After Rocksteadys Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, fans are excited about the prospect of a complete Arkham Trilogy.
After completing the story you might even hear some goons wondering whether or not the next thing might be some kind of Arkham World.
Based on some clues from the games themselves and some things we want as fans, here’s a list of stuff that would be great to see.
Spoilers abound, so if you havn’t finished the story, then look away for now!
More Playable Characters
In Arkham Asylum we played as Batman throughout the story but were offered the chance to play as Joker for some of the challenges.
Arkham City has dropped the Joker, but brings us Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman. The latter even has a part to play in story mode.
What we would really like though, would to have some Dynamic Duo action. It would be fantastic to at least play some challenge maps in co-op as Batman and Robin. Of course even better than that would be for them to recieve some story missions and go head to head with a super villain or two.
For many it was a shame to see the playable Joker disappear. We would like him to return and maybe bring with him a few more bad guys.
Harley Quinn has the acrobatic skill to offer something interesting as do the ninjas Talia and Ra’s Al Ghul.
Some characters would be less likely to make an appearance due to their different styles. Penguin and Two-Face tend to rely more on weaponry, Killer Croc and Bane are much larger brute forces who focus on power rather than finesse and some other foes such as Riddler and Mad Hatter rely more on wits and thugs than getting their own hands dirty.
Perhaps something could be included for each of them, but it would be a great difference to the feel of the rest of the game.
There are also possibilities for Batgirl and Red Hood.
However, whoever we get to play as, we would like them to be able to free roam the city rather than being limited to challenges.
Iconic Gotham City
Arkham City is a chunk cut out of Gotham designed to become home and prison to its criminal element.
This gave us the chance to explore places such as the Police HQ and Iceberg Lounge as well as the infamous Crime Alley. Of course we would like more!
A great addition could be to include Wayne Manor and the Batcave. A place for Batman to return to and research missions, do detective work, upgrade his suit and gadgets and so on.
I’m sure the Bat Universe experts at Rocksteady could easily come up with a few more places for fan service.
The Bat Signal
The Bat Signal appeared in the game as a way of showing you where your objectives lay, but it would be fun to have Commissioner Gordon displaying it to get your attention for the actual story or for side missions.
You would have to keep an eye out for it, as it would inform you when you were needed somewhere desperately.
Vehicles
The Batmobile and the Batwing have made appearance in the games, but we are yet to experience getting behind the controls.
Neither had much scope to be used in the Asylum or City to be fair, but if we were treated to a larger Gotham, we might just find purpose for them.
Mind Control Villains
In Arkham Asylum we had Scarecrow repeatedly coming after us with his nightmare drugs taking us to a frightening world where he was in control.
In Arkham City, Ra’s Al ghul took us to a fantasy training world while Mad Hatter brought us into a freakish Wonderland.
These segments really broke up the game in an interesting way and gave Batman some real tests of strength and character. This more mental challenge was a welcome change of pace to the physical battles of combat and predator.
Scarecrows involvement in Asylum had much more weight than Ghuls training or Mad Hatters world, which left some wanting a bit more. It would have been excellent to have Batman explore a twisted Wonderland a little more.
It would have been possible to even bring in Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum as foes, or possibly even Humphrey Dumpter.
SPOILER ALERT
Despite going missing at the end of Arkham Asylum, Scarecrows presence can be found in the City.
Not only does the Riddler guide you to Cranes lost mask, but you can find the mans very own secret hideout.
Pull out your Decoder while standing on Falcones boat to find out what I mean.
Scarecrow is out experimenting, so could well be back at full strength to go another round.
Riddlers Riddles
These have appeared in both games giving the player something to collect in order to unlock bonus features.
These are a fantastic addition to the game and were greatly improved in Arkham City. Whereas in the first game, Riddles tended to be laying around ready to be picked up, the ones in City were more likely to be hidden behind a more fiendish puzzle more fitting the Riddlers style.
The fight between Batman and Riddler should be one of wits, so the more thought that goes into them the better.
Bigger Pay Off In Side Missions
In Arkham City Batman was given a nice set of side missions to complete alongside the main story quest.
These were usually along the lines of using detective skills to discover a killer and capture them.
Some were handled better than others.
The Riddler and his hostages was fantastic. It was almost like rescuing someone from a Jigsaw killer trap.
Zsasz the payphone killer, forced you to race across the city before you could try to decode his encrypted message to find his hideout. Once you had found his base, you then had to sneak up on him avoiding a set dangerous obstacles.
However, some of the other missions were little more than waiting to get a message that you needed to look at something. The Identity Thief, The Mysterious Stranger and the sniper were all somewhat lacking once the mystery was solved, although at least Deadshot gave you a mini Predator battle.
The pay offs in these cases were the appearance of an interesting character and the hints of the direction of another sequel, which are appreciated.
Great games usually make their side missions as big and as challenging as a main mission. In a great game series like this, we want as much as possible.
Having the nice touches of (SPOILERS) Hush and Azrael appearing and giving you a little chat are great, but we would also like more action packed side missions. They don’t all need to be that way, but it would be brilliant to have a few more.
The Jokers Son/Daughter
If you go to the Jokers hideout after the end of the game, you will find quite a surprise discarded on the ground.
A positive pregnancy test.
We can only assume tthat his belongs to Harley, but it will be interesting to find out more about this bombshell.
Turf Wars
The gang fights between Penguins goons and Two-Faces were mentioned and heard about in game, but we didn’t see much evidence of it and it made little difference to Batmans adventure who’s goons he was pounding.
It would be good if the gangs would actually have defined territories in Gotham that they fought over and could change the tide of events depending on who owned what.
Rocksteady seems to like a linear story, which I approve of. Multiple endings would not suit their style, so intead it might be better suited that Batman might have to somehow make sure than certain gangs were in charge of certain areas.
Alternatively there could be a similar set up to the Infamous games where Batman could clear territories of bad guys altogether.
Playability Beyond Completion
This is a difficult one.
Once you complete the story you are still able to do side missions and finish collecting the riddles.
But once that is done there is nothing else.
Of course it seems silly to want more than 100%. Completing 100% means that the game is spent. You have done everything.
The problem seems to be that once 100% is reached there is nothing left to do at all. Wandering the city and beating up the few thugs who respawn over and over is not that compelling.
There could be a chapter select option so that you could go back to fight previously beaten bosses or redo missions without restarting the entire game again.
Or there could be side missions that go on indefinitely instead of ending. The rescuing of political prisoners was one that could have never ended, though not a particularly interesting one.
Or there could be random gang battles that Batman could single handedly break up.
Perhaps from time to time some goons manage to escape imprisonment and Batman is needed to round them up again.
Various options that do not count towards the 100%, but are interesting nonetheless.
Co-op Options
As already mentioned, it would be fantastic to see the Dynamic Duo have some side missions together around Gotham City.
Of course the main game takes a lot of strength from Batman being a solitary character, but for a change of pace it would be great to have the original trusty sidekick in place. (Well the second replacement of the original trusty sidekick.)
Perhaps a non playable AI Robin would help keep the game a single player experience. Batman could have a system of giving Robin commands and orders as to where to hide, who to fight and so on.
I think we might even be happy if just the challenge maps had a Co-op multiplayer option.
It needn’t just be Batman and Robin either. Now that Catwoman and Nightwing are in the mix, we could have various pairings.
Versus Options
With the number of models in the game, it would be fun for gamers to create custom Combat Challenges by choosing exactly who was present in the fight.
Traditionally gamers would choose a player character and be thrown into battle against a set series of opponents.
It would be great to be able to choose those opponents. Even better if a friend was able play as one of the opponents.
With the amount of options available you could even have a great number of players fighting it out,each making the arena hazardous with their own gadgets.
Playable Heroes:
Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Catwoman, Nightwing, Alfred, Gordon, Cash, Talia Al Ghul
AI Heroes:
Police Officers, Undercover Police Officers, Armed Officers
Playable Villains:
Joker, Harley, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Zsasz, Hush, Mr Freeze, Scarecrow, Ra’s Al Ghul, Black Mask
AI Villains:
Bane, Thugs (Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Arkham Jumpsuit, Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy varieties), Armed Thugs, Titan Thug, Tyger Guards, Armed Tyger Guards, Mr Hammer, Mr Sickle, League of Assassins
The Things We Miss From Arkham Asylum
Arkham City for the most part took everything from the first game and improved on it.
In some cases though, things were taken out. It didn’t ruin the game so much to have these things missing, but we would still like to see them back.
First of all, as already mentioned are the Scarecrow sections.
Besides that are some of the other features.
Both the Triple Batarang and the Ultra BatClaw did not return.
The Triple Batarang was sort of replaced by the quick fire, but in some situations it felt as though being able to carefully aim your three projectiles might be preferable.
The Ultra BatClaw was the version of the BatClaw with three extendable wires. It’s main use was for pulling down breakable walls, but was also functional in combat.
One thing that was missing which was found quite odd was the old reliable tactic of using a Batarang to daze a charging Titan thug. Somehow this time round they were immune to the old go to move. Now instead Batman had to get in close and triple stun them. We wouldn’t mind the option of doing either, but it’s strange that the rules changed.
The main thing that was missed however was Batmans throw move. He would pick up a thug and was able to turn and chuck him into a group of other bad guys or a conveniently placed electric fence. Arkham City gave Batman some other special moves in its place, but none are quite so much fun as the throw.
Adam West and Burt Ward Models
Who hasn’t wished they were playing the game as Adam West?
If they could have him do some voices too that would just be perfect.
Combat could even have some POW and WHAP symbols appearing here and there.
At a push it might even be fun to get Del Boy and Rodney skins.
Everything on One Disc
The Gaming Community are getting pretty tired of the DLC ideas coming from production companies.
Usually the blame lies with PR and marketing more than the creators and programmers and I believe that this is the case with Rocksteady.
We would like an end to these greedy tactics designed to milk gamers for every penny they have.
We would like to go back to the days where games were complete and everything was there when you bought it in the shops.
Online downloads should be to fix bugs and glitches.
Extra features are welcome at a price, but they should be substantial expansion packs, not just one skin, or two maps.
