The Batman: Arkham Series boasts some awesome music. If you're a Bat fan then you're in for a treat. It hits all the notes of the Tim Burton films, the Joel Schumacher productions, Batman: The Animated Series and Christopher Nolan's works.
Batman: Arkham Asylum:
- Stealthy Bat
, the stealth segment theme, varies between an an eerie quiet melody and a pumping rhythm, well suited to the stealth segments' balance between quietly sneaking around and quick bursts of aggression and violence.
Batman: Arkham City:
- The main theme perfectly captures the awesome feeling of Batman and also feels like it's been mixed with the music from the Nolan films.
- The stealth music for this game combines Ominous Latin Chanting with drum bangs and rising violin chords to immerse you in the fact you're playing as a legend, both heroic and urban.
- The first gameplay trailer uses The Heavy's "Short Change Hero" as the soundtrack. It's appropriate, awesome, and will stuck in your head for hours after watching it:This ain't no place for a hero... this ain't no place for no better man...
- Lykke Li's "Get Some" for the Catwoman also qualifies. The really Nolanesque theme from the Hugo Strange trailer does, too. If you watched any trailer for this game with the sound on, it was awesome for your ears.
- "Mercenary" by Panic! at the Disco on the official soundtrack is the perfect song to play the combat challenge maps to.
- This Court Is Now In Session aka Two-Face's Boss Theme.
- A Rose for Respect plays while Batman pays his respects to his parents in Crime Alley. It's played again in the end credits of "Harley Quinn's Revenge", as it takes on a whole new meaning.
- Church of the Poisoned Mind, which gets a reprise later on.
- The boss fight against Ra's al Ghul, particularly the moments where Batman gets the upper hand and the orchestra begins to swell.
- I Think You Should Do As He Says, the music from the first Predator section, which also seems set to play any time the player is successfully having Batman act similarly.
- It's Initiation Time. Batman fights not for the love of a fight, but because his heart is full of sorrow. So good that it was brought back, completely unchanged, for Arkham Knight.
- The theme music that accompanies a Predator scenario starts off slow and ominous, then builds and builds as the sequence goes on and the mooks go down one by one. By the time you're down to one panicking mook, the music is glorious. And when the last guy falls, the music swells and you are the Goddamn Batman.
- Mind Bender plays in the Riddler's Revenge menu and stands out from the rest of the soundtrack for being uncharacteristically trippy, unsettling, and perhaps, Enigmatic.
Batman: Arkham Origins:
- The main theme not only is totally an awesome Batman theme, it also has some riffs from "Carol of the Bells" to add to the Christmas theme.
- Deathstroke's boss theme employs a faster 7/8 time signature to ramp up the tension.
- The absolutely chaotic "Hallucinations" plays when Batman struggles against the effects of Copperhead's poison.
- Firefly's boss theme gets more and more chaotic as it progresses... just like the battle against him.
- The track that plays during the assassins' introductory cutscene, titled "Assassins", plays calmly between the intervals but gets increasingly dramatic when the assassins show what they're capable of. You can definitely tell Batman's in for the night of his life.
- Gioachino Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie" is featured during Joker's evaluation with Harleen. It has an adventurous and exciting feel as Joker finally finds a purpose in life while beating up helpless mooks and turning on the charm in front of Harleen.
- The final boss theme, for the fight against TN-1 Bane, starts off slow and suspenseful before suddenly becoming horrifying and intense with pounding drum beatsnote . The whole thing is underscored by a single repeating piano note distorted to sound like a blaring alarm, perfectly fitting the battle itself, as well as Bane's state.
Batman: Arkham Knight:
- Frank Sinatra's "I Got You Under My Skin", which plays over the opening cinematic that played at E3, is awesome in itself. But scoring the track to Joker's cremation is doubly so, also in keeping with the latter's fondness for '50s pop hits.
- "Evening the Odds" combines rapid string and percussion figures with slow brass sweeps to build up to a thunderous swell. No wonder it was used in almost all the trailers and promotional material.
- "Look Who's Laughing Now" is a fiendish delight, and its later Dark Reprise, "I'm Not Laughing", a bluesy lament, both featuring superb instrumentation. They're serious, serious spoilers, though.
- The TV commercial's use of Muse's "Mercy" is a perfect fit.
- "Inner Demon" perfectly captures Batman's battle with the Joker within his psyche and plays during some of the most emotional moments in the game to boot. It also plays during "In from the Cold" from "Season of Infamy" when Nora awakes and when she and Freeze leave Gotham.
- "All Who Follow You" plays during the final scenes, as well as when Batman hallucinates Oracle committing suicide as well as, again, "In from the Cold" when Nora and Freeze reunite.
- Riddler's background themes — an ambient mixture of low and high brass, strings, and idiophones, sustained over a slow, pulsating synth bass line. The immense creepiness of it really drives home how deeply he's lost his mind by this point.
- The game's Predator music. As one commenter so perfectly puts it;It's pretty cool how this song manages to capture the fear and insecurity of the thugs but also the confidence and power of Batman. Like, if you were playing as the thugs, this music would make you feel hella scared, but since you're playing as Batman, it makes you feel like you ARE the fear.
