Hot Fuzz (2007)

If there's a more reliable team up than Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, I don't know it. Before Hot Fuzz,the trio had proven extremely entertaining and intelligent with Spaced and Shaun of the Dead. Sometimes considered high-end parodies, Shaun came more from a desire to make a zombie movie - not make fun of one. It is essentially a love letter to the genre. Hot Fuzz follows that as well. It's not a parody of action movies, it's honoring them.

The story follows super-cop Nicholas Angel as he gets kicked out of the London police service for essentially showing up the entire squad. He is transferred to the country where there hasn't been a crime in twenty years. It is technically a promotion for Angel, but by all means it is really a demotion. They want him out of sight and out of mind. There, Angel goes from stopping drug deals and violent crimes to trying to catch loose swans and yelling at neighbors for cutting hedges without permission. He also has to deal with an entirely incompetent police squad that wouldn't be able to tell a crime if it bit them on the arse.

Yet once Angel gets there, a string of strange accidents occur that end with five deaths. Slowly, Angel starts piecing things together and realizes that these aren't just strange coincidences. Finding links among the victims, he discovers a motive and a suspect. His claims - along with a fair amount of evidence - fall on deaf ears. In fact, the rest of the police team grumbles every time he brings it up. His only ally is the action movie obsessed Danny Butterman, who is intrigued by Angel. Together, they figure out what exactly is going on and fight the forces behind the murders.

In terms of pacing, it's sort of a movie in two parts. The first hour and fifteen minutes are sort of a slow, deliberate build up. For viewers, there is no big mystery that these aren't accidents. We are present when the mysterious, cloaked figure murders Martin Blower and Eve Draper. We are even privy to the suspect when Simon Skinner (played by an always wonderful Timothy Dalton) makes very specific comments regarding the victims. For us, the fact that they are murders and not accidents is not a secret. This can make it sound like the murder/mystery element of the film is pointless, but that's not entirely true. In a funny twist, though we know exactly what's going on when Angel confronts Skinner and the NWA, it turns out the motives are rather unexpected. All of the evidence and clues that point to a very sinister motive turns out to be irrelevant (or mostly at least). It turns out the motive is simply something even more absurd.

Though the first hour and fifteen minutes is sort of a slow build up, it eventually erupts into a highly entertaining action sequence for the final half an hour. Starting off shades of a Western, Angel returns to the village on a white horse, armed to the teeth. There is a momentary stand off, and then it just explodes. The "shit just got real," as they say (in reference to Bad Boys II). And then it is just a crazy, over the top action film, reminiscent of all the best action movies (with another big reference to Point Break.) An awesome action sequence that keeps on giving, you really do need the slower pace for the first hour or so to maximize the efficiency of it. (It's almost like a Dostoevsky novel: you have to sit through five hundred pages of deliberate and slow paced story to get a hugely satisfying payoff.)

The film doesn't play on the "double meaning" thing as much as in their other works, though it is still very much there. All of Skinner's remarks are intentional and blatant, so you already know he's predicting the future. And there are the comments that are more cleverly hidden in their prediction. For example, early on, Danny is grilling Angel about his experience. "Have you ever fired a gun whilst jumping in the air?" he asks among other things lifted from action movies. Angel has not, as he is grounded in a more realistic "reality." Of course, he and Danny wind up doing all of these things during the final shoot out.

Wright and Pegg do show a fondness for on-point character names though. If The World's End made it a point to name everything according to its function, they do a similar thing in Hot Fuzz. Tim Messenger is a newspaper reporter who has information to give to Angel before he is murdered. Roy and Mary Porter own the local pub. Leslie Tiller is the florist. And then a lot of the Neighborhood Watch members have very violent sounding names! Seymour Skinner, Reverend Shooter, Robin Hatcher, James Reaper - these are all names that sound hostile and violent in nature! This, of course, is something that Wright and Pegg love to do, but it definitely was more a thing in Hot Fuzz and The World's End. 

Though ultimately not as good as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz really is an excellent crime/mystery/action flick. It continues the "bromance" plot elements that were heavy in Shaun. Interestingly, there was originally supposed to be a female love interest for Angel, but they decided it didn't add anything to the story and cut the character. Nick Frost is superb again as Pegg's best friend. This time though, Frost plays an immature character with good intentions while Pegg plays the rather stiff and dry character. If Shaun were about "maturing," then Fuzz is about letting your hair down once in a while.

The rest of the cast is great as well. Timothy Dalton is extremely good in the villainous role of Seymour Skinner. "Lock me away," he says to Angel when he runs into him on a jog. "I'm a slasher...a slasher of prices!" These, of course, are the double meaning jokes that Pegg and Wright love, only here it's not meant to be hidden. They make it rather clear that Skinner is a bad guy from the start. However, he then goes on with a more subtle line as he jogs away, "Catch me later!"

Timothy Dalton is awesomely menacing. 

Jim Broadbent is also great as the role of police chief, intentionally dumbing down his men and women. He punishes his son Danny, after a night of heavy drinking, with birthday cake and ice cream - to the chagrin of Angel. Then, of course, there are wonderful cameos by some of England's finest: Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan, and an always delightful Stephen Merchant. The entire cast is great, and as always, Wright uses a smartly selected soundtrack to go with it.

Hot Fuzz is probably not as intelligent as Shaun or World's End, it is still an amazing, entertaining, and smart film. Being the worst of those three movies is not a bad thing at all. It's the difference in an A and A-, really. It isn't a mindless action film, but it is still a really entertaining one.

REDUCTIVE RATING: Awesome!

Call of Duty: World at War (2008)

When Call of Duty changed pace from World War II era games to the newer, modern setting, it was easy to think that they would switch gears and move forward with that. The huge success of the Modern Warfare franchise had seemingly confirmed that a good decision, and the series hasn't really gone back to the WWII since this game. With that in mind, it's easy to imagine World at War as a sort of epic finale of the WWII Call of Duty games. And quite frankly, it doesn't disappoint.

Since the Call of Duty is a money maker, they seem to be committed to putting one out every year. This seems a bit overkill, and it's easy to think that Treyarch's follow-up to the disappointing Call of Duty 3 was a let down compared to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but the game actually does a pretty solid job with it's rather predictable narrative. One doesn't typically play a Call of Duty game for the story, but World at War does a nice job keeping it relatively grounded. It does this by actually making the war seem like hell. It's chaotic and brutal. There is blood and death. The soldiers (with the exception of Reznov) don't seem to have that weird "we're the best at warring!" mentality that permeates the rest of the franchise. The Americans are bitter at command for being so wrong about their opposition and they complain regularly about the lack of supplies. They also freak out at times and seem shaken by their comrades' deaths. This is a notable shift from previous games that had them constantly acting extremely confident in their war skills.

This shift in tone - making a war game fun, yet careful to make sure it's hellish attributes are clear (although still glorifying war) - is what makes World at War stand out. The level designs are a rather linear, as is typical of the franchise, but they do open up at times for a wider area that allows different tactical approaches. The weapon selection is a bit wider. They also include a few areas where mounted machine guns are accessible for use, or mortar shells are available to prime and throw like grenades. The Russians have molotov cocktails. The Americans use flamethrowers. The diversity here isn't ultimately great, but it's more than previous games.

The game moves pretty quickly too. It's broken into two campaigns: Russian and American. As Pvt. Miller, you go through a few key battles in the Pacific Theater - most notably Pelilieu and Okinawa. The Pacific campaign doesn't get a lot of attention, so it's kind of interesting to play in it. With Japanese soldiers popping out of spider holes or sniping from in the trees to bonzai charges and booby trapped bodies, it leaves you a little on edge. It creates an eerie feeling - that they can come out of anywhere - that really fits the campaign. It further brings to mind the real life horrors of that war and adds a unique dynamic to the franchise that otherwise is just run and gun with little thought to your surroundings.

The environments are pretty solid as well. You go back and forth between decimated Russia and Germany and then the lifeless rocky islands with palm trees in the Pacific. In Europe, you are constantly navigating a maze of destroyed buildings. In the Pacific, you often have to go into caves and mountains or jump into the subterranean tunnel network dug by the Japanese. What does hurt a little bit is how the time jumps around a bit too. Often when you finish an American mission in the Pacific, you switch over to the Eastern front happening around the same time. But when you go back to the Pacific theater, several years have gone by. It makes sense that they would want to show a few key battles through the war, but you never really get a good sense of the passage of time.

The Russian campaign (of which I'm still not sure why everyone wants to play as the Russians) has you playing as Pvt. Petrenko. First, you somehow avoid being mercilessly murdered during the German invasion of Stalingrad. It then leads you to a crazy chase sequence followed by yet another sniping battle. It's a bit tedious and unoriginal. It seems like every Russian campaign requires a sniping battle these days. What makes this Russian campaign different from others, however, is the sheer brutality of it. Reznov does not hold back. He demands blood and endorses cold-blooded murder of surrendering German troops or anyone who stands in the Red Army's way. There are a few moments thrown in where you have a choice on whether or not you want to be that brutal. Early on, you are held captive and Reznov bursts in. The German captures lie bleeding when he demands you shoot them to finish them off. You don't have to though, and it's nice to get the choice. However, there is an uncomfortable scene later where you trap retreating German troops in a subway area. You are given the choice to shoot them or not. If you don't, other Russians will throw molotovs down and burn them to death instead (in which Reznov will criticize you for allowing them to be tortured to death - even though he spends the majority of the game talking about how he will brutalize the Germans.) It doesn't shy away from how dirty and violent the Russians were in response to the German brutality.

The game play is pretty much just like every other Call of Duty game though. It's not particularly exciting or interesting at this point, but it is a solid scheme. I suppose if it ain't broke... One of the things that gets really annoying though is the way that they seem to increase the difficulty of the game is to simply throw tons and tons of grenades at you. It's more annoying than challenging, although the game does have its share of legitimate challenges. Additionally, there is a level where you are the gunner on a PBY Catalina flying boat. You take on the Japanese Navy and some Zeroes with kamizake pilots. It's a surprisingly fun mission that gets pretty crazy. It might be the only "ride something" mission I've enjoyed in a shooter.

Manning the guns on a PBY Catalina, you take on the Japanese Navy in one of the more fun missions.

Easily the best thing about the game, however, is the ability to play co-op campaign. This was innovative for the time given that no Call of Duty game had allowed multi-player campaign. No Call of Duty game really allows it after as well, making World at War a bit unique in that regard. It might not seem like a big deal, and indeed most CoD players probably prefer online versus anyway, but for someone who prefers co-op, it is. There aren't a lot of WWII era co-op games in the first place, which makes little sense since you're often surrounded by other soldiers in the game.

Though the co-op campaign didn't become a trend unfortunately, it's inclusion of "Call of Duty: Zombies" weirdly did. A special bonus mission after the credits lets you play one last level in which you are holed up in a fort and must fend off an onslaught of zombies. All the while you earn points which you can use to buy upgrades. There's no way to win. You just go until you die and try to get the high score. For whatever reason, Treyarch would continue to include this in their games even though it is actually not that fun.

Here's the thing for me: I enjoy Call of Duty games, really. They're fun and action packed. They tend to be a good challenge while remaining very simple. All of the CoD games have essentially the same control scheme and play almost identically. I don't think they're amazing games and I don't think you need to play more than two because they are all so similar. Still, if you're only going to play a few, World at War isn't a bad one to pick up.

REDUCTIVE RATING:  It's Fine

Home - A Unique Horror Adventure (2012)

If you wanted to add a game to the list of things that you might not consider a "game" in the technical sense of the word, Home is a good one to check out. A retro style pixelated story that is almost reminiscent of Maniac Mansion, only here, there isn't much in the way of player agency. There isn't much of a challenge, and things don't radically change depending on the choices you make throughout the course of the game. There aren't exactly puzzles either; instead, players will likely have to do some digging around to find key items needed to advance.

Very much on the edge of the much-maligned "walking simulator" genre (think The Stanley Parable or Dear Esther), Home might not be too appealing to many gamers. For a game that pretty much only allows for moving around and choosing yes or no options, it doesn't even feel quite as "gamey" as something like Telltale's The Walking Dead franchise, which does many of the same things. No real puzzles or challenges, deceptively meaningful choices, and - in regards to season one - minimal meaningful changes to the unfolding story based on your decisions.

Still, Home should be judged on its own for what it does. It's visual style is a bit strange, given the horror nature of the narrative, but it actually works. Despite the retro graphical style, there is still a moment of tenseness building up as you make your way through doors and passageways. Every time, the perspective shifts from third person to first as the door opens up. A creepy, well-created sound effect blasts, the screen gets dark for a moment, and you almost expect a stereotypical jump-scare every time! The way it plays with that trope and defies the expectation in order to build suspense and anxiety is excellent. The limited range of the flashlight also creates an eerie atmosphere in a sketchy environment. All things considered, it works surprisingly well for a style that should by all means not work at all.

With limited visual fidelity to create the horror tone, the game relies heavily on sound effects. In order to  make the player feel anxious at all, one has to be nearly perfect on the sound engineering. It was a key component to why P.T. was so goddamn terrifying, and it is a big reason why Home can make you tense despite the graphics. Sometimes they go a little overboard, but it's mostly successful. On the PS4, they even use the lights on the controller in an interesting fashion. After about half an hour of playing, as I began uncovering the mystery (or possibly doing so), I noticed that the light on the front of the controller had been getting progressively a darker shade of red, indicating a descent into the horror. When I got home and started denying some obvious facts, the light turned green. It's a subtle thing that doesn't really add anything to the game or story, but it was a neat use of a completely irrelevant feature of the console's controller.

In many ways, the game would be more akin to something like Her Story:  not much player agency, but a lot of it being organized around the player piecing together a mysterious story and coming to some conclusion. In my playthrough, it was pretty obvious who "dunnit," but I've been reading some other aspects of other players' experiences, and it sounds like I missed some stuff. Being short - it takes about an hour to complete - it begs re-examination almost immediately. Like Her Story, many people might question whether or not it actually constitutes the label of "game." I, however, prefer to not get so wrapped up in those things. Home is less gripping than Her Story, but if you enjoyed the latter, than it might be worth checking out.

REDUCTIVE RATING:  Interesting

(I'm creating a new rating system for things that aren't traditional in its format, which makes them a little bit more niche.)

Available On: PS4, PSVita, iOS, PC, and Mac

Sisters (2015)

Few comedy duos have such instant chemistry as Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Fan favorites from their days at Saturday Night Live, both went onto bigger and better things. Fey created the infinitely watchable 30 Rock while Poehler went on to help craft one of the best comedies ever in Parks & Rec. And they made a very enjoyable, quotable film together in Baby Mama back in 2008. The pair of fatally funny female comics return in Sisters, a comedy that sees them essentially reverse roles.

In this case, Poehler takes on the role of mature adult. As Maura Ellis, she starts off as the relatively uptight one. She has a steady job, a home of her own, and has been helping her parents and her niece. Her diary entries read more like historical logs, and she frets over anything out of place. Confrontation is not her strong suit, but neither is flirting - in which she is categorically awkward about. On the flip side, Fey as Kate Ellis is the kid who never grew up. Selfish, bold, confrontational, and loud, she lacks all of those things Maura has. She can't keep a job, she is essentially homeless, she can barely take adequate care of her daughter - who is independent in her own right by now.

The essential premise of the narrative is role reversal. There is the meta-reversal in Poehler playing the mature one while Fey plays the immature character. Then in context of the story, the plot itself calls for a reversal, in which Kate has to be "party mom" while Maura gets to cut loose, get drunk, and score with the hot guy next door.

Of course, the core of the comedy is in adults having a high school rager. Back at home as their parents try to sell their beloved house, the Ellis sisters decide to throw one last killer party like the ones they were famous for in high school. They invite all of their friends, who have aged equally. On the surface, it would be easy to interpret this as seeming like just another Hangover clone: a crazy party held by those you'd least suspect of having one, and you can't believe the things they do! Absolutely, that is a major aspect of the film. From drenching the house in soap bubbles to over-filling the pool to the point of creating a sinkhole, to destruction of walls, ceilings, and the huge tree in the backyard, it does have that aspect to it.

Yet it twists it a bit to make it more compelling and interesting. Instead of just making the joke, "these older people are acting like teenagers!" they instead play into something more meaningful. The reason these people are doing this is to remember life before they were miserable. At the start of the party, acting as adults, they engage in boring conversations that even the people doing the bulk of talking are clearly not interested in. By the end, they have all cut loose and got to be more their "true selves." It comments on the nature of "growing up," playing around with the line and balance of being "mature" and being "child-like." It essentially argues that people need to find that line to be truly happy. That abandoning everything you enjoyed doing in your youth just because society tells you to "grow up" isn't really that great. There aren't too many of these types of films that even start to explore any such concepts. (Consider The Hangover: what did it explore at all in the film?)

The jokes are solid, with a script from Paula Pell - a great writer from some good years at SNL and a frequent contributor to award shows. The ultimate strength of the film is its cast, however. While not terribly directed at all, it simply would not work without the central characters played by Fey and Poehler. (I'd argue that Amy Poehler is a substantially better actor than she gets credit for, simply nailing the humorous moments as expected as well as the emotional beats perfectly.) Their reputation as a duo enhances the film. It kind of rushes the connection between the sisters, but the moment they are together, we immediately feel a bond, in part because we know the actors have one in real life. It clicks immediately.

It is the cast of secondary characters that deserve a lot of praise as well. Maya Rudolph as the shunned Brinda is a pure joy to watch. Bobby Moynihan is memorably hilarious as the coked out lonely guy trying way too hard to be funny. Samantha Bee as the super drunk mom is great, and Kate McKinnon as the lesbian party expert is perfect (their only problems being that they aren't in it enough)! John Leguizamo's casting as the sketchy drug dealer Dave is spot on. Ike Barenholtz is surprisingly charming for a guy who is recognized for playing an idiot on TV. Greta Lee has one of the funniest gags as the nail salon Korean employee Hae-won. And Rachel Dratch will leave you wondering why she has not been in more things! (She was, without question, my favorite side character.) Shoot, even the muscle-headed drug dealer played by John Cena was good!

Some might be quick to deride the film for relying too much on a cast of established comedic actors, but that should not be considered a bad thing. Many classic comedies are built on having comic character actors knock it out of the park, and riding on them to make a great film. Sisters has more to it than, say, the new Ghostbusters film - which attempts a similar thing but doesn't quite have the quality of script or actor chemistry - but it still largely succeeds on the strength of its cast. All actors who, when all is said and done, might never actually get enough credit for their ability to create hilarious, layered, enjoyable characters.

To me, it was one of the better comedies of 2015. Doomed to fail at the box office because it opened against Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but if you like those actors, and if you liked Baby Mama, then there's no reason you wouldn't enjoy Sisters.


REDUCTIVE RATING: Pretty Good

Welcome to Tranquility

The cover of the first issue #1.

If there were an ongoing comic book that had so much potential, but lost its life too soon, it's Welcome to Tranquility. A Wildstorm print written by Gail Simone and art by Neil Googe, the story centers on the peaceful town of Tranquility - home to almost nothing but retired, former superheroes and villains. Sure, some old rivals still bicker, but that's all it is. Everything gets turned upside down when Mr. Articulate - a man loved by all in town - is mysteriously murdered, and it is up to sheriff Thomasina "Tommy" Lindo to figure it out.

The story is essentially one of murder and mystery. There aren't a lot of clues that allow you, the reader, to figure it out, but it's still told in a unique and entertaining way. All throughout the series are little throwbacks to the "comics" which these characters used to star in back when they were full fledged superheroes. It's an interesting way to give a little insight into these characters' histories, though sometimes it breaks up the story in a way where you feel like maybe you'll just skip it for the sake of getting on with it. (This becomes a little more of a thing in the six-issue miniseries "One Foot in the Grave," but it's really throughout the seventeen-issue run.)

Ultimately what sells this book are the characters. Tommy is a well written character who is charged with policing a town of superpowered people (known as Maxis in this universe). Her sister also works for Minxy Minerva - a legendary fighter pilot who has lost her mind in her old age but still have a lot of leeway for her role in winning World War II. There's Mayor Alex Fury, a Superman like character who runs the town, and his wife Suzy Fury (a.k.a. The Pink Bunny) who runs the local restaurant that functions almost like a church - everyone meets up there. Mr. Articulate has a pretty substantial role despite dying early on, but his "backstory" comics are surprisingly entertaining. He is something of a Sherlock Holmes kind of character. My two favorite characters though are probably Maximum Man and Emoticon. Maximum Man is a meek, timid accountant who - in homage to Captain Marvel - could turn into the most powerful superhero if he uttered a magic word. Only thing is, in his old age he has forgotten the word. For most of the first story arc, he is just in the background reading words from the dictionary out loud. Emoticon is the son of an old villain, but he is not a bad dude himself. His eyeballs are removed by the Typist in order to bring tragedy to his life - to mold him into a better villain. But he is given an LCD plate with a sort of replacement set of eyeballs. This allows him to see, but the only way he can express emotions on his face is to use emoticons.

One of the best characters, Coyote Kid was a bit of Jonah Hex, a bit of Ghost Rider.

Through it's brief twelve issue run, the comic hit pretty much every note you can expect out of a mainstream comic - you've got your good guys, your bad guys, your old grudges, someone coming back from the dead. The town and the characters are so endearing though, it feels like no other comic. It's chalk full of homages to other classic comic book characters, but keeping everyone feeling rather original and unique. The characters that do get background can seem strange and it only ever really happens to quickly get the reader up to speed (for example, Coyoto Kid is practically a noncharacter until they need him in One Foot in the Grave, so they make it a point to spend a good chunk of an issue explaining who he is). However, the characters are so interesting (and awesome) enough that you almost just wish every character would get a one-shot background issue!

The plot of the first story arc really revolves around mystery and learning about the town, so it's a little tough to talk about it without spoilers. I'll just say that it's a great; fun story. The second story arc gets a little weird, to say the least. Where the first arc was murder/mystery, the second was all mysticism/magic based. They almost couldn't be further apart in themes. It was really neat to have such a diverse range of stories in a series that ultimately lasted a total of twenty-four issues. The final arc is a classic tale of cover-ups and revenge, mixed in with drama on an intimate level. That speaks to the strength of Gail Simone as a writer (though Wonder Woman is the only interesting book in DC's New 52, I do still kind of miss Simone's writing of Wonder Woman - I think she's still the only woman to write the most well known female superhero, though I might be mistaken on that).

The art changes from Neil Googe to Horacio  Domingues from the main series to the One Foot in the Grave miniseries, but both do a great job capturing the same feel of the town and characters. Everyone is bright and colorful. It looks like an old comic book sometimes! Both artists were also asked to change up styles dramatically when they had to include those random pages of "old, fake comic books." Honestly? These artists, with Simone writing, didn't get to showcase their talents enough. The series was canceled far too soon.

Wildstorm has had a bit of a roller coaster time in the past five, six years. When Welcome to Tranquility came out, they were gearing up to reboot everything. Though the series existed inside the Wildstorm universe, they only made occasional, unspecific references to the world outside Tranquility. Still, that book was not immune to the constant barrage of universe revamping. The book was dropped in the aftermath of Christos Gage's crossover event Armageddon, returning briefly for a six-issue miniseries (which was also awesome, even if it doesn't quite close the world of Tranquility in a particularly satisfactory way). Then, DC essentially absorbed the Wildstorm universe into their own before closing down the imprint. It has since relaunched its Wildstorm brand, but Tranquility was not lucky enough to survive the storm.

Which is a shame. Welcome to Tranquility is one of my favorite comics from the past decade. It's uniqueness while paying homage to the old traditions of the medium brought an entertaining and delightful world to life. It's definitely worth checking out, especially given how brief the series is.

TRADE INFO:

Volume 1 - Collects issues #1 through #6 of the main series
Volume 2 - collects issues #7 through #12 of the main series
One Foot in the Grave - collects all six issues of the miniseries

For some reason, there is no trade collection of the "rebooted" main series, which lasted about five issues before succumbing to the world stopping Armageddon event. It's strange, but you might be able to find them on eBay or Amazon. It's just tough though because the reboot also starts with issue #1. So essentially, there are two issue #1s through #5s. Be careful if you're looking for them.

Arkham Knight (2015)

Superheroes have historically had a bad run outside their original comic book medium. As hard as it might seem to remember today, the genre never quite took hold in cinema or in video games. Yes, there weren't shortages of either, but they never actually took off. Largely, nothing resonated with fans until the new millennium. There had been a slew of decent Spider-man games, but Rocksteady really broke new ground with 2009's Arkham Asylum. Not only the best Batman game ever made, it was immediately in the running of best superhero game. Flash forward six years, and the studio had - taking a page from Christopher Nolan, whose Batman trilogy are unquestionably the best Batman movies - decided to wrap up the Arkham series with Arkham Knight.

PC release disaster aside, the game expands on elements of Arkham City, drawing on the change to open-world gameplay instead of the linear, claustrophobic nature of Asylum. This goes a long way to creating a more "Batman feel" rather than the gamier approach to Asylum. For example, unlike the first game, Knight just starts. Players immediately take control of the Caped Crusader, complete with various gadgets. While some gadgets remain withheld until you either find them or acquire them when the story demands, the game basically just starts. There is no build up the way there was with City. There isn't the classic fetch-quest game-like nature of Asylum. On the one hand, this choice has the game taking off at 100 mph, and it rarely slows down. The urgency is present from the get-go, and if you have been a long-time fan of the series, it's nice to just start. For players with experience, that aspect mixed with the open world nature of the game means that kind of do get free reign to accomplish what you want when you want.

On the other hand, however, it does feel like Knight was not designed with new players in mind. Where City had some more tutorial elements early on, with the idea that new players might be jumping on board, Knight appears to abandon that notion. For a video game, it is a relatively bold decision. When you look at any series, there are almost always design choices made to accommodate brand new players. Yet Knight feels like it is designed with just people who have played an Arkham game before. Some might call it bad design, but it is worth noting that gaming is among the only industry in which this can be considered a problem. People don't often criticize the third film in a trilogy for lacking accessibility to new audiences, for example, because it is taken as a fact that you should have seen the preceding films first. The same thing is true of books, or comics.

The decision to commit to a finale rather than another installment is solid, although it could have used a few more areas that required brushing up of old skills. Some gadgets only get used once to solve a single puzzle, and then you can get through the rest of the game without it. It may have been better and more cohesive to include sections of the game that actually did require the batclaw or the zipline, so players shake off the rust and can more easily remember how they work and their value in combat scenarios. Knight maybe does the worst job of the trilogy integrated the gadgets on a whole.

Combat is rather unchanged, which is neither great nor awful. The fluidity of fighting was always one of the strong points of the Arkham series action. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Still, you can only go so long without making any alterations. In this case, Rocksteady provided two key additions. The first and most satisfying - despite being a simple and minor addition - was the segments wherein you team up. Through a few side missions and a couple of story missions, you wind up overwhelmed by enemies and are joined by an ally (Robin, Nightwing, and Catwoman specifically). After building enough momentum, you can perform tag-team moves, then switch to the other character. The fighting isn't that different, but Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman all do play a bit different than Batman, so the slight change in pace actually does a lot to freshen up the fighting.

Most controversially, however, is the addition of the Batmobile. On the surface, it isn't a bad element. Resembling the tumbler from the Nolan trilogy, the Batmobile is this rocket-propelled tank that fires various types of (nonlethal?) rounds. With the ability to launch yourself into the air and glide around, it isn't always the most efficient way to travel, but it sometimes pays to be near the ground level, as that is where you can track Riddler informants as well as find side missions. Combat in the Batmobile isn't even awful in its own right either. Sure, you are often overrun with enemy tanks, and it ultimately boils down to dodging and firing, but it actually is quite fun!

The ultimate problem with it, however, is how frequently you need to engage in tank battles, especially if you attempt to get 100% completion through all the side quests. It isn't so much an issue of it being awful as much as it is there needed to be less of it. The more tank battles you found yourself in, the less fun it became. Tedious might be better suited for Riddler quests, but it applies to tank battles as well. Additionally, tank boss battles were just the worst. Any situation in which you have to "flee" a special tank were horrendous. For starters, the camera zooms out, so you suddenly find yourself having a different angle and having to adjust your driving in just those moments. Secondly, it does not take much at all to knock you off your course, and they weirdly throw a ton of crap in your way that will knock you off your course. Not so bad when you're just driving around the city, going from mission to mission; more problematic when you're desperately fleeing a boss tank and if you miss just a beat, you get game over.

The strength of Arkham Knight is its story, though. While Rocksteady did few favors by clamoring to the idea that they created a "new character" (when they literally just gave an existent character a new name), the story itself isn't rocket science. Comic fans will recognize almost immediately who the Arkham Knight is just from the design. Players who have virtually no knowledge of Batman comic history will also be able to figure it out at a certain point well before the "reveal." Still, despite the mystery elements and some twists not working so well, it might very well be the best take on a classic Batman story. In many ways, it actually is superior to its comic book counterpart.

As an aside, one of the things Arkham games have done rather well is incorporating Batman's rogues gallery into the open world environment. Many open world games suffer from a lack of focus. There will always be a disconnect between story and game when there is a scenario in which you have to rush to do something in the story, but the game gives you the freedom to do anything you want. That is still present here, of course. (You have to hurry to save Barbara! Or, ya know, spend hours finding Riddler trophies or hunt down Man-bat.) Still, that every side mission is centered around a particular villain means each side quest has its own mini-story. Yes, it does absolutely wind up distracting from the urgency of the central narrative, but at least it feels like it contributes something. Hunting down the likes of Firefly, Two-Face, Penguin, and Deathstroke (the most disappointing boss fight, by the way) at least feels like something Batman should be doing, even with a larger, more significant story happening congruently.

While the central plot of the game from a macro-level is driven by Scarecrow and Akrham Knight, the bigger, yet more micro-level plot is driven by the Joker. Some might not be into the Joker returning for such a prominent role after having been a primary antagonist in Asylum and City, it did seem like this was how it had to end. The Joker is the quintessential Batman villain, and given how much "fear" was a part of the predominant themes of the story, he had to be heavily involved. It is not hard to blame those who found the Joker a bit tedious given he was heavily featured in the previous games, but taken as a whole, it made narrative and thematic sense.

Of course, the ending felt strangely unsatisfying. Ambiguous endings are fine, but this felt like it could have used just a couple more minutes of explanation. Things change so quickly at the end that it isn't exactly clear what is even going on. And it is only made worse when you get the 100% ending, with a super strange scene that either makes no sense at all or has horrific implications. For an otherwise great story to end with that was nothing short of disappointing. In some sense, it might have actually been more satisfying to get the clear death of Bruce Wayne. At least then, we'd have a clear conclusion. Elements of "passing the torch" are scattered throughout the game, but they don't pay off. And then there is the return of the Arkham Knight at the end that comes out of nowhere. It all felt rather rushed. Adding great music didn't make it suddenly feel more bittersweet, as they intended.

As far as superhero games go, few do it better than the Arkham series. As far as Batman stories go - and I am aware I am the only person who doesn't really find Batman stories all that great - this is among the better. That he is written to be intimidating, but have this underlying anxiety that makes him feel completely human is among the best writing for the character in any medium. Arkham Knight is still fun to play, and completely engaging. I happened to prefer it better than Arkham City, but it is not without glaring flaws. Granted, it the game barely technically works on PC, but it's probably worth picking up at this point if you are a console owner.

REDUCTIVE RATING:  Pretty Good!