An Interesting Gotham City
Gotham is one of the most interesting settings in comic book history, and Arkham Knight should reflect this.
The Gotham City featured in Arkham Origins was an incredibly dull open-world to explore. Yes, it had all the landmarks that Batman fans would appreciate being able to travel through, but it was essentially just a barren environment with the occasional gang of enemies roaming its lonely streets. The plot point that tried to logically explain why Gotham was so barren, informing the player that a curfew had been imposed upon the city, was pretty nonsensical, although I can imagine the difficulties WB Montreal would’ve had in adding Gotham’s civilian population into the world without them proving to be detrimental to its gameplay.
Scarecrow’s monologue in the latest trailer for the game suggests that Gotham City’s residents are being protected by the police in walled-off segments of the game’s world, which at least makes a little more sense. However, I hope this doesn’t continue to make Gotham seem as lifeless as it was in Arkham Origins.
I’m not sure why anyone would want to live here.
If Arkham Knight is to once again explore a free-roaming, full-scale Gotham, incorporating more linear segments á la Arkham Asylum and focusing less upon needlessly traveling to and from objectives without anything to do in between would at least give the illusion that Gotham was a fuller, richer world. I don’t want to explore Gotham just for the sake of it.
A More Refined Rogues Gallery
Villains shouldn’t be included in the game just for the sake of it.
The Arkham games are a treasure trove of Easter Eggs for Batman fans, and that’s part of the reason why I love the series. I’m a sucker for good fan service, and Rocksteady has done it better than anybody else when it comes to the Dark Knight. However, one recurring problem I have with the series is its refusal to leave any stones unturned, throwing villains from Batman’s Rogue Gallery at the wall even if they don’t stick.
The Arkham series often presupposes that the player is familiar with many of the villains and characters it presents, offering little characterization in favor of simply having them feature in the game, then hoping that you’ll do your homework afterwards. While this will obviously work with well-established villains such as Catwoman and the Joker, it has stood to make the more complicated villains such as Ra’s al Ghul appear not fully fleshed out and, quite honestly, pretty forgettable. This shouldn’t be the case.
Deathstroke’s appearance in Arkham Origins was disappointing to say the least.
I hope Arkham Knight spends more time with these villains and fleshes out their unique characteristics aside from simply giving us text logs to read whenever we encounter them. The inmate audio files featured in Arkham Asylum were an excellent and often creepy way of adding more depth to each villain, but if this is to be the final Arkham game then I’d love Rocksteady to explore the significance of the game’s events for each of its main villains, rather than simply throwing members of the Rogues Gallery at the wall and seeing which ones stick. I’m still a little sore that Clayface was little more than a red herring in Arkham City, and don’t get me started on Deathstroke’s treatment in Arkham Origins.
A Larger Focus on Harley Quinn’s Post-Arkham City Trials and Tribulations
Harley’s world is broken following the events of Arkham City.
Arkham City‘s DLC Harley Quinn’s Revenge was a rather unsatisfying look at how Harley Quinn was coping without her “Mr. J.” Quinn’s psychotic breakdown and transformation from a psychiatric internet in Blackgate Penitentiary through to a hardened criminal was as a result of the Joker’s conditioning, and as the Batman universe has always seen the motives of its villains being rooted in psychology, her continuing with the Harley Quinn persona and simply carrying on without the Joker by her side seemed a little… off.
Arkham Knight will feature retailer exclusive pre-order content (sigh) that will boast a story pack specifically focusing upon Harley Quinn, though for those of us who can’t purchase the game from said retailer, or who aren’t keen on pre-purchasing games following the myriad of problems new releases had in 2014, I’m sure we’d still like to see more of how the events of Arkham City impacted upon her.
How is Harley coping without her puddin’?
Harley Quinn was less concerned with indulging in criminal activity than she was with appeasing the Joker, and from her appearances in the comics and in the Batman Animated Series (where the character made her debut), it’s been clear that she’s not an evil soul, but rather a misguided and naive one. With the Joker out of the picture, this could present an interesting story arc for the woman formerly known as Harleen Quinzel, perhaps turning her into a more sympathetic character. Let’s just hope this story arc doesn’t just make its way into that silly exclusive pre-order bonus.
Jason F’ing Todd
Is Jason Todd the Arkham Knight? Probably not.
The previously mentioned retailer exclusive DLC doesn’t just contain a Harley Quinn story pack; there’s also a Red Hood one thrown in there for good measure, too.
For those unfamiliar with the Red Hood, he is essentially the alter-ego of the second robin, Jason Todd. Todd was the successor of the first Robin Dick Grayson, who went on to become Nightwing, though suffered a much more unfortunate fate. In the story arc A Death in the Family, Todd is murdered by the Joker, with Batman laying the blame regarding his sidekick’s untimely demise squarely upon himself. Across all mediums, nothing has affected Batman more than Jason Todd’s death, but his story has yet to be told in the Arkham games.
The Robin featured in Batman: Arkham City is Tim Drake, the third Robin, so we know that in this universe Jason Todd has already died. However, in the comics Jason Todd is revived by Ra’s al Ghul’s Lazarus Pit, with him then going on to take the mantle of the Red Hood, a ruthless vigilante who, unlike Batman, has no qualms with killing people. It’s already been heavily speculated that Jason Todd could be the Arkham Knight, with the Knight perhaps being Rocksteady’s own take on Todd’s Red Hood alias, though considering Todd is already going to make his way into the game as the Red Hood in the form of playable DLC, that notion has been thrown into question. Sure, Todd could assume two alter-egos in the game’s universe, but that would be more than a little odd on his part.
The Red Hood will be made available as a playable character through a pre-order bonus.
Outside of the Red Hood story pack, though, I still believe that incorporating Todd into the story of Arkham Knight is a no-brainer. Not having one of Batman’s biggest perceived failures referenced in the series’ finale would be a big loss, and even if Todd isn’t to be the Arkham Knight, at least having A Death in the Family explored in my proposed flashback sequences highlighting the Joker/Batman’s relationship would provide an extra emotional punch. Also, I absolutely do not want to see the Red Hood pop up in an Azrael-esque cameo – Todd’s story and its impact upon Batman’s character as a whole is far too important for it to not be a focal point of the game.
