BATMAN: ARKHAM SERIES

Gotham’s villains have been trying to kill the Batman for as long as he has been around, and the Arkham series has some fun with the moments where, for whatever reason, you do send the Caped Crusader to an early grave. Whatever villain it is that you’re going up against will show up on a black screen, look down at your corpse, and hurl insults at you. Some, like the Joker’s are funny in a twisted sort of way, while others, like Killer Croc’s, just seem a little excessive. Either way, it’s a cool spin on the classic “game over” screen.

At the end of the last month came something of an unexpected and strange development. It seemed as if for several years Warner Bros. was trying to trademark the ‘Nemesis System’ that was seen in their Lord of the Rings game adaptation from Monolith Productions, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. You can read more about that through here. Now it seems WB has gotten their wish.

As reported via IGN, it seems as if after all this time trying, the US Patent and Trademark Office finally issued notice they had approved the patent of the Nemesis system. The approval itself happened on February 3rd with the actual patent going into full effect on February 23rd.

This effectively means that now WB owns the rights to the game system and its functions. That means no one else would be legally able to use a system that functions in the same way or would have to license it directly from Warner Bros. In theory, another studio could create a system like this, but it would have to work in a different way than how this one does. So, it seems, until 2035, WB has the Nemesis system as we know it on lock.

2014’s Shadow of Mordor might not have been the most groundbreaking game out there, and its Assassin’s Creed-inspired structure and open world format may not have been the most unique, but the game revolved around a central mechanic that took the industry by storm. Called the Nemesis system, it saw players creating emergent narratives all of their own, with NPCs reacting to and behaving differently based on players’ actions (and failures). 

It’s a system that has been praised constantly since Shadow of Mordor first came out (and its sequel, Shadow of War, in 2017), but at the same time, countless people have wondered why more developers haven’t tried doing something similar in their own games. Well, as Mark Brown recently pointed out in his recent Game Maker’s Toolkit video, it seems Warner Bros. have filed a patent for the Nemesis system. 

In fact, they’ve been trying to get the Nemesis system for a while. The patent itself is for “Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games”, and was even rejected once in 2019. After being re-filed, it is currently pending, but in the “notice of allowance” stage, which means it’s just some paperwork and payments away from being approved. 

Fans of the system will not be thrilled in the slightest about the fact that Warner Bros are trying to file a patent for an entire gameplay system, seeing as if it is approved, it likely won’t be seen in non-WB games. Of course, we don’t see much of it as it is, but that door might be firmly shut soon. 

You can watch Mark Brown’s full video on the Nemesis system below. It’s an interesting (and very informative one), so make sure to check it out.

HOLD R2 (GOD OF WAR)

God of War has always been a power fantasy, a series that focuses on visceral, brutal combat, and replacing Kratos’ chained blades with an axe did nothing to change that. Perhaps the attack that is the most fun to use in the new God of War is the charged heavy attack. As Kratos brings the axe up and gathers all his strength to bring it down in one heavy blow to cleave through his enemy, you can feel the controller vibrating in your hand with immense power- it’s immensely satisfying. Maybe even the the single most satisfying move in the entire game.

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