Disclaimer
While I was rather disappointed by this game, that will not come into this review. Any personal bias will be ignored while any actual issues with the game itself will be noted and mentioned as a professional opinion. I'll also mention if the Harley Quinn and Red Hood pre-order DLC makes the game any better or not at the end. Thank you for reading.
WARNING possible spoilers WARNING
So this story is about Batman and his fears. Despite Scarecrow not having as big of a presence, the fear of Batman is fully there. An army run by a dark version of himself, Batman becoming more Joker like, having the idea of Robin, Nightwing, Oracle, and even Jim Gordon die, it is all here. Batman is fighting a massive army with a very personal story about himself and his connection with Gotham and it is a really good story. The mystery behind Arkham Knight is obvious if you have EVER kept up with Batman lately but for the most part, the story is incredible and really well done.
Let's talk about under used characters and wasted potential shall we? The villains you fight in the main story are Scarecrow, Arkham Knight, and Harley Quinn. Poison Ivy is there but you don't fight her. The only character that is fully developed outside of a few cool moments is Arkham Knight, who is actually well done. Scarecrow has a few things with fear toxin, but is mostly a presence in certain parts of the story outside of hearing his crap on the radio and TV waves. Yes he is really cool towards the end, but honestly the confrontation between Scarecrow and Batman wasn't built as well as you rarely see him until Arkham Knight is taken down. He is there, but barely used. Harley has something to do with a weird subplot that was needed to have Batman seeing Joker every time fear toxin was brought up but she wasn't that great of a character either. Batman, Robin, Jim Gordon, and Oracle are all pretty good, but Nightwing was once again under used and only there to help against Penguin during a side quest, though so was Catwoman.
From what little we do see of characters, all of them are well written, but it would have been nice if they had a decent part of the actual story, or their relationship with Batman was explored more like what they did with Joker or Arkham Knight. Not bad per say, but not great either as so many characters were under used in the plot to make way for the massive amount of characters in the game.
I hope you like a car with no traction. It isn't bad until you are racing or chasing Firefly honestly. Let's also talk about combat issues. If you are playing a game, and you need a specific attack to harm a foe or save yourself, and your character decides that the guy way to the left minding his own business needed to be taken down instead, would you get annoyed? If so I'd avoid this game. This happens enough to be noticeable, and when you are dealing with roughly six different types of enemies that require a very specific method of attack, this can get more annoying and frustrating then fun. The challenge is already great and slightly annoying, adding in a targeting system that has Batman hitting someone who isn't even close to where your joystick was pointing is annoying. That being said, battle mode on the Batmobile, and the new Fear takedown abilities is awesome.
The gameplay isn't too bad, but there are some huge issues with the combat and normal mode in the Batmobile, but the rest of the game plays incredibly well. It is a shame that the combat is fairly unpolished however. It just seems like certain things, switching with Catwoman or others, the Batmobile battle mode, and Fear Takedowns are just more polished then the rest of the game, which combat is a big part in the game and so is racing the Batmobile.
Gotham is amazing. It is well designed, each area is different, and the open world is pretty awesome. The studios and the airships are also well designed and look amazing with a touch of gloomy atmosphere. The City of Fear portion of the game is amazing and incredible. The placement of military watch towers and blockades are pretty awesome as well. The level designs are incredibly well designed and works well with the story as well as the gameplay when the gameplay is working well enough.
There is a metric ton of things to do in this game. This is good and bad, as the sidequests are short and have little variation in them if you are looking for being more of a detective. There is only one murder case, and the bodies are strung up and all the same thing making it slightly boring. That being said, the boss fight afterwards is good, each side quest has a sort of boss fight or a cool conclusion at the end but the side quest lines themselves can be a little tedious. Except for Riddler. I can deal with the races, but some of the dang trophies are annoying as hell. He does have a boss fight that is fun but slightly annoying as well but more to the gameplay then the set up so I'm not marking it down. Still the conclusion with Azreal, Hush, an actual fight with Riddler, beating up Two-Face and Penguin, and a few others, it was all rewarding in the end to see the crazy true ending as well as hearing these criminals talk to one another as well as the confrontation between them and Batman. The main annoying ones weren't badly set up, they were only annoying because of the previously mentioned gameplay issues. So are the side quests good? Short but yes they are good. The issue is they are formulaic and the longest quests are the more tedious and more annoying ones. You cannot complete all of the militia and riddler side quests without certain upgrades. Given how many upgrades there are, this can be VERY ANNOYING. I don't mind needing a certain tool, but an upgrade? There is one Riddler trophy you cannot get without being able to disarm mines. It is the only time I've ever cared enough about mines to need said upgrade. You also need another upgrade just to get that upgrade. Experience is more difficult to gain in the game. See the issue here? These kinds of things make the Riddler and Militia quests annoying and overly boring for a small payout, and considering how long they already are, well yeah. Also Riddler likes to make things up, like riddles that show up on the map that the solution of the riddle doesn't even exist until far later. With most side quests being somewhat systematic and some being annoying, the final results are often cool but it is still a large issue.
If you were expecting the best Batman game of all time, look elsewhere. This isn't a bad game but due to the hype most won't be happy with the end result. Secrets and Side Quests, level designs, and the plot were set up well, but the lack luster use of certain characters and the gameplay having targeting issues among other things can make this game frustrating to some people. If you play the game for gameplay or cool characters, I recommend treading carefully. Also since some of the side quests can be annoying if you don't upgrade key specific things then this could also cause you issues.
What about the Harley Quinn and Red Hood add ons? Do they make the game any better? No. Playing as Red Hood and Harley Quinn are very fun. That being said if you take your time and play both at most it should only take you roughly twenty minutes and that should only happen if you kind of suck at the game in question. Harley Quinn's play is longer but not by much, and neither of them are open world, just a short missions. They don't add enough content to boost the game or justify paying a pretty penny for them if they come out as DLC.
All and all this game isn't bad. It simply isn't all that great, and given the amount of hype on the game, people are probably bound to be disappointed. Given one of the key issues is lack of polish on the gameplay side of things, that is going to make people annoyed quickly towards the end of the game when the difficulty rises and you actually need the gameplay to work so you can avoid death. Still there is enjoyment to be had here, as the game isn't all bad, in fact it is a pretty good game, just not up there with the greats. I recommend trying it before buying it though, as most of the issues I mentioned do not become apparent until later on in the game.