Nine Things Things We Want In Batman: Arkham City

Shubhankar Parijat — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:38:40 +0000

Batman: Arkham Asylum was a great game and it was a huge step forward for the super hero franchise. The game was loved by one and all, critics and players alike.

When Arkham City was announced, we were overjoyed. We are sure Rocksteady have some new things in store for us, and they are definitely bound to please all fans, but we would like to suggest some of our own additions/exclusions for the game.

Listed below are nine additions and omissions we would like to see in Batman: Arkham City. Read the article, and enjoy!

Longer Campaign

Batman: Arkham Asylum had a campaign that lasted just around 8-10 hours. We want Arkham City to have a much longer campaign than its predecessor, lasting around 15-20 hours, and have a greater lasting appeal by incorporating side-quest such as Riddler Challenges (which have been confirmed to be present in the game), multiplayer, more collectibles, free roaming, which we will be discussing later in the article. But having a longer campaign might mean that the story will have to be more convulated, and that means that the narrative might even fall into the danger zone of feeling like its dragged and boring in some parts. So there is a fine line between telling a good story and a silly one. Games like Uncharted 2 which were longer and also made sure that the story was not dragged on.

More Villains and Allies

Batman: Arkham Asylum featured a host of characters from the Batman universe, and that is what made it such a treat for all fans. Favourites such as The Joker, Harley Quinn, Jim Gordon and Bane made appearances, and some even had very major roles throughout the ten hour long ride. The subtle references to the Batman universe made the experience an eye-popping one. If Arkham City features more of the characters that we have come to love in the Batman movies, not just the comics, then we will be in for a definite treat. I, for one, would definitely want to see characters like Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes likeness please), Clayface and other love interests such as Vicki Vale making an appearances, and some special appearances by Alfred as well.

As they say, the more the merrier. Add to that the fact that it’s an entire city this time, not just an island, we will need a lot more characters to fill up the excessive space. Oh, and that reminds me, having such a gargantuan city means we also need to have…

Free Roam

Come on, it’s an entire frigging city, imagine what all we can do in Gotham- with Batman powers! Flying atop skyscrapers, bungee jumping similar to what was shown in The Dark Knight, hand-gliding and what not! Super hero games like Prototype and inFamous have recently shown us what all we can do in an entire city and if Batman: Arkham City can replicate that, and do it better (which Rocksteady is totally capable of pulling off), it will be a super-success in my book. We could rob banks, we could not rob banks; we could kill people, but then again, we could not kill people.

There’s a whole lot of stuff that we can or cannot do, in a city as huge as this. And doing good and bad stuff brings in…

Karma

Much like inFamous, we can have the Caped Crusader doing all sorts of good and bad stuff, that will determine how we fare amongst the Gotham crowd- as a hero or as a rouge winged monster. And you know why that makes sense? Because Batman has often been maligned by citizens of Gotham, for being the harbinger of the city’s destruction. People have, let’s say, “mixed reactions” to this person- some say he is a hero, while others cry foul at his name, for being a monstrosity. This, when put in perspective after watching The Dark Knight, makes a hell lot of sense. Rocksteady can delve deeper on this aspect of the story in Arkham City.

All New Moves

Batman: Arkham Asylum saw the Dark Knight using an entire arsenal of Bat-weapons. Possibly every single weapon we can imagine in the Batman universe was there in Arkham Asylum. So what more could we want in Arkham City? New powers, of course, but how? Well, create new powers? Don’t stick to the comic books entirely! Create some new interest weapons and abilities, have Batman learn more acrobatic combos and fighting moves, and some more agile platforming techniques, and we’ll have a winner at our hands.

Batman Arkham Asylum 2 will use Unreal Engine

Rashid Sayed — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:17:22 +0000

The sequel to the one of the best super hero based game Batman: Arkham Asylum will be using the same engine as it’s predecessor. RockSteady have posted a listing for an opening in their company for Senior Programmer who has hands on experience with the Unreal Engine tool set. The developers had already posted openings for a lighting and a senior artist in the past. Not much information about the game is know yet, expect that we know Joker is back again to trouble the BAT!