The Dark Knight Rises was the final film in Christopher Nolan’s esteemed Batman trilogy, and Gameloft’s mobile video game is the perfect companion to anyone who wants to relive that story.
Regular visitors of the gaming world always know that content based off of movies are destined to be failures, however Gameloft takes great quality in creating their games and made sure this was not the case. The Dark Knight Rises is an immersive smartphone experience with top-notch development for their deadline and what they had to work with. The game isn’t an ambitious failure like many console games would be, but instead a great way to bring Batman to your phone.
How does The Dark Knight fight? The combat seems to be inspired by Arkham City, a game that created a whole new engine called FreeFlow. Although it isn’t in this game exactly, the combat is feels familiar in every aspect. Batman can flesh out punch and kick combinations on a single person and quickly counter incoming attacks similarly to the Arkham City engine. Sadly, Gameloft couldn’t incorporate Batman’s gadgets in to the combat system, so you’d have to use smoke pellets and batarangs at a distance. Fighting as Batman feels authentic, and can be extremely fun.
Although it isn’t a strict adaptation, The Dark Knight Rises follows the same base storyline as the movie and will definitely provide spoilers for those folk who have yet to experience the movie. Unlike The Amazing Spider-Man, there are several levels that take place outside of Gotham and inside buildings such as the Gotham City Stock Exchange, which has been completely remodeled for gameplay purposes. One of the best parts of the storytelling was The Pit sequence, and how wonderfully it was recreated from the movie. Key sequences from the movie will indeed stay in the game, including Batman and Bane’s first fight which may keep you on the edge of your seat. Despite changing some story elements, it keeps the suspense going long enough for you to enjoy the game to it’s full potential.
Unfortunately, Hans Zimmer does not provide the score for this incredible story, but the folks at Gameloft were able to come up with some great tracks for different sequences of the game. Voice actor Sean Schemmel gets to impersonate Christian Bale’s Batman voice and it’s incredible. He is also joined by Michael Los, who voices Bane. If you had problems understanding the villain in the movie, you shouldn’t here. His voice is incredibly deep but keeps the effect that the mask created. The audio in the game is incredibly solid for a mobile game.
Although we didn’t get a game for The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. was able to kick out a great immersive experience for their final Batman film that should last you quite a while with a long running story and replay-ability.
4/5 stars