One of the things I was worried about coming into this game (after the disappointment in graphics I had after playing their Amazing Spider-Man game) is that Gameloft wouldn’t be able to deliver from what we had seen before the game was released.

The Dark Knight Rises (Universal: $6.99) 

However, I was delighted as soon as I loaded the game on my iPad to see the graphics were as good as were expecting. “The epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy arrives on iPhone and iPad in the exclusive video game inspired by the movie.”

Presentation

Gotham is on your device, dark, gritty, and full of visual effects, like flashes of lighting and rain pouring down on Batman’s armor. The game is free-roam, which we’ll go more into detail later, but it’s plenty of fun to zip up buildings, and glide around Gotham.

One other thing worth mentioning is that the animations are fantastic. The game is fluid, and I never came across any frame rate drops. More importantly, the fighting animations are very satisfying, for example when Batman disarms enemies with weapons.

Controls

The controls in TDKR are pretty solid, even if it took me some getting used to on the touch screen (for what feels the first time). This may have to do with the fact it feels like I’m playing a scaled down version of Arkham City on my phone, but we’ll get to that later. As it stands, the movement controls work well, with indicators popping up on edges of buildings you can zip off too.

When you’re on the edge of a building, you can hold the jump button until you’re gliding. When it comes to combat though, you’ll be spamming the attack button. Luckily though, there is one thing that saves it: counterattack. While you’re beating the living crap out of one thug, another one may be coming at you, and if he hits you, you lose health. Which is why whenever you see the counterattack button light up, HIT IT!

Gameplay

Let me say this once, and be very clear: DO NOT PLAY THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE MOVIE. The storyline of the game follows closely with the movie, so unless you want to be spoiled, stay away.

Now that we got that out of the way, we can go back to the game. As you play the game, you earn skill points and coins that can be used to upgrade your armor and gear. Although the game has set missions to progress you through the story, the game is free-roam in between missions.

This becomes really handy because of one thing: vehicles. Unlike Arkham City and Arkham Asylum on console, you will have the Batpod and the Bat from the movie. Once you unlock them in story mode, they are yours to use in freeroam. “Remember where you parked?”.

Conclusion 

To me, The Dark Knight Rises game feels like a bit of redemption from Gameloft after their hit and miss Amazing Spider-Man game. Sure, it’s not perfect, but TDKR tries to achieve a console quality Batman game on mobile devices, and it comes pretty damn close.

I enjoyed my time with it, which is more than I can say for most video game tie-ins. I recommend you get the game, AFTER you watch the movie. Wouldn’t want you getting spoiled now would we. 7/10