UPDATE: While the video has been updated, none of the commentary below (from 2016) has! Please consider this a re-post!
Episode 4 of my Batman: Arkham Knight Let's Play is a true actor's episode. I say that because this half-hour contains more cinematic sequences and exposition scenes than gameplay action. Which means that this might be a rare section of the game that's more fun to watch than to play.
The main acting development in this episode is the introduction of the Mark Hamill-voiced Joker as a series regular, in spite of the fact that this character died at the end of the previous game, Arkham City. Here's the brilliant way in which Arkham Knight makes the Joker's return possible: Batman was infected with Joker's blood in Arkham City, which is causing his psyche to slowly mutate from his own into the Joker's. And the added exposure to Scarecrow's fear toxin is causing Batman's fear of this transformation to manifest itself in a hallucinatory Joker, who hangs around Batman like the proverbial devil on his shoulder, providing commentary on his actions and goading him ever further into madness. It's an extremely clever plot device that gracefully allows us to experience another world-class acting performance.
But the Joker is by no means the only scene-stealer in this episode. Jonathan Banks as Commissioner Gordon has two great moments in the first act, once when Batman tells him that his daughter Barbara has been kidnapped, and again when Batman reveals that his daughter Barbara is actually the master criminologist/sidekick known as Oracle. The level of raw emotion in these scenes is extremely powerful, culminating in Jim Gordon renouncing his friendship with the Caped Crusader and striking out on his own to track down Scarecrow, a decision that's all but guaranteed to end in disaster.
These two Batman/Gordon scenes are separated by an unintentionally comical interlude and a quite intentionally chilling fear-toxin induced flashback. The first occurs when escorting Gordon to Oracle's Clock Tower in the Batmobile, and the humor stems from some confusion on my part as a gamer. The goal is to follow Gordon's police car and protect him from the attacking militia vehicles, but at some point I get so hopelessly lost and turned around that I end up in a full speed head on collision with Gordon's car! But rather than allow it to be totalled by the Batmobile, the game made Jim's car mechanically invincible, producing some hilarious results when I crash into it. If you only watch two scenes from this episode, this should be the second one.
If you only watch ONE scene from this episode, it should be this gem, featuring three superb acting performances from John Noble (Scarecrow), Ashley Greene (Oracle), and Troy Baker (Arkham Knight). It also features the return of my personally produced LEGO vignette style of storytelling, augmented with clips from the character bios and showcases. The reason I had to create my own visual accompaniment to this scene is that this audio is not part of the actual game story: it's a piece of bonus content that you earn by completing enough side missions. I included it in my version because the acting is too good to leave this scene on the bench, plus it provides a unique opportunity to cut away to a scene that doesn't involve Batman. However, looking back on it, I'm concerned that this scene might give a little bit too much away. I mean, I personally guessed the Arkham Knight's identity pretty early on in my first time through the game, so it's hard for me to tell. What do you think? Does this scene provide too much of a hint? Let me know in the comments!
The next notable acting is the official on-screen gameplay debuts of this episode's namesake The Riddler (voiced by Wally Wingert) and Catwoman (Grey DeLisle Griffin). I've already talked about how I would love to see James Urbaniak play the Riddler in my commentary to Episode 1 - and at least one user on the Penny Arcade forums agrees with me. But with a truly new character comes a truly new acting suggestion, and this one seems like a no-brainer to me: Rachel McAdams as Catwoman.
McAdams is undoubtedly a strong enough actress to bring more depth to the character than the signature whip and leather suit would imply. We've seen her do physical roles, where she excels at the alluring-because-she's-competent vibe, which is what Catwoman's all about in my opinion. And she can pull off either blonde or brunette, if you prefer the style of the Animated Series over the Arkham games.
I ended this episode on a cliffhanger reminiscent of the 1960's Batman TV series, which is sure to keep viewers coming back to check out what happens next time on... BATMAN: Arkham Knight.
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