Is A New Batman Arkham Game In The Works?

[Nexus18]

Hope this is true!

http://wwg.com/2017/02/24/report-is-a-new-batman-arkham-game-in-the-works-/

• The game is called Batman: Arkham Insurgency and it takes place about 3 years after the events of Arkham Origins. It's built on the same engine as Arkham Knight was and has been in development since around 2014.

• The game will feature Batman and Dick Grayson as Robin as the main playable characters. Grayson has been Robin for about two years at this point.

• It's set in a previously unexplored, coastal area of Gotham that is roughly the same size as the three islands from Arkham Knight on the outside, although the interiors have been substantially expanded so you will be able to get inside most of the buildings now. The Batcave and Wayne Manor are also accessible via fast travel.

• The plot is that there has been a mass breakout at Blackgate and Arkham Asylum, and several terrorist attacks across the city, which results in the GCPD blocking off a segment of Gotham where they have completely lost control. This is the main playable area and while it's mostly populated by villains and criminals, there's a whole heap of trapped civilians that Batman and Robin will need to rescue.

• The Batmobile is in the game, but it's been changed. There's no more battle mode but the controls have been modified to compensate. The combat mostly consists of chase sequences and using the Batmobile's superior speed and maneuverability to navigate around slower opponents while bombing the hell out of them with the car's weaponry. The missiles, power winch and the EMP device remain, along with some new stuff.

• Dual play mode is also present, but it's been changed. The dual takedown has been removed but there's a whole bunch of new special moves and combos in its place. There's an entire new skill tree devoted to the mechanic.

• Combat has been expanded to better accommodate 1-on-1 fights. It's still rhythm based where you have to time all the correct button presses exactly, but it's more complicated than the attack/counter basis of the previous games.

• Owlman and the Court of Owls are the main villains of the game - although Owlman is really the main focus, especially when he murders all the other members of the Court towards the end of the game and starts targeting Batman's allies. It's revealed that the Court views Batman's heroics as a threat to their control, so they organize a criminal uprising to take him out. The Talons are also present as elite enemies who you never fight more than 3 at a time as just one character, or 4 to 5 as both characters.

• Other villains in the game are Maxie Zeus, Dollmaker, Killer Moth, Anarky, Two-Face, Blockbuster, Ventriloquist, Cornelius Stirk, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Dusan al Ghul, Mad Monk, Dala, Riddler and yes, Joker. Joker figures somewhat prominently in the story (it's revealed that he helped orchestrate the Arkham Asylum breakout), but he's not the main villain but more of a major supporting character who mostly works for himself, but will sometimes help Batman and Robin if it benefits him.

• Alfred and Lucius Fox are your main contacts in the game. Barbara Gordon helps you out on a few side missions and has a slight crush on Dick Grayson, which he doesn't reciprocate.

• Unlike Arkham Knight, there will actually be boss battles this time.

• The estimated release date is around November of this year, but it's possible that it could be pushed back seeing as the game was meant to be revealed towards the end of last year but was delayed.

EDIT:

If true, I'm curious to see what they will do with the combat as batman AK has probably the best combat + controls there is imo. Lets hope they don't change it too much and make it like "for honor" combat system...

 

[meldarthx]

Problem is - Batman AK pretty much got abandoned as they couldn't fixed a lot of the issues and people know this - they know how badly they screwed PC users.....One of the best series of action games - name seriously damaged by WB timetable; along with using a studio that knew they couldn't actually meet that time table. Plus I thought they said AK was the last one in the series - they wanted to end it as a trilogy

 

[Nexus18]

Problem is - Batman AK pretty much got abandoned as they couldn't fixed a lot of the issues and people know this - they know how badly they screwed PC users.....One of the best series of action games - name seriously damaged by WB timetable; along with using a studio that knew they couldn't actually meet that time table. Plus I thought they said AK was the last one in the series - they wanted to end it as a trilogy

This one is by splash damage, the ones behind arkham origins, I think it might have been rocksteady who made that comment about wanting to end it as a trilogy (as they made 3 out of the 4 games). Not that I am complaining either way, give me as many batman games as possible!

For me, batman AK worked ok on release day after using kaiden's tweak tool and since they got it all patched up, it plays great for me now without any need to tweak settings (still one of the best looking games too) but yes, it is a shame that AK released in the way it did for the PC.

Considering the state of batman AK on release day thanks to iron galaxy... I think WB + rocksteady did very well in the end, most companies would have either removed a lot of features/graphical effects to get it running well and not only that but as well as giving all the other batman games for free, they were and I believe still are offering refunds to anyone not satisfied with the game's state. How many other companies would have done even 1 of those things? Not very many.

 

[m4cc45]

I'd, personally, hope they went back to the Batman AA / AC games. I loved the riddles and the fact that the enemies 'died' in AA. In AC it was great to have a much bigger landscape. Whilst the enemies did respawn it wasn't too problematic. Ever since AC the Batman series has been declining the combat doesn't feel good, the car sequences were boring and the story just not as good.



M.

 

[DONOHUE07]

Wasn't AK suppose to be the last game in the series?

 

[wanderer89]

New Batman game? Yes please.

Although AK on release was a horror, it was still a good game, although that's got nothing to do with this, it should be Origins that people compare it to.

So going off that, I liked Origins, story seemed alright from what I remember, just a tad short, IIRC?

I'm all for another one, I thought it was WB Montreal that did Origins though, Nex? Not Splash Damage?

Yeah it was Rocksteady who said they wanted to end Batman with a trilogy.

Slightly OT, but I think Crystal Dynamics are missing a huge trick by not doing a Green Arrow type of game, they've got the engine from Tomb Raider and shouldn't be much harder to adapt that kind of setting to a highly populated area kind of thing.

 

[Westie]

had zero problems with AK.. great looking game but preferred AA and haven't played origins yet!

 

[Nexus18]

I'd, personally, hope they went back to the Batman AA / AC games. I loved the riddles and the fact that the enemies 'died' in AA. In AC it was great to have a much bigger landscape. Whilst the enemies did respawn it wasn't too problematic. Ever since AC the Batman series has been declining the combat doesn't feel good, the car sequences were boring and the story just not as good.

M.

In what way did you feel that the combat wasn't as good? I thought it improved a lot more with each one i.e.

- fancier looking moves as well as a larger range of moves
- multiple enemies going to attack you and as a result being able to counter up to 3 people at once, where as in AA, you could only counter one person (whilst the rest stood around watching)
- enemies being able to counter you
- better use of gadgets for combat
- larger variety of enemies so you had to change things up a bit each time
- multiple more ways to use the environment

Arkham Origins was very well done but it was too soon after arkham city and not enough had improved/changed. However, I loved the detective bits in arkham origins, really felt like you were batman in a crime scene.

With regards to combat, I hope they make it less cartoony in the sense, no weird trails/hit marks and no leaping across the other end of a room doing a flying kick etc. By the sounds of it, it does sound like this version of batman could be more realistic, lets just hope they don't remove what it is that makes the batman A series combat feel fun though...

As for the story not being as good, personally I have a hard time picking which one was the best for story, they are all very good imo.

It is good to read that true boss battles will be back, that was by far the biggest disappointment for arkham knight.

New Batman game? Yes please.

Although AK on release was a horror, it was still a good game, although that's got nothing to do with this, it should be Origins that people compare it to.

So going off that, I liked Origins, story seemed alright from what I remember, just a tad short, IIRC?

I'm all for another one, I thought it was WB Montreal that did Origins though, Nex? Not Splash Damage?

Yeah it was Rocksteady who said they wanted to end Batman with a trilogy.

Slightly OT, but I think Crystal Dynamics are missing a huge trick by not doing a Green Arrow type of game, they've got the engine from Tomb Raider and shouldn't be much harder to adapt that kind of setting to a highly populated area kind of thing.

Just had a google and yup WB Montreal were also involved for origins.

Likewise, I would definitely like to see a green arrow game (amongst other dc and marvel hero games). Apparently superman was in the works but I think it got scrapped

 

[wanderer89]

I've heard the name Splash Damage before, not sure where, could have been to do with Origins but I can't remember

There's so much potential money around these days, especially with all the films coming out but companies seem reluctant, I can see why but surely the potential profit is worth the risk? Especially when you've already got the engine you could use in Crystal Dynamics case anyway.

Supes I think would be a bit more difficult to do due to powers etc, but GA with a bow and arrow jumping across rooftops, climbing etc, that's already in Tomb Raider so seems a bit silly. Perhaps I'm looking at it too simplistic because I want a GA game, but give me it damn you!

 

[Gregster]

I hope this happens and one of my favourite style of games. AK ran sweet for me and I completed it before the first patch, although I appreciate that the game was massively problematic for so many users and hence why it got pulled from sale.

Cheers for the info

 

[Nexus18]

I've heard the name Splash Damage before, not sure where, could have been to do with Origins but I can't remember

There's so much potential money around these days, especially with all the films coming out but companies seem reluctant, I can see why but surely the potential profit is worth the risk? Especially when you've already got the engine you could use in Crystal Dynamics case anyway.

Supes I think would be a bit more difficult to do due to powers etc, but GA with a bow and arrow jumping across rooftops, climbing etc, that's already in Tomb Raider so seems a bit silly. Perhaps I'm looking at it too simplistic because I want a GA game, but give me it damn you!

haha probably was because of origins, they have got very few games under their belt.

Yup fully agree, now is the time to be releasing DC & marvel games with the oh so many tv series + films and most importantly, because we finally have the game engines available now to do these sort of games justice.

They could even just replace the character models and redo the story/script for tomb raider considering it has the same premise as green arrows origin i.e. getting ship wrecked on a dangerous island

That has always been the problem with superman, even for films that try to keep him somewhat grounded, he is just too powerful with too few weaknesses. This one sounded great though as they said there was full on city destruction like what there was in the man of steel film

had zero problems with AK.. great looking game but preferred AA and haven't played origins yet!

Origins is very good, a lot like AC.

This makes the game look better too:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731068275

 

[AWPC]

AK was great at launch not sure why so many had problems with it as it ran perfectly on day 1. I suspect Denuvo inflated the artificial complaints as it was not cracked for a long time after!

Origins was utter trash so anything from the same team is not something I would ever look forward to.

Not sure anymore Arkham games will launch on PC either. WB bypassed PC for Arkham Asylum & City HD remasters using Unreal Engine 4 despite it being simple to port them across. Both look better than before & on PC they would have looked a lot better! AK artificial complaints I think soured WB to PC platform due to Steam refund policies & having to give so many free Arkham games away.

 

[Shamikebab]

I'd love to see a Batman game without Joker. I'm so fed up of him being shoehorned into every one. Good to hear they're getting rid of the crappy tank battles, I'd prefer they get rid of the batmobile altogether though.

 

[wanderer89]

haha probably was because of origins, they have got very few games under their belt.

Yup fully agree, now is the time to be releasing DC & marvel games with the oh so many tv series + films and most importantly, because we finally have the game engines available now to do these sort of games justice.

They could even just replace the character models and redo the story/script for tomb raider considering it has the same premise as green arrows origin i.e. getting ship wrecked on a dangerous island

That has always been the problem with superman, even for films that try to keep him somewhat grounded, he is just too powerful with too few weaknesses. This one sounded great though as they said there was full on city destruction like what there was in the man of steel film



Origins is very good, a lot like AC.

This makes the game look better too:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731068275

I knew I'd seen their name before, Splash Damage did Brink which flopped big time! Apparently they only did the MP section of Origins, so I'd say that the SP was down to WB Montreal.

On the other side of the coin, they also did Gears 4 which is a good game, so perhaps they've learned from their mistakes.

Definitely, there's a huge gap in the market there, I knew we've got Injustice, but that's just a button masher, I think the market is crying out for a proper story mode type game with a superhero, not so much a Superman, but someone like GA would work brilliantly IMO.

I think I saw that on Eurogamer, if it's the same game I'm thinking of then it looked terrible

 

[Nexus18]

AK was great at launch not sure why so many had problems with it as it ran perfectly on day 1. I suspect Denuvo inflated the artificial complaints as it was not cracked for a long time after!

Origins was utter trash so anything from the same team is not something I would ever look forward to.

Not sure anymore Arkham games will launch on PC either. WB bypassed PC for Arkham Asylum & City HD remasters using Unreal Engine 4 despite it being simple to port them across. Both look better than before & on PC they would have looked a lot better! AK artificial complaints I think soured WB to PC platform due to Steam refund policies & having to give so many free Arkham games away.

Shock horror as some have problems and others don't...

Given that plenty of games released over the last year or 2 have had denuvo and ran great on day 1 with very positive feedback i.e. doom, resident evil 7, battlefield 1, mad max, titan fall 2, battlefront etc. etc. I highly doubt it was anything to do with some denuvo hate group "inflating artificial complaints", the game was broken for the vast majority, you just have to take a look at various forums as well as on youtube to see all the issues, not to mention, it was a terrible port on release day as:

1. locked to 30 fps and when you unlocked the FPS, it broke some of the physics
2. ambient occlusion and rain drops were missing from the PC version
3. limited graphical options/settings

Each to their own and all that and no doubt origins was the least favourite for many arkham fans but it was far from utter trash, if you liked arkham city then there is no reason why you wouldn't like arkham origins too...

That I agree on though, I wouldn't be surprised if we see this only released for consoles. But at the end of the day, WB only have themselves to blame for the PC nightmare of AK, what did they expect to happen by giving the title to a small time studio who's only experience was with small console games. If they had let rocksteady work on the PC release from the beginning, there wouldn't have been any issues and as a result they wouldn't have had to go into over kill mode for damage control.

They didn't have to give away the previous arkham games, just fixing the game and providing a refund to everyone was enough imo, besides, I doubt they would have lost much sleep over giving away the previous batman games considering they had been out for ages and were already on many key sites for <£10, chances are most of the people who bought/owned arkham knight already owned all the previous games too.

I'd love to see a Batman game without Joker. I'm so fed up of him being shoehorned into every one. Good to hear they're getting rid of the crappy tank battles, I'd prefer they get rid of the batmobile altogether though.

Yeah if the above is true about this story, it will be a nice change from the usual popular Batman villains.

I didn't mind the batmobile in AK as much as others although it was definitely over used! Good thing is it seems like they have already identified the problems with arkham knights gameplay i.e. the batmobile + lack of proper boss battles.

I knew I'd seen their name before, Splash Damage did Brink which flopped big time! Apparently they only did the MP section of Origins, so I'd say that the SP was down to WB Montreal.

On the other side of the coin, they also did Gears 4 which is a good game, so perhaps they've learned from their mistakes.

Definitely, there's a huge gap in the market there, I knew we've got Injustice, but that's just a button masher, I think the market is crying out for a proper story mode type game with a superhero, not so much a Superman, but someone like GA would work brilliantly IMO.

I think I saw that on Eurogamer, if it's the same game I'm thinking of then it looked terrible

I completely forgot that there was MP for origins! lol... That says it all!

Since most of the work has already been done for them with previous arkham games, they "shouldn't" have much to **** up, hopefully...

Yup we definitely need more action 3rd person games like Batman/tomb raider etc. I seen some article/video teasing about marvel entering the gaming industry a month or so ago, however, I have a feeling they are referring to the mobile/tablet gaming industry

PFFFFFFFFFFFFT! It is superman! City destruction = win!

 

[m4cc45]

In what way did you feel that the combat wasn't as good? I thought it improved a lot more with each one i.e.

- fancier looking moves as well as a larger range of moves
- multiple enemies going to attack you and as a result being able to counter up to 3 people at once, where as in AA, you could only counter one person (whilst the rest stood around watching)
- enemies being able to counter you
- better use of gadgets for combat
- larger variety of enemies so you had to change things up a bit each time
- multiple more ways to use the environment

Arkham Origins was very well done but it was too soon after arkham city and not enough had improved/changed. However, I loved the detective bits in arkham origins, really felt like you were batman in a crime scene.

With regards to combat, I hope they make it less cartoony in the sense, no weird trails/hit marks and no leaping across the other end of a room doing a flying kick etc. By the sounds of it, it does sound like this version of batman could be more realistic, lets just hope they don't remove what it is that makes the batman A series combat feel fun though...

As for the story not being as good, personally I have a hard time picking which one was the best for story, they are all very good imo.

It is good to read that true boss battles will be back, that was by far the biggest disappointment for arkham knight.



Just had a google and yup WB Montreal were also involved for origins.

Likewise, I would definitely like to see a green arrow game (amongst other dc and marvel hero games). Apparently superman was in the works but I think it got scrapped

I felt the combat was less involved - the sound effects as well just didn't feel like I was smashing them to bits but more like I was hitting padding. It may look fancier but that makes it look less believable as well. It seemed about getting combos more than actually progressing at times. I also don't like re-spawning enemies. It always seemed little pods depending on what you were doing and they were always the same 'type'.

The crime scenes (the rewind bit) was okay for a bit but then got repetitive. The riddles as well weren't as good. I do love the Joker and think that Mark Hamill is one of the of the best voice actors I've heard in a game. He plays the Joker perfectly and is a massive draw for me. The song at the end of AC is absolutely brilliant.

Just my opinion.



M.

 

[Nexus18]

I felt the combat was less involved - the sound effects as well just didn't feel like I was smashing them to bits but more like I was hitting padding. It may look fancier but that makes it look less believable as well. It seemed about getting combos more than actually progressing at times. I also don't like re-spawning enemies. It always seemed little pods depending on what you were doing and they were always the same 'type'.

The crime scenes (the rewind bit) was okay for a bit but then got repetitive. The riddles as well weren't as good. I do love the Joker and think that Mark Hamill is one of the of the best voice actors I've heard in a game. He plays the Joker perfectly and is a massive draw for me. The song at the end of AC is absolutely brilliant.

Just my opinion.

M.

Fair enough

Recently played through all the batman games and personally when playing AA, it felt like a big downgrade coming from AK in terms of combat imo, although the boss battles are A LOT better. I think origins had the best boss battles overall.

In terms of combat feeling the most realistic, I think origins was the best, it felt like you were a lot more brutal (which iirc, the developers intended this as it was when Batman was just starting out and not holding back his punches as much) + it had less of a cartoonish effect.

Definitely agree with the riddles, AA + AC were by far the best for this.

That was one of the best things about this franchise, the voice actors, they got everyone that did the cartoons to come for the games, although origins had different voice actors and at first, I hated it but as the game went on further, I sort of got use to them and liked their take on it, not too much unlike Conroy and Hamill.

 

[wanderer89]

I completely forgot that there was MP for origins! lol... That says it all!

Since most of the work has already been done for them with previous arkham games, they "shouldn't" have much to **** up, hopefully...

Yup we definitely need more action 3rd person games like Batman/tomb raider etc. I seen some article/video teasing about marvel entering the gaming industry a month or so ago, however, I have a feeling they are referring to the mobile/tablet gaming industry

PFFFFFFFFFFFFT! It is superman! City destruction = win!

Yeah, it was rank at best

It depends what engine they're using though surely? I don't think it'll work if they try and use the Gears 4 engine, but if it's like the Origins SP then it should be alright.

Yeah, more than likely gonna be tablet gaming, a shame really because and I know I keep mentioning it, but there's so much untapped potential there to be taken advantage of.
They're probably happy with the revenue from films/tv shows but there's another market here just waiting, especially if they can get it bang on with developers/games.

That's all well and good but if it looks and plays naff then it'll be no good

 

[Nexus18]

Yeah, it was rank at best

It depends what engine they're using though surely? I don't think it'll work if they try and use the Gears 4 engine, but if it's like the Origins SP then it should be alright.

Yeah, more than likely gonna be tablet gaming, a shame really because and I know I keep mentioning it, but there's so much untapped potential there to be taken advantage of.
They're probably happy with the revenue from films/tv shows but there's another market here just waiting, especially if they can get it bang on with developers/games.

That's all well and good but if it looks and plays naff then it'll be no good

haha I didn't even try the MP out! It has to be the most pointless MP addition ever

Supposedly they are using the same engine/build as they did for arkham knight (based on unreal engine 3). I'm okay with that as they fixed it in the end so this time, they should more or less have it running well from day 1... possibly even better...

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT! I be happy just being able to fly around Manhattan!

 

[Columbo]

Loved all 4 of the Arkham games and would love to see another.
Despite the issues with AK (and I had plenty) once the last patch had been released it was fine and I certainly got my £9 worth and then some, certainly felt it was better then Origins but I still liked that as well so anything similar is fine in my book.