Looking for The Batman Arkham Games in Chronological Order? Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the Batman: Arkham video game series was created by Rocksteady Studios and WB Games Montréal and was first released by Eidos Interactive and Warner Bros. interactive entertainment. The series has four primary episodes, one forthcoming spin-off, four minor mobile games, a virtual reality game, a companion comic book, and an animated film. The Arkham world is a common name for the continuity created by video games.
Early in 2007, Eidos approached Rocksteady with the news that it had acquired the rights from Warner Bros. to create a Batman video game. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, the first two games in the series, was written by seasoned Batman author Paul Dini and featured voice actors Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their respective roles as Batman and the Joker from the DC Animated Universe (DCAU). In Batman: Arkham Knight, the fourth entry in the main series, Conroy and Hamill reprised their roles as their respective voices. Arleen Sorkin, who played Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham Asylum, Robert Costanzo, and CCH Pounder, who played Harvey Bullock and Amanda Waller, respectively, in Batman: Arkham Origins, are other voice actors who reprised their roles from the DCAU.
Positive commercial and critical reception has been given to the Batman: Arkham series’ core titles, which have received accolades for their narrative development, voice acting, world design, graphics, and gameplay. The games have sold in excess of 30 million copies globally.
Also, check: Spider-Man movies in order of release
The Batman Arkham Games in Serial Order
- Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
- Batman: Arkham City (2011)
- Batman: Arkham City Lockdown (2011)
- Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)
- Batman: Arkham Origins (mobile) (2013)
- Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (2013)
- Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)
- Batman: Arkham Underworld (2016)
- Batman: Arkham VR (2016)
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2023)
1. Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
Arkham Asylum – in August 2009, the video game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as a Windows version, were made available worldwide. The game’s story and fighting in particular won praise from critics.
It was hailed as the “best superhero game of the modern era” and the “greatest comic book game of all time” by reviewers. It received numerous honors from different media organizations, including Best Action Adventure Game, Best Game, and Game of the Year. It also held the Guinness World Record for “Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever.”
One of the best video games ever created has been praised for it. The game was re-released numerous times, notably as a Mac OS X version in November 2011 and a remastered version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2016. The Game of the Year edition was released in March 2010. With the release of Arkham Asylum’s direct sequel, Arkham City, in October 2011, the Batman: Arkham series—which includes video game sequels and spin-offs, comic books, merchandising, and movies—was started.
Action-adventure game Batman: Arkham Asylum is played from a third-person perspective. On the screen, the playing character is discernible, and the camera can freely pan around him. Batman is controlled by the player as he travels through Arkham Asylum, a prison for criminally insane people off the coast of Gotham City.
The first several levels of the game are linear and act as a tutorial for the player’s available maneuvers and strategies. Although some regions of the game world are unavailable until specific points in the main tale, players are free to explore them after they get on the island. As well as being able to glide from heights using his cape, sprint, jump, climb, and crouch, Batman can also utilize his grappling hook to ascend low structures or scale higher cliffs.
2. Batman: Arkham City (2011)
In October 2011, the video game platforms PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 had a global release, and a month later, a Microsoft Windows version of Arkham City followed. The storyline, character and world designs, soundtrack, and Batman’s combat and navigational skills all garnered positive reviews from critics.
According to review aggregator Metacritic, it was tied with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the highest-rated video game of 2011. It also won a number of accolades from media outlets, including Game of the Year, Best Action Game, Best Action Adventure Game, Best Adventure Game, and Best Original Score. It is regarded as one of the best video games ever developed, much like its predecessor.
Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, a spin-off mobile game, was launched in December. Several re-releases of Arkham City have been placed, including a Game of the Year edition in May 2012, versions for the Wii U and OS X in November and December 2012, and a remastered version for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2016. Batman: Arkham Origins, a prologue to the series, debuted in October 2013, while Batman: Arkham Knight, a narrative sequel, debuted in June 2015.
Open-world action-adventure game Batman: Arkham City employs stealth gaming strategies. The player character is displayed on the screen, and the camera can freely pan about it because it is presented in the third person.
The game is set in Arkham City, which is accessible to players right away and allows them to move around freely inside its confines. Throughout the game, the player has the option to maneuver stealthily, employing a variety of tools and sneak attacks to approach adversaries and disable them.
Batman may extend his flight by diving and swooping with his cape as he moves around the city. He can also use the retractable rope of the grapnel gun to cling to high ledges. As Batman, the player has access to “Detective Vision,” a visual mode that draws attention to important aspects of the game’s visuals such as character status, collectibles, and clues. Detective Vision can also be utilized for forensic tasks like tracing the origin of a sniper rifle round. The player has access to a network for hacking communication frequencies as well as a criminal database in-game that contains forensic problems.
3. Batman: Arkham City Lockdown (2011)
The game was made available on December 7, 2011, for iOS, and on June 26, 2013, for Android. It includes Game Center integration. Critics gave Arkham City Lockdown largely favorable reviews, praising its combat and quick pace but pointing out that there isn’t much else to the game.
In the fighting game Arkham City Lockdown, players must utilize the touch screen to control Batman and dispatch foes. The player can make Batman repeatedly punch his enemies by moving their fingers in left and right directions. The player can move their finger down to block an enemy punch if they try to punch Batman. Batman may also take down enemies by tapping on a certain body area on the screen, which will do so (or deplete a lot of their health). Some adversaries’ strikes can only be evaded, not blocked (symbolized by a red-colored shield).
Players can convert kinetic energy that has gathered during battles into potential energy to deliver devastating hits. The player automatically gains experience points as they fight foes, and these points can then be used on upgrades like gadgets, combo attacks, health boosters, etc. Batman’s other costumes are also available for purchase; the only one that comes with every player’s download is the 1970s Batsuit.
Six stages and four Bonus Stages are included in the game’s final release, and they allow players to earn improvements for Batman. Each level has a boss at the end and three to four thugs to fight in two phases. After completing a level, players can replay it at a harder difficulty with monsters who deal more damage and have a higher health bar.
4. Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)
On October 25, 2013, Arkham Origins was made available globally for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Microsoft Windows. Unlike its predecessors, which were universally acclaimed, Arkham Origins received mixed reviews; it was praised for its voice acting, boss fights, storyline, visuals, and score, but criticized for its technical problems and a general lack of innovation in gameplay mechanics. The multiplayer component was also thought to be an unnecessary addition to the series.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, a companion game, was launched for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita alongside Arkham Origins, and a spin-off mobile game for iOS and Android was released in October 2013. Batman: Assault on Arkham, an animated follow-up, and Batman: Arkham Knight, a video game follow-up, were both released in 2014.
An open-world action-adventure game with stealth elements is called Arkham Origins. Batman’s retractable rope from the grapnel pistol allows him to cling to high ledges and extend his flight while gliding around Gotham City. While playing Arkham Origins, players can access some of the devices from earlier Arkham games right away.
The Cryptographic Sequencer, which can break security consoles, the Batarang, a throwing weapon, and its remote-controlled counterpart, the Remote Batarang, as well as the Explosive Gel and Smoke Pellets for stealthy exits and entrances, the Disruptor, which can remotely disable weapons and explosive mines, and the Grapnel Accelerator, an earlier version of the Grapnel, are returning devices.
The Remote Claw, which enables Batman to target two objects and pull them together to throw enemies into each other or hit them with objects (tying two walled points together creates a tightrope for Batman to cross), Shock Gloves, which enable Batman to block electric attacks, disable some enemies and stun shielded ones, and short-circuit objects, and the Concussion Detonator, which can stun large enemy groups, are new weapons in Batman’s arsenal.
5. Batman: Arkham Origins (mobile) (2013)
On October 16, 2013, the game was made available for iOS users, and on July 25, 2014, it was made available for Android users. Critics gave it varying ratings, pointing out its shallowness and freemium design that promoted the purchase of microtransactions. The game has more than 5 million downloads on Google Play. The latest update to Arkham Origins Mobile was on April 21, 2014, and as of 2021, it is no longer accessible for download.
The combat system in Arkham Origins is highly arcade-influenced, and the game does not have a compelling narrative. Players can unleash a combination of blows that can be utilized to take off foes one at a moment by swiping and pressing the screen to launch a sequence of quick, penetrating assaults, blocking, and changing Batman’s stance.
The “Guarded” stance, which can be switched back and forth with the Assault stance during combat, allows the player to retain and strengthen their defense and offers them the ability to heal over time but does not have the damage potential of Assault. The default “Assault” stance allows more damage to be inflicted on enemies at the cost of taking more damage.
The players can also employ special attacks like Batswarm, Batarang, and Health Boost after charging. Some specials heal the player, some provide the player with defensive or offensive boosts, and some are offensive attacks. In addition to their standard basic assaults, adversaries also have an unavoidable, stronger “Enrage” attack that only allows for blocking after the player deals a significant amount of damage.
6. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (2013)
To coincide with the release of Arkham Origins for home consoles and Microsoft Windows, the game was made available on October 25, 2013, on the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita mobile gaming systems.
In Europe, the 3DS version wasn’t released until November 8, 2013. The PlayStation Vita-only title was launched in Japan on December 5, 2013, the same day as Arkham Origins for home systems went on sale.
On April 1, 2014, in North America, and on April 2, 2014, in Europe, a deluxe edition of the game was announced and published for Windows, the Wii U eShop, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade. Compared to the original, it has new stages, enemies, difficulty settings, batsuits, and improved aesthetics.
Armature perused the backlog of earlier Arkham games to see which aspects would be appropriate for Origins Blackgate.
The developer was able to adapt many gameplay mechanics from the main console games, such as grappling, gliding, crouching, and climbing, into the 2.5D environment while adding new tools like the Batarang, a throwing weapon, the Batclaw, used for attaching to surfaces, and Explosive Gel, which can now be shot at a distance.
Batman can’t hop in the game, thus he must utilize the grapnel rifle to reach higher ground. The game is entirely item-based and does not use an experience point system.
7. Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)
On June 23, 2015, Arkham Knight became available across the globe for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. The reviews for the console versions of the game were largely positive, praising its graphics, gameplay, combat, and world design but criticizing its abuse of the Batmobile, plot, and Arkham Knight character representation.
Warner Bros. briefly stopped selling the Windows version after it received harsh criticism for technical and performance problems that made it unusable for certain users. The game sold more than 5 million units worldwide by October 2015, making it the fastest-selling game of 2015 and the fastest-selling title in the Arkham series since its release.
Additionally, the game won other awards, including Best Game and Best Action-Adventure Game. It was also mentioned on a lot of lists of the top video games from 2015 and the previous decade. The game’s post-release content was diverse and included racetracks, challenge courses, and skins for Batman and his allies as well as historical Batmobile designs. In the spring of 2023, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the next installment in the series, will debut.
8. Batman: Arkham Underworld (2016)
The video game Batman: Arkham Underworld was created by Turbine, Inc. and launched for iOS on July 14, 2016.
With the objective of becoming Gotham City’s “next criminal kingpin,” the game places players in control of a group of villains, including well-known Batman foes like the Riddler, Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, and Bane. The game is set a few years before the events of Arkham Asylum.
Voice acting is present in Arkham Under, and some performers who appeared in the series’ earlier episodes reprise their parts. In 2017, the game was discontinued.
9. Batman: Arkham VR (2016)
The long-running comic book mythos of the franchise served as the inspiration for Ian Ball and Martin Lancaster’s writing for Arkham VR. The storyline of the game follows Batman as he looks into the disappearance of his allies Nightwing and Robin. It takes place between the films Batman: Arkham City (2011) and Batman: Arkham Knight (2015). With a primary focus on using Batman’s abilities and tools to explore the immediate environment and solve puzzles, the game is presented from a first-person perspective.
Because of its brief playtime and straightforward gameplay, Arkham VR initially garnered largely negative reviews from critics. Despite this, the game was nominated for and eventually won a number of year-end awards. Up until the announcement of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, scheduled for release in 2023, it had been the last official installment in the Batman: Arkham series.
Virtual reality headgear such as the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, or Oculus Rift, along with corresponding controllers, are used to play the adventure game Batman: Arkham VR from the viewpoint of the playable character, Batman.
The throwable Batarang, the grapnel gun, a grappling hook, and the forensic scanner, which can be used to examine evidence and reenact crime scenes, are three tools that the player can access from Batman’s utility belt. The player is free to move about the environment and interact with reachable items. The character cannot move about freely but can teleport to predetermined areas around the current environment (with movement occasionally represented by the use of the grapnel pistol).
10. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2023)
On May 26, 2023, the game is scheduled to be made available on Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Genre-defying action-adventure game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is located in Metropolis and is an open-world game. Four playable characters are included in the game: Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark.
The game has a four-player cooperative multiplayer option in addition to a solo mode. When playing alone, users can change between characters whenever they choose, with the AI controlling the other characters.
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Batman Arkham Main Series in Order
Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
The first game in the franchise, Batman: Arkham Asylum, was created by Rocksteady and written by veteran Batman author Paul Dini. The entire game is set on Arkham Island, the location of the titular Arkham Asylum, home to some of Batman’s most renowned adversaries. In the main narrative, Batman must once more foil the Joker, his archenemy, who has devised a complex scheme to seize control of Arkham and imprison Batman there while posing a threat of hidden bombs to Gotham City.
Batman discovers that the Joker has obtained a sizable quantity of Titan, an experimental substance based on Venom, the drug used by Bane to enhance his abilities while battling through the asylum’s inmates and trying to restore order. Batman must destroy Titan before the Joker can use it for his evil plans. Batman and the Joker are voiced in the game by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, who have previously voiced both characters in the DC Animated Universe.
Following its initial release, Arkham Asylum gained downloadable content (DLC) that included the Joker as a playable character and additional areas for the game’s challenge mode (albeit only on the PlayStation 3 and Return to Arkham versions).
Batman: Arkham City (2011)
The follow-up to Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, has a larger cast of characters and a tale that was once again created by Paul Dini, together with Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill. In the game, Bruce Wayne is imprisoned in Arkham City, a brand-new super-prison founded in the run-down urban slums of Gotham City by former Arkham Asylum warden and current Gotham mayor Quincy Sharp. Arkham City is set 18 months after Arkham Asylum.
Batman must discover the truth about an evil plot, code-named “Protocol 10,” carried out by the facility’s warden, Hugo Strange while fending off numerous prisoners who are taking advantage of Arkham City’s lawlessness. The Joker, who is steadily deteriorating owing to the unstable Titan formula in his blood, infects Batman with the same illness at the same time to drive him to discover a cure. Batman and the Joker, played by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, respectively, are reprising their roles.
The series gets side objectives for the first time in Arkham City, each of which focuses on a new villain whose plans Batman must foil. It also includes DLC which makes Catwoman a playable character and gives her a parallel campaign to the main story. In addition to Batman and Catwoman, Nightwing and Robin are playable characters in the game’s challenge mode. Another DLC, Harley Quinn’s Revenge, adds a second campaign that takes place after the main narrative and requires Robin to save Batman when he is taken hostage in Arkham City by a vengeful Harley Quinn.
Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)
A prequel to the series, Batman: Arkham Origins, is set eight years before the events of Arkham Asylum. Corey May and Dooma Wendschuh, authors of Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia, worked on its development at WB Games Montréal. Splash Damage created the game, which is the first in the series to include multiplayer.
The plot centers on a younger, less skilled, and less seasoned Batman who, on Christmas Eve, draws eight of the deadliest assassins in the world to Gotham City when Black Mask places a bounty on his head. Batman must battle the police, who want to detain him for acting as a vigilante, as well as other bad guys taking advantage of the mayhem in Gotham while trying to bring Black Mask to justice.
Key events in Batman’s career are depicted in the story, including his first confrontation with the Joker and the start of his friendship and partnership with Jim Gordon. Old Gotham serves as a similar backdrop for Arkham Origins as it does for Arkham City, with a few adjustments made to match the earlier time period when the area was not yet changed into Arkham City. The Batcave and a new section of the city dubbed New Gotham, which is in the south, are also included in the setting. Batman and the Joker are voiced by Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker, respectively, in place of Conroy and Hamill from the previous two games.
Similar to its predecessors, the game offers DLC that includes additional challenge maps, costumes, and playable characters for Bruce Wayne and Deathstroke in the challenge mode. New Year’s Eve is the setting for the new story-driven campaign that is added by the Cold, Cold Heart DLC. It represents Batman’s first confrontation with Mr. Freeze and heavily references the episode “Heart of Ice” from Batman: The Animated Series.
Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)
The biggest entry in the series and the sequel to Arkham City is Batman: Arkham Knight. It was created by Rocksteady once more and intended to be the last Batman: Arkham game. It was released on June 23, 2015, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.
The game, which takes place nine months after the events of Arkham City, features the return of the villain Scarecrow, who forces a citywide evacuation in Gotham and brings together several of the Dark Knight’s deadliest foes in an effort to permanently eliminate the Dark Knight. The enigmatic Arkham Knight, who has a particular grudge against Batman and appears to be aware of all of his secrets, helps the Scarecrow.
Batman’s efforts to fight the bad guys are hampered by the Joker, who, although being killed in Arkham City, continues to exist as a hallucination in Batman’s mind and is gradually gaining control of his body. Arkham Knight takes place in Uptown Gotham, which is made up of the three main islands of Bleake Island, Miagani Island, and Founders’ Island and is situated west of City and Origins’ Old and New Gotham. Batman and the Joker are played again by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, respectively.
The game’s DLC includes four side missions focusing on the antagonists Killer Croc, Ra’s al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, and Mad Hatter, as well as brief story-driven missions focusing on characters other than Batman, such as Batgirl, Red Hood, and Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman. It also includes additional challenge maps, skins for the playable characters, and skins for the Batmobile (which makes its debut in the series as a driveable vehicle).
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2023)
Following the conclusion of Batman: Arkham Origins, which included a post-credits scenario in which Deathstroke is requested by Amanda Waller to join the Suicide Squad, a Suicide Squad game was once thought to be a possibility. Although there were speculations the studio was developing a Suicide Squad game in the years following the release of Batman: Arkham Knight, neither the publisher nor the production team made an official announcement.
When WB Games Montreal learned that the game had been scrapped in December 2016, it moved its attention to a Batman: Arkham soft reboot starring Damian Wayne as the new Batman and taking place several years after the end of Rocksteady’s main plot.
According to Schreier’s story from April 2017, the Batman game Damian was also scrapped and replaced with Gotham Knights, which was unveiled at the 2020 DC FanDome. As a result, Rocksteady Studios became the game’s primary developer. Rocksteady later denied the initial rumors that they were developing a Superman-themed game. On August 7, 2020, Rocksteady unveiled the official game art. At DC FanDome, the game’s initial trailer debuted. Rocksteady revealed on March 23, 2022, that the game’s scheduled 2022 debut window had been moved to the spring of 2023.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will continue several plotlines from Batman: Arkham as the game is situated in the Arkhamverse. [18] Players can select one of four playable characters—Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, or King Shark—and participate in cooperative gaming in the game. In the main plot, Brainiac attacks Metropolis and uses mind-controlling technology to imprison the majority of the Justice League, forcing Amanda Waller to put together a task force of former Arkham Asylum convicts to stop him.
The Batman Arkham games were listed in this sequence. We’re eager to see what the Suicide Squad creators have in store for us because Rocksteady Studios (and the other developers) have done a fantastic job with the franchise.
