Awesome / Batman: Arkham Knight

"Miss me?"^note Why, yes, we did, Mr. Hamill. Yes, we did.

With this being the last entry in the Batman: Arkham saga, Rocksteady made sure to pull out all the stops.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

---

• In the announcement trailer for the game, Batman jumps out of the Batmobile as it drives through a fiery explosion, beats up an entire squad of goons armed with assault rifles and shotguns, and leaps back inside the driver's seat just a second before the auto-pilot runs him over. Even Two-Face — who was the cause of the fiery explosion to begin with — looks impressed.
  • One for Two-Face already: Even if he did look impressed, he sure as hell wasn't afraid. What did he do as soon as he saw the Batmobile? He didn't run like his mooks did. He grabbed his gun, walked right into the Batmobile's course and shot at it. When that didn't work, he swapped to the grenade launcher without even flinching and shot that instead, which sets off the above events.
    • Finally, when Batman's wiped out Two-Face's goons, the latter doesn't quail — he simply yet casually chucks his assault rifle into the passenger seat and hops in his car. He's probably done this before, after all.
• The introduction of the Batmobile in the game proper. Batman swoops down onto a crowd of thugs beating up a cop, takes out each of the thugs and saves the cop... only for a whole car full of goons to come roaring their way. Batman fires a grapnel hook and soars to safety with the cop in tow, before revealing his plan...
  Cop: What are you doing?!
  Batman: Evening the odds.
  Game: E: Even the Odds
• One for the villains: They've actually put their egos and other problems in check to team up with each other. These are the same people that were ready to go to war against each other only a year ago in-universe, and they've all teamed up.
  • It's also a posthumous moment for the Joker: he was the reason the villains were at each other's throats for so long.
  • Might want to give Scarecrow a little credit as well, since he was the one who managed to unite them under one cause, presumably using his vast knowledge of psychological manipulation to get them to do what he wants.
    • Of all of the Dark Knight's enemies, Scarecrow has the honor of being the only villain in any Batman adaptation to reveal Bruce Wayne's identity before the world.
    • Scarecrow might've been the sole recipient of the grand unmasking, but Joker nailed one just as significant if not moreso from beyond the grave: he broke Batman's will. He made him honestly break the One Rule, even if in his own mind; to Batman, it is entirely real. For a brief stint, Joker has control of Batman's body as a result, and it's only due to a turning of tables with a little fear toxin that Gotham isn't burnt to the ground by a bat gone mad.
    • Scarecrow's victory is averted a bit when you realise that Joker could have known Batman's identity but, unlike Scarecrow and everyone else, didn't give a fuck as to who was under the cowl - as long as he could kill him, the Joker didn't care.
• Poison Ivy tells Scarecrow that she's not interested in helping him kill Batman. She's knocked unconscious, wakes up in a cell and, lo and behold, there's Batman beating people up. She uses Batman's arrival as a very convenient moment and escapes from her cell by poisoning her captor and then smashing his head against the glass.
• After Barbara is kidnapped by the Arkham Knight, Batman starts following the car in the Batmobile by tracking the car’s treads. Eventually, he discovers that the car has crashed off road. Examining the crime scene, he discovers that not only did Barbara pepper spray the driver and cause the car to crash before rolling away from the car, she managed to briefly crawl away to hide a device that she uses to track her once she’s inevitably grabbed again. Upon realizing the Barbara caused the crash to show Batman where she is, even Batman is impressed.
• Harley Quinn is playable. Given the sort of stuff Bruce, Selina, Tim, Dick and Slade get up to in Challenge Mode, it's clear The Chew Toy of the previous games is long gone. In her DLC, she is exactly as strong as in her own comic series (having beaten Killer Croc and stood up to Nightwing, Robin, and even Cassandra Cain).
• The Batmobile Trailer starts of merely technologically marvelous, with depth, draw and loading that is nothing short of seamless. But, if you paid attention to Oracle, the Arkham Knight has tanks. The solution isn't dodging them or subterfuge. No, the Batmobile transforms into a tank, which proceeds to tear through a half-dozen other tanks with a display of More Dakka. It then launches him up into the air to display a Fear Takedown, in which Batman takes out three armed mooks in seconds, then does his signature saunter away to the next plot point.
• The Red Hood DLC, seeing as Batman fans have wanted Jason Todd in these games for a long time. It also makes the Arkham franchise one of the few pieces of Batman media to feature three Robins.
  • Jason's fighting style has to be seen to be believed. He uses his pistols seamlessly in combat without being a Game-Breaker, delivering some Equilibrium-level Gun Kata, and performs roundhouse kicks in place of a cape stun.
• When the bridge to the ACE Chemicals Company is suddenly destroyed by an incoming helicopter, piloted by none other than the Arkham Knight himself, Batman doesn't run away or even take cover like the others—he stares it down as he moves towards it without hesitating.
  • Later, as the Arkham Knight prepares to sic a bunch of goons with weapons trained on Batman, taunting him with boasts like "we know how you think", Batman asks if they know what he's thinking right now. The Arkham Knight assumes it's "who the hell is this guy?". Bruce grins and says, "No. I'm just wondering which one of you to take out first." Cue the Batmobile and Bats himself working as Back-to-Back Badasses to clean up the entire group while the Arkham Knight retreats.
• The exclusive "Nightmare Mission" for the PS4. Not only is the phantasm of the Scarecrow larger than ever, stalking him throughout a twisted, melting urban hellscape, but this time, Batman has enough firepower to directly fight back.
• The All Who Follow You Trailer, that shot of Batman on the rooftop with Nightwing and Robin is something people were hoping for since AA started.
  • From the same trailer, Batman and Catwoman teaming up to fight some Riddler Drones.
• The recasting of Gordon with Jonathan Banks in the role. One of TV's most unshakable Cool Old Guy characters playing one of comics?
• The Joker is back. Granted, he's a hallucination, but it's relieving to see that Arkham City wouldn't be the last time we'd see Mark Hamill's Joker.
  • "Miss Me?" Why, yes, we did, Mistah J. Yes, we did.
• Tripling as a Heartwarming Moment and a Tear Jerker, Poison Ivy's Heroic Sacrifice. Merging with a giant tree, Ivy uses the full extent of her power to dispel the fear toxin around Gotham, but the action took everything she had and she dies in Batman's arms. In one final, noble act, one of Batman's most misanthropic enemies showed a level of humanity that she herself probably never realized she had. Her final Badass Boast made the moment all the more powerful.
  Poison Ivy: Nature always wins...
• Also one for Gotham City. When Scarecrow threatens the use of his chemical weapon, the city manages to evacuate the vast majority of its civilian populace in 24 hours—the total population being about 6.3 million people. That is an incredible feat of rescue operations for the GCPD and the City's Municipal office. They manage to save lives and prevent them from dying in the middle of a warzone and they do it without any mention or hint of help from federal or state governments. For all that the city is a Crapsack World this is one time where its Darkest Hour can also be its finest hour.
  • Additional kudos to the police and firefighters who willingly remain behind in the city after the evacuation. They could surely have left town with their families, but stay to try and keep a lid on the chaos, despite Gotham becoming Ground Zero for an imminent gas attack and being overrun by street thugs, militia invaders, and the entire Rogues' Gallery.
• This incarnation of Jason Todd gets a major one compared to the others. After getting left for dead and driven to the brink of madness by the Joker, he manages to build up a massive private military corporation from the ground up with technology on the level of what is at Bruce's disposal and take over Gotham. For a character who usually isn't portrayed as the sharpest tool in the shed, that is a significant Took a Level in Badass moment.
• The effort to render the Cloudburst device, which has been turned into a WMD, useless is a combined one for Batman and the Batmobile. Scarecrow has had the device mounted on the Arkham Knight's tank. Said tank is equipped with long range weaponry that can turn the Batmobile into molten slag, and is almost fast enough to chase down the Batmobile. Hunting each other through the fear-toxin filled streets, Batman utilizes hit and run tactics along with the Batmobile's superior agility, to goad the Arkham Knight into making the mistake of trying to kill him and forget about protecting the Cloudburst device.
• The subterranean tank battle is one for the Arkham Knight. By that point, Batman has beaten everything the Knight has thrown at him, annihilated the most powerful tank in his arsenal, and sent the Knight himself into hiding. Most Players are probably clever enough to realize that they haven’t seen the last of him. What they probably weren’t expecting was for him to bust out of the ground with what can only be described as a massive, subterranean death machine. After fighting off an entire army’s worth of trained soldiers and advanced tanks by himself, all Batman can do is run for his life. It really drives home just how much this guy so wants you dead.
  • This ends up with the Batmobile utterly torn apart; that's right, The Arkham Knight destroys the tank-transforming Batmobile that was capable of taking on opponents way outside its weight class.
• Batman's epic victory over the Joker corrupting his body, and that iconic line he delivers. That line we've been waiting for, for so long in this series. The line that the Animated Series made famous, made the very face of the Bat, belted out one last time.
  Batman: [lifts the helpless Joker by the neck] I am vengeance. I am the night! I AM BATMAN!
  • What happens immediately afterward qualifies as awesome as well; the final fight with Joker will not end until you chuck him in the cell with an Environmental Takedown. Nothing else will keep him down. But seeing as the Joker is an absolutely terrible fighter and has been pissing Batman off the entire game — eleven years in-universe — you can spend however long you wish utterly beating the crap out of him and reducing him to a terrified, sobbing wreck. It's the Catharsis Factor at its finest.
    Batman: You're afraid of being ashes. You're afraid of being forgotten. And you will be forgotten, Joker. Because of me.
• Batman's ultimate triumph is punctuated by two words: "Goodbye, Joker."
• After Batman has finally defeated the Joker, it is amazingly cathartic and kinda amusing to watch as Crane tries to inject more fear toxin into him, before Batman's chilling, calm, badass response makes him truly afraid, leading into...
  Batman: I'm not afraid, Crane.
  Scarecrow: [Jaw Drop] Impossible...
• With Jason's help, Batman finally overpowers Scarecrow and, grabbing his arm, injects him with all four of his syringes straight in the neck, overpowering his acquired resistance of fear toxin. The villain who, for the entire game, has calmly belittled, insulted, threatened and victimized Batman, his family, and his friends, crumbles, gibbering and screaming in terror at the approaching monstrous Batman he sees clouded in a swarm of bats. And then Gordon downs him in one punch. Laser-Guided Karma at its finest.
  • Even better, when Batman injects him, he asks Crane in an almost taunting tone, "What's wrong? Scared?"
  • Take a look at the wall beside the door of the depot Scarecrow tells Batman to go to. You'll see the Red Hood's sigil in graffiti beside it. Given that nobody's ever heard of the Red Hood moniker at that point, it's likely Jason's way of saying that even after everything, he still won't give up on Batman.
• Riddler of all people gets one should you complete all his riddles. What's the reward, you ask? A final boss fight with Riddler! Yes, you read that right. After three games of being a Non-Action Guy, Riddler, armed in a mech suit he created, finally decides to settle the score with the Dark Knight personally. For added points, Catwoman joins Batman for this fight. Egomaniac he may be, but he's no coward. Plus, after four games of having to endure Riddler's constant stream of insults, the satisfaction of finally beating the smug prick's face in once and for all is a Catharsis Factor in an of itself.
  • No coward Riddler though may be, he's still scared when fighting you. If you happen to look at Riddler in his mech suit in Detective Mode, it'll yield "Condition: TERRIFIED". He's scared shitless, but he's fighting on regardless.
  • Riddler's Badass Boast version of Batman's iconic line above.
    Riddler: I am the smartest! I am the best! I AM THE RIDDLER!
• The massive tank battle outside GCPD towards the end. After saving Barbara Gordon from Scarecrow, Batman must stop the last remnants of the militia's drone force as they shell the GCPD. He hops in the Batmobile, idles just inside the rampway leaving the station, and he and Oracle alternate a countdown to action; the door opens, and there are SIXTY tank drones waiting. What makes this truly awesome isn't the 60:1 odds, it's the fact that Batman and Barbara Gordon are working together in perfect tandem to really wreck Scarecrow's day.
  • And immediately after the tank fight, Batman and Barbara work together to hold off several waves of militiamen as they try to break in through the roof. Batman uses his fists and gadgets, Barbara manipulates the steam vents and electrified fence.
• Speaking of saving Oracle from Scarecrow. After rescuing Oracle from falling to her death and hiding behind a concrete wall we get this exchange as militia drones lay down volleys of suppressing fire on a cowering Batman and Oracle.
  Oracle: Where's the Batmobile?
  Batman: Destroyed.
  Oracle: What?!
  Batman: Don't worry, Lucius made a spare.
  Game: E: Call Batmobile
  • This new Batmobile comes equipped with every single weapons upgrade there is, and even more capacity for its secondary systems—which it also arrives with fully charged. Whether you choose to give everything in large radius a taste of Mark IV homing missiles, hack just about half of them with the supercharged Drone Virus, or fry every single circuit with a fully charged Electro Magnetic Pulse, this new Batmobile makes its presence known within two seconds of its arrival-by-Batwing. What happens afterwards is the militia trying, and failing, to stop it.
• Credit where credit is due: Scarecrow couldn't have done a better job as the villain of the Grand Finale. He successfully banded the rogues together, delivered "Break Them by Talking" after "Break Them by Talking", calmly comes up with backup plans when he experiences a setback, successfully covered the city with his fear toxin, tricked Batman into thinking Barbara killed herself, had Gordon around his finger for the entire second half of the game, took the loss of his dragon in stride, and holds the honor of being the first Batman villain in any media to out Batman's identity to the world, a feat not even the Joker can claim (although to be fair, it seems Joker had opportunities to do so during the games, but chose not to—since that's no fun). There should be an actual Hall of Infamy for this kind of stuff.
  • His first face-to-face encounter with Batman deserves special mention. Batman has infiltrated ACE Chemicals and reached the central mixing chamber where Scarecrow is making his bomb. Scarecrow is unfazed by the Dark Knight's intrusion and calmly surrenders, his demeanor unshakable even as Batman demands that he shut down the bomb. Scarecrow then mentions that he kidnapped Barbara Gordon, causing Batman to call her in a panic. Scarecrow takes advantage of the distraction and seals him in the chamber, hoping he'll die in the explosion. It doesn't work, of course, but that he could stare down the goddamn Batman without batting an eye shows that the good doctor has grown some serious brass ones since we last saw him.
  • Also a CMOA for his new voice actor. John Noble is at his evil best here and does a chilling job at making Scarecrow sound legitimately terrifying all without even raising his voice. Never has being a Cold Ham sounded so menacing.
• From the DLC, Jason has resumed fighting crime as the Red Hood. He does lack Batman's one rule, but that means that he takes Black Mask and his gang out for good.
  • Particular mention goes to him finishing off Black Mask at the end of it, reducing the formerly-invincible and smug crime lord to pathetically begging for his life;
  [Red Hood strangles Black Mask against a window]
  Black Mask: [panicking] You don't need to do this. I'll give you money. Drugs! Guns! Weapons! Whatever you want. Please. I'll take a plane, leave Gotham. Never show my face again. Anywhere you want! I'LL GO ANYWHERE!
  Red Hood: How about... you go to Hell.
  [Red Hood shoves Black Mask back against the window and then sparta-kicks him through the glass pane; sending him plummeting several stories into the traffic far below]
  Red Hood: Say hi to Joker for me. [walks away]
• The very premise of the game is a long, ongoing moment for the players; a whole army of skilled, professional soldiers have invaded Gotham, armed and equipped with cutting-edge technology. The entire criminal underworld has united and risen up in tandem with the invaders. The government has abandoned the city, leaving only a skeleton crew of tired cops to defend it. Worst of all, A WMD of literal Nightmare Fuel is primed to blow at any second. None of this matters; you’re THE GODDAMN BATMAN. Using guerrilla tactics, subterfuge, high-tech gadgets, surgical strikes, and brute strength in key areas, you will return peace to Gotham before the night is over.
  • You hammer the Militia so relentlessly that their leaders start throwing around the idea of wearing suicide vests that will explode if they lose consciousness (although professional, the Militia are NOT fanatics; it's a decision borne of sheer desperation). Against anyone else, such a tactic would be madness. Against Batman, it's a prudent deterrent... but it only slows him down for a few seconds.
    • Bonus awesome: the bomb vests NEVER show up again. Batman crashes the initial debut of the suicide vest and disarms it in seconds in full view of the Militia soldiers. This implies that the Arkham Knight's militia got the hint that, bomb vests or not, they are still going down, so they simply didn't bother putting them on.
• Batman defeats the Joker in his head by figuring out what he fears: being forgotten. In other words, after spending most of the game being psychologically tormented by him, he trolls him in return. And weaponizes it.
• Jason's last act in the game. You defeat him in an earlier boss battle after Batman discovers who he is, and he's a traumatized, broken shell of his former self. He disappears on you, and people familiar with the Under the Red Hood storyline might think that's the end of it. But amazingly, he not only helps Batman out at the end, but he does it while staying within Batman's rules, because he could have sniped Scarecrow in the head but instead chooses to shoot the gun out of Scarecrow's hand and free Batman instead. Not only that, but careful watchers will notice he marked himself with a red bat, and actually leaves you messages painted in the walls as you go to meet Scarecrow, to show he's on your side. Pretty impressive willpower for a guy who literally spends the entire game trying to kill you.
• Credit where it's due to the Dev Team for the absolutely spectacular way they made the Joker's animation. Every time the player's camera turns around, every which way they look, the Joker smoothly slides in as though he were always there. If you try to get away from him mid-dialogue, he'll often just seamlessly moves ahead of you. It's Nightmare Fuel, true enough, but it's high-quality Nightmare Fuel, and that's what matters.
• The Arkham Knight armor is made of pure Nerdgasm. It looked insanely cool, insanely militaristic and futuristic and yet genuinely, unmistakably Batman's.
  • And with a later update, it's now a skin for the Red Hood.
• A very small one, but, sometimes, if you get killed by a Mook, he will be the Game-Over Man. Quite a step up for those thugs, no?
• One of the new downloadable Batman skins is based on Michael Keaton's Batsuit from the◊ Tim Burton films, complete with a matching skin for the Batmobile. The DLC also adds Danny Elfman's iconic Batman theme to play on its themed racetrack, which includes locations like the Wayne Manor estate, the Gotham Zoo, and the 200th Anniversary parade. (For bonus points, the game was released 26 years to the day of the movie's release: June 23, 1989.)
  • The 1966 Batmobile racetracks are much the same way, giving us the extended version of Neal Hefti's theme and incorporating locations from both Batman: The Movie and the TV show, such as Ye Olde Benbow Tavern (complete with accompanying waterfront and Penguin submarine in the harbor), the Foam Rubber Wholesalers' Convention, and the Gato & Chat Fur Company. There's even a wall-climbing portion!
  • There's also the Tumbler from the Nolanverse, complete with a car chase track based off The Dark Knight Rises and a Bale Batsuit to match.
  • Two words: Batfleck suit. And Batmobile. And, uh, racetrack.
  • Rocksteady confirmed that all Batmobile skins save for the Jokermobile from the final hallucination scene can be used during the main game and not just in the AR challenges, allowing the player to cruise around Gotham in some classic versions of the car — though, of course, the DLC ones with special meshboxes are only built for racing, and thus have no Tank Mode.
    • Most notable among these skins is the original Arkham Batmobile, the one that Batman drove while bringing the Joker to Arkham Asylum and used to run over Bane. Even more awesome is the fact that you can wear the original Arkham batsuit to bring back some good memories from 2009.
• Both Barbara and the Arkham Knight get one in the Knight's audio logs. Barbara has been captured and is being interrogated by Scarecrow, who demands to know Batman's true identity. Barbara, however, pretty much tells Scarecrow where to shove it. Scarecrow threatens to inject her with his fear toxin, sadistically detailing the long-term psychological damage a direct injection can do. Barbara tells him to do his worst and Scarecrow prepares to inject her... only for the Arkham Knight to step in and demand Scarecrow get away from her, showing that there's still some of the old Jason in there.
  • Doubling as a Heartwarming Moment, in the second audio log, Barbara is alone with the Arkham Knight, who quickly reveals that he is actually Jason Todd. Though she is stunned by the revelation, rather than be angry at him for siding with Scarecrow, she immediately tries to convince him to come back to the family and change his ways. Despite everything he's done, Barbara still sees Jason as a friend and refuses to give up on him.
  • Barbara gets another CMOA near the end of the game. After being used by Scarecrow as leverage to force Gordon to betray Batman, Gordon decides to Take a Third Option and shoot Batman in the Chest Insignia, knowing he would survive and rescue Barbara. Scarecrow decides to toss Barbara off the construction site to spite him. Despite being one step away from death, Barbara all but spits in Scarecrow's burlap face, telling him he doesn't scare her. It doesn't faze Scarecrow, but it shows that, wheelchair or not, she's still Batgirl.
• The new Batman revealed in the Golden Ending. Whoever or whatever they are, they more than deserve the title.
  • To elaborate further: A couple and their child walk home in an alley in a scene that mirrors Batman's own origins, and soon enough, they are ambushed by two muggers. Before they are killed by the pair, one of them spots the new Batman on a nearby roof, silently glaring at them and giving off a strange smoke (which may or may not be fear toxin.) After the thugs taunt the figure, they proceed to rear up into the air and go One-Winged Angel while turning the environment around them to Hell itself before lunging at the terrified thugs.
• Gordon finds out Barbara works with Batman, and then spins around to punch Batman in the face. And even though Bats let it happen, it's still impressive to be the only person in the Arkham series to get away with something like that.
• The fact that in A Matter of Family, we finally get a proper boss fight with Joker. Not a giant monster that you spend most of the fight dodging. Not Clayface pretending to be Joker. Not a Zero-Effort Boss that Batman spends about 20 solid seconds beating the living shit out of. Not even Uncle J. running around a big pile of garbage with a machine gun. A real, honest-to-God boss fight, with Batgirl and Robin going Back-to-Back Badasses against Joker and Harley. Bonus points for Harley wearing her original red and black outfit.
  • Before that, one of the GCPD hostages gets one combined with a Funny Moment. As he is dangling over a mechanical Kraken in the face of certain death, he spends some time correcting and teaching the ignorant ignoramus Joker thugs and telling them the difference between amber and glass and between a Kraken and a real dinosaur while waiting for Batgirl to distract them from him. Any normal officer would be killed trying to correct a scary thug, but this GCPD hostage takes the risk teaching them a lesson and lives to tell the tale. He must have studied paleontology, biology, and mythology... unlike these thugs who have failed them forever.
• Batman ambushes Arkham Knight and his team with a fear multi-takedown. While the mooks are stunned and a few are taken out pretty easily, Arkham Knight calmly turns to face Batman to attack him, meeting him blow for blow in a short fight. And his response when Batman starts choking him? To choke Batman back.
• Choosing to have Azrael not try to kill Batman. More so if you have him break the sword, truly showing that he is not only going to keep his promise to Batman, he has renounced membership of the Order and is going to redeem himself.
  The Order's voice in Azrael's head: Strike down the Batman. Kill him. He stands in your way. Gotham will be yours.
  (Azrael places the blade of his sword between the spikes on his gauntlet, then violently moves his arms, shattering the blade)
  Azrael: I thought myself the instrument of God, not the tool of man!
  (Azrael walks into the elevator)
  Batman: You made the right decision, Michael.
  (Azrael and Batman shake hands)
  Azrael: I do no one's bidding but God's. The Order must answer for what they have done to me.
• Catwoman robbing Riddler blind at the end of Catwoman's Revenge — directly transferring every last cent of his millions of dollars over to her own bank account — and blowing up his robot factory for good measure, effectively ending Riddler's supervillain career after all the time of him being an absolutely vile Smug Snake and Karma Houdini. It's made especially sweet with Edward helplessly listening over the phone in prison, no less, and frantically begging Selina to stop as she completely destroys his resources. For one last cathartic touch, the scene ends with the smug jerk getting tazed by Cash when his call to his "lawyer" gets too suspicious.
  Catwoman: [gleefully] Eddie, you're not going to need $2.73 million in jail, are you? They feed you for free!
  Riddler: STOP!
  Catwoman: And what are you going to do with a robot factory while you're in there? Arrange some sort of elaborate prison break?
  Riddler: P-PLEASE! Do you want me to beg?! I can beg! M-Mercy, PLEEEEEASE!
  Cash: [listening into the conversation] Alright Nigma, time you calmed down. Get off the phone!
  Catwoman: [activates the factory's self-destruct, and nonchalantly walks out] Bye-bye, Eddie!
• Part of the Season of Infamy DLC features Batman facing off against Killer Croc. And he's even stronger than the Killer Croc who Batman couldn't stand up to in Arkham Asylum; thanks to the horrific experiments performed on him by Wardan Rakhan, Croc is now at least twice as large and even more animalistic and dangerous than ever, so much so that he brought down a maximum security flying penitentiary by himself. Going it alone, Batman has no chance of winning. But with Nightwing at his side, Croc gets his scaly ass absolutely handed to him after a tough and epic showdown.
• Any time you pull off a fear takedown. Anywhere from three to five enemies down in so many seconds, and if you coordinate with environmental takedowns and the last enemy insta-takedown you can take out entire rooms of enemies with one smooth series of attacks in just a few seconds.
• For a later update, Rocksteady had fans vote for them to release either a skin that gives Harley her classic getup or one giving Red Hood his Arkham Knight armor. Both proved to be so popular that Rocksteady decided to release them both.
  • Each of the skins are awesome in their own right, with the former bringing nostalgia to the table while the latter allows players to play as the Arkham Knight in all his armored glory.
• The addition of Photo Mode. Combine the already awesome Costume collection and the environments from challenge maps, and you can get a lot of badass pictures of each playable character. Arkham Asylum suit in Silent Knight? Possible. The Arkham Knight watching over militia on a rainy rooftop, emulating Training from Hell? Also possible. Snowfall, 1989 Batsuit & Batmobile, overlooking destroyed Ace Chemicals? Very Possible, although you need to save the Mr. Freeze side mission last to get snow.
  • Someone has even recreated Batman: The Dark Knight Returns cover, by waiting for lightning to strike and pressing counter while out of fight.
• To a certain extent, the playable Batgirl. While her gameplay is not exactly unique, in challenge maps she shares the most moves with Batman. Had she not been shot in her spine, she could have become just as skilled as Batman, maybe even more. Not to mention she lacks his Tragic Flaw, Pride.
• A few of the Gotham City Stories are this. While others are also varying amounts of nightmare fuel and tearjerkers, they also have their moments.
  • Homecoming has Bane return to his home of Santa Prisca. When he gets there, he realizes that the place is still peddling Venom and filled with crime and corruption. So he heads out, and slaughters every drug lord on the island to free his home from this horror permanently. Not too bad for a guy who went crazy on Titan.
    • What this also means is that Bane has also finally ended his addiction to Titan, after months of withdrawl - meaning that he's slowly becoming the Genius Bruiser he once was in Origins. Gone is his addictions to Titan and Venom and his Dumb Muscle persona, for the real Bane is starting to come roaring back in full swing.
  • The Trap has Batgirl kicking the ass of three of Joker's goons before getting ready to kick the crap out of the Joker.
  • Cargo mentions that some soldiers have kidnapped Killer Croc and plan on keeping him hostage. Croc, seemingly through sheer rage, wakes up from the tranquilizers, and decides to murder his way out.
  • Masquerade shows how Barbara found out about the caped crusaders: She hacked into the Batcave's computer and made one of its secret entrances open.
  • Showtime has Vicki Vale calling Quincy Sharpe on smuggling weapons into Arkham City, even having gotten her hands on a requisition order with his signature on it.
• Taking Out the Trash reveals that Harvey Dent secretly ran the class-action lawsuit that the criminals of Arkham City filed against the city, putting his former occupation to use for the criminal underworld and getting hundreds of thugs back on the streets.
• FPS! Joker mode. It's as glorious as it sounds and involves the Batmobile, flamethrowers, a very large gun and more trippy shit than you can count.
• Picture this: Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Tommy Elliot has, after the events of 'Arkham City', performed surgery on his own face to look exactly like Bruce Wayne, with the intent of ruining him forever in revenge. Why? Because Tommy arranged the 'accident' that killed his father, and is angry that Thomas Wayne managed to save Tommy's mother from her wounds. The result is Tommy holding a gun to Lucius Fox's head, demanding Batman bring Bruce Wayne to him, or he shoots Fox. Batman's response? Simply pulling off his helmet and taunting Tommy to just try and shoot him.
  Bruce: Take your best shot, Tommy.
  Tommy: Bruce?! T-That's impossible!
  • What makes this sweeter is that just a few seconds ago Tommy was ranting that Bruce Wayne "never had to fight for anything in his life". Yeah, about that...
  • Bonus points for Lucius Fox, the instant Tommy no longer has a gun on him, smashing a paperweight over Tommy's head.
• In the DLC with Mr. Freeze, Nora has been kidnapped. Alfred's response to it all shows that this time, he'll excuse us killing someone if we have to:
  Alfred: Kidnapping a terminally ill woman to use as a bargaining chip. Make them regret it, sir.
  • When meeting Mr. Freeze again, he reveals that the militia met his refusal to work for them with kidnapping Nora, saying that they'll return her in exchange for Batman. With this, Victor primes his suit's blasters at point-blank range, but Batman steps forward, calmly daring Victor to fire if he thinks the militia will keep their word. Victor stands down in a matter of seconds.
  • Nora uses The Power of Love to convince Victor that trying to find a cure for her isn't worth sacrificing his dignity or integrity. She says they may not have enough time, but they have time now and need to make the most of it. Victor is eventually convinced (if saddened that he failed), and elects to leave Gotham with Nora to spend their final days together. Batman lets them leave peacefully, wishing them luck.
• The Panessa Studios invasion, where Harley Quinn and her gang manage to infiltrate Batman's secret location housing the Joker Infected and take it over. However, Batman and Robin push back and win with almost no difficulty, taking down armed thugs together, including Minigun Brutes, and recapturing the infected of Christina Bell, Albert King, and Johnny Charisma. The last one in particular deserves mention, as we get to hear Mark Hamill singing, and it is GLORIOUS.

Tie-In Comic

• Robin takes on Bane, Killer Croc, and Clayface in the Simulation Training at the same time. And when he finally gets the confidence to defeat them all, he asks Alfred to run a different simulation — everyone else. Yes, including Solomon Grundy.
• A thug decides to attack the crippled Barbara Gordon. What happens next? She utterly kicks his ass using only her wheelchair and hands. Yep, no matter what, she's still Batgirl.
• Jason's run-in with Harley Quinn as the Arkham Knight has him forcing her to comply with his demands. Considering how the very same issue shows the hand she played in his torture while imprisoned at Arkham Asylum, not to mention this version of Harley is even more heinous than most takes on the character, it's very satisfying to see Jason get some revenge on one of his tormentors.

Other

• The Arkham Knight identity, while having a completely different identity under the mask, has since been carried to the regular comics. Rocksteady went from adapting stories to being adapted.

---

I am Vengeance,

I am the Night,

I AM BATMAN!