New Arkham Game Set for 2013 and Why I'm Worried

In 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum shocked the gamers, myself included, who thought it would be just another over-hyped licensed game. It had absolutely incredible quality, with superb gameplay, an enjoyable story, interesting ideas, great atmosphere, and a great deal of respect for the source material.

In 2011, Batman: Arkham City, was released to even greater acclaim and was my Game of the Year of 2011. It was a remarkable experience all the way through with an excellent opening and a haunting ending that still gives me chills when I get to it.

Yes, I am a huge Batman fan so I've been loving the absolutely incredible time that he has had for the past eight years. Speaking of which, today the last issue of Scott Snyder's spectacular story arc, Death of the Family got released. Pick it up now (DC, contact me to know where to send the check for that plug).

Gaming bliss!

So you can imagine my excitement when Time Warner announced this week that a new Arkham game was marked for release later this year. Then I started getting rumors.

Now keep in mind that these are just rumors and therefore I'm not completely despairing yet. These are just worried thoughts from a fan of both the Arkham games and Batman in general, who REALLY wants a strong follow-up to the two greatest superhero games in history.

#1. A Prequel

In 2012, a piece of DLC was released as a follow-up to the shocking ending of Arkham City titled Harley Quinn's Revenge. For those who didn't see my short review of it, I was not a fan. The main problem with the DLC was that it introduced some interesting new story threads and didn't follow through on any of them.

I was not a fan of Harley Quinn's Revenge and I want some damn resolution on its threads.

Batman was more emotionally closed off than ever after the events of Arkham City and the effect that the ending had on the series as a whole was only scratched on the surface. Harley got great development but so little closure over all.

I was hoping that they would go into these threads and give resolution in the sequel...which they have apparently decided not to make. I wouldn't have too much of a problem with the idea of a prequel as long as we have closure to what's already there.

#2. The Joker

SPOILER WARNING: I will make mention of the end of Arkham City below so be careful.

This is basically an extension of my argument against a prequel, but one of the rumors is that the prequel will be about the first meetings between Batman and the Joker. This worries me on many levels as both a fan of the series and a fan of Batman.

First, the series already seemed to be going on my favorite idea of the Joker's origin, namely the one from the classic Alan Moore story, The Killing Joke, arguably the greatest Joker story ever written. The idea is that the origin is ambiguous, it is one that not even he fully remembers and the details of it change every time he thinks about it with Batman being the only consistent element in it.

Good ideas can come from either showing or calling back to the first meeting between Batman and the Joker. The Dark Knight from Christopher Nolan showed him having to adjust to having to fight an opponent who was so different from the mob thugs he generally took on, both in unpredictability and in  his psychological mind games with Batman.

Or how about the recent storyline by Scott Snyder, Death of the Family? Sure, it's not a retelling of the Joker's origin but it does make many callbacks to his and Batman's first meetings, using that to confuse Batman about what he's going to do.

The point is that you really need to have an interesting idea to make this work. And also the end of Arkham City was such an appropriate sendoff to the Joker in this universe. I would rather not see him in this series again but see the lasting impact he has left on Gotham, another reason I would prefer a sequel.

The Joker (and Mark Hamill) had a brilliant sendoff in Arkham City, one that shouldn't be spoiled.

Also Mark Hamill has retired from the role. There have been other good Joker voices such as John DiMaggio in Batman: Under the Red Hood and Michael Emerson in The Dark Knight Returns. But you've already established Hamill as the Joker in this universe and he is unquestionably THE definitive Joker voice. Anyone else who comes in is likely going to fall short.

#3. Silver Age Tribute

For those who don't know, the Silver Age of Comics was a period in comics from 1950s to the 1970s. It is nowadays well known for its utter insanity with storylines that made no logical sense, goofiness and utterly unrealistic situations (even for superhero comics). It generally regarded as ending in 1973 when Gwen Stacey was killed by the Green Goblin in Spider-Man #121.

Batman was no exception to this as we saw the lightening of his rogues gallery which nowadays is considered one of the most violent and psychopathic group of rogues in all of fiction. It affected another medium too with the 60s Adam West series which gave us the infamous Shark Repellant Bat Spray.

The Silver Age was appropriate for the times given the world atmosphere. Keep in mind that the world had just gone through the most devastating conflict in human history, World War II, which was preceded by another World War a few decades before. The world was also facing the fear of nuclear annihilation from the Cold War. In the meantime, the Comics Code Authority was gaining power and was increasingly cracking down on what they considered to be "offensive" content.

Now, I have nothing against the Silver Age. It's good that it eventually ended to allow the maturing of the medium (though the Dark Age brought that back), but the Silver Age itself is still a guilty pleasure. It was fun and wacky and didn't take itself seriously in the slightest. I earlier made quick mention of the animated series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold which was itself a great tribute to the Silver Age.

The problem is that the Arkham games are about as far from the Silver Age as you can get. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are DARK. These are games that are so dark that I still wonder how they got past the ESRB without an M rating. This game managed to make Calendar Man terrifying. Outside of The Long Halloween, he's always been one of the biggest jokes in Batman's rogues gallery.

Scarecrow in Arkham AsylumYeah, this is not the Silver Age.

The problem here is that the kind of tonal shift rumored here is not good. It brings inconsistency to a series that has been so respectful to the source material, more specifically, the modern, gritty Batman. If you want to make a tribute to the Silver Age, fine. In fact I would probably enjoy it, but don't lump it into the same universe that saw a man attempt genocide against all criminals.

#4. No Rocksteady

Rocksteady Studios deserves massive credit for the work they've done on this series. And the rumor that they won't be on this game is one of the most worrying rumors I've heard for it.

They've made two near perfect action-adventure games with the first two. They've shown incredible respect for the source material and have really made you feel like Batman. I'm worried about the ability of another developer to pick this up.

This isn't automatically a death sentence to the next game if it's true. Halo 4 (haven't played it just yet) was apparently a very solid addition to the series despite being made by a different developer. But there are so few studios that have actually made a solid superhero game that it really worries me.


Keep in mind, that for the moment these are rumors. Even if they turn out true, I'm an optimist if you haven't noticed in past blog posts and will still hold out hope for the game to be a worthy addition to this fantastic series. None of these problems are absolute game-killers.

I'm just here giving my worries on the subject. I love these two games. Second to the Mass Effect series, this might be my favorite new series of this console generation. I just want to see good execution so that I can continue to love the series as a whole.