An Exhaustive Summary of the Batman Arkham Games

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Anarky

Lonnie Machin aka Anarky is a well-intentioned activist who seeks to fight Gotham’s corruption. Part of the theme of Arkham Origins is Batman slowly exposing some of that corruption. Batman and Anarky’s mission statements overlap but Anarky’s methods are far more dangerous. Anarky takes over the airwaves of Gotham to deliver a manifesto and a promise of change. He then projects live video of himself on a sail as Batman exits Penguin’s hideout and addresses him directly. He tells Batman that he has planted bombs at the three most corrupt places in Gotham City. He believes that Batman will choose to let these places be destroyed. He is confident in his mission but he has also recruited the city’s homeless population as foot soldiers. Anarky’s henchmen guard the bombs but Batman easily fights through them to defuse the bombs.



The first bomb is at Gotham Merchant’s Bank (a location that reappears constantly throughout the game) as Anarky seeks to blow up the wealth of the Gotham elite. The second bomb is planted at the Gotham Casino with Anarky seeing it as a greedy financial vampire. Finally, Anarky plants a bomb at the Gotham City Police Department headquarters to get rid of corrupt officers like Lieutenant Branden. After Batman defuses all three bombs, Anarky invites him to meet at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse. Anarky offers Batman a partnership feeling that they could do so much together. Batman declines and then must fight Anarky and a horde of henchmen. In the end, Anarky is subdued and left for the cops.




Penguin Arms Caches

After Batman has met Barbara Gordon, she is able to tap into the communication system that he uses to talk to Alfred in order to talk to Batman. She believes that her father is wrong about Batman being a menace and looks up to the caped crusader. She gives Batman the location of several of Penguin’s weapons caches across Gotham and implores him to find and mark them for destruction. While Batman traverses Gotham he finds shipping containers full of weapons. He uses his disruptor weapon to fuse the locks on each of the six containers leaving the confiscation of said weapons to the GCPD.






Mad Hatter

Jervis Tetch aka the Mad Hatter is an independent operator within Gotham City. When Batman emerges from the sewers after infiltrating the GCPD, he is surprised to be confronted by three men in masks. The men’s movements are jerky and puppet-like. They sing Batman an invitation to a tea party with the Mad Hatter to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down”. After their song is done, they are electrocuted and fall to the pavement unconscious. Having gotten Batman’s attention, Hatter calls Batman directly and informs him that he has kidnapped a young girl whom he calls his Alice.



Batman travels to Jervis Tetch’s Hat Shop, he finds Tetch with several henchmen. While Batman fights the henchmen, Mad Hatter is able to catch Batman off guard and induces him into deep hypnosis. Batman is plunged into a twisted version of Wonderland where he must use his various gadgets to solve puzzles and navigate dangerous terrain. After Batman is able to break the Hatter’s hypnosis, he wakes up to find Hatter threatening “Alice” with a knife. Batman is able to subdue Tetch without Alice getting harmed, leaving her emotionally distraught but physically safe.




Shiva

Shiva is one of the eight assassins that Joker hired to kill Batman while posing as Black Mask. Shiva prefers to work separately from Black Mask’s people and the other criminals and instead works with the League of Assassins. The League has its own agenda in Gotham that will eventually lead to the mainline story events of Arkham City. Shiva first comes into the picture when Batman hears a crying baby noise from a seemingly abandoned baby carriage. She encourages Batman to seek out and save an “innocent man” which ends up being a cop that Shiva has put in a trap. Batman is able to save the cop while fighting off the league’s ninjas.



Batman is next directed to the dead body of a corrupt cop that Shiva has killed. Throughout her interactions with Batman, Shiva tries to convince him to join the League of Assassins in purging Gotham. Batman believes that the city can still be rehabilitated and refuses to join up. Shiva confronts Batman as the final part of his “test”. Batman is able to beat Shiva and her ninjas. With Batman able to survive and pass all of her tests, Shiva voluntarily withdraws from the assassination contract. As she leaves Gotham, she remarks that Batman is just as good as her master said he was.




Deadshot

Deadshot is one of the eight assassins that Joker hired to kill Batman while posing as Black Mask. As Batman is traveling through Gotham City, a police helicopter suddenly appears in front of him. The cops inside fire on him but suddenly their chopper twists Batman goes to investigate the crash. Through investigation he is able to deduce that the cops in the helicopter were actually targeting Batman, trying to take him out. A sniper took down the helicopter with a single shot. Batman is able to find a radio frequency engraved on the bullet casing. This puts Batman in contact with Deadshot who is waiting for him at Gotham Merchant’s Bank with hostages. Batman slowly infiltrates the bank and has to defeat Deadshot and his crew without losing any of the hostages. With Deadshot defeated, Batman is free to go on with his night from hell.


Black Mask



After the Joker is revealed to be masquerading as Black Mask, the real Roman Sionis is rescued by Batman. While Batman is busy fighting Copperhead, Sionis is able to flee. He personally tortures several of his own men, blaming them for siding with Joker. This act scares many of his men back under his command as he scrambles to regain power. At this point, Batman is able to locate several of Black Mask’s drug stashes across Gotham. Batman destroys all that he can find. The last container of drugs is at the church where Black Mask sets a trap. Batman is able to take down Black Mask during his worst night ever. He leaves Sionis for the cops to pick up.




Bird

After Batman first clashes with Bane, he discovers that Bane’s henchman Bird is getting very active in Gotham. He has drug stashes throughout the city that Batman destroys while taking out common criminals that Bird has recruited for Bane. After taking out Bird’s plans throughout the city, Batman is able to track Bird and the remains of his crew to the bar My Alibi. Batman fights the criminal and leaves him to the GCPD for pick up.




Crime Scenes

Throughout the length of the game, Batman is alerted to various reports with the location of a crime scene of a suspicious death. Batman visits each site and uses his technology and deduction skills to solve the murders from the clues. After locating the perpetrator, Batman apprehends them and has Alfred send the case file to the police with the location of the criminal. There are nine case files in total. Two of them are mandatory and part of the main storyline. One is the helicopter crash in the Deadshot side quest. The rest are optional. They are all interesting but the most interesting one is when Batman finds two bodies in Crime Alley. They are the bodies of a couple who attended a charity function hosted by Bruce Wayne. Their death looks eerily like the death of Bruce Wayne’s own parents. This mission adds some flavor to the story and shows a bit of what Batman does on a nightly basis.




Blackgate Prisoners

At the end of the night, with Joker and Bane safely in custody, James Gordon contacts Batman for his help in locating and apprehending 20 escaped Blackgate Prisoners. Each one has a unique story and they represent a lot of the enemy types that Batman encountered throughout the game. This is a post-credits mission.

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This additional story occurs after the events of the Arkham Origins main story which happened on Christmas Eve. Bruce Wayne has had a few days to recover from his first encounter with The Joker. Most of the villains of the main story have been imprisoned (except for Deathstroke).



Bruce Wayne has decided to throw a New Year’s Eve Party, presumably inviting all of Gotham’s elite as part of his cover. At the party, time is set aside to award Ferris Boyle with the Wayne Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award. As the party continues, Wayne Manor is hit by an explosion. What looks to be an iceberg spontaneously appears in the manor. A group of Penguin’s henchmen and a man in an armored suit have shown up to crash the party. Some of the thugs corner Bruce and Alfred. The men hurt Alfred which triggers memories of Bane nearly killing Alfred days earlier. Bruce snaps and takes them all out. Alfred recovers and watches over the guests as Bruce heads to the Batcave.



Bruce emerges from the Batcave as Batman and moves to track down the rest of the guests and take down Penguin’s henchmen. While he was in the Batcave, the thugs started to torch the mansion. Batman fights through the burning mansion to rescue more party guests. When the caped crusader tries to rescue Ferris Boyle, he is frozen solid by Victor Fries aka Mr. Freeze. Victor then kidnaps Boyle, leaving the mansion with him. Batman breaks free and interrogates one of Penguin’s henchmen who tells him that Penguin’s weapons dealer would know about Freeze and Penguin’s deal.



Batman follows the trail of the weapons dealer through the city streets by tracking a cryogenic leak from the freeze gun. When interrogated, the dealer explains the deal between the two villains. Freeze would assist Penguin in stealing cryogenic weapons from GothCorp and in return Penguin would assist in kidnapping Boyle. Batman is confused because he was unaware that GothCorp was developing weapons.



Batman travels to GothCorp and sneaks in to investigate. When he arrives, he discovers that the villains have already brought Boyle to the building and are hauling him toward the Propellant Research Wing. In fact, Penguin has betrayed Freeze and has taken custody of Boyle, demanding the weapons he was promised. Batman’s intervention allows Freeze to get a hold of Boyle again. Freeze freezes everything, including Penguin, and tells Batman that his threats of violence mean nothing to a man who has lost everything.



Batman interrogates Penguin while he was still stuck in the ice. Penguin says that Freeze needs Boyle to access a super weapon. The wall of ice that Freeze left in his wake is too thick. Penguin tells Batman that he has a specialized Cryo Drill at his nightclub My Alibi that could break through. Batman goes to the nightclub and must track down the drill which has been broken down into three pieces. The final component is a super-cooled liquid which Batman discovers is kept At Freeze’s lab back at GothCorp. During this time, Batman has Alfred deliver an experimental new suit called the Extreme Environment Batsuit (XE Suit).



Batman travels back to GothCorp and infiltrates Freeze’s lab only to find it a frozen mess. There is a dead guard amidst all of the damage with the same blue skin as Freeze. Batman investigates and finds the truth of Freeze’s rampage. Freeze’s wife, Nora, contracted Huntington’s Chorea. Freeze put his wife into cryostasis as he tried to find a way to cure her. Boyle came to Freeze and had him secretly develop weapons for GothCorp. In exchange, Boyle would pour resources into curing Nora (and anybody else with the disease). Freeze discovered that Boyle never intended to follow through on their agreement. When Freeze turned from weapon design back to working on the cure, Boyle was furious.



Boyle had Nora moved to another section of the facility and cut Victor off from her. During a physical confrontation between the two, one of Freeze’s weapons ruptured and detonated. The blast hit both Freeze and a guard and changed their bodies’ metabolism. When the guard tried to leave the frozen lab, he died. This made Freeze realize that he would not survive outside of subzero temperatures and put together a suit in order to be able to walk around freely. Batman contacts Alfred to transmit all of this information to the Gotham police in order to arrest Boyle.



Batman returns to the ice wall and uses the Cryo Drill to break through, also finally freeing Penguin from the ice. Batman is able to catch up and finds Freeze threatening Boyle into releasing Nora to him. Boyle refuses. Batman calls out to Freeze, telling him that the GCPD now knows of Boyle’s crimes and he can stand down. Nora would not want him to be a criminal. Freeze disagrees, feeling that the lab accident has hardened his heart and he no longer believes that Nora would want him no matter what he did or did not do. Batman fights Penguin’s remaining henchmen and Freeze himself, having to use smart tactics instead of hitting him head-on. Their fight also causes Nora’s chamber to fall. With Freeze defeated, Boyle strikes and freezes Batman. Believing Batman to be dead, Boyle happily thinks he will get away scot-free. He attacks a helpless Freeze while Nora thaws. Batman is able to free himself and take Boyle down. He then is able to save Nora and Freeze’s lives before the cops arrive.



The other major DLC for Arkham Origins is not long enough to merit its own entry. This story takes place before Bruce Wayne became Batman.



Bruce Wayne has been traveling the world, learning the skills he would need to carry out his mission to fight crime. In North Korea, Bruce discovers a martial arts master named Kirigi. Master Kirigi agrees to take in Bruce as his servant and allows him to train with his students, something he does not let outsiders do very often. He teaches Bruce a martial art that allows one to utilize shadow, fight 600 men single-handedly, and inspire fear in opponents. After training, he tests Bruce in stealth and combat by pitting him against all of the other students. His final test is Kirigi’s prize pupil, Lady Shiva. In the end, Bruce obviously proves himself worthy.

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Chief Raymond Underhill - “The Line of Duty”

Cash informs Batman and Commissioner Gordon that an entire firefighting unit from Station 17 has disappeared without any idea where they were taken. It turns out that rioters overwhelmed them and dragged them away. The Gotham City PD has few leads on where the rioters may have taken the firefighters or why they were taken. Batman must search the various islands of Gotham to find traces of the firefighters. When he locates one, he must subdue the rioters keeping the firefighter captive. Each firefighter rescued gives a little bit of the crew’s story. They were a station that was struggling to prove its worth and keep their funding so they could continue earning paychecks. Their Chief, Raymond Underhill, made a deal with Firefly to give him the entry codes belonging to abandoned buildings so that Firefly could set them on fire. Then Station 17 would be first on the scene and avoid getting shut down. Batman gets the Chief to turn himself in and confess his crimes.


Firefly - ”Gotham on Fire”

Batman is alerted that the fire station in Chinatown is on fire and the fire suppression system has been disabled. Batman takes the Batmobile over there and uses the engine to jumpstart the fire suppression sprinklers. As soon as the sprinklers engage, Firefly bursts out of the station and tries to escape via flight. Batman must pursue Firefly in the Batmobile and tackle him to engage in hand-to-hand combat. This happens at three fire stations throughout Gotham as Firefly keeps trying to burn them down. Each time he must dodge Firefly’s fireballs and keep up with Firefly’s extreme speed and agility. Firefly also rants about how Scarecrow gave him Gotham to burn, revealing another part of Scarecrow’s conspiracy. Firefly also wants his revenge on Batman for their fight on Pioneer Bridge during the events of Arkham Orgins. After their third encounter, Batman is able to commandeer Firefly’s jetpack to deliver him to the GCPD. The villain swears he will get free so that he can watch Batman’s precious Gotham burn.


Professor Pyg - “The Perfect Crime”

Batman is alerted to a particularly nasty and unusual crime scene. Somebody has been murdered and chained to the wall by their wrists. The victim has bandages over their face and is dressed in a flowy white gown. Whoever displayed the body left opera music playing loudly so that people would find the display. Batman is able to use a deep tissue scanner to find identifying marks on and in the body. Throughout the night he finds five more bodies which he also is able to scan, looking for a pattern among the victims. Eventually, he is able to determine that each victim had their uniqueness cut away. Batman is able to search the database and discovers a scientist named Lazlo Valentin who suffered a schizophrenic breakdown. Batman tracks down Lazlo and discovers that the man has become Professor Pyg, the leader of the Circus of Strange. He is able to use surgery and chemicals to turn people into genderless, mindless “dollotrons” who are his minions and “perfect” creations. He uses the dollotrons to combat Batman while he lobs cleavers at the Dark Knight. Eventually, Batman is able to manage the fight and imprison the mad Pyg and his incurable dollotrons. Apparently, Pyg was not part of Scarecrow’s plot.



Man-Bat - “Creature of the Night”

Batman is startled by the appearance of a man-sized bat that is haunting Gotham’s rooftops. Batman decides to track the beast to figure out where it came from and what it is doing as it seems to be a wild beast on the loose. In their second encounter, Batman is able to tackle the Man-Bat out of the sky in order to take a blood sample. Alfred informs Batman that the sample has a highly degraded match to the genetics of Dr. Kirk Langstrom. Alfred is able to do a property search and finds a lab registered to Kirk and his wife Francine. Batman discovers that the lab has been trashed but finds a video log of their experiments. Kirk was going deaf and the two scientists tried to use DNA from the vampire bat to come up with a treatment. Tragically, Kirk transformed into the Man-Bat and accidentally killed Francine. Batman was able to use the Langstroms’ equipment to develop a cure. He tracked Man-Bat again and was able to inject the cure. Kirk is horrified at what he has done and is left imprisoned in a special cell at the GCPD.


Penguin - “Gunrunner”

This mission was touched upon during the main story of Arkham Knight. Penguin has been supplying Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight’s armies with weapons. Penguin is using a company called North Refrigeration, a company that Nightwing has been coincidentally investigating already. Nightwing delivers a new experimental tracking device from Lucius Fox which allows Batman to spook the gunrunners and follow them from a distance. When the mooks think that they have lost Batman, they head back to their hideout where guns are stockpiled. Batman and Nightwing are able to take out the henchmen so that Batman can detonate the stockpile of weapons. This trick is repeated as the goons keep falling for it. Unfortunately, Nightwing tries to get ahead of the third cache and is captured by Penguin’s goons. Penguin arrives and is ready to execute Nightwing but Batman is able to save him and take down Penguin. Afterwards, Batman and Nightwing share a heart-to-heart with Dick finally agreeing to return to Bludhaven.