Games
As the studio famous for making Batman games great again, Rocksteady are developing a secret new game. What could it be?
Imagining a gaming landscape that doesn’t include Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham games is a dark one indeed. Not only did the London-based subsidiary of Warner Bros. deliver a trilogy of games starring the caped crusader that were revolutionary and, frankly, brilliant, but the team gave us a combat system that was paid tribute to in games like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Mad Max, and more recently, the terrific Insomniac and Sony title, Marvel’s Spider-Man.
These games owe a huge debt to Rocksteady’s Batman, and with the recent news that the team are hiring for (and thus, working on) a game that’s “highly anticipated” for “next generation platforms”, our minds are going a mile a minute. While the 20 or so job listings suggest that the game might be a ways off yet, a 90+ metacritic score is the aim, and we’re thinking the next Batman game might be on the cards.
What platforms would it be on?
The job listings are pretty specific that “next generation platforms” are targeted, suggesting the Lead Rendering Programmer be “ready for the challenge” of producing on the new consoles. This isn’t so much a hint as a confirmation that the game will look astonishingly good. While it’s highly likely we’ll see more cross-generation games (titles released on PS4, Xbox One and the new consoles from both hardware manufacturers), the higher-end version will always look better. It’d be safe to assume that some kind of new GPU will be in the PS5 and Xbox Two (or whatever it’s called), and although Microsoft might be hesitant to put out an all-new powerful console after the Xbox One X, the company’s hand will be forced when Sony push the PS5 out there. One thing is for sure, power is going to the driving force behind the next-generation, with 4K and 60fps at the forefront. Exciting!
So just how good could it look?
Well, it’s worth pointing out we’re on the cusp of the latest NVIDIA cards being released (the RTX 20x series) which retail at up to (and over) $1000. These cards will give developers a new high bar to aim for. Being on the new “Turing” architecture means the cards can offer shadows that are more photo-realistic. NVIDIA claim that this kind of performance can be up to eight times better than the previous cards. Now go back and boot up Arkham Knight, and tell us that game doesn’t still look pretty good anyway. Eight times better? Oh go on then, we’re listening...
But isn’t the rumour that the team are working on a Superman game?
There’s no question that Rocksteady are a popular studio. The more popular you are, however, the more rumours will circulate whenever you’re involved. Talk around the industry has hinted that the team are working on a Ninja Turtles game, or a Superman game, but we think there’s a higher chance that it’s more Batman, actually. This might be hard to hear for some, but let’s be honest here: Superman games haven’t exactly ever set the world on fire, and Batman is just a more popular superhero in the modern era. Whether it’s movies or games, Batman wins out: in Injustice 2 the duo get to face-off, and everyone wants Bats to win! Even the comics are more popular. In an ideal world, sure, we might get Rocksteady working on rebooting a dormant franchise that needs repopularising with its revolutionary hand, but the cold hard business truth is that Batman sells, and hey, maybe this game might tie in with another reboot of the movies.
So what kind of Batman story could a new game have?
It pains us to say this, but (and mild spoilers ahead for a three-year old game) it’s time to move away from Joker. We’ll never tire of Mark Hamill’s voice for The Clown Prince of Crime, but there’s not a huge amount of room left for him in the Arkham-verse Rocksteady has created. In truth, there’s not actually much room left in their canon for much at all unless we either jump into the future, or a new game is actually a reboot, or another stab at the narrative from a different point of view in a similar fashion to how Telltale’s series went. We’d love to see more from Two-Face, because his character is similar to Joker in that he’s deep, with plenty of story to mine, and the Court of Owls should definitely have some light shone towards it in a new game. There’s plenty of characters left to focus on for a new game, but a retelling of the story (minus the origin which has been done to death) would be interesting, too.
Would it be the same style of game?
It seems unlikely Rocksteady would choose to smash their formula to bits, but given that so many have borrowed the combat system since, there will have to be some freshening up done. Marvel’s Spider-Man owes a lot to the Arkham-series, as we mentioned, but the combat actually feels more expansive, offering a wider combat-field for every fight. There are enemies with guns who will shoot from distance while heavies attack up close meaning you really have to move Spidey around at a rapid pace .
While Bruce Wayne as Batman might not be known for that same lightning speed, the larger play area for any given fight allows for more options, and we still want to be able to fly around the night sky as we’ve always been able to. It’d also be nice to see more of the MetroidVania aspects that were in the PS Vita and Nintendo DS title, Arkham Origins Blackgate. That title was developed by Armature Studios and was a side-scrolling title that really harked back to the MetroidVanias of old. We’re hoping Rocksteady rise like a phoenix, long dormant but leading the pack instead of doing what others have learned from them.
So when might this game see the light of day?
Given that the job listings we mentioned at the top of this article suggest positions that can be two years or more, then we’re not seeing anything from Rocksteady’s unannounced game for at least that time, if not longer. In fact, given that it sounds like the game is barely in pre-production, and we have no concrete info on when the new platforms will be hitting, it sounds like an announcement might even be a good 18 months away. If new hardware is likely in late 2019 or early 2020, then the announcement of this game could well be something the console manufacturers lead with, meaning a 2020 release date or later. Ouch. Still, we’re going to go and replay Arkham Knight, because that game is still fantastic. Yes, even the vehicle combat. So there.
