Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series: A “Game” changer
A brief retrospective on Rocksteady Studios’ take on The Caped Crusader
Batman is one of the most well known characters not just in comic books but in movies and now in video games (I mean c’mon if you go out you’ll surely find someone with some sort of Batman merchandise). Rocksteady’s Arkham series is by far the most crucial in making Batman so popular in games with their immaculate story telling and some really fun albeit easy gameplay. Let’s have a look at how the Arkham franchise revolutionized the comic book gaming scenario.
Situation before Arkham
Before the development of the Arkham games began, the rights for making batman games were surprisingly in the hands of … drum-roll… EA aka “The evil empire” of the gaming world. EA went on to develop a movie tie-in game to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins which upon release received let’s say “average” reviews. Another tie-in game for The Dark Knight was planned but was eventually cancelled due to technical issues and it not meeting the deadline which coincided with the movie release.This caused the rights for making Batman games revert back to WB games.
Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
Batman: Arkham Asylum was announced in August of 2008 after the EA debacle, this time being developed by a lesser known British studio, Rocksteady and Eidos Interactive. Rocksteady was previously responsible for the development of Urban Chaos: Riot Response which honestly nobody had any idea what it was even back then. So was giving this enormous responsibility to Rocksteady a risk?
Well, upon release it turned out to be one of the best games of the generation ever made. I, personally still have a special place in my heart for this game. Arkham Asylum was revolutionary, it fundamentally changed the way how superhero stories were being told in video games. It’s world was dense and missions were fairly linear but with scope for exploration as well. Featuring the voices of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and Joker respectively, this was one of the most authentic Batman stories ever made especially when back then games weren’t that narrative focused as today. This game also featured Batman’s amazing rogues gallery with villains like Bane, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Mr. Zsasz, Poison Ivy and of course, the Joker. I would not be diving very deep into the story aspects as they are supposed to experienced, not read.
It won several awards, including Best Action Adventure game, Best Game, and Game of the Year from various media outlets, and it held the Guinness World Record for “Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever”
A game of this quality demanded a sequel and rightfully so the development team began development on Batman: Arkham City in february 2009.
Batman: Arkham City (2011)
Rocksteady had an idea for a sequel even before Arkham Asylum ended its development cycle as they wanted their games to well connected narrative wise. Arkham Asylum even contained a secret room of sorts which had the plans for the setting of the next game. For me, Arkham city does everything right, it takes what Asylum did the best and builds up on those ideas. It is exactly what a sequel to Asylum needed to be plus more.
Like it’s predecessor, City garnered highly positive reviews with 9’s and 10’s being given by almost every reviewer. It’s story, characters, acting, setting were highly praised and for some (including me) this is the best game in the franchise and one of the best games ever made.
City transformed Asylum’s dense and sometimes claustrophobic map into a walled off area of Gotham where all the criminals lived. The map is big but not too big so that it retained the denseness and made the experience more personal feeling. The composers Nick Arundel and Ron Fish, as the previous game, did a fantastic job making the soundtrack very authentic to the story and the world.
The rogues gallery is awesome as usual with many smaller villains featured as a part of side stories which means that Arkham city is a better open world than its predecessor. These very well written side stories feature villains like Deadshot, Mad Hatter, Hush, Victor Zsasz, Bane, The Riddler and many more as cameos. Main story includes villains like The Penguin, Two Face, Clayface, Talia al-Ghul, Ra’s al-Ghul and of course Joker and Harley Quinn. Catwoman, Robin and Nightwing are included as playable characters along with a number of challenge maps.
“Makes you feel like Batman“ — every reviewer ever.
Arkham city won several awards as expected and reportedly sold over 12.5 million copies and generated $600+ million in revenue within 12 months. WB wanted Rocksteady to make a Batman game every 2 years, but this time Rocksteady needed time to create something even bigger and better. So what does WB games do while we wait for Rocksteady’s next?
Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)
WB games Montréal began development on a sequel called Batman: Arkham Origins in 2011 and as the name suggests acts as an origin story to the Arkham franchise while Rocksteady works on the true narrative sequel to Arkham City.
Arkham Origins upon it’s release in 2013 was not as well received as its predecessors. The gameplay mostly remains the same, the world is basically a criminal part of Gotham city under curfew and for some reason has dead empty streets being a larger open world than city and not feeling as dense. What the developers were going for here was the exploration of Batman’s vulnerability in his former years and I think that they nailed this aspect in the story of this game. This also explains how Joker’s obsession with Batman began and sort of also acts as an origin for the Joker. So, all in all this game was not on par with it’s predecessors but still nails things narrative-wise.
Batman is voiced by Roger Craig Smith instead of Kevin Conroy and Joker by Troy Baker instead of Mark Hamill. Christopher Drake is the composer providing yet another amazing soundtrack, especially the Joker soundtrack which stands out among the rest.
Roger Craig Smith has also voiced Ezio Auditore da Firenze in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
Origins also had a multiplayer which i frankly didn’t bother playing, so there’s that. Batman is the only playable protagonist in this game with certain portions playable as a surprise character which should be experienced in game. This game features a few new villains such as Black Mask, The Assassins hired by him such as:Killer Croc, Electrocutioner, Deathstroke, Copperhead, Shiva, Deadshot, Bane and Firefly. Characters like The Penguin, Anarky and of course The Joker also appear.
Origins according to most felt like a step back, a game that was made for passing time for the true sequel to City which was finally ready in 2015.
Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)
Arkham Knight began development in 2011 after City’s release and Rocksteady took it’s time with this game developing it over 4 years for a 2015 release. The game finally released on June 23, 2015 on PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game featured a massive part of Gotham fully explorable with tons of stuff to do, a main villain (The Arkham Knight) created specially for the game and finally the Batmobile.
Arkham Knight upon release was mostly received well again praising the story and narrative, acting, the graphics and the world. The PC version upon release ran horribly even on top of the line hardware which explains why it has some negative reviews on PC.
Arkham Knight like City hits mostly all the narrative beats required for a Batman story and acts as a phenomenal conclusion to the Rocksteady Batman trilogy. Gotham is a character of its own in this game, dark, sometimes scary, extremely authentic and true to it’s source material. What i actually meant was “It feels like Gotham”.
The Batmobile is the most uneven component of the game. Fun at first, and tedious in some parts, this was not the best addition to the game i would say and i would rather just glide around Gotham instead. The Batmobile honestly made this fantastic game feel like a tank simulator in some parts which isn’t a good thing by any means.
The most amazing thing in this game is the exploration of the relationship between Batman and the Joker accompanied by the incredible acting by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill (yes they return) which makes this one of the best Batman stories told in any form of media ever. I wouldn’t dare spoil anything but it is quite phenomenal to say the very least.
The Arkham Knight (who’s identity reveal isn’t very special) and Scarecrow feature as the main villains along with numerous villains featuring in the main and side stories, some we’ve seen before and some new ones and of course the Joker who is the soul of this Batman story. Catwoman is playable in certain missions, along with Robin and Nightwing (with whom some sweet looking combat finishers are possible), also Harley Quinn and Batgirl in dlc’s.
Upon 100% completion of the stories in Arkham Knight, there is a secret ending with some great conclusive cutscenes. This is the true ending of Arkham Knight which would decide the future of the franchise.
I haven’t talked much about the dlc’s of these games, the focus is on the main narrative. The dlc’s add some additional fun content with new characters and occasionally new cosmetic items. All in all they act as good spin off mini stories to the game. Also a few mobile games released which I don’t really care about so …yeah.
The Future
At the time of writing this article Rocksteady has already announced it’s future title which is a Suicide Squad game and will likely be titled “Suicide Squad:Kill the Justice league”. Rumors suggest that this would be Games as a Service (GAAS) title. Looking back at the Arkham series, I’m quite certain that Rocksteady will also nail this concept.
WB games on the other hand have an unknown game and is possibly under development since Origins came out. I honestly, cannot wait to find out what it is, a Batman prequel? Court of Owls? If it’s anything close to being as good as the Arkham games, count me in!
