A reader offers some advice for making a new Batman game, and what it can learn from and improve from Marvels Spider-Man.
Its not an easy thing to be a DC fan at the moment. The movies are terrible, the cartoons have gone downhill, and Marvel has become so big now that any similar character between the two (and there are a lot) is now automatically assumed to be DC copying Batman.
Perhaps the most upsetting to me though is that the games have also gone downhill or just… disappeared? I dont know which happened first but lets just say that Warner Bros. has not exactly been making the most of the fact that it owns all of DC Comics.
There was a rumour a few weeks ago (well, not really a rumour, more a developer speaking out of turn) implying that there were at least two new games on the way, plus potentially whatever Rocksteady are working on, but its hard to get too excited about this considering how many games have been cancelled over the years.
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At the end of the day all weve ever got is the four Batman games and Injustice, and thats it. Batman games and a fun beat em-up that has weird ultra-gritty, non-canon, versions of the rest of the DC universe. Not exactly a good representation of the comics, especially given the films have already been made based on the likes of Suicide Squad and Aquaman, and Wonder Woman was one of the highest grossing films of last year.
I find this highly frustrating but what Im going to do here is still… pitch a Batman game. I do hope they do other characters but before they get into that Im desperate for them to do a Batman game right. Now, Im not saying the others were bad games, not even Arkham Knight, but they werent particularly good Batman games.
They didnt really seem to get the character, in large part because they were trying to make him ultra grim to appeal to a gamer audience. The Batman in the Arkham games doesnt seem like a particularly nice person but in the comics Bruce is in some ways just as big a boy scout as Superman. He wants to help his villains, not hurt them, in large part because he knows theyre not very different from him.
I still think Arkham Asylum is the best game, just because it gets the characters better than the rest and it doesnt become so bloated that its just throwing them in for cheap cameos. The stories in the second two are completely incoherent and so overcomplicated its hard to follow or care about anything.
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What my dream game would be is something thats open world but with a much tighter story. You can have a lot of villains in minor roles but theres got to be just a much smaller number of main characters. Id like it to get more into why Batmans doing what he does rather than just providing excuses for each of his fights.
This is a problem I felt Spider-Man had, where his story was just all background explanation and very little character motivation. Which is why Mary-Jane ended up being the most interesting character, compared to Peter who just did what he did because hes Spider-Man. Or even Norman, who was evil because… he was evil?
What I did like about that game though is that it had a proper city full of civilians that you got to help and solve minor crimes with. Thats been completely missing from all the Batman games, which is crazy because its like one of the main parts of the fantasy.
The other thing the Arkahm games get wrong is that they just portray him as an unstoppable video game character. Batman never feels very vulnerable or human, either in fights or as a character in the story. As Spider-Man proved you can swap out a completely different character with the same gameplay and it doesnt really make any difference at all.
The best superhero comics and films are ones that tell a story, not just feature cool fights, and I think thats whats been missing from the games. All superhero games really. In my opinion they need to sort this problem out before they even start on more difficult to do characters like Superman.
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By reader Hammeririon
The readers feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email [email protected] and follow us on Twitter.
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