So, it's been a while since my last news blog, only a year or so, but with the recent reveal of Batman: Arkham Knight, I thought it would be a good time to have a look at all of the details we know so far. The first official CG trailer for the game can be watched here, and the official website of the game can be found here.
The current story details are limited, but at the moment we know that Scarecrow has planted fear toxin bombs around Gotham and has brought together various villains to take out the Batman. Currently, the villains that we know will be appearing are Scarecrow, of course, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Pengiun, Riddler and a brand new villain created for the Arkham series, known as Arkham Knight.
From this artwork, we can see that Arkham Knight seems to channel Batman and the new version of Robocop, and from the details from Game Informed, it seems that Arkham Knight will wear a militarised batsuit with an A on it. The following text is from a demo Game Informer played, so spoilers will appear. Skip past the second horizontal line to avoid spoilers.
At some point in the game, Batman needs to reach an antennae in the Falcone shipping yard. He beats up some goons and puts the tracker on the antennae. As he walks out he is being shot at by a guy in a militaristic Batsuit flying through the air at him. The batsuit has a big A on it. He knocks down Batman, stomps on him and says "you aren't going anywhere". He points his gun at Batman's head and the screen fades to black and you hear a gunshot. End of demo.
Arkham Knight is definitely being portrayed as a threat to Batman, and having a completely original villain adds much more intrigue. As long as it doesn't end up being the Joker somehow, I think that this villain has a lot of potential, and could possibly be incorporated into the comic canon. It can be presumed that Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, Two-Face and Penguin will play fairly major roles in the story, but one thing we know is that the Riddler is back with a load more collectibles.
Looking slightly crazier since his appearance in Arkham City, Edward Nigma makes his fourth appearance in the series, making him one of the only villains to appear in all four games of the series. With a new mechanic-inspired look, for reasons we'll get to in a minute, he has laid out a wide selection of new challenges, many of which revolve around one of the big new gameplay features, the Batmobile.
The Batmobile will feature as a driveable vehicle, allowing the player to quickly traverse the open world of Gotham City, said to be 5 times the size of the Arkham City map. Driving challenges, as mentioned, will be a major part of the Riddler mission, and the Batmobile also provides new combat opportunities, such catapulting from the Batmobile and going straight into a glide.
Finally, the last thing we need to do is look at all of the new gameplay features that have been spoken about by Rocksteady. While some changes are small but definitely necessary such as the Linear Launcher now attatching to anything and all quickfire gadgets being able to be used in combat and also while in the air, there are also a few more significant gameplay additions. Riots can happen across the game map, the can up to fifty enemies on screen at once. Also, a new system known as Fear Takedowns has been implemented, allowing Batman to chain together numerous takedowns if no enemies have spotted him. Glass breaking is also mentioned to be a big part of the game. Other than gameplay additions, graphically the game is taking advantage of the next-gen hardware thatit's exclusive to. It has been mentioned that one character model has more polygons than the entire environment of Arkham Asylum, and that the Batmobile takes up around 160mb of RAM, which would mean that the last-gen hardware would only be able to manage the Batmobile and nothing else.
The game is scheduled to launch in 2014, and according to the above promotion the 14th of October, for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Pre-ordering the game will also let you play has Harley Quinn, and also features four specially designed challenge maps, allowing you to use her unique weapons and skills. Also, case in point, Harley Quinn being playable in a non-fighting game is long overdue. Some retailers are also offering a 'Prototype Batmobile' skin, which seems to confirm that the Batmobile will be customisable, and it can also be assumed that Batman will be to.
If you managed to get to here, congratulations. You'll be pleased to hear that this is where this incredibly bloated blog ends. Thanks for reading, and I hope you are all as excited as I am to see some actual gameplay soon.