Batman: Arkham Knight - 10 Ways The Season Of Infamy Is A Mixed Bag
8. 'Shadow War' Had A Fantastic Premise
This was a side-mission that could've formed an entire game if need be. Indeed, it probably should have, but the little of what we did see certainly formed the best premise for an Arkham game since Paul Dini's Die Hard inspired tale of Arkham Asylum. The side quest starts with the revelation that there's an internal feud consuming the nefarious League of Assassins, with one faction led by Nyssa (Talia's sister) trying to end R'as Al Ghul's reign as the Head of the Demon, and the other trying to preserve it. The twist here is that R'as is both physically and mentally incapacitated, surviving on a drip of Lazarus to stay alive. With this in mind it's up to the player to decide which way they proceed - save R'as in the hope of honouring Talia (yep, they're still pushing that on us), or destroy his life support and allow Nyssa to ascend to the head of the organisation on the promise of leaving Gotham forever. Woven into all of this is a rather rudimentary metaphor to stoke debate surrounding Batman's morality and repetitive backtracking too, but luckily we also see new enemy-types that spice up gameplay and a compelling narrative that was sorely lacking from Knight's main game. It's a case of a fantastic premise being tainted by poor execution, but it's still the best part of the Season of Infamy.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
