Arkham Knight is a controversial game on multiple fronts, to be sure. The decision to make the Joker the main bad guy (of sorts) once again, the emphasis and often over-reliance on the Batmobile, multiple iconic villains (particularly Hush and Deathstroke) getting pretty anti-climactic final outings, and some objectively dumb character/writing decisions that seem to stem from Paul Dini not returning to write the script of this entry all contribute to Arkham Knight not quite living up to its predecessors in multiple areas...
...and yet, after playing all 5 Arkham games, Knight is the one I enjoyed the most.
The combat formula of these games, while revolutionary, suffers in different ways in the other games (usually exposed when you're playing the combat challenges and performing the same actions over and over); here, I would argue that it's at its best with a wide variety of moves, seamless transitions, better crowd-control options, and minimal instances of button inputs not resulting in the desired action (this was especially bad in City and Origins with the counterattack triggers). Graphically, this is one of the best-looking games ever made, even 8(!) years down the line and even more so than modern-day Batman games like Gotham Knights - comparing it to later AAA or "AAA" titles rushed out the door in 2 years will make you appreciate what craftsmanship and proper development time can bring to the table of a game's appearance. And you know what? I like the Batmobile! There were definitely too many drone battles for it, but it felt genuinely badass to race around the city faster than ever like hell on wheels, able to blast through everything in your way (somehow non-lethally) on your quest to take back Gotham from an invading army.
And that brings me to my final point in favor of this game: the uniqueness of the storyline, at least compared to other Arkham games. See, every single Batman game revolves around ol' Brucie fighting off multiple villains in a single night while trying to figure out what the main scheme afoot is and doing his best to stop it, so usually the "learning process" of the storyline is one-sided (Batman's enemies "knowing everything" and him not). Here, though, that's both done again AND inverted at the same time with the addition of the Joker hallucination from the mounting fear gas exposures. No one, not a soul, other than Batman ever knows about what he's seeing and hearing over the course of the game, and only a couple realize he's been infected by Joker's blood like the other victims - so for the only time in the series, the tension of the storyline is doubled by the fact that you, the player, watch the many villains unknowingly contribute and grow closer to unleashing a demon on Gotham City and the world, one far worse than any of them could ever imagine or hope to become. This was years before The Batman Who Laughs entered (and proceeded to wear out his welcome several times over in) the comics, so the idea of a Jokerized Batman at the top of his game and able to burn down everything on a whim was fairly novel for the day, and being able to watch it progress, indirectly helping it along, and coming this close to the nightmare scenario becoming a reality is something only a video game can do like this.
So, overall, Knight is my favorite game of the series. It's not perfect (and I don't really like the Arkham games anymore), but I believe it's the best of the bunch for the reasons stated above...and I'm not playing Kill The Justice League, so that's likely to remain true forever.
An Interesting Conclusion
Arkham Knight is a controversial game on multiple fronts, to be sure. The decision to make the Joker the main bad guy (of sorts) once again, the emphasis and often over-reliance on the Batmobile, multiple iconic villains (particularly Hush and Deathstroke) getting pretty anti-climactic final outings, and some objectively dumb character/writing decisions that seem to stem from Paul Dini not returning to write the script of this entry all contribute to Arkham Knight not quite living up to its predecessors in multiple areas...
...and yet, after playing all 5 Arkham games, Knight is the one I enjoyed the most.
The combat formula of these games, while revolutionary, suffers in different ways in the other games (usually exposed when you're playing the combat challenges and performing the same actions over and over); here, I would argue that it's at its best with a wide variety of moves, seamless transitions, better crowd-control options, and minimal instances of button inputs not resulting in the desired action (this was especially bad in City and Origins with the counterattack triggers). Graphically, this is one of the best-looking games ever made, even 8(!) years down the line and even more so than modern-day Batman games like Gotham Knights - comparing it to later AAA or "AAA" titles rushed out the door in 2 years will make you appreciate what craftsmanship and proper development time can bring to the table of a game's appearance. And you know what? I like the Batmobile! There were definitely too many drone battles for it, but it felt genuinely badass to race around the city faster than ever like hell on wheels, able to blast through everything in your way (somehow non-lethally) on your quest to take back Gotham from an invading army.
And that brings me to my final point in favor of this game: the uniqueness of the storyline, at least compared to other Arkham games. See, every single Batman game revolves around ol' Brucie fighting off multiple villains in a single night while trying to figure out what the main scheme afoot is and doing his best to stop it, so usually the "learning process" of the storyline is one-sided (Batman's enemies "knowing everything" and him not). Here, though, that's both done again AND inverted at the same time with the addition of the Joker hallucination from the mounting fear gas exposures. No one, not a soul, other than Batman ever knows about what he's seeing and hearing over the course of the game, and only a couple realize he's been infected by Joker's blood like the other victims - so for the only time in the series, the tension of the storyline is doubled by the fact that you, the player, watch the many villains unknowingly contribute and grow closer to unleashing a demon on Gotham City and the world, one far worse than any of them could ever imagine or hope to become. This was years before The Batman Who Laughs entered (and proceeded to wear out his welcome several times over in) the comics, so the idea of a Jokerized Batman at the top of his game and able to burn down everything on a whim was fairly novel for the day, and being able to watch it progress, indirectly helping it along, and coming this close to the nightmare scenario becoming a reality is something only a video game can do like this.
So, overall, Knight is my favorite game of the series. It's not perfect (and I don't really like the Arkham games anymore), but I believe it's the best of the bunch for the reasons stated above...and I'm not playing Kill The Justice League, so that's likely to remain true forever.