batman asks who he is. The Knight says "You really have no idea, do you Bruce?" and presses a button make his mask retract. JASON TODD. If we couldn't tell it was him, the "J" branded onto his cheek is a giveaway. Batman's astonished and says he thought Jason was dead. Then Joker appears and says to Batman that he might have told him a teeny little lie, but look at the boy! We did good! We should be proud!
-Jason asks what's the matter. Am I lost for words? Jason says he's hurt. Batman says that Joker sent him the film, that he saw Joker kill him. Then Jason loses it, shouting at Batman not to dare lie to him! How long did I wait to replace him, he shouts. A week? A month? He TRUSTED me, and I just left him to DIE!
-Batman protests that's not what happened. Jason says that Bruce always told him to focus on what he wanted to achieve. That's what he's doing. What he wants to achieve now is my death, and he puts the muzzle of the gun under my chin. Batman headbutts him, causing him to stagger back, but just momentarily as he pulls dual pistols and fires them. Batman's vanished, however. Jason shouts that I can't hide, he WILL hunt me down!
-Jason seemingly transforms his two guns into a sniper rifle, discards the Bat-like part of his helmet and pulls down an apparently equally protective facemask. Then he grapples up to a vantage point. Batman, from hiding, observes that Jason's taken a position to snipe hiim from, and he needs to take him by surprise.
-Jason wonders if I even bothered to look for him, or if I just went looking for a replacement right away. Batman manages to sneak under the vantage point he's sitting on and grapple onto it, where he tries to wrestle the rifle away from Jason. He tells Jason he can help him. He shouts that there's no helping him, and uses a smoke bomb to retreat. Then he's on another vantage point and tells me I'm not the only one with sidekicks as a wall slides away to reveal additional opposition in the form of drones and mooks.
-One of the things Jason says during the course of the encounter is that it was all about Batman, what Joker did to him. He ruined Jason to spite Batman.
-Something else: Do I even know what Joker did to him? The games he used to play? What Jason's doing to Batman is MERCY compared to what Joker put him through.
-Batman again manages to grapple up to Jason's location and try to overpower him. He tells Jason that Joker got to him, he understands, he knows what it's like. Jason shouts "Don't PRETEND to understand!" and does the thing with the smoke again, escaping to another location. And then I need to get out of that section of the area before it's gassed.
-At another location Jason says he learned how to take a little pain. He learned from the best. But still, you can't hurt what you can't see. While JASON is visible in Detective Mode, the reinforcements he's summoned are not. Jason tells me it's optic deflection armor, and that if I want to beat them I need to use my eyes, if I even remember how.
-After I get rid of all of them I get up to Jason's vantage point again and Batman tries a different tack: "Stand down, Robin!" "Don't call me that! That's not who I am!" Jason headbutts Batman and flips off the vantage point to go somewhere else.
-I need to escape another room full of gas, and now I have to deal with not only a drone between myself and Jason (which I can blind with the hacking device) but also sentry guns. Jason tells "Bruce" he isn't afraid of him; he's not a legend to Jason.
-Does Batman know where Joker kept him, Jason asks? He was sooo close.
-This time when Batman gets up with Jason he's able to knock the rifle away. He tells Jason that he's Robin, he's not what Joker made him! "Stop! Stop TALKING to me!" Jason shrieks before he charges at Batman, who grabs him and causes them to both fall to the floor below. Batman gets on top of Jason and gets ready to punch him, but Jason's face is visible through his helmet now (yes, it's red if you were wondering), and Batman decides not to.
-Jason says "YOU did this to me!" Batman can only say he's sorry. Jason aims a pistol at Batman and says Batman left him to rot in that abandoned wing of Arkham (there's the reason for the name) for over a YEAR. With HIM. Batman tells him it isn't too late. We can fix this. Together. And holds out his hand.
-Jason lowers the gun and lowers his head. Batman calls Alfred and says, with some difficulty, that he's found Jason. Alfred is sure he isn't hearing right. Batman assures him that he is. Alfred asks if he's all right. Batman says no, no he's not, and turns to see that Jason has disappeared.
-Joker is looking down at the Batman-like helmet the Knight left behind. He says he guesses that's the end of the Arkham Knight. Jason chose the name himself, y'know, bless him. Where better to drive a man crazy than in a madhouse? Oh, Joker misses that place. Who knows, maybe the two of them will end up back there soon.
-Batman unties Gordon and asks what happened. He went after Scarecrow and got caught. Scarecrow's up on the roof and Gordon wants to go get him right now. Batman starts to say he's sorry about Barbara and Gordon cuts him off, saying we should just get this over with. As they approach the door Batman tries again, saying he should have stopped him--but the conversation is interrupted by a number of mooks bursting through the door and knocking Gordon down. I have to fight them.
-How's Gordon? He says he's been worse. The two of them take the elevator up to get Crane. Batman says that he just wants to say working with Barbara was an honour. Gordon say's "Don't." Batman continues: even if he'd known what she was doing, he couldn't have stopped her. Gordon apparently sees the truth of this; she was stubborn, just like her old man, he responds. Batman says "brave". Gordon turns to him and says that in his job you see a lot of pain and suffering, but he'll never forget taking a witness statement from an eight-year-old boy who'd just seen his parents gunned down. Bruce says he was kind. Jim says he was thinking he may never get a chance to say he's sorry. Batman tells him he doesn't need to. Gordon says that the two of them are the same: they'd do anything for their families. And then the elevator reaches the roof.
-Batman orders Scarecrow, who's the only one there, on his knees. Scarecrow speaks, saying that "you did it. I must admit, I had my doubts you could make this happen." Batman tells him he wasn't ASKING. And Scarecrow turns around and says that he wasn't talking to Batman. Then he says it's time, and Gordon stops aiming his gun at Crane and turns it on Batman, who can't believe it. Gordon apologizes but says it was the only way. And then he asks Scarecrow for his daughter. Who is, I'm very surprised to see, wheeled out, alive and well! Jim asks Barbara if she's been hurt by them. Barbara wants to know what the hell her father's doing.
-Scarecrow orders his mooks to get the transport so they can leave, as Jim continues to hold Batman at gunpoint. He says it's time for everyone to see Batman for who he is, just a man, a man devoid of hope, betrayed by his friends, crippled by fear. Jim demands Barbara's release, and Scarecrow says both of them still have a part to play. Jim turns his gun on Crane and says they had a deal. As the mooks in turn point their guns at Jim, Scarecrow says that once he understood Jim's greatest fear, controlling him was simple. He blames himself for Barbara's condition. He wants to protect her, but he fears that he will one day, inevitably, fail. And that fear makes him Scarecrow's. He tells Jim he'd better think very carefully about his next move, since Barbara's life depends on it.
-Jim whirls and shoots Batman. I do notice that he shot him right in the middle of the chest, right in the Bat-symbol, so I know it isn't enough to kill him. The mooks all grab Gordon. Scarecrow asks if Jim thought he wanted Batman dead. If he thought killing him would save his daughter's life. Crane turns on Barbara, and asks if Jim knows what happens when a man refuses to be controlled by his fears. What happens then is: he must face them. And Scarecrow begins wheeling Barbara back toward the edge of the roof.
-Gordon begs him to take him instead, but he isn't listening. Scarecrow now has Barbara on the edge, tilted at an angle and only prevented from falling by Scarecrow's continued grip on her chair. Barbara stares right into his face and tells him "You don't scare me." Scarecrow tells her it's okay to be afraid as he gets his face so close to hers she has to turn away. The Crane lets her drop.
-Barbara falls, but Batman swoops in to catch her and the two of them glide to the ground. He wants to know if she's hurt. Barbara said she thought Jim had killed him. Batman taps his chest where the bullet hit, making a nice "finger on heavy plating" sound. He says Jim knew what he was doing.
So... Jason "died" years ago, didn’t he? Did he spend that entire time getting tortured by the Joker?
When Gordon mentions taking that 8-year-old's testimony, is that him subtly admitting he knows who Batman is? Or just very heavy irony?
Well, Jason said that the Joker had him for exactly a year, so for whatever it's worth he wasn't getting tortured for longer than that. We may learn more details later on, but if I were to guess, I'd say that either Joker let him go after a while, or he escaped on his own. In the time after that, I imagine he tried his best to recover from the experience both mentally and physically (with only limited success on the mental front, of course), and following that he began working to put together his army so he could get his revenge on Batman. Remember that the militia frequently talk about how the Knight trained them all, so that would've taken some time.
As for Gordon knowing who Batman is, he was conscious and listening to the whole exchange between Jason and Batman, so he heard Jason call Batman "Bruce" several times.
-A number of drone tanks roll in and open fire. Luckily both Batman and Barbara are behind cover. Where's the Batmobile, Barbara wants to know. Destroyed, Batman answers. "WHAT?!" "Don't worry. Lucius made a spare." Wow, that's sure convenient! Oh, and as the Batwing drops it off, Alfred tells me that it has all of the upgrades the other one had, plus an even better weapons system!
-...
-...
-I'd better say something. I'll say this: Bruce, you have WAY too much money. I mean really, if you have this tank which probably costs more than the combined armed forces of most countries and you have enough left over to also keep another one around and fit it with all the same stuff, JUST IN CASE, then you have way too much money lying around. You have so much money that you could probably pay most criminals not to be criminals instead of personally fighting them all, and you probably wouldn't have to sacrifice anything. That's how much money I think you have if you can afford two Batmobiles.
-Well, back to the story. Drones are junk now. Barbara says Scarecrow's gonna kill Jim, isn't he? Batman answers that he won't do it when he can hold the threat of doing so over Batman's head. Batman's picked Barbara up and is carrying her to the Batmobile. Joker commends Batman on his chivalry and asks if he remembers carrying the Joker like that. Joker doesn't remember it because he was, you know, DEAD. ("Oh, I poisoned myself with super-steroids and then died because Batman dropped my cure and now I'm just going to bitch about it forever, BOO HOO HOO!" Hey Joker, if you can mock Jason's misery I'm sure gonna mock yours, even if you are just a figment of my imagination. And it falls to me, by which I mean KilgoreTrout, to mock it since Batman's as close as you can be to a silent protagonist without being entirely mute, so he sure isn't gonna do it.)
-So, um, are we ever gonna find out how Scarecrow faked your death, Babs? Do you have any idea? I mean, I'd sure like to know instead of leaving that plot thread to dangle in the wind forever and ever...
-Right after I type that and unpause, Batman says that Scarecrow tricked them; he watched Barbara die. Barbara says that Scarecrow gassed me, and tells me that all of them are fighting with me. That's just kind of a handwave, but all right.
-Batman calls Cash to tell him Barbara's actually alive and he's bringing her to the station. Thank God, Cash says, but what about Jim. Oh, he's been captured by Scarecrow. "You've got to be kidding me!" Cash says. Batman assures him that he'll get Jim back.
-Taking Barbara inside, she asks if Tim's okay. Batman says he left Tim at the studios and he's fine, which is TECHNICALLY true, but still. All right, anyway, Barbara and Cash greet one another and Batman says she'll be staying here working to help. Cash says sure and asks if she works for me now. Then he says hell, they all do, which he doesn't mean as a complaint.
-Barbara gets on a computer in the station and complains that they really need to upgrade their machines before accessing the computers in the clock tower. Security footage shows militia mooks tearing the place up. Barbara can't download the data from the clock tower computers because the militia are blocking her attempts, and she says we need that data if we want any hope of finding Jim. Batman says he'll handle it. Barbara protests that they'll be expecting him. Batman says he's counting on just that.
-Joker says all these years and he still has a soft spot for Barbara. Fortunately, his soft spot isn't right between the verterbrae.
-The female and male cop outside the evidence room are talking and the woman says Jack Ryder has been talking about a breakthrough in the case he was following, of the crazy preacher guy. He looked pretty pleased with himself. The man says that he's a Vicki Vale fan himself; she has more integrity. Woman says she has an idea why he likes Vale and she's pretty sure it isn't because of her "integrity". Man says look who's talking; he isn't the one with a Jack Ryder poster in his locker.
-Oh man, the people Pyg was holding captive and preparing to operate on are here. Not just in the station, but outside the cells in Maximum Security, which is where Pyg's cell is. A woman asks if they need to be in the same room with him looking at them from his cell; it's freaking her out. Um, yeah cops, bad idea. Talking to a man has him ask what it is with Pyg and opera; he says his wife has tickets to La Boheme, but she can forget about it after his experience tonight.
-I go and talk to Owens. He thanks Batman for checking in on him; none of the others are, partly because they have no idea what to say to him. Owens says that people have told him not to worry, that the judge will be lenient (remember, he shot somebody while under the effects of the fear toxin), but even so: Owens' career is over, and he feels that he's nothing without this job.
-Cop watching Owens says the guy will be a basket case before the night's over. They need to watch him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. I have a bad feeling that this could be foreshadowing. The cop also says that Owens didn't react at all when I brought Barbara in. If you look into his eyes it seems like he's dead inside.
-The cop in love with Ivy now knows she's dead and he's broken up about it. He never got to tell her how he felt.
-Another female cop says that Jim was taken hostage by Joker years ago, right? (Another Killing Joke reference.) If he can survive that, then he can survive anything. She also says that the grinning, green-haired freak must be looking down at this and laughing his ass off. Oh, if only you knew...
-Talking to a male cop nearby has him say he doesn't see things ending well. His female colleague says Gordon was working these streets when Scarecrow was still in diapers, and he's seen lots of bad guys come and go, so he'll be all right. The guy says he wonders what Scarecrow looked like as a baby. The woman says he wonders about some strange things.
-The same guy says that while Ivy died to save all of us it probably didn't fill her with joy; humans weren't exactly her favourite species. He also says that Richards in triage thinks she's not actually dead and is taking bets. With the way things have been going tonight, guy thinks he may be onto something.
-In the Interview Room, Ryder's gone, but all of his notes and his tape recorder are still there. Playing the tape inside has Ryder say he's got a big lead: Lady of Gotham is where it's going down. (A church, I presume.) Ryder addresses Batman and says he's sorry he couldn't wait to tell him, but it's just too big for him to miss. Looks like I'll have to save Ryder's ass too.
-The Riddler informant cop said that it used to be funny, back in the day when I'd drag Riddler in here and he'd lecture everybody about how stupid Batman was. But then one day it just stopped being funny and started becoming pathetic. Riddler stopped taking care of himself, got a crazy look in his eye; he was broken. Batman broke him. And now Batman's thrown this guy in a cell because he felt sorry for Riddler.
-The Dollotrons Pyg created are in the cell next door. Batman can't talk to them. Man, I said it before and I'll say it again: that whole situation is fucked up.
-The cops nearby say that the militia in the cells haven't lost heart even with the Knight gone. His colleague says that if they think SCARECROW will bust them out, they're nuts, because he's long gone. First guy says maybe the militia know something they don't. Other guy says they're just bluffing.
-In the infirmary we find Richards, and just like the other cops said, he thinks Ivy isn't dead. He says that she can control plants, right? Well, what if she doesn't need a body, just a mind, and she can put her mind in a plant?
-The guy also says that he hopes Barbara's as good as everybody says, because otherwise her dad's chances aren't very good.
-Cops standing guard in the garage are taking pictures of themselves with the Batmobile, with one posing and the guy taking the shot saying "Okay okay, now say 'I'M BATMAN.'" Then they notice me and hurry back to their posts trying to act innocent and assuring me they didn't touch anything. (Probably good, since whenever I so much as scrape a mook with this car it shocks them unconscious.)
-Overheard mook chatter outside: "So I tried one of those question mark games they have around here. Pretty fun. Couldn't do it though."
-One of those Riddler puzzles involves hacking one of his robots so it retrieves the trophy FOR Batman. After I get it Riddler says that it's IMPOSSIBLE! They aren't supposed to take orders from anybody with a sub-150 IQ! Well Riddler, then how did you--nah, too easy, never mind.
-At the Clock Tower it's fairly easy to take down all the patrolling mooks and go inside to get Barbara connected afterwards. She says that it looks like they lost a couple of servers, but she ought to have that problem taken care of by the time I get back to the station. Cool.
-Overheard militia chatter: So what, they're Scarecrow's army now? The guy saying this realizes they were working for him already, but he prefers a little bureacratic separation between him and the evil mastermind.
-More militia chatter: "Knight had a damn breakdown, Stevens saw it. Started screaming at the Bat like they were going through a divorce."
-Once I take out another checkpoint, Alfred says the militia's NEW commander wants to speak to me. Batman says to let him. And yes, as implied earlier, it's DEATHSTROKE. Slade says that I once said he didn't worry me, but our mutual friend, the Knight? He told Deathstroke different. Says that according to the Knight, Batman described Deathstroke as the toughest S.O.B. he ever went toe to toe with, which is why Jason sought him out.
-Batman tells Slade that the Knight's gone, so he's out of a job. However, Slade said he took an advance payment, and his professional ethics require him to see it through no matter what.
-Riddler really doesn't like me hacking his robots, guys. For one thing, he tells me that he is literally their GOD, because Riddler programmed a religion centered around himself into them, those "malfunctioning blasphemers". Later on when I solve another puzzle with the help of the robots, Riddler protests that it's an outrage and asks me how I'd like it if he started ordering ROBIN around.
-"So, even the robots betray me. Oh, they will suffer, detective. I'm coding the virus right now..."
-At one of the remaining militia checkpoints which happens to be near Ivy's giant plant, one of the mooks lampshades it by asking whose bright idea it was to set up there. Another one tells him to relax, Ivy's dead. The first one says he's still worried about what one of those vines could do. The other one says it could probably squash him flat or crush his head like a pimple. The first one sarcastically thanks him and says he feels a lot better now.
-Overheard militia chatter: they're talking about their significant others, who just don't get the mercenary life. One guy says that he puts food on the table, blood diamonds in her jewelry box, laundered all his money through her company without her even asking him to...and she dumps him! What the hell? The other guy hears him; the guy he's seeing is a human rights lawyer. This mook told his S.O. he was going on a "business trip".
-Riddler doesn't know how I'm controlling his robots, but not ONE of those treacherous tin men will be receiving the heart he promised them!
-Mooks are relieved Ivy is dead. In one case, a guy was eating a salad and started wondering if Ivy could like, make it come back to life and burst out of his stomach like an alien parasite. Well, now he can eat as many greens as he wants with nothing to fear.
-Oh, another mook hears that Ivy saved Gotham and calls her a sell-out for doing it. Despite how she, y'know, saved HIM as well.
-I tried solving some riddles in Panessa Studios, which took me past the cell I left Tim in. You can tell him that you found Barbara and she's fine, which causes him to sink to his knees in apparent relief, but not say anything. I guess either he chooses not to speak to Bruce after what Bruce has done, or doesn't completely believe him.
-Game says I'm 90% done with the main story, so back to GCPD. Barbara says that Scarecrow's chopper flew north over the bay but she can't track it further than that since the data's corrupted; the mooks did more damage than she thought. Suddenly there's a tremor that shakes the whole building. And then Scarecrow's face appears on Barbara's screen.
-Scarecrow tells the "gallant police force of Gotham" that they aren't safe or protected, that Batman can't save them. "This is the beginning of the end for you, Dark Knight." "Like hell it is," says Barbara, getting rid of the transmission. She says that the batcomputer's back online and she'll do what she can to help. New mission: stop the assault on GCPD.
-All the militia mooks in cells are cheering. The various cops are setting up barricades with vending machines and shit getting ready for anybody who storms in.
-Outside in the garage there's no Batmobile to be found, but there IS an APC full of militia pulling up. Batman radios Cash to tell him to lock down the station and then fights the guys who get out of the vehicle. Oh wait, there's the Batmobile; I just parked it behind something like a dumbass so I didn't immediately see it when I left. I jump into it and suddenly things are a whole lot easier.
-Cash can't open the doors to let the Batmobile go outside and take the fight to them; the power's out. Barbara tells me where I can find a generator I can power up to fix that problem, however. I use the winch to pull a fan apart, granting me access to the air shaft behind, and grapple up to it. Augh! Damn it Joker, NOT NOW. Well, I have to listen to him tell me that these bozos in blue put their faith in me, ignored all the times I took the law into my own hands, and now I'll get them all killed.
-He says seriously, let's just get out of here and leave them for Scarecrow's guys to kill. After all, if I save them then Joker's just eventually gonna come back in Batman's body and butcher them all anyway, and that'll be a lot more painful for everybody involved, won't it?
-"If only ol' Jimbo were here to see this," Joker says as I get to the roof and see several helicopters and a fuckload of drone tanks surrounding the building, firing on it.
-Scarecrow's giving another speech trying to demoralize everybody but I can't hear it because I quickly grapple over to where the generator is...and it's in pieces. Wonderful. Batman tells Oracle this. She says there's a backup generator in the underground parking garage (I was JUST THERE, damn it). But that SHOULD have come online by itself. She tells Batman that right below him is the entrance to the garage which, fortunately for us, is jammed open. The generator isn't too far beyond.
-Failing here gives you a short cutscene of Barbara and the cops hearing a noise, turning to see a door forced open, and a Heavy spraying gunfire all around the room. So yes, let's try to avoid that.
-Mooks armed with no guns wait inside, one of whom says that they're using too much C4; they're supposed to disable this generator, not send it into orbit. They also say that their orders are to storm in and execute everybody, just like "he" planned, referring I suppose to either Scarecrow or Deathstroke. Then they notice me and the fight's on.
-Hey, this is cool. The various gadgets you get are all even more effective in combat if you use them after you build up enough of a combo and hold down the key or button. Firing the REC results in not just one enemy getting a shock, but like a chain lightning effects that shocks a whole group of them.
-As for non-combat applications of the REC, one of those is starting the generator up. Batman calls Oracle to tell her it's done. So she says to get to the car and then she's like "What?! No way!" I'm expecting more bad news but it's actually the opposite; there's a vulnerability in the militia's network. Oracle calls them idiots and then tells me that she thinks she can exploit it to hijack their drones.
-Batman and Barbara both count down from five and then Barbara says it's time to finish this, with the Batmobile speeding out the doors. The long-suffering militia commander whose voice I've heard in every single drone encounter snaps at Batman that he's going to destroy my car and then me. (Oh, go ahead and destroy the car. I'm sure I have a third one.)
-Barbara hacks one of the tanks and that doesn't result in it fighting on my side, but she does tell me that as soon as I shoot the thing it'll trigger an EMP. So I do and it does and that makes things easier. Then she hacks another one and tells me that it's primed to blow up as soon as I shoot it. She likes how well this is going since we're holding our own. Then Barbara actually takes control of a different drone, although that one's soon disposed of with all the hostiles focusing their fire on it.
-That was a tough fight! I died once. BARELY survived the second time. The militia commander (by now probably wishing he were in any other line of work if his tone of voice is an indication) tells Deathstroke and Scarecrow that all the drones have been demolished. Scarecrow tells him that he played his part, and now Batman will play his...
-Barbara says we did it--no wait! Now Scarecrow's got a chopper dropping infantry on the roof! Barbara can hold them off for a bit, but Batman needs to get up there. For what this is worth, Barbara says she's got control of the security and utility systems on the rooftop; she can take the bastards out if I set 'em up.
-The mooks know I'm coming and one tells the rest to get ready. Meanwhile, somebody else is telling the guy trying to open the elevator to just shoot the door off its hinges. But they can't do that; they need the thing intact. "You said you could hack it!" Well, he was wrong. Anyway, by now Batman's reached them.
-Batman grabs a Brute and throws him into a fence, letting Oracle know so she can run electricity through it. That's one down...
-Oooo, this one's nasty! Batman throws another mook into some pipes, breaking them open, then lets Barbara know, resulting in steam shooting out of them. Damn, wouldn't want to be that guy...
-Reinforcements arriving now. Oracle is telling me about the steam pipes and the fence. Um, I used those already and broke them, and if there are other ones around here then I can't see them.
-Oh good, more reinforcements, including two Brutes. Um, maybe I should have saved those environment takedowns for these guys. Oh well, I'll do my best. Oh hey, there IS another fence and pipes elsewhere on the roof. Along with, as Oracle tells me, some vents. I throw one of the Brutes onto the vent and she shoots gas up through it which FREEZES him. Nice.
-Rule of Three in effect; that's the last wave. Cash radios and tells me that a lot of people in the station want to thank both me and Oracle, himself included. Because it looked bad for a minute there. Barbara tells him thanks, but he doesn't need to--and then an expression of dread. "Oh God." Uh, this is more good news like the garage entrance being open and you just have a really strange way of reacting to it, I'm hoping?
-Barbara thinks that Scarecrow just got access to Panessa Studios, because the doors there were just opened using JIM's authorization. Batman wants a surveillance feed, but she can't pull it up. She also can't raise Robin and says "He was in there, right?" "Um, yeah, funny thing, I sort of, er, left him locked in a cell, and I also sabotaged his radio, so he's kind of helpless...oops?" No, Batman doesn't really say that, what he says is "Don't worry, Oracle. I'm on my way." *shakes head*
-I'm at the studios now and taking the elevator down. Joker, do you have anything to say? Oh, I was expecting him to pop up. Well, I'm sure he will soon enough. The ride is pretty quick. Now to check on Tim.
-Okay, Harley's in the cell I left her in, but Detective Mode shows no skeleton in the cell Tim had been occupying. And Joker's standing by it, because of course. I go talk to Harley first.
-Batman demands she tell him what happened. She answers what do I THINK happened? Crane came and took away my bird-faced loser friend and it's all MY fault, which she laughs at. Was Jim with them, Batman wants to know. Harley thinks he was, but she couldn't tell for sure through all those bruises on his face. Somebody sure did a real number on him; Mistah J would'v been proud.
-Other things she says are that she wishes SHE could've had a drop of Joker's blood before they burned the body.
-At Tim's cell there's a Jack O' Lantern sort of face painted on the door and, of course, no Tim. Joker says there goes another Boy Wonder taken by another supervillain. If it's any consolation, though, Joker is sure that Scarecrow won't match his (Joker's) "incredible" work with Jason. He'll probably just get pumped full of fear gas and have his throat slit, which Joker considers such a waste.
-Oh well, just me and Joker now, says Joker. The real dynamic duo. Joker tells me to dry my eyes; every time I let somebody come between us they end up dead, or crippled, or brainwashed into trying to kill me. He says we may have had our differences, but we were made for each other.
-Scarecrow raises Batman. Jim was so eager to betray me earlier when his daughter's life was in danger, he says, and now because of that he has Robin, my little caged bird. He thinks it's fascinating that my fears would drive me to lock my closest ally in a cell. Now those same fears will make Batman do what Scarecrow tells him. Scarecrow tells him to go to a storage depot in Kingston, alone, and be ready to take my mask off. Otherwise, my friends will die.
-On the elevator ride, Joker asks if I'm giving up the cowl, and approves since my friends don't die while Joker gets another toke o' toxin. But wait--what if Sack-Face decides to kill me after he's had his fun. No, Joker's changed his mind, we shouldn't go! Caring for friends is overrated, especially mine, who can't go five minutes without getting kidnapped.
-Oracle's on the line and she is PISSED, because she learned (I suppose either she was listening in or Scarecrow was also broadcasting to everybody else) that I left Tim in a cell. Batman says that Tim wasn't safe. "And he is now?!" Barbara tells me that Tim would've taken a bullet for me, all of them would. And I left him defenseless, not giving him a choice. She tells me I have to get him back, whatever it takes.
-Joker's waiting at the door to the depot and asks if I'm crazy. If I go in there we're done, BOTH of us. (You're making it sound more attractive, pal.) There'll be no going back.
-Lots of spooky shit in here, Halloween masks and stuff. Joker asks me what I'm thinking when there's so much more fun to be had out there, heads to crack, bones to break, it's like the world's greatest theme park and I'm crying to get off the ride.
-A bank of monitors are further in and Scarecrow's face appears on them. "Your fears got the better of you I see. How fitting that I will win and Batman's life will be over... not because of what I have done to your precious city, but because you are scared of what I will do to your friends, your family. They are your weakness, hiding just below the surface. I'm sure that you're scared of what will happen when I tear that mask from your face. What will we find? Your true identity, or proof that without your mask you are nothing. Impotent. Powerless, Afraid. Leave your equipment on that table, and we can find out."
-Robin and Jim were shown in the room with Scarecrow. I have the option of leaving my utility belt and gadgets there. Even after I've put them down, I can grab them again before going outside to meet a truck Scarecrow has sent. Joker wants me to get them. Scarecrow tells me that my fears will ensure I put them back as soon as I try that. All right, I'm gonna just leave them there and see what happens.
-I try it and Batman says he can't leave without his equipment. Okay...I grab it, and Joker's again waiting for me, approving of my decision because why give it all up for a washed-up cop and another Robin? Going outside, I encounter a militia APC with a couple of mooks and also some other random mooks who see me and attack. At first I think that the APC was the "truck" that Scarecrow mentioned. But it turns out, no. I go back in, with Scarecrow gloating that my fear got the better of me after all and that my friends were worried. Now I see that a set of double doors which escaped my notice before are actually the back of a semi docked with the depot. That wasn't immediately clear.
-Press Space to surrender to Scarecrow. Okay.
-It's gone first-person as the truck starts moving. Alfred radios me and tells me that he's sensed somebody tracking my movement throughout the city. Batman says "I knew he would." Alfred wonders who I'm talking about. Well, Batman probably won't tell him after I unpause, but with Tim held captive and Nightwing not even aware of what's happening, I figure it's Jason. Or perhaps I should call him Red Hood now, since that's his new look.
-The transmission breaks up, so it's moot. More gloating from Scarecrow is interrupted as SOMETHING smashes into the truck, sending Batman sprawling. He climbs out and finds himself in an alley. Crime Alley, as it happens. It's weird having to climb up on a dumpster so I can get high enough to climb over a fence that's like eight feet high or so; I'm so used to just using my grapple gun.
-There's a door to the Monarch Theatre I can try to open, but it's locked. So I turn back around and, oh look, the bodies of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Well, that answers the question of whether this is another hallucination or not. Press Space to Pay Respects. Batman kneels next to the bodies, and Joker shows up. Such a happy couple, shame about the kid though. Poor little Brucie never got over it, did he? Well, no point crying over spilt blood. It's time to take a load off, he tells me. Join my parents. Uncle J will take it from here, and then he actually kicks Batman in the stomach. That's new.
-Endless Jokers swarm over the fences to rush me. I fight them. Joker tells me he hates to be a pessimist, but I'm a tad outnumbered here. (That's kind of par for the course in these games.) Anyway, fighting for your sanity's fun, isn't it? Joker personally gave that up years ago. After fighting for a while, doing a takedown finally results in Batman having a Joker in neck-snap position. Joker says go on, you know you want to. Left-click to Kill Joker. I do and everything goes black around Batman.
-We're back in the truck now. Joker's lying on the floor in front of Batman, then he gets up. So I finally did it, he says. Finally snapped...his neck that is. Now there's no denying it: I have the mind of a killer. I crossed the blood-red line, and now Scarecrow is going to set Joker free.
-The truck goes to...Arkham Asylum, which is closed and condemned. Batman is strapped to an upright gurney and wheeled inside, with Robin in disbelief that he's there. TVs with news reports on them fill the room, showing Vicki Vale and others reporting that Batman's being held captive. Scarecrow's going to rob all the people of hope. Batman tells him this won't end like he thinks, but Scarecrow dismisses it as false bravado. He personally doesn't care who I am under the mask, but the people will, and in moments they'll have a face and a name to attach to Batman's failure. Scarecrow insists Jim do the honors.
-Jim says never, he's done taking orders from Crane. Scarecrow pulls a gun on him, then aims at Robin and shoots, wounding him. Gordon calls him a bastard. Scarecrow orders Gordon to unmask Batman, or he'll make sure the next shot is lethal.
-Batman says it's okay. Jim says it's not, it'll be the end. As soon as everybody finds out who he is, there'll be no hiding. Batman says he needs to trust him. Scarecrow orders Gordon to do it NOW. And then the mask comes off and everybody sees Bruce Wayne's face underneath.
-Scarecrow's kind of surprised. But he gets over it quick, saying now the world can see me for what I truly am. A legend laid bare. Powerless, human, afraid...and then he jams his fingers, which are tipped with working syringes, into Batman's chest, causing Bruce to gasp.
-Suddenly I see a number of villains in front of me, Riddler, Penguin, Two-Face, Killer Croc. Riddler wants to get it done. Two-Face says no, they have to do it right, Batman needs to face justice. Penguin says that he killed fifty of their men, and Riddler says they should kill him before he wakes up because he's too dangerous. Two-Face reassures him that they have a hundred guns trained on him, he's not going anywhere. (Lots of mooks here too.) And then the camera pans around to show: JOKER on the gurney, not Batman after all. And Joker starts coming around.
-Joker says hi to everybody and mentions he had a devil of a time tracking them down. Penguin doesn't get it, because THEY caught HIM. Joker is amused, telling Cobblepot he was always cruel but never cunning. Then he tells "Croc, old boy" he'd better duck. Second later, the Batmobile smashes through the wall, flies over the heads of the other villains and slams into Croc.
-Oh wow, it's a JOKERMOBILE, with a mouth on the front that opens and closes with a moving tongue, and a Joker-like paint job, and everything. And when it shoots the mooks firing on it, it is definitely killing them. Even so, there's an endless supply of replacements, but when I kill enough then it prompts me to press the key I normally use for anti-tank missiles, with the Joker version of that being "Killing Joke". This results in many missiles shooting out and destroying everybody while setting the room on fire.
-Joker gets out, obviously having had the time of his life and saying so; it's so much more fun with HIS hands on the controls. He's holding a big gun (this is now like a third-person shooter) and asks where everybody went. Going through a door reveals a hallway with Penguin hiding behind some crates. He's begging for mercy. Joker, of course, shoots him dead, and says he never could stand groveling.
-Riddler's further in, and he's holding a female cop (a named one that I've had several short interactions with at GCPD) hostage with a gun of his own. He says I'll have to go through her to get to him and surely there must still be some things I won't do. He tells me to back off. Um, yeah, I do the Joker thing and shoot them both.
-Joker asks "A hostage, Nigma? How twee." He moves further in and finds an office, with a lot of money on the desk, a portrait of Penguin on the wall, and a phonograph playing the original version of "Only You". (It sounds a lot better when Joker isn't the one singing it)
-You can shoot the phonograph if you want. Anyway, Joker moves on, and of course Two-Face is next. He says he can't let me leave here alive, not after what I've just done. Joker lowers his gun and laughs; he's the clown prince of chaos, the jester of genocide! He can't be stopped by Two-Face! And it is indeed extremely easy to kill him.
-As Joker goes to open a door to move on, Two-Face's corpse turns into a wounded Jim Gordon, who begs me (whoever I am) to stop this madness. Joker puts a finger to his lips and shushes him. He walks out of the door onto a balcony, giving him a view of Gotham City consumed by fire and explosions, smoke blocking out the sky.
-Joker muses out loud that this may be his finest work yet. Then, the distorted voice of Alfred on the radio begs him not to do this, not after all the good he's done for this city. His voice gradually gets clearer as he calls me Master Bruce and then BATMAN, and asks me to think of what my father would do if he saw this, this rampage. Joker tells "sweet, loyal Alfred" that Master Bruce is gone, but don't worry, his NEW master's coming home. The camera's zooming in on Joker's face, and then on his mouth.
-Then we're back to...reality? I mean, we're still Joker, but we're on the gurney in the room with Scarecrow, Tim, and Gordon. Scarecrow asks "Mr. Wayne" if he knows what happens now. Crane says he won't kill me. He'll set me free. Free so I can see the city I swore to defend tear itself apart, to see all my loved ones hunted down and killed as vengeance for all the Batman has done. Joker, of course, can't stop grinning through all this, even as Crane grabs him by the face.
-"Good," says Joker. Scarecrow was not expecting this, and asks me if I understand. He tells me it's over. Joker tells him to get ready for the encore and bursts into laughter. "Why-aren't-you-scared?" demands Crane, and jabs his needles into Joker, who continues to laugh as the camera zooms into his eye, bringing us back to the apocalyptic version of Gotham. Joker says huh, guess he's toxin proof. Then he calls out to Bats, asking if he's still there.
-There's a big thud. Another. And another. Joker asks if that's Bats. Gradually, all of the surroundings, the burning city, go pitch black. Then I can see nothing at all. The game tells me to right click to "activate flashlight".
-Doing so puts us in first-person shooter mode, and we're looking at/aiming at a painting of Batman carrying the dead body of the Joker. "Ah, good times," says Joker. Turning around, we see the body of the Joker on a slab ready to be slid into a...whatever you call the thing they use at a crematorium to burn bodies. (I would say "oven" but I'm sure that can't be it, right?) The body slides in and the door shuts. "Ooh, crispy!" But Joker says he outgrew that body anyway. Then he shouts out to Bats, demanding if he's trying to tell Joker something. Joker isn't dead! Joker's never felt so alive!
-I missed this at first, but all of this stuff appears to be, I now notice, in a mausoleum. Walking down the hallway I pass tombstones, lit candles, stuff like that. At the end of the hallway is a Joker statue, with the head falling off of it right as I walk up. Joker says that this can't be his grave; it's too small, and where's the head? Then he says oh, he gets it, they all forgot about him? He says that's very funny, Bats. (Joker is gradually sounding less and less cocky, it's worth mentioning.)
-This is rich. "Y'know," says Joker, "SOME jokes can be in bad taste!" He walks back down the hallways and runs into a dead end. He turns around and there's an unmoving statue of Batman blocking his way. Well, he's holding a gun, he's a psychopath, the thing's in his way, it's his archenemy, nothing to do but shoot it, right? He blows off the top part of the statue, and NERVOUSLY chuckles, saying "See old boy? You aren't the death of me." He shoots away the rest of the statue and moves forward, into what appears to be a dimly lit church. At the end of the aisle there's the sound of a woman crying. When Joker gets there he sees that it's Harley.
-"Harley? You call this a wake?! Where IS everybody? Oh, forgot to send the invites, didn't you?" Joker then demands Harley stop sobbing and rustle him up a wake. He yells at her some more but she seems not to notice he's there. Then he shouts that he knows what Batman's trying to do, with "his" toxin. "Do you think this scares me?!"
-Hmm, there's some stuff even Joker won't do apparently, at least not this version of him; whenever you point the gun at Harley, Joker lowers it. So he isn't quite THAT abusive of a boyfriend.
-There's a wall preventing Joker from leaving the room the way he came in. Shooting it does no good. Joker can, however, shoot a bunch of chairs to clear the way to another passage. This one leads into an office with a radio broadcasting the news with Vicki Vale and Glen Woodburn. It's the one-year anniversary of the Joker's death. Vicki asks if Glen has any thoughts. "Sorry, who?" The Joker, says Vicki, surely you remember him. Glen asks if that's the "question mark guy" and then asks wait, he's dead? Vicki decides it doesn't matter, "Let's forget about him and move on." Her colleague agrees and repeats it: "Let's forget about him and move on."
-In other news, a museum dedicated to Batman and his arch-nemesis, THE PENGUIN, is opening on Bleake Island. On the desk next to the radio is a newspaper. Headline: JOKER DIES. GOTHAM DOESN'T CARE. Joker demands to know if Batman thinks this scares him. He vows that when he gets out, he'll write his name in blood on every street corner, carve it into every corpse. NOBODY IS FORGETTING ABOUT HIM! Then he wonders how he gets out of here...
-"Where are you?" Joker shouts, and going through the doorway takes him into another room with a statue of Batman, and somehow rain is falling in here. "Come out!" Joker orders. He turns around and there's a second statue of Batman behind him. He turns toward the first one and sees a third Batman statue, this one very close to him. As many as he blows apart, there are more. Then there are two that appear in front of him. Then many, many more, and he's in a roomful of them. By now I'm not even gonna try to shoot them all since it'd take forever, I'm just gonna keep looking around to see what happens.
-What happens is that one of them comes to life, leaps in the air, and crashes down to punch Joker HARD, knocking him to the floor. Joker picks himself up, readies his gun, and starts looking around again. The room's empty. It's still raining but there's sunlight shining through some holes in one wall. Joker shoots through it, but when there's a hole big enough to walk through the sunlight is gone and there's just darkness beyond illuminated only by the spotlight on Joker's gun. A bridge leads into the darkness.
-At the end of the bridge is a lever marked "EXIT". Joker lets out a victorious laugh and marches toward it. "So long, Bats! Helluva ride, but I'm getting off!" Joker pulls the thing and then admits that Batman almost had him scared back there. HIM! I mean, really, what has JOKER got to be afraid of? Pulling the lever shows that there appear to be lots of things hanging around the bridge. Some kind of containers. And there are signs saying that this is Arkham Asylum. We're out of first-person mode now and see Joker turn towards a door as a container is rolled through it, toward him. Batman's voice: "You're afraid of being ashes. You're afraid of being forgotten! And you WILL be forgotten, Joker." The side of the container falls away to reveal Batman standing inside. "Because of me." On the inside of the container is written: "Welcome to HELL."
-Back to first person mode as Batman walks toward Joker. I click to shoot Batman. It does absolutely nothing but make noise, and in seconds Batman has got me and lifting me by the throat. I'm looking into his face and see his eyes have turned green. "I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman!" He headbutts Joker. And now I actually AM playing as Batman again, fighting Joker on the bridge. I hit him a lot, including kicking him while he's down, and the objective it's prompting me towards appears to be doing an environment takedown with the container, i.e. pushing him inside. Doing this gets him in the doorway, but he grabs the sides of the door, and Batman punches him many times before he finally falls backward, to the very back of the...I'll call it a cell. There's even a sink in there.
-Batman pulls up the door. "No, Bats, wait!" Joker presses his face against the barred, narrow window in the door, begging Batman not to do it. Batman says "Goodbye, Joker." Joker calls him Bruce, not that it does any good. Batman shoves the container and it slides along on the rail it's hanging from, through a pair of steel doors, which shut behind it. And then we zoom into Batman's face, then into his green eyes, then into one eye.
-Things change. The green eye turns blue. The camera zooms out. It's Bruce Wayne, back on the gurney, back in reality. Scarecrow is speaking into a camera pointed at him, with Bruce behind him. Crane asks if Gotham understands that it has no more saviour, no more hope, and no more Batman, before he jams his needles into Bruce once more.
-Scarecrow says he has won. Bruce...doesn't react. He stares into Scarecrow's eyes and tells him he isn't afraid, which Scarecrow finds impossible. Then he pulls a gun and puts it to Bruce's forehead, saying without fear, life is meaningless. But the gun is shot out of his hand. It's Jason, with a rifle, in his red helmet, with a red bat-symbol now on his chest. He shoots again, the bullet striking one of Bruce's manacles and freeing up an arm. Bruce grabs Scarecrow, who's trying to inject him again, and forces his hand backward, until the syringes are sticking in his own neck and the toxin floods in. "What's wrong? Scared?" asks Bruce.
-Scarecrow stumbles away, and he is wide-eyed and mouth agape as he looks around. We see what he sees in flashes, so I can't describe it really well, but there's a lot of fiery red, swarms of bats flying around, and a very evil and demonic version of Batman looming before him. Scarecrow is screaming in terror and doesn't notice as Gordon walks right up to him and knocks him out cold with one punch. Bruce, meanwhile, is checking on Robin.
-"He's strong," Gordon says. "He's going to be okay." Bruce asks Jim to look after him, to look after them all. He says Jim's been a good friend, the best he could hope for. He was there at the beginning. Now, Bruce says as he puts his mask back on, he'll get to see how it ends.
-Cut to GCPD. The Batwing lands on the helipad and Batman gets out with his passenger: Scarecrow, now conscious but shuddering in terror and looking around wildly at who-knows-what. He hands him over to Cash and other cops who have come up in the elevator. Cash says this is the best gift I've brought them all night. "So...Bruce Wayne, huh?" he asks. If it's all the same, he'll stick to calling him Batman. Then he addresses Crane, whom he observes seems scared. Cash tells him to get used to it, and the elevator goes down.
-Alfred calls. Everybody knows the truth now, he says to Batman. What now? Gotham still needs Batman for one last night, says Batman. After that, initiate the Knightfall protocol. Alfred asks if he's sure. He is. Alfred says it needs voice confirmation, and Batman says "Martha". Alfred responds that it's all set and his instructions will be carried out. I guess I should go and see Azrael sooner or later.
-The game now tells me that to activate the Knightfall protocol I need to apprehend Gotham's Most Wanted, i.e. finish all the side missions. I'll cover that in future posts. For now, though, the biggest threat is ended.
-Riddler's voice rings out across the city and says hello there, "Bruce Wayne". Then he says that it's a noble effort I've put into this implausible charade, but he's not falling for it. There's no way he's been thwarted time and again by some spoiled, trust-fund-fueled hobbyist! He refuses to believe it! It is NOT true!
-Overheard mook chatter: the guy doesn't get it. What's in it for Wayne? Is the car-tank thing tax-deductible or something?
-More overheard mook chatter: a Penguin thug sarcastically says that this is perfect, because now they have a Bat with nothing left to lose.
-This has been available for a while now, but Azrael's signaled again by placing another burning bat symbol on another building, which Alfred figures means he's ready to take another test. I'm there now. Batman summons some more holographic mooks, tougher ones; these guys have melee weapons, pick up and throw crates at Azrael, and there's a Brute with them. I mentioned this before, but Azrael really is just a re-skin of Batman when it comes to the action stuff. When it's all over, Batman praises Azrael's performance and tells him to let him know when he's ready for another challenge. Azrael says that no matter the test, he will prevail.
-Alfred calls to say basically the same thing: he guesses that Azrael was studying my techniques while observing me in Arkham City. His fighting style and prowess is pretty much identical to Batman's. Batman agrees but says it takes more than just that to defend Gotham. Alfred agrees and says he'll analyze the data from this test along with what he gleaned from the first one.
-Here's a line that I've heard a few times but never put in a post: sometimes a mook will say something about how he wouldn't want to be a criminal in Central City. Because at least with Batman you have time to see him coming.
-I really, really ought to check on that lead Jack Ryder was following and make sure he doesn't get himself killed. Detective Mode showed many unarmed people gathered at the location. Getting closer I see yeah, this is bad. Ryder is tied to an altar as the preacher, Deacon Blackfire, delivers a sermon to his kneeling followers. He's gonna sacrifice Ryder because that's how they're supposed to prove their worth to the almighty Father and cement their place as the chosen few who will journey through the coming apocalypse and find their way to paradise or whatever. The point is that he's been killing people, he's about to kill another one, and we want him to cut it out--er, stop, not cut, put that dagger down and don't do anything with it, Blackfire.
-I go to stop it, after using the disruptor to rig a couple of crates full of guns to blow up if anybody tries to grab weapons from them, and Deacon Blackfire gets angry at me for daring to disrupt this sacred ritual. But he says that God has surely sent me here as an additional sacrifice, and he and his congregation will bathe in my blood as well. Ryder, for his part, wants me to get him out of here. Anyway, all the devout dumbasses attack me inside this enclosure which is surrounded by an electrified fence to make it even more hazardous. Since I'm doing this after the end of the main story, the stuff attackers say to me is different. One says he's never killed a billionaire before. Another tells me to say hello to my parents. Stuff like that.
-Finally they're all knocked out. Blackfire's still gonna kill Ryder and the altar is inside a cage that's electrified by the same juice as the fence. I'm able to use the REC to shut down the generators, though, enabling me to climb inside without dying and subdue Blackfire. Ryder asks what kept me and then says he's kidding, before blabbing on about how much this story will help his career. He might even get his own show, and I could be his first guest! The real Batman! How about it? Batman just calls the Batwing to bring him and Blackfire to GCPD.
-Cash is ready to take Blackfire down to the cells. Blackfire tells me that Gotham is fallen and asks me why I still fight for it when it's a lost cause (I suppose the idea is that it's like Sodom and Gomorrah, although he doesn't actually make that comparison). Anyway, Ryder gets in the elevator so he can go back down to set up shop in the interview room again. He asks Cash not to act so happy to see him again. Cash deadpans that he won't.
-There's a Red Hood bio in the files now. It says that since vanquishing the Arkham Knight persona, Jason no longer wants vengeance against Batman and has begun to heal the damage inflicted on him. He's aligned with Batman in wanting to rid Gotham of criminals, but his willingness to kill in that pursuit "will forever keep them at odds."
-Overheard militia chatter: "Bruce Wayne" is trending. Another guy laughs out loud and, when asked what he's reading, says that some website (I think it's "listdump.net" or something) has an article up: "Top Ten Reasons Why You Should've Known He Was Batman". #3 is the jawline.
-Inside GCPD here are various reactions to everybody knowing I'm Batman. One guy says he guesses now we know where the money for the car comes from. Another guy thinks it was awesome the way I was laughing in Scarecrow's face and says he's sure he couldn't be that brave. (Of course, he doesn't know the real reason Bruce Wayne was laughing at the time.) One of the guys I rescued from Ace Chemicals wonders how I'm still standing after getting pumped so full of that fear toxin. GOOD QUESTION. He figures I must have an antidote; if so, he'd like some if that'd be okay, since having Scarecrow held nearby is freaking him out.
-Militia are threatening me now that they know who I am. Talking to more cops has one tell me he thinks it's really cool that somebody like me is bothering to do stuff like this, when I don't need to. Another militia guy, unprompted, says he figured the guy in that suit had to be messed up; guess that's what happens when your parents are killed. Here's a realistic one: one of the thugs who were holding the firefighters says he's happy to know I'm Bruce Wayne, because now he can sue my ass. One of Blackfire's disciples tells me to go to him and admit my mendacity, so that the power of his forgiveness may wash over me.
-Oh Ryder...he says that he doesn't usually get invited to the Wayne Manor Christmas Ball, but now we're like old war buddies, right? Because we took on Deacon Blackfire together? Uh, sure. Also, Ryder wants to apologize for all the bad things he said to me about Bruce Wayne. He also wants to apologize for all the bad things he said to Bruce Wayne about Batman.
-Cash says the mayor was on the phone, says he sent over an arrest warrant for Bruce Wayne. Well, Cash sure doesn't know anything about that; their fax machine doesn't seem to be working tonight. Oh well.
-Geez, they've put all the big-name bad guys in the same cell. That's not right, because what's to stop some of them from attacking others? Particularly when Scarecrow's still a wreck and couldn't defend himself. Anyway, Blackfire wants to know from what hellish pit Pyg emerged, which is an excellent question in my book.
-Firefly quips "Let there be light, Deacon! Easy, I can do that!" "Cheap pyrotechnics do not scare me, child!" As for Blackfire, he believes that God will soon melt these bars like wax from a candle and he will be free. Firefly tells me rich or poor, it doesn't matter to him; Wayne Manor's next on his list when he gets out. Stagg's in there too, by the way. He didn't expect to be arrested. Batman says that makes him pretty deluded. Stagg also says that when the courts are through with me and I've finished desperately selling off the last remains of my parents' legacy, PERHAPS he will be generous and open up his checkbook. He also calls me a hypocrite, because how many laws have I broken, how many rights have I trampled on? Soon, justice will be coming for me. Jerkass Has A Point here.
-Another cop says she had the wrong idea about me, that is to say the person I am when I'm not in the batsuit. Which she supposes means the playboy thing is an act too. That's a lot of acting, she says. The guy next to her can't believe people are actually buying that I'm Bruce Wayne. "I saw it on TV, it must be true!" he sarcastically mocks, then asks how I fooled everybody. It was some kind of camera trick, right?
-Officer Owens says that there is ONE good thing: seeing Scarecrow locked up. He thanks me for that. The guy keeping an eye on Owens says he knows he isn't supposed to agree with what I do, and that taking the law into your own hands isn't cool. That said, he can't help thinking the city will get a hell of a lot worse if I'm not around any more.
-Batman tells Barbara that Tim and her father are okay and being transported from Arkham. She says she knows, she spoke to them a little while ago, and thanks me. She says she was bracing herself for her dad to do his whole overprotective father thing, but instead he just told her that he was proud of her and loved her. Maybe he hit his head? Bruce says that maybe he's just starting to see the real her. Anyway, she wonders what happens now. Batman tells her to "finish it" and she says right, she's just getting warmed up. Whatever the Knightfall protocol is, I guess it makes sense that Oracle would be involved, if that's what they're talking about.
-Another cop says that after everything that's happened they still didn't lose their heads; they remembered who they are and what they do. Which is good, she says, because last thing they need is any prisoners prosecuting them.
-Okay, Two-Face's guys are still robbing banks and I've passed one of those, so let's do something about it. The alarms were blaring when I came in and more of Two-Face's guys ram-raiding the place with a truck that I guess they want to load money into doesn't do anything to quiet them. Batman observes that there's no need for him to be quiet while picking them off since the alarms are making so much noise. Although eventually they decide to prioritize taking Batman out over grabbing money and getting away (once they realize Batman's there, of course), resulting in them shutting off the alarms and me losing that particular advantage. On top of that, not taking them out fast enough results in a higher and higher amount of money being lost.
-Oh, this is interesting. Two-Face tells me that he's hitting this bank because they launder money for the mob, or what's left of it. The good, Harvey Dent side wants to stop that. His evil side also wants revenge on the mob for disfiguring him. Harvey argues that sure, there's plenty of clean money mixed in with the dirty, but what ISN'T tainted in Gotham?
-Overheard mook chatter: He kinda feels like he's lost something knowing Batman's Bruce Wayne. It's like finding out Santa Claus was really just your drunk uncle.
-Throughout this game I've had to pass on several Riddler puzzles because pipes shooting steam were blocking my way, and I figured that if I kept going I'd eventually get the Freeze Blast grenades that Mr. Freeze built for Batman in the last game, which can be thrown into pipes like that to block them with ice. Today I finally got impatient, just said "screw it" and looked up where to get it. The dumb thing's been in Panessa Studios this entire time. Why can't Batman keep all of his gear in one place?
-Ah, this Riddler puzzle in the lounge where Johnny Charisma sang to me has him popping up on a screen and deciding to "go easy" on me with a variation of a children's game which he calls "Riddler Says". Actually it's like the game "Simon", since he gives me several colours in a row and then i need to throw batarangs at the right coloured question marks in the right order. But he's trying to fool me by throwing the word "red" on the screen using GREEN text, say, so if I see that first and hit the red question mark first, I fail and he aks me why I can't do something as simple as following his instructions to start with the first colour I see. I have a much easier time remembering text than colours, but I should be able to do this.
-Overheard mook chatter: "A long time ago I thought Dent was the Bat. Y'know, back when Dent was pretty." Also: "So who's Nightwing? And Robin? I bet they're the same guy!" Well, that's not completely wrong.
-Overheard militia chatter: "All right guys, let's do it! Let's kill Bruce Wayne!" "'Kill Batman' sounded cooler." "Yeah...yeah, it did..."
-Stop another bank robbery by Two-Face's mooks. The "Harvey" side said he knew Batman wouldn't let it slide. He asks "Remember when I had principles?" Remember when he told Gordon that they ought to arrest me because of my vigilantism? Batman promised Harvey that they'd crush crime within a year. Then the "Two-Face" side interjects with a question: was HE ever part of that plan?! Or did Batman just intend him as a distraction, a pretty-boy lawyer for the mob to focus all their anger on as Batman tore them apart?! "Harvey" reasserts control and says this is my last chance: stay away or he'll deal with Batman himself. His tone sounds like he regrets what it might come to and genuinely hopes Batman won't fight him, but still ready to do what he feels is necessary.
-Meanwhile I appear to have neutralized the last of the militia watchtowers. Deathstroke has replaced the Knight in ordering the mooks around and talking to Batman as he takes them out. After this particular encounter Slade says I remind him of a guerrilla fighter he faced in Tropidor who was very good, but they eventually found him and nailed his head to a wall. Batman tells Deathstroke to leave Gotham, or else. The latter responds that he doesn't think so; they still control the roads with checkpoints and they still have mines planted in the city. Going by what's been said, I'm gonna guess that the reward for getting rid of all those is boss fight with Deathstroke. I actually hope so, since I played enough or Origins to get to that part, and Deathstroke was a very fun boss.
-Oh, wow. At the last of the three banks Two-Face is hitting, the mooks are saying it's the biggest one in Gotham so they're gonna try to set a record--hell, set TWO records for their boss' sake. Which means that this time there are TWO trucks busting through the walls for them to load money into, in different locations.
-"You should've left us alone, old friend," Harvey Dent's voice laments. "We were going to spare you but..." "The COIN had other ideas!" Two-Face finishes. Two-Face also says that they never forget, how Batman set them up all those years ago. Now even Harvey's starting to sound upset with Batman, asking me how I do it, how I play a hero when I leave guys like him behind?
-As soon as I take out enough mooks robbing the place, the alarm is cut as with the previous two banks, but this time Two-Face shows up personally with a big gun. He says tails, I lose, and the militia he's brought with him will make sure. (Remember that everybody was working with the Knight's forces. From what I can piece together from stuff I previously heard, Scarecrow and the Knight wanted Two-Face executing this mission of his on this night since it would provide a distraction for Batman and make it harder to focus on them. I guess to make him more effective, they loaned him some manpower.)
-Huh, that was anti-climactic. In Arkham City, Catwoman had to sneak around a room and get the jump on Two-Face several times before he was finally defeated, all the while avoiding his gun-toting mooks. But here, Batman can just take him down as easily as any of the other mooks. Harvey's on the floor and not getting up.
-To be fair, there's at least one medic in the group who can revive downed allies, but he doesn't prioritize Two-Face or anything. So when everybody's unconscious Batman carries Harvey to the car and radios Cash that he'll be bringing Two-Face in and that Cash can send a truck to pick up the unconscious mooks.
-Two-Face just says "Damn you" to start. Then Harvey asks if it's true, if I'm Bruce Wayne. Batman says nothing and Two-Face laughs evilly, saying don't answer then, they both know the truth. Harvey says I'm not Bruce Wayne. He and Gordon didn't make their deal with Bruce Wayne. Two-Face then says it's sure as hell not "Bruce Wayne" on the rooftops every night. Harvey says that they get it, this is who I am. It isn't the face you're given, he says. Then Two-Face finishes the sentence: it's the face you choose.
-When Two-Face is thrown in the same cell as all the other big villains, he mockingly asks if I'm still trying to preserve the balance of justice. It's futile; think of all the crimes I missed while capturing them, he says. Firefly asks "Mr. Attorney" if he wants him to even his face up. Two-Face responds that nothing burns like injustice.
-Solving riddles in the Arkham Knight HQ unlocks recordings of a conversation the Knight had while Barbara was their captive. Initially Scarecrow was going to inject her full of toxin to interrogate her, but the Knight stopped him and then, when it was just the two of them, asked Barbara if Scarecrow had hurt her. Initially she thought that it was just a good cop/bad cop routine and clammed up, and then Jason started telling her that that that isn't what Batman taught her. Batman taught her to keep the bad guy talking, right? Stall for time until he came to the rescue. Jason (still under the mask with Barbara having no idea who he was) said that he talked for hours, because he knew, right? He knew Batman was coming to save him. And the bastard let him talk. Eventually he just ran out of things to say. So he tells Barbara to trust him: Bruce won't be coming to save her. "Bruce?" Barbara asks in amazement.
-Knight says yeah, that's their little secret, Scarecrow doesn't know. Then he tells Barbara that while Batman's good at playing the hero, he isn't really about protecting the innocent. Oh no, he's about punishing the guilty. Now he says not to get him wrong; sure, Bruce will look for her, or he'll try, but when it comes down to choosing between you and the mission? He'll choose the mission. Every. Time. So he says to believe him when he says she can't count on Bruce to save her. Barbara tells him he's wrong. Then the synthesized voice is replaced by a normal one: "Look me in the eye and say that." "Jason?!" Barbara gasps.
-Barbara tells Jason that this is wrong. Jason counters that it's JUSTICE. Batman left him. Barbara says no, Bruce LOST him, and he MOURNED for him. She begs Jason to come home. He says he can't. She doesn't know what Joker did to him. Hollowed him out, filled him back up with hatred...Barbara says they can fix it. Jason screams that HE can fix it! He can fix it by taking all that pain, that blackness, and put it all in a bullet, and put that bullet right between Bruce's eyes. Barbara says that Joker is dead. If he wants revenge on the man who hurt him, he has a chance. Come back to the manor. Let them help. Don't let Joker win. Jason pauses, then asks how Alfred is. Barbara tells him Alfred misses him, all of them do. And then Scarecrow reenters the room to tell the Knight that the Cloudburst is charged, and it's time to go. Jason puts his helmet back on, judging from his voice, and orders somebody to put a gag on Barbara. He also says that if anybody hurts her, they're dead men.
-I rescue another firefighter and tell him once I've finished beating up the thugs that there's only one more member of his crew missing. He asks about the Chief, but no sign of him yet, which he's not happy to hear. Batman says he'll find the Chief. This guy says that the chief fought for their jobs, gave them hope; he was a great person. He helped victims of fires too. Why, just last week this firefighter saw the chief talking to a guy with burn scars all over his face and hands; other people would cross the street to avoid somebody who looked like that, but not the Chief.
-All right, here's my theory going by what I know so far. I figure that Chief Underhill was upset that the city was going to let a number of his firefighters go, and thought that maybe if there were a spike in fires the city would change their minds and decide they needed to keep everybody on the job. So he made some kind of deal with Firefly for him to torch places and give him and his boys more work. Of course, the Chief wouldn't want to hurt anybody, which is why at first the arsons were limited to condemned buildings and such. But something happened to make things go south; maybe Firefly started wanting to burn people and the Chief wasn't okay with that. Somehow, this led to Firefly specifically targeting fire stations as well as targeting the Chief and the firefighters whose jobs he was trying to protect. Have to wait and see how much of that I have right.
-Seeing Azrael again has Batman pit him against another group of simulated mooks. Huh, I was expecting a predator challenge. I guess maybe next time. Anyhoo, these guys are slightly tougher in that they have a medic with them who revives his unconscious buddies and also charges them with an electrical shield. But I'm used to that by now, so it's a simple matter to disperse the electricity on the one guy by Batclawing him and take down the medic quickly.
-Batman tells Azrael he's a competent warrior, but one final challenge awaits him. The ever-confident Azrael says to be prepared for his victory when he returns. Then another conversation with Alfred. The butler says he's nothing if not persistent, yet for some reason Batman doesn't seem entirely convinced. Batman asks him to just keep compiling the data. Alfred will do that. Also, he's discovered that the insignia Azrael wears is that of the Sacred Order of Saint Dumas. This order dates back several hundred years and have a sworn mission to protect Gotham, but records are scarce, and they are often dismissed as just a myth.
-Alfred's got a lead on the whereabouts of the last firefighter and after I save him, Batman asks him if he has any useful information; this one was the last guy to see the Chief before the truck got ambushed. The guy says that the truck was burning, his boots were actually melting because the heat was so intense, and he would've been dead if the Chief hadn't risked his life to pull him from the vehicle. He says that he saw the thugs who jumped them after the ambush dragging the Chief to the CityVision building and begs me to save him. That's next.
-At the building there are mooks with guns all over the place and I overhear them taunting Chief Underhill the same way they liked to taunt the other firefighters. The Chief angrily asks them to just do what they're gonna do. But of course they want to drag it out, because everybody in this particular group is a sadist. Well, that gives me lots of time to do the stealth pickoff thing. The Chief, incidentally, seems to be almost welcoming death here. Guilty conscience maybe?
-When I rescue Underhill, the first thing he asks is if his men are okay. Batman says his men look up to him and trust him. Underhill says "You know, don't you?" Batman says he knows Underhill would do anything for his men, including aiding and abetting a known arsonist. It was him who gave Firefly locations of abandoned buildings and access codes to get past security at those buildings. Underhill says he always made sure they were empty; nobody got hurt. Batman counters that he put his men in danger. The Chief protests that the city was shutting them down, and he COULDN'T let that happen.
-And while there was an arsonist loose in Gotham, his men kept their jobs, Batman adds. Underhill says they have families to feed. He made a promise to them that they'd be okay. Surely I can understand that, right? I don't know if Batman is sympathetic, but I sure am.
-Batman just says the cops will want to question him, and the two of them go to the Batmobile. As Underhill climbs into the back, he says his little girl's gonna be jealous of him riding in Batman's car.
-The Chief tells me that he didn't know about Scarecrow's plan. I believe him, right? Then he sighs and says of course not, why would anybody believe him now? He wonders how he'll come clean with his men. Batman says he owes it to them, and that what he did was wrong, but at least he came back tonight, which shows something. Chief says it's a guilty conscience maybe, but thanks.
-Oh what the fuck? Underhill's been put in the same cell as the villains like Blackfire, Two-Face, Scarecrow...and Firefly, the GUY WHO TRIED TO KILL HIM. Whose idiotic idea was that?!
-Two-Face is available to converse with now, and here are a couple of things he says. His good, Harvey side says that he tried to help Gotham, and look what happened. He tells Bruce that good men don't last in this city when everybody knows who they are. The evil, Two-Face side says that maybe I should think about changing my face. He has a few ideas about that.
-Oh, this is good. The cop who was smitten with Ivy the whole game? He says he thinks Ivy tried to brainwash him with those pheromones of hers. But don't worry, he resisted. (In much the same way that an ice cube resists a blowtorch, I would say.)
-Going out the doors and coming back in means that Underhill has moved closer to the cell walls, allowing me to get close enough to talk to him. Batman asks how he's holding up. He's managing as best he can, and he says he always wanted to meet Batman but never thought it'd be like this. Batman says he hears that a lot. Underhill says he betrayed his men and whatever happens, he deserves it. Poor guy. I think he's being way too hard on himself. It's not like he ASKED Firefly to turn on him.
-Underhill says it looks like both of us had our secrets, although he doubts that mine ever involved burning down half the city. The cops in here seem to be taking it pretty well, he says, but the people of Gotham probably won't be so forgiving.
-Azrael's ready for the next challenge, which Batman says is the toughest yet. He's up againt several ninja. That ain't so tough. There's more to it, right?
-Nope. Batman returns and says Azrael is to be commended and he'll contact him when he's made a decision. Azrael says there is no decision to make; he's ready NOW. Batman says that he decides how this works, not Azrael. Azrael counters that every moment he wastes, Gotham falls further into the abyss. He tells Batman to make his decision fast, or the city will be lost forever. Okay. It sounds like this dude won't take "no" for an answer, which is cause for concern.
-Alfred's ID'd Azrael. Some of this was already in his bios from the last two games, but in any case, Batman learns it in-story now. Real name: Michael Lane. A former GCPD officer, he was dismissed from the force for...well, Alfred just says "psychological issues". Following that, he appeared to vanish from the face of the Earth. Batman figures that must've been when the Order recruited him. Alfred adds that the batcomputer has picked up an irregularity in Lane's phsyiology, one which Alfred's never seen anything like before. Batman asks him to upload the data to the Clock Tower where he can personally analyze it.
-At the tower, Alfred sends the data showing Azrael's brain, which has a chip implanted in the temporal lobe. That lobe where memories are stored and accessed. Alfred wonders which memories. Batman says he's visualizing now--wait, you're kidding, right? You can actually view his memories? That's a bit far-fetched.
-On the screen are flashbacks to Michael Lane's past; childhood, teen years, and so on. A voice tells Azrael that he's part of the Order of St. Dumas, that he's studied Batman for a long time, and it's now time to complete his mission. Namely: seek out Batman, prove that you're his worthy and trusted successor. Only when Azrael has won Batman's trust will he fulfill his destiny.
-Alfred says his intentions seem pure, and wonders if Batman suspects Azrael's recollections have been tampered with. Batman suspects just that, in an effort to modify his behaviour unconsciously. He looks closer at the images shown on the screen, going through the footage.
-When he's done, a message is revealed: the Dark Knight stands in the way of their divine cause to eradicate the evil in Gotham. When the moment is right, Azrael is to strike Batman down and take his rightful place as the protector of Gotham, one who will be relentless. Basically it sounds like they believe Batman's part of the problem with his no-kill rule. I suppose if a Punisher type started killing bad guys then Batman would try to stop that person, so it makes sense that they'd view removing Batman as a logical first step.
-Alfred asks how I'll stop Azrael, and Azrael says--from right behind Batman--that I WON'T stop him. Batman calls him Lane, and he responds that Lane is dead, he's Azrael of the Order of St. Dumas. But that Order has lied to him, Batman says, stolen his free will. Azrael calls him a liar, and says he stands in the way of true justice. Batman protests that they're on the same side, "Michael." Azrael seems to hesitate, but then he says no, NO, he knows who he is and what he's doing. Batman replies in that case, the choice is his. And he turns his back on Azrael.
-Now we're in control of Azrael again and a voice says "Protector of faith, you know what must be done." I try to leave the room and then I'm stopped, with the voice telling me that Batman must die. I try to leave again and the voice tells me I'm compelled to execute their commands. Finally it lets me get in the elevator. Batman says I've made the right decision. Azrael shakes his hand, saying he does nobody's bidding but God's. He will make the Order answer for what they have done to him. The elevator doors close and it takes him down.
-With that side mission completed, Alfred radios to say that Knightfall is ready to be executed whenever I wish. I suppose I COULD trigger it now, but I kind of want to deal with Riddler, Penguin, and Deathstroke first.
-With the number of riddles left to be solved down in the single digits, Riddler says that I should have LITERALLY died from the mental exhaustion by now. He also seems to be reconsidering the wisdom of his promise to fight me in his mech once I solve them all; earlier he told me that I surely must be cheating and that he will perhaps refuse to fight me after all, on PRINCIPLE.
-Two left, Riddler incredulously exclaims. TWO? This can't be! It's like he's been transported to some alternate reality where I am the genius and he is the idiot with an overinflated sense of his own abilities!
-This was really bugging me: I couldn't see the last trophy location anywhere on the map, and the game wasn't giving me any more Riddler thugs to interrogate. I was able to narrow it down to somewhere on Bleake Island, but that was it. Finally Googled it and IGN's guide said that in order to get one particular trophy you need to complete a certain amount of the Penguin-stopping side mission, so I'm doing that now.
-Nightwing's contacted me with the location of another weapons truck, and Batman thanks him and tells him to get ready to meet him at the weapons caches as soon as he's located it. Oh good, artificial stupidity results in the van I follow encountering an obstacle and repeatedly bumping against it in an effort to get where it's supposed to go. I have to call the Batmobile in and destroy the fence in its way, which means that the guys in the van freak out at seeing Batman all over again and I have to tail them until they think they've lost me all over again.
-Anyhoo, eventually they get to the building Penguin's storing this particular batch of weapons and Batman radios Nightwing, saying he'll take point. Dick replies "Age before beauty" and lets me know he'll make his usual understated entrance.
-Batman sneaks in to open the rooftop shutters, resulting in some nice breakable glass for him to drop onto the roomful of mooks through. A second later Nightwing's in there as well, and between the two of them it's more than Penguin's guys can handle.
-Ah, it's nice teaming up with Nightwing, although considering how much fun I had teaming with Catwoman and Robin I guess it's nice teaming up with most people. Nightwing says he forgot how well they work together. Batman replies he only teams with the best. Nightwing tells him not to get any ideas about it being permanent; he likes the new job too much. He gets to decide his own hours, doesn't have a boss looking over his shoulder all the time, etc.
-Speaking to Nightwing further, he mentions he hasn't seen Robin around tonight. It couldn't have been easy for him, coming in after what happened, but the kid's got a lot of heart, Dick says. Also, when it's all over Dick wants to stop by the manor and say hi to Alfred. He made living with Bruce bearable...JUST...
-Hey, devs, you forgot to give Nightwing a skeleton when I use Detective Mode! Usually you're good about little touches like that. Anyway, one more vault full of arms blown to smithereens.
-By Dick's estimation, Penguin's got at least three more caches around the city. It's gonna be a long night. (With me tackling it now, I believe the worst is over.)
-I leave and then I see there's new intel for me! Could it be a lead on the very last mine that the militia have planted in the city? No, it's Nightwing calling, despite me having just left him down in the warehouse seconds ago. He says he's found another of Penguin's trucks, and that he's just too damn good at this. (If you work that fast, then yes, yes you are.)
-At the next one, everybody inside the building is carrying a gun. They are, however, standing far too close to a wall that Batman can spray explosive gel on and then detonate, which takes a lot of them out. And he can detonate it from inside a vent, so the two that are still conscious are jumped without warning and fall victim to a multi-takedown. That isn't everybody, though; clearing that room just means Batman's free to move further in, to the room with the vault.
-My finger slips and I accidentally drop down into the group of mooks filling that room sooner than I planned to. Um, was I supposed to do anything to prepare the room for Nightwing? Can he get in? Yes he can; I see a nearby wall collapse as he smashes through it to join the fray.
-"C'mon Bruce, admit it, you're having fun." "I won't rest until I bring Penguin to justice." "You always were great at killing a party." I'm looking forward to playing the Nightwing DLC. Arkhamverse!Grayson's making a good impression on me.
-Overheard mook chatter: when this guy break's somebody's arm, it's "battery". When rich boy Bruce Wayne does it, it's "vigilantism". That's one sweet gig, says the mook. His friend agrees and says he wants a piece of that. It's easy, says the first, just get yourself a few billion dollars.
-More mook chatter: "Man, Batman gets unmasked, puts away Scarecrow and he's still out there! Take a night off already, you playboy vigilante nutcase!"
-This next cache is in a water filtration plant, and Batman needs Alfred to look at the city blueprints to find a way inside. This involves driving the Batmobile into the sewer system.
-This is odd, Nightwing didn't show up for this fight. Well, may as well blow up some more weapons and hope that yet another of the Bat-family hasn't gotten kidnapped or anything.
-Oh great. Nightwing pops up on a nearby tv screen, cheerfully saying: "Good news. I found Penguin. He's...right where we want him." Then Penguin walks into the shot to punch his face, calling him a cocky little bastard. And it zooms out to show Nightwing is tied up. Penguin says I've been taking from him all night and it's time he did some taking of his own. Night says "Bats, I'm fine, don't worry about me!"
-Of course Batman calls Alfred. He wants him to use Nightwing's tracker to get his location. Is he in any trouble, Alfred wants to know. Penguin has him, says Batman. Alfred is worried about this, and encourages me to get to the place they're holding him (after locating it) because in his words "Master Grayson can be too reckless for his own good." Yeah, I'll do that, but first let me grab this last Riddler trophy.
-Rooftop full of mooks between me and Nightwing. They have a scrambler to jam my Detective Mode, but I take care of 'em all the same. Then it's time to drop down an elevator shaft, and I find myself above Nightwing and all the mooks entertaining themselves by trying to beat the cockiness out of him. They're not having much luck so far, since he snarks at them endlessly and just pisses them off more.
-Penguin has ordered them to not actually kill him, since Cobblepot wants to do that himself. I've finally found a way into the area behind where he's tied up, conveniently with nothing separting us except a weak wooden wall. Oh, there's a portrait of Penguin on it that Batman ruins while bursting through and throwing Nightwing's chair into the mooks. Somehow it breaks the chair, and Nightwing's bonds, AND he immediately has his Escrima Sticks in his hands as he jumps to his feet. Oh well, don't question it, it's Rule Of Cool I guess.
-Once they're all beaten up, Batman asks Nightwing what the hell he was thinking coming here alone. Nightwing responds that a thank you for finding the place would be nice. And they got another weapons cache now, so all's well that ends well, right? (You know, considering what happened to poor Jason, I have to go with Batman here. Don't go taking stupid risks like that, Dick.) Batman points out that Penguin's still at large. Nightwing doubts he stuck around here.
-Pressing Space to talk to Nightwing some more has him say that he had a chance to nab Cobblepot, and he didn't want to pass it up. He also says that with no more guns and no more goons left, we probably won't be hearing anything else from Penguin tonight. Please, tempt fate some more.
-Yup. Right when Batman gets done preparing to blow up the weapons and turns around, Penguin's voice pipes up that this is sure cozy. And Batman turns around to see Penguin has snuck up on Nightwing and is holding a gun to his head while forcing him to one knee. Penguin says that this one's pretty careless. Anyway, if Batman comes any closer, he gets to see the contents of Nightwing's head.
-"Hey Oz," says Nightwing. "You remember the Flying Graysons?" Penguin wants to know what he's on about. The Flying Graysons, says Dick, the greatest acrobats in the world. Had one particular move that just took your breath away. Penguin's getting tired of listening to him, but Batman gets what Nightwing's hinting at and before Oswald knows what's happening they have hit him with a double-team takedown. Batman's on top of Penguin with his finger on the detonator. Penguin demands that he stop, but Batman presses the thing over Penguin's threats to kill him, and the last of his weapons go boom.
-Penguin's ranting about what he'll do to me before I punch his lights out. Dick says he was just about to suggest I do that very thing, then says that here comes the part where Batman tells him off. Batman instead says he's proud of him, much to Dick's surprise; is Batman feeling okay? Batman says this is the end, the last time they meet. Dick says not to talk like that; the stuff that's happened tonight isn't gonna stop Batman. Nothing stops Batman. Batman asks him to promise to keep Bludhaven safe. Nightwing tries to lighten the mood by saying it's just that Batman probably just doesn't want him hanging around stealing the limelight. "Dick..." Nightwing says he won't let Bruce down before departing. Batman quietly says "I know."
-Penguin comes around in the back of the Batmobile and when he asks where he is, Batman tells him to guess. Cobblepot raves that those guns were his, and Batman tells him he can still sell them for scrap, if he ever gets out. Penguin calls me a smug bastard and then says he might've known there was a Wayne under the mask. Asks me what's the matter, was bankrupting his family not good enough, I had to go and kick ten tons of crap out of people too? Batman says that Penguin's family was corrupt, and Penguin fires back that Batman's family is dead. Batman has no response to this, causing Penguin to ask if he touched a nerve there. Penguin says that the whole caped crusader thing doesn't work too well when everybody knows your identity, does it? "Worked fine catching you," says Batman. Penguin says to face it, after tonight Batman's dead in the water. Better find another costume, old boy! What'll it be next, a squirrel? Penguin laughs, and I might find that funnier if Riddler hadn't already compared Batman to a flying squirrel earlier in the night. Batman just says Penguin will see.
-Tossed in with the others, Penguin snaps at Two-Face that he could've told Scarecrow what a bad idea it was to rely on him. Two-Face tells him to watch his mouth, since they're on the same side of the bars. Meanwhile, Blackfire invites the "little man" to pray with him, saying that God finds beauty in all of us, no matter how deformed we are. Penguin just growls to let him know how that praying works out for him. Penguin also shouts that this is the last time he'll ever work with Two-Face, with Two-Face retorting that Penguin said the plan was foolproof.
-Okay, Riddler-time! There's a question mark on a table that wasn't previously in the main room of the orphanage, so I press it. A big green crackling force field surrounds the part of the floor that the Riddler, still in his mech, rises through. He says I've earned the right to die at his hands, but we do not meet as equals, because I have no hope whatsoever of victory. He actually says that he got bored of me long ago and that he's looking forward to abandoning this one-sided rivalry and moving on to better uses of his time. Okay, sure, whatever you say.
-He summons many of his robots, some blue and some red, which I beat up as he shoots at me every now and then with his mech. In fact, I think he changed even more of them red, meaning that Batman can't hit them without getting an electric shock. (Remember, red robots were for Catwoman to hit.) Eventually there are no blue robots left. I try to hit a red one because I have no better ideas but nope, can't hurt it, just end up hurting myself. Riddler is confident that this is the end...and then the camera pans up to the rafters to reveal CATWOMAN!
-Catwoman tells Eddie that she's sorry, but it kind of looks to her like he's cheating. So she leaps down and begins to take care of all the red robots. Riddler protests that this isn't her fight. "Eddie, sweetie, you invited me, remember? And then you tied me to a chair."
-With all the robots gone I see that Riddler's personal force field appears to be gone as well. So I get Catwoman to leap onto his mech and hit him a bunch of times before he manages to swipe a mechanical arm at her and force her to jump off. Then the fight continues. Oh, and Riddler, for all his claims of not caring about Batman, can't help ranting that it's impossible I solved all of his puzzles, and that I must have cheated, and that he will forcibly extract a confession that I cheated!
-Riddler keeps changing the colours of the robots, and after they're all destroyed and his force field goes down his mech either glows red or blue just like the robots, so only one person can attack him then while the other gets a shock. Batman's the one who attacks him last, and when his health is almost gone he grabs Riddler by the throat and throws him into the air in front of his mech, just in time for Catwoman to intercept him in mid-flight and land on him feet-first as he hits the floor. And Batman finishes him off by flying off of the mech and slamming his head into the floor.
-Nope. Batman returns and says Azrael is to be commended and he'll contact him when he's made a decision. Azrael says there is no decision to make; he's ready NOW. Batman says that he decides how this works, not Azrael. Azrael counters that every moment he wastes, Gotham falls further into the abyss. He tells Batman to make his decision fast, or the city will be lost forever.
This sounds like the devs were expecting players to finish this particular side quest before beating the main story? Considering how the biggest threat has been taken down, Azrael's warning rings a little hollow.
@MetaFour: I suppose so. Ah well, sequence-breaking FTW I guess.
About the end of that side mission: I looked up what else could happen, and the outcome I picked was one of three possible ones you can choose. The sword that Azrael surrendered to Batman right before he was tested was apparently in the room and I didn't see it. In addition to trying to leave, you can have Azrael pick up the sword and try to kill Batman, but he's countered, knocked out, and ends up thrown in the cell with all the villains. The third outcome is for Azrael to pick up the sword but to break it rather than use it, deciding not to kill Batman and resulting in pretty much the same parting of the two crime-fighters as if he just walked out.
-As Batman goes to load Riddler into the car, Selina asks where her thank you is for the daring, last-minute rescue. Batman says it was under control. (No it wasn't.) She says sure it was, now be a good damsel and bestow a kiss on your hero. She moves in for a kiss. Batman pushes her away. She goes to slap him, he catches her wrist, telling her to play nice. She says he isn't playing at all. Batman says no he isn't, not anymore. What's that supposed to mean, Selina asks. He tells her it's the end. The two of them can't. She asks "I will see you again, right?" Batman says no one will. Gotham needs something more, something worse, to defend it. Something more powerful than he can be right now. A legend that can only rise from the ashes of the Batman.
-Selina says "Some things you can't do alone, Bruce," and goes for a kiss again. This time Batman returns it, at least briefly. But then he pulls away. "And some things you have to." He walks toward the car, with Selina telling him to call if he needs her. Batman says he won't. Selina says she knows, but wanted to say it.
-It's now Riddler's turn to come around in the back of the Batmobile. Where is he? "You're a smart man, Edward. I'm sure you'll figure it out." Riddler says no, no, NO, Batman cheated, Catwoman cheated, she stole his victory from him! "A fight I couldn't win? That doesn't even fit YOUR definition of playing fair," Batman counters. Riddler says it WAS fair! If I wasn't able to bypass the robots' multilayer encryption, decipher their unique operating system, and reprogram them in mid-battle, well, that doesn't mean I get to call in assistance! "You need help, Nigma." "I never need HELP with anything!"
-At GCPD, Riddler says that HE could have brought him there TWICE as fast! He also tells Cash that he will need no lawyer, he will represent himself! Well, as the old saying goes, he has a fool for a client then.
-Riddler wants to know if Firefly even comprehends the numerous chemical processes that take place during combustion. Firefly responds that that's the beauty of fire: no riddles! So easy to understand.
-I've now disarmed the last of the mines, and tell Deathstroke his occupation's over. He chuckles, asking if I really think he cares about the militia. No, he's an assassin, and there's only one reason he's here tonight. Batman's quite ready to do it, and tells Slade to meet him at Grand Avenue.
-At Grand Avenue I see the Batmobile is facing a number of Cobra drones. Hey, I thought this was supposed to be one on one! Okay, I'll play his game, and Batman has a card to play as well: he tells Alfred to raise the bridges just like he did earlier when fighting the Knight's Cloudburst tank. Deathstroke can't leave now.
-Oh goodie: Alfred tells me that unlike the Cloudburst tank or these Cobras, Deathstroke's tank has a 360 degree field of vision. I have no idea how I'm supposed to beat him in that case if his tank is significantly stronger than mine, but I'll see.
-Badass Boast here: Deathstroke asks what every guy who fought him and walked away has in common. The answer: he got them the second time.
-Okay, I'm able to take out all the Cobras and then opt for tactics like darting out from behind a building to quickly shoot Deathstroke's tank and then darting back behind the same building before he can fire back. In the end I do sort of decide to go head to head by continually backing away from his tank while shooting down missiles he fires at me and dodging side to side to avoid shots from his big gun. Finally the tank is trashed and the game fucking TEASES me by having Deathstroke open the hatch and leap out with his sword drawn, ready for a good old-fashioned melee battle...only for Batman to similarly leap from the Batmobile, the two to collide in mid-air, and Batman to stun Deathstroke with a single hit before knocking him unconscious on the ground. Then he's being loaded into the Batmobile. Goddamn it, if they wanted to only include a Deathstroke boss fight in one Arkham game I wish they'd put it in this one instead of Origins.
-Deathstroke calls me a coward. Dude, you were the one who decided to make this not only vehicular, but have several drones backing you up. Anyway, Batman tells him that he shouldn't have dropped it (meaning his sword). Deathstroke says if I were any kind of man, I'd pull over so we could finish it properly. Batman tells him he had his chance and it's over. Slade vows to kill me, and this time he won't even need somebody to put up a bounty; he's gonna do it for free. (Ironically, Deathstroke said in an earlier transmission that the Knight failed because he made it personal and that clouded his judgment. Which is true, but surely you realize you're falling into the same trap, right Slade?)
-At GCPD, Deathstroke asks if I call this a prison. When put in the same cell as everybody else, he asks if I really think it's wise to put me in with all these "lesser warriors". Perhaps I won't have any prisoners left when I return. Well actually, no, I have been questioning the wisdom of putting everybody in the same cell for a while now, but it's not really my call. (But if you're offering, I really would not object if you removed Pyg from the world. I mean, everybody in there's bad news except for Chief Underhill, but Pyg has probably caused worse suffering than any of them. Well, maybe not Scarecrow, but I think Scarecrow's suffering badly enough at this point.)
-Batman calls Alfred and tells him the city's safe, with Alfred congratulating him. With all the villains neutralized, Batman says it's time for Knightfall. Alfred tells him the Batwing is ready to rendezvous on the roof of GCPD to start it.
-During this, Penguin was saying something to Deathstroke. He was drowned out by Batman and Alfred, but I do clearly hear Slade's response: he says that small opponents can be formidable in combat, but that Penguin needs to lose some weight first.
-Meanwhile, Blackfire tells Riddler that none but the Lord move in mysterious ways. Riddler snaps not to proselytize to him; he has no need for the superstitious nonsense the Deacon peddles.
-Riddler tells Pyg to cease with the mindless inanities; it is beneath his brilliance to be cooped up with one so clearly insane. Response: "Pyg feels sick, no riddles, no tricks." Followed by a retching noise. Oh, lovely.
-Firefly asks the "old man" if he's ever handled a flamethrower. Deathstroke asks if Firefly's ever seen a napalm drop at night. Most beautiful thing in the world, Slade says. Well, it's nice to see them bonding I suppose.
-Speaking to Slade, Batman says he hopes whatever they paid him was worth it. Deathstroke calmly says that the chance to fight Batman is always worth it. Batman says he's flattered. Deathstroke says he should be; when a man earns his respect, Deathstroke does not rest. He devotes all of his energy, everything he has...to KILLING HIM! He shouts these last three words as he suddenly slams his hands against the transparent wall between himself and Batman, before turning away. Still sore, I see.
-Blackfire says that Deathstroke has killed, but his tally of death is nothing compared to the millions God has consigned to the fiery pit. Slade replies to the "preacher man" that his soul doesn't need saving. He sold it a long time ago.
-Batman goes to the roof where the Bat-Signal is, and the game prompts me to press Space to initiate the Knightfall Protocol. Batman removes his mask, looks down at it, and then drops it by the signal light. He radios Gordon that it's done, Gotham's safe. Gordon thanks him for everything. Bruce says goodbye, and then signs off as the Batwing flies overhead, carrying the Batmobile with it. Bruce grapples up onto it and it flies away.
-The Bat-Signal breaks and goes dark. Gordon radios all police units: all major threats are dealt with. Time to roll out and take the city back. Police cars flood out of the GCPD garage. Meanwhile, at Wayne Manor, an enormous crowd of media is camped outside the gates, including Vicki Vale. Naturally they all get excited when they see the Batwing landing and Bruce get out, but he doesn't have anything to say to them. He enters his home and Alfred asks if he's sure he wants to go through with it. Bruce says it's the only way he can protect them.
-Moments later, all of the media people outside are knocked off their feet by an explosion inside Wayne Manor! They watch and report as the building starts to burn and crumbles before their eyes.
-Gordon narrates now: that's how it happened, how the Batman died. Jim's shown in a tuxedo on the GCPD roof smoking his pipe, near the still-broken Bat-Signal. His voiceover says that a friend once told him criminals were a superstitious and cowardly lot, that the only way to beat them was to give them something to be scared of. He says he understands now. As Batman's world grew darker, so did theirs. When his war ended, their lives could begin again. He set them free.
-Free to live and to love, Gordon's voice continues, as we see Gordon get a text from Tim Drake: "Don't forget the ring." As Gordon is driven to the wedding of Barbara and Tim, his voice tells us there was an inquest into who killed Bruce Wayne. There were hundreds of suspects, but they'll never know the answer. His car passes a billboard with his likeness, and the words: "The new mayor of Gotham City: James Gordon."
-A man, a woman, and their child leave a theatre and walk into an alley. Gordon's voiceover wonders what's next; if criminals are cowardly and superstitious, what happens when they have nothing to be scared of? Who protects Gotham now that Batman is dead? As you'd expect, the family is cornered in the alley by thugs, the father knocked to the ground, the mother menaced, when suddenly the thugs see something on a nearby rooftop. It looks like Batman. The thugs shout that Batman's dead, and that look doesn't scare them anymore. But they're freaked out seconds later by the Batman-shape seemingly rising up as if levitating, turning to flames, and swiftly descending on them as they cry out in terror.
-That's the end of the game. I'd say it's pretty good and I don't regret buying it at all, although there are some strange parts of the story. For example, I have no idea why Henry Adams killed himself; TV Tropes says that he did it upon seeing Batman's green eyes and realizing Batman was infected with the Joker blood, so he offed himself because Batman would be a better replacement Joker than he could be. But I figure that's just fan speculation.
-Soon I'll play the Catwoman's Revenge DLC. I think I'll make a new thread for that since this one's already so long, provided nobody objects to that. I also plan to play through DLC stories featuring Red Hood, Nightwing, Batgirl, Harley, Robin, and last the "Season of Infamy" story, which apparently expands on the main story and in which you play as Batman some more.
-With that finished, I hope everybody enjoyed reading! :)
Oh! Almost forgot that Joker sings a reprise of "Look Who's Laughing Now" over the credits, although it's a slower tempo (I don't know whether to compare it to blues or not) and he sounds pretty broken up.
And so I'm home in the Asylum.
Ever alone in the Asylum.
"No, don't leave me!" I cried
Now I'm locked deep inside
His subconscious trapped forever
Look who's laughing now [Laughs Faintly]
I was the clown prince of crime
He was the next in line
I was him, he was me
Oh what a Joker he could be
Now the darkness closes in
No one's laughing now [Laughing mixed with crying]
I'm stuck in his head and not laughing
I'd be better off dead and I'm not laughing
I begged and I plead but he stopped me laughing
If you only knew the things I'd do for you
I was the ace of knaves
He was my king of spades
What a pair suits clashed in style
It could have worked, this Joker's wild
Ooh I felt so clashed together
Look who's laughing now
I'm stuck in his head and not laughing
I'd be better off dead and I'm not laughing
Take Robin instead, then I'd be laughing
I'm finished, done I'm through
All because of you
It was my final tour
Always leave them wanting more
But before the curtain call
Make sure you try and slay em' all
Nothing good can last forever
No one's laughing now [laughing mixed with crying]
I'm stuck in his head and not laughing
I'd be better off dead and I'm not laughing
I begged and I plead but he stopped me laughing
Oh, what can I do?
So near, yet far from you [Continues to laugh but then breaks down sobbing]
You're a great crowd. I'll be here all week; try the veal.
Comments
When Gordon mentions taking that 8-year-old's testimony, is that him subtly admitting he knows who Batman is? Or just very heavy irony?