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.