Asylum would be my favorite video game of all time if not for one issue: City is better. As for Origins, I’m going to admit something: I’m not very good at video games. I try, and sometimes I think I’m better than I am, but I pretty much suck. I can still play Asylum and City on easy mode. Origins, on the other hand, is absolutely brutal. I don’t know what’s so much harder about it, but it’s just infuriating to play. And, it’s a little unpolished like other people were saying.
Knight’s story is abysmal. It’s like all of the worst trends in event comic crossovers in video game form. It’s got pointless, ugly shock deaths. It’s got melodramatic proclamations that it’s THE END, FOREVER YOU GUYS. It’s got plot twists that are simultaneously blatantly obvious and completely nonsensical. It’s got villain plans that the writers were clearly making up as they went along. It’s got an obnoxious, whiny man-child as a villain. It’s got Jason Todd being annoying. It’s-
Oh.
OH.
Guys, I just realized that Arkham Knight is Countdown to Final Crisis: The Video Game.
Anyway, the question was about favorites, not least favorites, so I’m going to gush about Asylum and City to purge my system of that frightening thought. First, those two games are written by Paul Dini, who is easily one of the best, if not THE best, Batman writers ever (though he was involved with Countdown, so make of that what you will). You’ve got a bunch of villains running around, but a good reason for them to all be active at once (breakout at Arkham Asylum/thrown into Arkham City to fend for themselves), and they mostly have different feels to how you encounter them. In Asylum, the Scarecrow segments are brilliantly twisted, and that Mister Freeze boss fight in Arkham City is one of the best video game bosses of all time. The Riddler puzzles are exactly as much of a pain as you’d expect, but boy do you feel like the World’s Greatest Detective when you solve them. The Riddler himself is so smarmy, it’s just always really funny listening to him (while he’s a lot more mean-spirited in Knight - in the early games, it felt more like he was talking himself up than putting you down). And, of course, there’s the great voice cast. And the gameplay makes you feel like Batman, but those last two apply to all four games (maybe less so the voice cast on Origins, but they’re still pretty good). Overall, the open world, more villains, and Catwoman side-story make me like City better than Asylum, but I love both games.