History NightmareFuel / BatmanArkhamKnight

* Time for an organic one. Try going to Founders' Island when you can't take the Batmobile, and run around at ground-level with Militia tanks swarming around you. It's nerve-wracking trying to stay away from them, whilst not being seen by footsoldiers either.

* Despite how nightmarish the sequences in [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamAsylum the]] [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamCity previous]] [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamOrigins games]] can be, they had a cartoonish feel to them that kept them to a T rating. ''Knight'', however, got an '''''M''''' (A rarity in superhero games, especially centering around popular ones like Batman). And no wonder: The scares here are much more visceral, real, and unpredictable. A few specific items were highlighted in the ESRB summary, being two torture scenes involving a car tire and an operating table and a sequence where the players can shoot people and a hostage. These specific scenes are Batman interrogating a Militia soldier for the Arkham Knight's location, Professor Pyg's introduction and the nightmare sequence at the end where Joker hunts down the other villains.

* The fact that, despite the Nightmare Fuel in [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamAsylum the]] [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamCity previous]] [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamOrigins games]], they got a T rating. ''Knight'' got an '''''M'''''. A few specific items were highlighted in the ESRB summary, being two torture scenes involving a car tire and an operating table and a sequence where the players can shoot people and a hostage. These specific scenes are Batman interrogating a Militia soldier for the Arkham Knight's location, Professor Pyg's introduction and the nightmare sequence at the end where Joker hunts down the other villains.
** The sequence where Batman interrogates the Militia soldier bears mention, as when he refuses to divulge the Arkham Knight's location, Batman summons the Batmobile ''and presses the tire on his face''. While Batman has had a history of using JackBauerInterrogationTechnique for information, many of them take on a playful and humorous tone. This scene, on the other hand, is extremely unnerving due to it being played dead serious and for how terrifying of a situation the thug is placed in. It is only made worse by the fact that the player is forced to rev the Batmobile’s engines themselves, meaning you are personally torturing this mook. Didn’t think this could get any worse? The player is required to press on the gas for a specific amount of time that the game doesn’t share with you, meaning if you get squeamish and chicken out too soon, you have to start all over.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Sometimes we like to mix it up.]] [[SurpriseCreepy Keep you]] [[ParanoiaFuel on your toes...]]"'']]

If ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' is darker and spookier than ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', Arkham Knight is one step further beyond.

If 'VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' is darker and spookier than ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', Arkham Knight is one step further beyond.

''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' isn't just the GrandFinale for the ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries Arkham series]]''. Arkham Knight isn't just darker and spookier than ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', it's [[NightmareFuel the scariest]] ''Batman'' game ever made.

''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' isn't just the GrandFinale for the ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries Arkham series]]'', it's [[NightmareFuel the scariest]] ''Batman'' game ever made.

** Upon returning to the present, it only gets worse as we're treated to a first-person shot of Batman coming to in the basement of the collapsing Ace Chemicals plant, greeted by his hallucination of Joker slowly saying "Bruce, Bruce." Even though it's only a hallucination, and that the living Joker didn't really care about Batman's secret identity, it's still very unsettling to hear Joker address Batman by his real name, because it's basically saying, "You know that guy who thrived on a toxically intimate FoeYay relationship with you; he's back, he's inside your head, and he knows ''everything''."

* And, the most unsurprising part of this page? Everything that doesn't happen in the aforementioned missions or story! Think about it. Just patrolling the city streets of Gotham by itself and witnessing first hand on what a capable villain like Scarecrow would do when there wasn't Joker to keep them distracted and in place. You take notice of rioters parading through the streets, a private militia that steam rolls ''ALL'' the government officials and social workers and keep them in check with dread of force or death, many factions of hoods chasing down and antagonizing any officers on the streets and you have one man out there orchestrating this whole thing behind the scenes with one goal in mind... Destroy the Batman. And, no matter how many times you patrol the city. No matter how hard you ambush thugs, no matter how brutal you escalate within the night's war on crime. ''It is all an inevitable end.''

* InUniverse, Fear Toxin is literal NightmareFuel with a reputation to match from the other characters.

*** YMMV: You don't have to shoot at the hallucinations. The NightmareFuel here is that you as a player reacted and traumatized the cop all by yourself. [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou It seems Scarecrow is even able to get to you]].

* [[TitleDrop Arkham Knight]] is NightmareFuel in the most definite [[TheDreaded manner imaginable]]. He is supposed to be less known, while on the contrary... [[ParanoiaFuel He knows more about the Batman than anyone else in Batman's rogue gallery]]. He's versatile, durable, resourceful, cunning and, above all, extremely dangerous. He may appear to be the secondary [[TheDragon antagonist]] to Scarecrow. But in all favors, he must be much more wily than Scarecrow, The Master of Fear himself. And it's implied that he might have [[TheUnseen followed Batman since his first early beginnings]] in ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum Asylum]]'' and the horrific full-on destruction in ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity City]]''. It may explain why he downright mocks Batman both in his armor's appearance and for embroidering the Arkham emblem on himself. The helmet and style of armor shows him destroying Batman's heroism in Gotham and the emblem of the Arkham symbol is a reminder of the two worst nights in Batman's entire crime fighting career which are ''Asylum'' and ''City''. Now the question begs for the previous titles... [[ParanoiaFuel Who and what is he? Where is he?]] And finally... What became of him? What drove and caused him to have unfiltered, seething, unbridled, [[UnstoppableRage aggressive rage against Batman]]?

* The fact that, despite the NightmareFuel in [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamAsylum the]] [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamCity previous]] [[NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamOrigins games]], they got a T rating. ''Knight'' got an '''''M'''''. A few specific items were highlighted in the ESRB summary, being two torture scenes involving a car tire and an operating table and a sequence where the players can shoot people and a hostage. These specific scenes are Batman interrogating a Militia soldier for the Arkham Knight's location, Professor Pyg's introduction and the nightmare sequence at the end where Joker hunts down the other villains.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpXUIh7rlWI "Gotham is Mine" trailer]] has a fair bit of NightmareFuel, given that it focuses on the villains. Of special note is the Riddler's [[SlasherSmile face]]. Looks like he's [[SanitySlippage gotten worse]] since the last game.

** The way Joker appears and disappears at will is a mix of NightmareFuel and ParanoiaFuel. Whenever you move the camera, Joker seamlessly slides onto the scene as if he was there the whole time. And when he's said what he has to say and you move the camera around again, he simply vanishes, as if he was never there. There is literally no way to tell when Joker will show up to taunt you.

*** This, however, is only one of two optional endings for the mission, with the other being it's own different kind of NightmareFuel. While the more traditional ending has Batman saving Ra's and, as said before, him murdering his own daughter. But in the other ending, Batman chooses to let Ra's finally die, basically committing a mercy killing. He destroys the life-support machinery (the only thing keeping Ra's alive anymore), and his body begins to shut down. Batman carries Ra's to police headquarters and puts him in a cell to live out the rest of his days, where Ra's imparts one last line to you... that he's proud of you for making your choice. It seems like a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' sort of choice, that either way Ra's wins, but think about this for a moment. The reason why Batman never became the leader of the League of Assassins is because he refused to make the ultimate sacrifice, killing someone... and now he has. He can claim he didn't, as Ra's was basically dying anyway, but the fact remains that, much like in ''Film/BatmanBegins'' (with Ra's al Ghul again, no less!), you had the choice of saving someone's life, and simply didn't. So what does that make you? A hero? Or a murderer?

*** And before it's revealed that it was all played inside the Joker's mind, it's implied that it's a ThroughTheEyesOfMadness-moment, with the Joker-controlled Batman breaking free from his restaints and murdering everyone in the Asylum, with the covering Penguin actually being a crawling, wounded Robin, the terrified Riddler actually being an equally terrified Scarecrow and the defiant Two-Face actually being Gordon trying to stop the now rampaging, murderous Batman from escaping Arkham and unleashing his wrath at Gotham City. And all while his murder-spree is being broadcasted live, leading Alfred to desperately call Batman [[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight in hopes to get him to stop]], only to hear Bruce speaking to him as if he's now completely someone else...

** While Croc's voice was slowly changing from raspy to a growling tone, he sounds utterly ''monstrous'' here. His voice at this point is just a pure GutturalGrowler, sounding like it physically hurts him to try to speak anymore now; nevertheless, it just goes to show that Croc's lost any remaining trace of humanity he had left at this point.

** The mission proper details just what happened to him during the capture described in his Gotham City Story; after being stalked for months in the marshlands, subdued by a team of armed soldiers (many of which didn't survive the encounter), and given a massive tranq dose, he was hauled off in the enormous Iron Heights Penitentiary airship, the closest place strong enough to hold him. When he eventually threw off the effect of the sedatives, he proved strong enough to ''bring down the zeppelin by himself'', and now lurks inside the wreckage in the bay with an army of freed prisoners.
** When Batman goes deeper inside the airship, he finds out just why Croc has mutated as badly as he has: It was an adaptive response to the agony of the sadistic medical experiments Warden Ranken was putting him through, including ''sawing off his hand'' to see if it would grow back, all in an effort to reproduce and weaponize his condition in Iron Heights' other prisoners. Worse still, Ranken shows no signs of repentance or remorse for what he's done, only disgust with his charges and fury at their rebellion. Batman's very justified in calling him the true monster.
** While Croc's voice was slowly changing from raspy to a growling tone, he sounds utterly ''monstrous'' here. His voice at this point is just a pure GutturalGrowler, sounding like it physically hurts him to try to speak anymore now; nevertheless, it just goes to show that Croc's lost any remaining trace of humanity he had left at this point.
--->'''''I HOPE YOU SUFFER, BATMAN...LIKE I'VE SUFFERED.'''''

* "Beneath the Surface" is Killer Croc's side mission. Now the things that entail him can be scary in their own right, what with him being a, well, crocodilian cannibal, but then as you venture further into the airship, you get to see just why he's so pissed this time around: the Iron Heights staff have been ''experimenting'' on him, trying to analyze his HealingFactor. The footage even shows Croc chained to an operating table as a bladesaw comes down and ''starts slicing off his arm''. Yeesh. Nightwing is so horrified at finding this out he doesn't even try to condemn Croc's actions.

*** This, however, is only one of two optional endings for the mission, with the other being it's own different kind of NightmareFuel. While the more traditional ending has Batman saving Ra's and, as said before, him murdering his own daughter. But in the other ending, Batman chooses to let Ra's finally die, basically committing a mercy killing. He destroys the life-support machinery (the only thing keeping Ra's alive anymore), and his body begins to shut down. Batman carries Ra's to police headquarters and puts him in a cell to live out the rest of his days, where Ra's imparts one last line to you... that he's proud of you for making your choice. It seems like a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' sort of choice, that either way Ra's wins, but think about this for a moment. The reason why Batman never became the leader of the League of Assassins is because he refused to make the ultimate sacrifice, killing someone... and now he has. He can claim he didn't, as Ra's was basically dying anyway, but the fact remains that, much like in ''Film/BatmanBegins'', you had the choice of saving someone's life, and simply didn't. So what does that make you? A hero? Or a murderer?

** Just... [[http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/batman-arkham-ps4-xbox-one/thumb/9/9e/Screen_Shot_2015-07-15_at_11.49.49_AM.jpg/468px-Screen_Shot_2015-07-15_at_11.49.49_AM.jpg look at that thing]]. It just stays there, peering at you with that big, creepy eye... [[NothingIsScarier in a dark, quiet room]]. It's freakin' eerie.

** Even his introduction is a JumpScare; as Batman grapples onto a ledge, Man-Bat appears out of nowhere, screeching and trying to claw at his face. Worse, it's also possible for him to [[OffscreenTeleportation suddenly appear]] on [[https://youtu.be/gT3g28ej28s?t=249 skinny construction bars]]. In real life, he would be easily spotted.

** Upon returning to the present, it only gets worse as we're treated to a first-person shot of Batman coming to in the basement of the collapsing Ace Chemicals plant, greeted by his hallucination of Joker slowly saying "Bruce, Bruce." Even though it's only a hallucination, and that the living Joker didn't really care about Batman's secret identity, it's still very unsettling to hear Joker address Batman by his real name, because it's basically saying, "You know that guy who thrived on a toxically intimate FoeYay relationship with you; he's back, he's inside your head, and he know ''everything''."

---> '''Jason''': Don't you ''dare'' lie to me! How long did you wait before replacing me, huh?! A month? A ''week?!'' I ''trusted you''...and you just left me to ''die''!

* "Beneath the Surface" is Killer Croc's side mission. Now the things that entail him can be scary in their own right, what with him being a, well, crocodilian cannibal, but then as you venture further into the airship, you get to see just why he's so pissed this time around: the Iron Heights staff have been ''experimenting'' on him, trying to analyze his HealingFactor. The footage even shows Croc chained to an operating table as a bladesaw comes down and ''starts slicing off his arm''. Yeesh.