Arkham City: Open World Challenges And Catwoman

Batman: Arkham City

Baman: Arkham City will be much more open than its predecessor, Arkham Asylum. And while that is great news for most gamers, Rocksteady reminds us that such a style has its design obstacles.

In speaking to Joystiq, studio marketing game manager Dax Ginn explained that with a sandbox-type adventure, you lose the "claustrophobic intensity" of a smaller, more linear quest. Therefore, the "sense of threat just evaporates." This is why they've loaded up on villains in the hotly anticipated sequel, and one of those villains is the very popular Catwoman. But why can we actually use her?

Well, because as Ginn says, gamers often like to "break the rules" and besides, it offers more diversity and perspective. Catwoman isn't as strong as Batman, but she's more agile and she can use explosives along with her whip. Said Ginn:

"The decision behind bringing in more Batman characters was driven by the call we made early on to make Batman: Arkham City an open-world game. Arkham Asylum is very tense, very claustrophobic, so you didn't need any more than to put Batman and Joker in that pressure cooker and just let them go at it. When we decided what we were gonna do for the second game, we knew people wanted to see Batman in Gotham; they wanted to see Batman in the streets. All these other decisions then became kind of necessary. One decision drove so many others."

There's little doubt that Batman: Arkham City will be one of the year's best. In fact, if it weren't for several heavy hitters, we'd say it has a great shot at taking home Game of the Year honors. Many are saying it's gonna be that good. You getting it?

Related Game(s): Batman: Arkham City

Tags: batman arkham city, rocksteady, batman sequel

9/30/2011 10:29:08 AM Ben Dutka

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