12 Sep, 2011
The beginnings of Arkham City may not have been too humble, as Dax Ginn, the marketing manager at Rocksteady games explained. Thanks to a little poking around and some adventurous players, the infamous Arkham City blueprints were discovered in a hidden room. Did that mean Arkham City began even before Asylum faced the music?
The short answer is yes, and in an interview with The Guardian, Ginn explained that those blueprints turned out to be the exact road map that Rocksteady needed for the creation of the dark city. “…when we look at [the blueprints] now and we look back at Arkham City, they’re really accurate,” he said. “We managed to stay focused on that broad footprint of the layout of Arkham City almost to a fault.”
Attempting to create an open-world experience all within one city can be a daunting one, especially if the city doesn’t carry the details necessary to hold your attention. Ubisoft attempted this with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, locking the player into the world of 16th century Rome. Some felt it was a step backwards from the sprawling openness of Assassin’s Creed II, and others felt that with the amount of things to do, it was quite all right to leave it there.
In Arkham City‘s case, Ginn explained that Rocksteady wanted to put as much of the Batman universe into this title to keep things interesting and to step away from a simple collection of winding streets. “…we knew we really wanted to inject it with the same level of detail and attention and love that we put into Arkham Asylum,” explained Ginn. “We also wanted to layer it with Batman DNA; we wanted to make sure that it contained legendary locations that made the place meaningful for Batman and that it wasn’t just a collection of generic streets.”
By the time the thought of taking things out of Arkham Asylum turned to the streets of Arkham City, the original game was already close to completion. Why not put that little easter egg in there, in hopes of creating the second game? There was no chance that Arkham City would be a distraction that far into Asylum‘s production, said Ginn. So, they stuck it in there and kept hoping. It was a good gamble.
We must wonder then, if the leftover assets from Asylum were placed in City. That’s not the case, and Ginn said that the key to giving Batman all of his bells and whistles in City came from a desire to highlight the real character, putting the “Bat” in Batman. “We want to be true to the character of Batman, to all the things that make him a person and make him a hero,” said Ginn. “For example, the Dark Knight, the defender of Gotham — that’s just one aspect of his personality. Being the world’s greatest detective is another aspect, and it’s just as important. That’s why there’s a lot of crime scene investigation and puzzle solving in the game.
“Then you have the Caped Crusader moniker for Batman and so, being able to deploy his cape and glide through buildings is something we have in the game — I think the recent Batman films did that aspect particularly well. We knew that was something we wanted in the game; it felt very Batman, it felt great for the gameplay and overall it was the next logical place for us to go with this Arkham-verse that we’re building here.”
And you can’t have Batman without a Batmobile, but Ginn says that’s not going to happen in Arkham City. “It ain’t a driving game, is the short answer,” Ginn said bluntly. “You’ve seen the work we’ve put into the gliding system and that works just fine for moving the character around the city. Also, lots of the streets in Arkham City are filled with rubble and craters so the Batmobile wouldn’t be the best mode of transport. It wouldn’t make for very fun driving even if we put the Batmobile in the game.”
This brings up the question of Batman’s other gadgets, like the Batarang. Ginn explained that players can even control the trajectory of the projectiles once they leave Batman’s hands. But will we have to spend hours unlocking all of this cool stuff? Absolutely not, said Ginn. You’ll get to play with the goodies right from the get go. “We wanted players to really feel like Batman has been preparing for the inevitable day when Gotham would experience a crisis like it does in Arkham City, so all of his gadgets are ready,” he said.
Now, you can’t exactly have something that says Batman without mentioning Robin. Rocksteady is owning up to the fact that Robin’s initial concept art and inclusion has heavily divided the community. There even was a divide within the studio while he was being created. “You’re right, [Robin] does divide people,” laughed Ginn. “The inclusion of Robin is always going to be met with resistance, whether within Rocksteady or outside with the fans or the community. It’s actually incredible how divisive a character he is, but I think done well and done right, he’s got the potential to be an awesome character.”
This also means that he won’t be a clone of Batman’s skill set. Ginn revealed that Robin will have his own navigation system, his own set of combat moves, combos, and explosives. “I think gamers are going to find that he feels very different to playing as Batman — the same way that Catwoman feels different to playing as Batman,” said Ginn. “We definitely wanted to make players feel the three different playable characters offer three different experiences.”
It’s no surprise that Ginn professed he was also a huge Robin fan. “…he’s a brilliant character,” said Ginn. “I know why some fans don’t like him, but I’ve always been on Team Robin!”
If you’re looking forwards to the villains of Arkham City, you will not be disappointed. Mark Hamill (you know, that flop-haired guy who was Luke Skywalker ages ago, and now the master of voice acting?) will be reprising his role as the Joker, perhaps for the last time. “…Mark said that he thought that Arkham Asylum would be very difficult to top and I absolutely agree — when I play Arkham Asylum, the performance he turns in is amazing,” said Ginn. “But his performance on Arkham City has been just phenomenal. When it comes to the Joker, Mark’s a genius. He gets this character so perfectly. All we need to do is just write the dialogue and then he brings it vividly to life. When we add his performance to the game, the quality of our game just doubles.”
With this Joker riding off into the sunset, Ginn said Rocksteady will keep on going. “So long as we remain focused on making an amazing game, opportunities will come for the studio…” said Ginn.
Batman: Arkham City is due out on October 21st for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC.
Read the full interview with The Guardian here.
Via Guardian Games.
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