Huge, unofficial Batman Arkham Knight upgrade is giving it the love it deserves

Batman: Arkham Knight turns ten this week. The fourth in the Arkham series and third of Rocksteady's trilogy, it's a mighty action game that delivers a worthy finale to the arc. I still remember my first playthrough; back in 2015, the PC port was plagued by performance problems and crashes, though I was lucky enough to avoid the worst of it. Nowadays, however, it's probably the best way to play the beloved superhero saga, and it's about to get a major upgrade with a wealth of new features, albeit from an unofficial source.

With Rocksteady's long-awaited follow-up, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, not landing as it would have hoped, Batman: Arkham Knight remains a showcase of the developer at its peak. The studio's full Arkham trio deserve spots on our list of the best superhero games, but having replayed them all relatively recently the concluding act is certainly the pick of the pack, at least from a gameplay perspective. Whether you're gliding over the streets of Gotham or demolishing goons in a flurry of fists, nothing else fulfills the fantasy of being Batman quite as perfectly as Arkham Knight.

As I mentioned up top, the PC launch of Arkham Knight was famously messy. Warner Bros pulled it from sale for more than two months, and the re-release was still in a bad enough state that our PC port review delivered it a resounding 'Failed' verdict in place of a score. I was one of the lucky ones; having just bought one of the best graphics cards at the time, and as a long-time overinvestor in RAM, I managed to run the game reasonably smoothly, although I did still hit a few crashes along the journey.

Fortunately, those days are now behind us. Batman Arkham Knight in 2025 is tremendously playable on PC. Head over to Steam and you'll find 92% of its nearly 100,000 reviews are positive. But modder 'GPUnity' wants to go even further. They're currently working on an extensive Arkham Knight mod called the Master Overhaul, which you can see in action in the video above. It introduces new mechanics, provides additional levels of challenge, and even offers an setting to reduce the amount of time you'll spend in the Batmobile.

The difficulty options are now 'Regular,' 'Insane,' and 'Chaos.' As you ramp things up, enemies will attack faster and hit harder, and you'll face more of the most dangerous foes such as shield-bearing lieutenants and agile ninjas. This applies similarly in the stealth-focused 'predator sequences,' where you'll need to deal with more of the heavy minigunners. Suits have been given a polish, and are unlocked through chests dotted around the world to reward exploration.

The skill tree gets a hefty overhaul; some of the most powerful nodes have been stripped out altogether, while other strong options are now legendary tier and will require a heavy investment of 25 Waynetech points to unlock. To balance this, the final Smoke Pellet upgrade now applies over a much wider area, effectively giving you a 'blackout' skill that strips away the vision of foes across entire rooms. Arkham City's Bat Swarm ability has also been carried over, giving you a handy way to disrupt all nearby foes in a pinch.

To spruce up Batmobile combat, each skin now offers slight stat changes, meaning you're able to spec in whichever direction you prefer. If you enjoy the challenge of the Batmobile sequences, there's an option to make the enemy drones more punishing. For those less enamored by the vehicle sections, GPUnity says the mod's release will include an "optional anti-Batmobile version aimed at reducing Batmobile usage."

As for when we can expect to play the Batman: Arkham Knight Master Overhaul, GPUnity reports that the mod is "very nearly at the campaign testing phase." They also tease that they have a few ideas for small changes to the campaign that will make it more interesting for those replaying Arkham Knight, but stress that this will be done "obviously without the use of AI."

If you need to punch something right now, here are the best action games on PC. We've also rounded up the best Batman games in 2025; this might be my number one, but there are certainly more that are worth your time.

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