Obviously I have some very strong man-love going on for the Dark Knight. I'll probably go into that at a later date. For right this sec I wanna get into the upcoming video game, Batman: Arkham City.
This is a sequel to the AMAZING game that is Batman: Arkham Asylum. If you haven't played that game and you like video games at all, what are you doing reading this? Go out and buy it NOW. Yes, that's an order. So say we all.
As a little background, the first game (which I will now refer to as BAA) succeeded in doing two amazing things. First of all, the developers took what was best from every Batman media (comics, cartoons, and movies) and blended everything seamlessly.
They took fan-favorite voice actors like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill (hey kids, it's Luke Skywalker) who portrayed Batman and the Joker respectively on the fantastic Batman: the Animated Series and placed them into the game. They reference the Nolan-verse Batman movies in many ways. Mainly with the music that plays throughout BAA but also with the notion that Arkham Asylum is an island close to Gotham City (wherein the comics it's a medical facility far outside of Gotham). However they also reference Bale's fighting style with Batman mimicking something close to a blend of Krav Maga and the Keysi Fighting Method. And then of course there is the rich history which takes the best aspects of the comics and pretty much ignores the rest. Creatively, the designers come up with their own look for things which still hold true to the hardcore aspects of the character and world that we have all grown to love, i.e. the Batmobile:
The second best thing that the developers have done with these games is that they haven't made the risk of losing or dying the point of playing the game. Meaning, the joy of the game isn't in the risk of your life but in the FUN of playing as BATMAN.
Anyone who has ever played Playstation 2's Spider-Man 2 will know what I'm talking about here. When you play a superhero game you don't care about your life (Hell, most superhero's powers negate them dying anyhow), you care about getting into the world and mind of the character and enjoying their powers. So many Superman games have been ruined by the developers care over the difficulty. Um, if I'm playing as Superman I pretty much NEVER want to take damage. The joy of the game shouldn't be the challenge but the submersion into the world of the character.
Batman doesn't have any powers. But he has a ton of gadgets and is the world's most brilliant detective. Who wouldn't want to be in control of what this guy has got?
So that brings us to the upcoming sequel, Batman: Arkham City.
The whole time I played BAA I felt like it was a test run. I don't mean that in a negative way. It was a phenomenal game. But it felt like a prologue. Almost like the developers had in mind a much broader scope but wanted to limit themselves and focus the geography to an island so that they could then pay attention to the gameplay and quality of the game as a whole. Now the sequel is upon us and what have they done? Brought us into Gotham, of course. THIS feels like the game they wanted to make, the story they wanted to tell. Almost mirroring what Nolan did with Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. I think there's something to that.
Enough of my words, here's a taste:
Everything I've seen thus far proves that this game will actually be unbelievably better than the original. The main point proving this is actually just the simple plot:
After the events of the first game, Gotham has been left without an asylum or prison for it's crazies and psycho's. The city has turned a piece of itself into a giant jail and walled it off from the rest. Batman has maintained a constant vigil. But events are unfolding that will force Batman into making a grand entrance and presence within the slum: Catwoman needs rescuing from Two-Face and many of his most deadly villains are on the move, including the always dangerous and sociopath Clown Prince of Crime who most definitely has a grand plan and many ulterior motives.
Seriously, what else is it gonna take? GET EXCITED FOR THIS GAME and PRE-ORDER NOW!!! While supplies last...heh.
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