Batman: Arkham

• 1. Introduction

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  Batman: Arkham is a video game series built on one long feud between Batman and the Joker. Its main games have sold more than 32 million copies worldwide. Eidos Interactive first published the series, and Warner Bros. Games publishes it today. The games share a single continuity that fans call the Arkhamverse. That world grew to include handheld games, phone games, virtual reality, comics, novels, and an animated film. What made a licensed superhero game earn record-setting praise from critics? Why did one entry disappoint players who loved the first two? And how did the series carry on after the actor who voiced its Batman for years had died?

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• 2. The Island Prison

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  Arkham Island is the entire map of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the 2009 game that started the series. Veteran Batman writer Paul Dini wrote the story, and the studio Rocksteady developed it. The Joker has staged an elaborate takeover of the asylum, which houses some of Batman's most notorious enemies. He has also hidden bombs around Gotham City, and he threatens to use them.

  As Batman fights through the inmates and tries to restore order, he discovers that the Joker has gathered a large quantity of Titan. Titan is an experimental chemical based on Venom, the drug Bane uses to boost his strength. Batman has to destroy it before the Joker can put it to use.

  The cast came straight from television animation. Kevin Conroy voiced Batman, Mark Hamill voiced the Joker, and Arleen Sorkin voiced Harley Quinn. All three had played those roles before in the DC Animated Universe.

  Critics said the game showed a darker side of Batman than earlier video games had. They also admired its polished combat and stealth, its range of gadgets, and the comic book lore and easter eggs hidden across the island. It won Best Game at the BAFTA Video Games Awards, and The Guardian placed it on its list of the 50 best videogames of the 21st century.

  An average Metacritic score of 91.67 earned Arkham Asylum the Guinness World Record for Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever. Downloadable content added challenge maps and, on the PlayStation 3 and in the later Return to Arkham version only, the Joker as a playable character. That record would stand only until 2011.

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• 3. A City Behind Walls

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  Eighteen months after the asylum crisis, Batman: Arkham City, released in 2011, locked Bruce Wayne inside a new super-prison. Arkham City was carved out of the decaying urban slums of Gotham City. Quincy Sharp, the former Arkham Asylum warden and now Gotham's mayor, established it. Dini returned to write the story, this time alongside Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill.

  Hugo Strange runs the facility and orchestrates a sinister scheme code-named "Protocol 10". Batman must uncover it while inmates exploit the lawlessness around him. Meanwhile the Joker is slowly dying because of the unstable Titan formula in his blood. He infects Batman with the same disease, so that Batman has to find a cure.

  The game introduced side missions to the series, each focused on a different villain's scheme. Downloadable content made Catwoman playable in her own campaign, which runs parallel to the main story. Nightwing and Robin joined Batman and Catwoman in the challenge mode. A second campaign, called Harley Quinn's Revenge, begins after the main story ends. In it, Robin must rescue Batman from a vengeful Harley.

  Arkham City has received the highest acclaim of any game in the series. It took Best Action-Adventure Game at the Golden Joystick Awards and Adventure Game of the Year at the D.I.C.E. Awards. Reviewers called it the greatest comic book video game of all time. Fans and critics especially liked Hamill's return as a sick and dying Joker. A GameRankings average of 95.94 percent made it the new holder of the Guinness record that Arkham Asylum had held.

  Rocksteady's work might have ended there, but the next entry arrived in 2013 from a different studio, and it looked backward.

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• 4. Younger Batman, Distant Sequels

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  Christmas Eve in Gotham City is the setting of Batman: Arkham Origins, which takes place eight years before Arkham Asylum. The crime boss Black Mask puts a bounty on Batman's head. That draws eight of the world's deadliest assassins to the city. WB Games Montréal developed the game, and Corey May and Dooma Wendschuh, who had written for Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia, wrote it.

  This Batman is younger and less refined. The police want to arrest him for vigilantism, and other villains exploit the chaos. The plot covers his first meeting with the Joker and the start of his partnership and friendship with Jim Gordon. Roger Craig Smith voices Batman and Troy Baker voices the Joker, replacing Conroy and Hamill.

  The map reuses Old Gotham from Arkham City, before its transformation into a prison. It adds New Gotham in the south and the Batcave. The game was also the first in the series to offer multiplayer, which Splash Damage developed.

  Downloadable content added challenge maps, costumes, and Bruce Wayne and Deathstroke as playable characters. The Cold, Cold Heart campaign takes place a week after the main story, on New Year's Eve. It shows Batman's first encounter with Mr. Freeze and borrows heavily from the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice".

  Critics called Origins the weakest installment, though still generally well received. They said it lacked innovation, and its visuals slipped, which they blamed largely on the change from Rocksteady to Warner Bros. Montréal. Bugs, especially on PC, and a confined multiplayer mode drew complaints. Reviewers did praise the voice cast, the depiction of the Joker, and the multiphase boss battles.

  On the 1st of May 2024, a direct sequel was announced, Batman: Arkham Shadow, developed by Camouflaj and published by Oculus Studios. It is exclusive to the Meta Quest 3, and Smith returns as Batman. The story takes place six months after Origins. Batman tries to stop a mysterious villain, the Rat King, from destroying Gotham on the Fourth of July. Along the way, he changes from a violent and vengeful vigilante into a symbol of hope. It was released on the 21st of October 2024, and came free with new Quest 3 and 3S purchases until the 30th of April 2025.

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• 5. The Final Night

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  The 23rd of June 2015 was the release date of Batman: Arkham Knight for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. Rocksteady developed it, and it was intended to be the last Arkham game. It is the biggest installment in the series, and the only one to receive an "M" rating.

  Nine months after Arkham City, the Scarecrow forces a citywide evacuation of Gotham. He unites several of Batman's greatest villains in an attempt to destroy the Dark Knight once and for all. A mysterious figure called the Arkham Knight helps him, nursing a personal vendetta and seeming to know all of Batman's secrets.

  The Joker complicates the quest. He died in Arkham City, yet he survives as a chemically induced hallucination in Batman's mind. Slowly, that hallucination is taking over Batman's body. The game takes place in Uptown Gotham, west of the earlier settings, and spreads across three main islands: Bleake Island, Miagani Island, and Founders' Island.

  Downloadable content added four side missions about Killer Croc, Ra's al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, and Mad Hatter. Short story missions starring other characters, including Batgirl, Red Hood, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman, took place before and after the main story. The Batmobile made its series debut as a driveable vehicle, and fans could also unlock skins for it.

  On consoles the game won critical acclaim, a little below Arkham City and Arkham Asylum yet above Origins. It became the fastest-selling game in the franchise. It won Best British Game at the BAFTA Video Games Awards and Best Game at the Empire Awards. Most criticism targeted the game's overreliance on the Batmobile.

  The Windows version fared worse. Technical issues at launch led Warner Bros. to pull the game from sale on Steam and to remove physical copies from shelves, with a promise to fix performance problems. Even after the re-release, complaints about lingering issues continued.

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• 6. The Squad Detour

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  A post-credits scene in Arkham Origins first planted the idea of a Suicide Squad game. In it, Amanda Waller asks Deathstroke to join the Suicide Squad. After Arkham Knight, rumors of such a project circulated, but neither the studio nor the publisher said anything official.

  In December 2016, journalist Jason Schreier reported that the game had been cancelled. WB Games Montréal had shifted to a new Batman game starring Damian Wayne as the Dark Knight. Voice actor Josh Keaton confirmed in January 2024 that this game would not have been set in the Arkhamverse. In April 2017, Schreier reported that the Damian game had been cancelled too. It became a different Batman title, revealed at the 2020 DC FanDome as Gotham Knights, which is also unrelated to the Arkham series.

  Rocksteady then took over the Suicide Squad project. Players had rumored the studio was building a Superman game, but it debunked that idea. It revealed the game's official artwork on the 7th of August 2020. The first trailer premiered at DC FanDome and revealed the title, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

  Delays followed. On the 23rd of March 2022, Rocksteady moved the launch from 2022 to spring 2023. On the 13th of April 2023, it moved it again, to the 2nd of February 2024, when the game came out for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. Kevin Conroy died in November 2022, so the game holds one of his last performances as Batman. It was also his last time voicing the character in the Arkham series.

  The story picks up the Joker's death in Arkham City and the public revelation of Batman's identity in Arkham Knight. It leaves Gotham behind for Metropolis, which Brainiac and his army have attacked. His mind-controlling technology enslaves most of the Justice League, Batman included. Waller assembles Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark and sends them to stop the invasion, pitting them against brainwashed heroes.

  Up to four players can cooperate, each picking one of the Squad. After launch, alternate reality versions of the Joker and Mr. Freeze joined the roster, along with Deadshot's daughter Zoe Lawton, also called Lawless, and Deathstroke.

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• 7. Side Stories and Rereleases

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  NetherRealm Studios, the creators of Mortal Kombat 9, made the fighting game Batman: Arkham City Lockdown for iOS and Android in 2011. It serves as a prequel to Arkham City, with most Arkham voice actors returning. In 2013 the studio made a similar mobile fighting game that follows the story of Arkham Origins.

  Armature Studio's Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, a side-scrolling game for the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS, is set three months after Origins. An explosion at Blackgate Prison frees the inmates, and the Joker, Black Mask, and the Penguin take over. Batman meets Catwoman for the first time while trying to bring all three to justice, and he uncovers a dark secret about her. A deluxe edition reached PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Windows in April 2014.

  On the 14th of July 2016, Turbine released Batman: Arkham Underworld on iOS. Players controlled a team of villains, including the Riddler, Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, and Bane. They built hideouts and recruited henchmen in a bid to become Gotham's next criminal kingpin. The game was shut down in 2017.

  Rocksteady announced Batman: Arkham VR at E3 2016, and it reached the PlayStation VR in October 2016. It takes place a few weeks before Arkham Knight. It reached the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on the 25th of April 2017.

  Rereleases also kept the older games in circulation. Virtuos remastered Arkham Asylum and Arkham City in Unreal Engine 4 for Batman: Return to Arkham, released on the 18th of October 2016. Reviews were mixed to positive, and critics faulted a 30 frames per second cap.

  On the 21st of June 2023, Nintendo Direct announced Batman: Arkham Trilogy, after a leak through a French retailer in 2022. Turn Me Up developed this Nintendo Switch collection, which came out on the 1st of December 2023. A batsuit inspired by Robert Pattinson in The Batman (2022) appeared first in its version of Arkham Knight. The collection was dedicated to Conroy.

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• 8. Beyond the Screen

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  The animated film Batman: Assault on Arkham reached audiences on the 12th of August 2014. Conroy returned as Batman, Baker voiced the Joker, Martin Jarvis voiced Alfred, and Nolan North voiced the Penguin. The story takes place about two years before Arkham Asylum. Waller sends the Suicide Squad into the asylum to recover a classified file stolen by the Riddler. Batman is the title character, yet he plays only a supporting role as he tries to stop the Joker's hidden bomb.

  Comics expanded the world as well. A 16-page prequel comic, written by Alan Burnett and illustrated by Carlos D'Anda, shipped with limited editions of Arkham Asylum. In May 2011, DC Comics began a five-issue Arkham City miniseries by Dini, with art by D'Anda, bridging the gap between the two games. Arkham Unhinged followed in October 2011, written mainly by Derek Fridolfs. Origins got a digital-first comic by the studio Madefire, using DC2 Multiverse technology that let readers decide the fate of characters.

  Peter J. Tomasi wrote a prequel comic to Arkham Knight, released digitally in February 2015. A free one-shot, Batgirl Begins, was handed out at San Diego Comic-Con. A six-issue series, Genesis, explored the Arkham Knight's origin. Alex Irvine wrote a 320-page novel, The Riddler's Gambit, and Marv Wolfman wrote the novelization of Arkham Knight, released in July 2015.

  The franchise also reached theme parks. A Vekoma roller coaster at Warner Bros. Movie World in Queensland, Australia, was originally based on the Lethal Weapon films, but it was renamed and rethemed as Arkham Asylum - Shock Therapy. In 2018, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood in Los Angeles hosted Escape From Arkham Asylum, a dark maze attraction. Fans could also buy statues from DC Direct, replica gadgets from TriForce, and a board game, Batman: Arkham City Escape, from Cryptozoic in May 2013.

  The Arkham Knight also crossed into the mainstream DC Universe, but as a different person. In that version, he is Astrid Arkham, the daughter of asylum director Jeremiah Arkham and Ingrid Karlsson. A riot broke out during her birth, and a prisoner killed her mother with one of Batman's batarangs. Astrid later found footage of the death, wrongly blamed Batman, and built the Arkham Knight identity to take revenge.

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