The Essentials of the Next Open World Batman Game

After the massive success of the Rocksteady’s Arkham franchise the next Open World Batman Video Game is not a question of if but of when. Unfortunately, there are some BIG challenges for the studio that has to develop it. Living up to the legacy of the first two installments of the Arkham series is a serious challenge all on its own, but the obstacles don’t end there. The standards for Open World games as a whole have increased since the poorly received final installment of the Arkham series. The next Open World Batman game has to not only be a great Batman game it has to stand out among the countless other Open World Video Games that have damn near saturated the market. 

It’s extremely unlikely that anyone at WB games is going to read this blog but none the less in this blog post I have laid out the qualities the ideal Open World Batman game should have.

The Open World

The biggest challenge in creating an Open World Video Game is creating and filling the open world in question. The prevalence of big empty (and often very boring) sandboxes like No Man’s Sky, Sea of Thieves and countless generic Ubisoft games have made that much self-evident. One key advantage of building on Open World Video Game out of this particular preexisting comic book franchise is that they don’t have to start from square one to design the map. While there isn’t a definitive canonical layout of Gotham City the lore of the iconic Batman franchise gives any development team more than enough to go on for the atmosphere, architectural style, and major locals of Gotham City. The developers just need to recreate those locals and find a way to fit them together on the map.

If I could offer them any advice on the environmental design I would strongly encourage them to make the city look more like the comics. Give the buildings the Victorian architecture Gotham City has in the actual comic books. I don’t want to see any more art-deco stuff or the architectural style from the Rocksteady games. I want Gotham to be Gothic. Bruce’s ancestor Allan Wayne is credited as the man behind Gotham’s Skyline. He was a man of the Victorian era and his architecture was no different. Making the architecture authentic to the comics and filling the skyline with Gotham City’s Iconic Blimps would not only please the fans but it would make this hypothetical game series really stand out as its own game series separate from any that came before.

Another way the developers of this hypothetical game could make the game in question stand out against the Rocksteady games is to include a lot of the great locales of Gotham City that Rocksteady either didn’t include or didn’t take full advantage of.

The Locales of Gotham City

#1. The Batcave

The fact that THE BATCAVE is not a given and that I have to put this on this list is beyond sad. The Batcave is far and away the most iconic base of operations is all of fiction. How do you not use that?! It's easier to justify its inclusion and design than most other parts of an Open World Batman game would be. Put a training mode or tutorial section in there, Have the player periodically take evidence back there for forensic analysis, put some forensics gameplay puzzles in there. Have the player pick up gear that isn't part of Batman's standard equipment, Swap out the Batsuit for one of Batman's signature disguises, swap out vehicles i.e. (like the driving into the cave with the batmobile to get into the Batjet to go on aerial mission or get in the Bat Submarine in order to fight TigerShark.) Have a mission where you have to get an injured or poisoned ally back to The Batcave to receive emergency medical treatment from Alfred. Sprinkle in a trophy room and a few Easter eggs and you've got yourself a Batcave.

#2. Wayne Manor

I'm not saying that Wayne Manor should play a huge role in the game but if they truly want to sell us on "Being the Batman" the home of Bruce Wayne is a necessity.

One thing the developers could do is have the player start out the night as Bruce Wayne. Bruce could have some interaction with Alfred that would facilitate the player’s introduction of the Augmented Reality mechanics that the player can use as Bruce Wayne. For those that don’t know since the New 52 Batman has had secret contact lenses that allow him to use Augmented Reality technology while he’s not in his Batsuit. So even while you’re playing as Bruce Wayne You can still receive information from the Batcave and use high tech cameras to analyze the environment around you. This would allow you can use this new game’s incarnation of “detective vision” and other such game mechanics through the use of these lenses in or out of the suit.

After getting the player accustomed to the Augmented Reality mechanics they could have Bruce go into Damian’s room and make sure he’s awake and ready to go to the Batcave. The developers could potentially use this opportunity to introduce some mechanics for switching between characters or getting your other team members to do specific things.

After that the player would take Bruce and Damian downstairs to the grandfather clock. The player would be introduced to some mechanics for handling objects in the hand of playable characters (kind of like the lock picking mechanic in The Elder Scrolls game) to move the hands of the clock to exactly 10:48 to open the secret door to the Batcave. The three of the residents of Wayne Manor would then enter the Batcave.

Additionally, Wayne Manor could additionally be used as a way to change back into Bruce Wayne and traverse the open world as Bruce Wayne in situations that warrant it.

#4 Amusement Mile

While not as Iconic as Wayne Manor, The Batcave or even the GCPD Police Station, Amusement Mile is a well establish part of Batman lore. Throughout the history of the franchise benefactors and businesses have tried to fix up the dilapidated Amusement Park as a way of creating jobs, making the city nicer, increasing property values, boosting the city’s economy and just plain making some money. Anyone familiar with Batman comics knows that all effort to cure the ills of Gotham thorough philanthropy are doomed to failure. Those that read The Court of Owls or Gotham by Gaslight, know what I’m talking about.

More importantly Amusement Mile has a lot to offer from a gameplay standpoint. Amusement Mile opens up all kinds of possibilities for gameplay. You may recall that the tacked on Batgirl DLC took place in Amusement Mile. The decapitated rides and structures make for great platforming. The Funhouse and Circus Tent make for great locations to have Boss Battles in. The Joker has used Amusement Mile as a base of Operation during his most heinous crimes. The Killing Joke took place in Amusement Mile. In The Nightwing Death of the Family tie-in The Joker basically zombified Dick’s entire family and made them fight him while the circus he grew up in was burning to the ground. Things that embody childhood innocence perverted into horrific monsters and environments are all the rage in gaming right now and more importantly, they're making a LOT of money. A dilapidated amusement part with a dark past often used as a base of operations or as the target of The Joker's villainous schemes would not only make a great playable area. It would make the game very appealing to the FNAF, The Neighbor, and the Bendy and the Ink Machine crowd.

Fun Fact: The Robot Dinosaur in the Batcave is a Trophy from a battle that took place as a result of a failed attempt to revive Amusement Mile.

#5 BatBunkers

The first game in the Arkham trilogy Batman: Arkham Asylum had a secondary Batcave ON ARHKHAM ISLAND. It was pretty fucking ridiculous but it was obviously put in as a result of technical limitation and development schedule limitations. In the comics there is a version of this concept that isn’t stupid. They’re called Bat-Bunkers. They’re often built under buildings constructed by Wayne Enterprises. These homes away from home could be very helpful to gamers who detest backtracking.

#6 Arkham Island (including Arkham Asylum)

Arkham Asylum is a HUGE part of the Batman mythose. In Arkham Knight you could go to the GCPD building and take stock of your progress by seeing the number of Supervillains in the jail cells and the confiscated weapons. In the next game they need to do this the right way. Put the villains in Arkham Asylum. They could have some points in the game where you have to go to the asylum and interrogate some villains. They could even make a mission where the player has to investigate one of the countless secret escape routes the villains have created and/or exploited in the Asylum. Maybe the player has to retrieve some important item or clue from one of these hidden areas. There are a lot of possibilities for Arkham Island that wouldn’t be too intrusive or slow down the pace of the game.

#7 Wayne Tower

Wayne Tower only played a small role in Arkham Knight and I think that was for good reason. Bruce Wayne didn’t play a big role in the Arkham games and it would have been ridiculous to have predator missions or boss battles in Wayne Tower, particularly with the ultra grimdark tone of the poorly written story. In the comic books Wayne Tower is an enormous landmark in the center of Cotham City. It’s sometimes described as a beacon of hope for the fearful citizens of Gotham much in the same way it was in the Christopher Nolan movies. Its inclusion is mandatory. Just have a mission or two where the player had to switch between Bruce Wayne and Batman, talk to Luscious, talk to Commissioner Gordan as Bruce Wayne, talk to the Mayor or other big wigs in the city to extract information Batman can’t, that sort of thing is all you would need to justify the inclusion of Wayne Tower and making it playable. Taking a minimalist approach to Wayne Tower would be okay, but I think we can do better for the Landmark at the center of the Open World map.

The Batbunker underneath Wayne tower opens up a number of possibilities. Logically it would be the most secure of the Bat Bunkers. It would probably be the biggest and best equipped as well. Making it the most frequently visited Batbunker for the player would really drive home the point that Wayne Tower is at the heart of the city.

To really drive the point home one of the bigger story missions could revolve around a group of supervillains banding together to wage an assault on Wayne Tower. The player could get to save the tower and the people inside Die Hard style.

#8 Iceberg Lounge/Iceberg Casino

There’s a reason Batman has so many confrontations with The Penguin despite The Penguin being a supervillain in name only and posing essentially no threat to Batman. It’s because in actuality Penguin’s just a glorified arms dealer. A disproportionate amount of Batman’s villains are reliant on firearms. Most other DC franchises have more superpowered villains that don’t need guns or use more technologically advanced sci-fi weaponry. Gotham’s Italian Mafia needs guns, Gotham’s Irish Mafia needs guns, Gotham’s Yakuza need guns and organized crime syndicates aren’t the only ones. The Criminals operating Gotham City independently of the Mafia like The Joker, The Riddler and Scarecrow still need guns. Even many villains that have super powers like Bane and Mister Freeze need guns, if not for themselves than for their henchman. Penguin is Gotham’s premier arms dealer. So basically, every villain in Gotham City needs connections to The Penguin.

Just like any other organized criminal operation The Penguin needs a front business. The Penguin’s front business is The Iceberg Lounge (sometimes in later stories The Iceberg Casino). The Iceberg Lounge is a fancy upscale restaurant (or casino in some of the later stories) where the greedy rich people of Gotham go to wine and dine. You may recall that In the Arkham Series Batman frequently interrogated Penguin for information, there’s a good reason for that. As Gotham City’s premier arms dealer Penguin knows all the other bad guys in town, a lot of the white-collar criminals are regulars at The Iceberg Lounge. At any given time, The Penguin has at least some idea what all the active villain are up to. In the comics Batman has bugged the place on numerous occasions.

The Iceberg Lounge is clearly a great place for some reconnaissance missions, not only as Batman but as Bruce Wayne as well. They could even have a predator mission there after hours.

#9 Blackgate Penitentiary

Blackgate Penitentiary is not a big part of the Batman mythos by any stretch of the imagination. But like Park Row the city would be incomplete without it. A reconnaissance mission or two and maybe a secret infiltration mission to recover an important item from the prison would be enough. If they want to spice things up they could have the fetchquest be orchestrated by The Riddler. Maybe they could squeeze in a sidequest where Batman had to go to Blackgate to interrogate one of the mob bosses there The Dark Knight style.

If you want more bang for your buck the developers could go the extra mile and have a boss battle take place in Blackgate. Maybe one of the Mob bosses could orchestrate a prison riot in an effort to escape. The player would have to stop the riot and thwart the mobsters escape plans.

and If you really want to go big you could use Blackgate as the venue for a setpeice where all of the prison’s inmates mob bosses, supervillains, henchmen and petty criminals alike are busting out of the prison in a massive Jailbreak. This setpeice would require the entire Batfamiy to work together to contain it. That would be pretty epic.

#10 A Mission on a Blimp

They’re the very first thing you see in opening sequence of Batman the Animated Series and they were the first thing we saw in at the very begging of the first episode of Batman the Animated Series. They’re regularly included in landscape shots in the comics. The Blimps are the essential piece iconography that immediately lets people know that the city they’re looking at is none other than Gotham City. Arkham Knight sucked ass but to its credit it finally gave the Gotham City’s iconic blimps a meaningful inclusion.

This hypothetical successor to the Arkham Series should have batman facing an obstacle more befitting the setting in question. It would be a great homage to the Animated Series to have Batman fight ManBat on or near one of the blimps. Maybe one of the mobs in Gotham could be trying to covertly smuggle drugs using the blimps. Maybe one of the bad guys is trying to kill one of the blip operators for some reason. There’s a lot of stuff they could do without retreading the same territory or forcing one of the A-List villains into one of the blimps.

#11 A Sewer Section

Killer Croc, The Sewer King, and numerous other Batman villains are sewer dwellers. The Sewers and Catacombs cold make for some really good settings for Boss Fights

In landmark stories like Batman Superman: Public Enemies and The Court of Owls the sewer entrance to the Batcave played a pivotal role. If the shit hits the fan and Batman is being hunted down by the likes of The Court of Owls, The Secret Society, The G.C.P.D or even the Federal government going into the sewers to sneak into the Batcave secret sewer entrance is always his best bet. The secret entrance in question would be a great way to take advantage of the open world setting, make Batman’s world feel bigger, and give the player more options to get around the city.

Including Sewers in this Open World opens up a lot of opportunities for Easter Eggs and fun little achievements. A nod or an Easter Egg to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be really appreciated here. The temporary lair they set up in the Gotham Sewer should probably still be there.

The Player character could see the remains of Azrals tube system as a fun Easter egg. If the developers are feeling bold enough they might even have the player characters be able to repair and use it.

Underground settings like abandoned subway tunnels would make for great meeting places for any contacts Batman might have to coordinate with in the Main Campaign. This would be a great way to integrate characters just outside the fringes of the extended batfamily like The Creeper or Midnighter or maybe even a place to covertly meet with an officer of the GCPD

#12 The ClockTower

The Clocktower is an important location in the Batman Mythose at any point in the canonical timeline after The Killing Joke. Even after Barbra’s paralysis was mysteriously cured. The Batfamily still made heavy use of Clocktower. Both during and after Barbra’s time as The Oracle The Clocktower was the base of operations for The Birds of Prey. Similar to its use in Arkham Knight it would make for a good place to make contact with some extended members of the Batfamily and maybe make contact with some trusted heroes from other DC franchises.

#13 Park Row a.k.a. Crime Alley

Obviously, this wouldn’t be that big of a focal point of the game but in order for Gotham City to be complete or even feel complete the infamous Crime Alley is an essential inclusion. Crime Ally is one of the roughest part of Gotham, there would be plenty of thugs to fight there anyway.

#14 An Underwater Section

One of my favorite Batman villains of all time is Tigershark. Some of you may remember him from The Black Mirror storyline that took place while Dick Grayson was filling in for Bruce in the aftermath of Final Crisis. Not only is Tigershark a badass he’s legitimately fascinating. In the Black Mirror story arc we never learned that much about him. The people of Gotham don’t even know of his existence. After he left an entire Killer Whale corpse in the lobby of one of Gotham City’s banks he didn’t take any credit. He didn’t leave any calling cards, cryptic clues, or ultimatums. The lack of theater and pageantry only made his actions more terrifying to the people of Gotham. Not only did no one know how it was done but they had no idea who did it or why, or what could possibly come next. When Batman (Dick Grayson at the time) confronted him, he told him that his people come from legend, but he didn’t do it in a theatrical or bombastic way. He just said it very matter of factly. He doesn’t need to convince anyone or garner attention to feel happy inside like all the other supervillains do. Ironically that only makes him more intimidating. You get the sense that he knows something we don’t, something that more than justifies his calm self-assuredness, something that makes him more than a match for Batman. Having an Underwater section in the game would give us the chance to learn more about him and probably have one hell of a boss battle.

Having the depths of Gotham’s waters be part of the Open world opens other opportunities as well. Tiger Shark is not the only aquatic Batman villain. The waters of Gotham are also plagued by the likes of King Kraken and Orca. The Ocean environment would also be a great way to include some cameos of some Aquaman characters. The militaristic secret society N.E.M.O could just so be happing to pulling some kind of capper in Gotham’s Waters Tell me having Black Manta in the game wouldn’t be cool. Getting to drive the Batsub and explore the ocean could be fun all on its own. Maybe the player could get to see some Mermaids swimming in the distance, Maybe the Batsub has to maneuver around some sharks and depth charges to get a special item, and of course the developers would have to put some DC Comics Easter eggs down there.

Characters

Batfamily Assemble!

This was far and away the most glaring omission in the Arkham trilogy. There was a half assed effort made at the end of the trilogy with the “Dual-Play” system which added nothing to the gameplay and only appeared in few missions. The next open world Batman game needs to have all of the core members of the Batfamily in the story and in the gameplay. For those of you that don’t know the core membership of the Batfamily is

Batman

Robin (Damian Wayne)

Penny-One (Alfred Pennyworth)

Catwoman (Selina Kyle)

Red Robin (Tim Drake)

Oracle/Batgirl [depending on the place in the timeline] (Barbra Gordon)

Nightwing (Dick Grayson)

Red Hood (Jason Todd)

Spoiler (Stephine Brown)

Technically, this also includes the Bat pets

Titus

Batcow

Whatever Damian’s cat’s name is

And Goliath (Damian’s pet DragonBat)

It As much as I would like to see some of the Batpets in very specific nonintrusive roles their inclusion is not vital.

All of the human members of the core Batfamily are vital. Every single one of them needs to be fully playable for at least part of the campaign. Each member of the Batfamily should have different stats, skills, abilities, gadgets and vehicles. There should be challenges where you need a specific member of the family or specific members of the family to work together. There should be challenges that can be accomplish with whatever member the player chooses but each character will present their own advantage and disadvantages to the player achieving their goal.

More Supervillains

Batman has the best rouges gallery in all of superhero fiction. The previous Open World Batman Games took advantage of this but only to a certain point. They included most of the well known A-List supervillains but as any comic book fan will tell you more often than not the best stuff in comics in the obscure stuff.

In addition to the previously mentioned Tigershark, Penguin and Man-Bat the following villains should be included in the next Open World Batman Game in various capacities.

The Caviler: by far the least imposing of all of Batman’s reoccurring villains. He’d be good for an easy challenge at the beginning of the game or as a joke character like The Electicutioner was in Arkham Origins.

Clock King: He may not be one of Batman’s more powerful nemeses but he is definitely one of the most intriguing. He could be used to facilitate the time trial style challenges like Zsaz challenges in Arkham City. Having Clock King be boss or mini-boss would be really fuckin’ cool. Dodging his pocket watch grenades and facing off against him and his hour hand sword would be a spectacle to behold and even more of a blast to play.

The Ventriloquist: Fans have been asking for this villain (or should I say villains) to appear in a Batman game for some time. Tracking down Scarface’s base of operations, stealthily sneaking into his hideout, covertly taking out some henchman followed by a direct confrontation with and Scarface as a min-boss battle should do the trick.

The Doll Maker: Don’t let his name fool you he’s the scariest batman villain out there, and yes that includes Scarecrow. The Dollmarker is like something out of a saw movie. He’s a mad surgeon like Hush and Professor Pyg.

Those that have read the New 52 Detective Comics and/or have read all the material related to the Court of Owls will remember that The Dollmaker is the one that cut Joker’s face off without using any antisera (as requested by The Joker)

The Dollmaker mutilated, experimented on, and augmented his on his own family. The Doll Maker inducted all of his children into his criminal operation and trained them to perform torturous grotesque surgeries on people just like him. His children are also trained to fight. Among countless other disturbing alterations he’s made to their bodies he’s also augmented some of their physical abilities in uniquely grotesque ways. One of his children who goes by the moniker Jack-in-the-Box has had his tough removed and the bones in his limbs replaces with a springy rubber like material. The Dollmaker and his family of abominations would make for an awesome boss fight.

The Mad Hatter: The Arkham games made very poor use of this particular villain. The Mad Hatter is one of Batman’s most powerful enemies. He can literally control the minds of his victims. He can make them pretty much do whatever he wants and he can even distort their perception of reality. In Arkham Knight he just ended up making batman fight more generic henchman. What makes The Mad Hatter so threatening is that he can make the people batman is fighting to protect fight Batman (or anyone else) like their lives depended on it. How do you save the people that are fighting you? These are the sorts challenges the Batman faces on a regular basis. To truly “Be the Batman” the player must face those kind of challenges as well. Additionally, it serves as a great opportunity to incorporate creative new types of gameplay into the franchise.

Scarecrow: The parts of first Arkham game where Batman is under the influence of Scarecrow’s fear gas are something that stick out in the minds of gamers when they think back to playing that first game. I think Scarecrow should be implemented in this hypothetical game in much the same way. I would suggest coming up with better challenges to overcome the effects of his fear gas. The challenges in Arkham Asylum where you had to shine the bat signal on some hallucination of Scarecrow weren’t that creative or even any fun. I think that when the player character overcomes the gas the environment should be damaged in a way that conveys what the hell was actually going on while we were fighting through the hallucinations.

Killer Crock: The first game was on the right track but the execution could have been better. Luring Crock to a point in the tunnels that Batman had set to crumble under Croc’s feet with explosives was a smart idea. It’s just the sort of thing Batman would do in that situation. However, the stuff we had to do in the tunnels to survive Croc’s attacks and lure him into the trap was tedious as best. The next Open World Batman game should have

The Royal Flush Gang: These adversaries would present a great opportunity to use the whole Batfamily in an epic boss fight. Their powers and their numbers would require a coordinated effect to take down. IF done right this could put every Uncharted set piece to shame.

The Road Runner: Some of you may recall during the promotion of Arkham Knight fans were puzzled (no pun intended) at having The Riddler facilitate the vehicle challenges in Arkham Knight. You may also remember that a lot of fans pointed out that the lesser known Batman villain Road Runner would have been perfect for facilitating car based challenges. They were right. Road Runner is a great underappreciated Batman villain but let's put a pin in that for now. I'll come back to Road Runners inclusion a little later.

Villains NOT to Use

BIG Villains Not to Use

The Joker

Raz Aul Ghul

Bane

The Court of Owls

Prometheus

Owl Man

These are villains that could carry a Batman game all on their own. This hypothetical Open World game would be the first in a series. These top tier villains are best saved for the sequels.

Lesser villains not to use

Deathstroke: Deathstrok is really interesting a Teen Titans villain but as a Batman villain he’s really bland. I don’t want overworked game designers, programmers and coders have to spend their crunchtime working on Deathstoke assets just so his ass can be in the game. Red Hood should be more than enough to keep the dood-bros happy.

DeadShot: Let’s be real, Deadshot is a lame villain. He was never a serious threat to Batman and unlike penguin or the Caviler he’s not even a little bit interesting. There are MUCH better Batman villains that are more deserving of being in an open world Batman game.

Professor Pyg: It would be a waste of time and resources to include him when you already have the far superior Doll Maker

Gameplay

During the hype campaign for Arhkam Knight Rocksteady and WB Games used the tagline “Be the Batman”. That tagline isn’t something that came whole cloth from some marketing department or corporate boardroom. Most reviewers said they literally felt like they were Batman when they played Batman: Arkham Asylum for the first time. That sentiment was echoed by fans all over the internet. Unlike previous licensed games that have featured Batman the Arkham games didn’t just have you punching, kicking and jumping. You had to do everything Batman does. You couldn’t just walk up to all the bad guys and hit them you had to use Batman’s Stealth Warrior tactics. You had to investigate crime scenes. And when you did engage in hand to hand combat it wasn’t just pressing a button to punch, kick or throw a batterang, you had to block and counter incoming attacks from multiple goons at once. Rocksteady even found a way to make Batman do actual martial arts without making the player a passive observer or overcomplicating the controls. That was possibly the most impressive thing about the whole game. Whoever makes the next Open World Batman game has a really tough act to follow. Fortunately for them there’s always room for improvement.

Fundamental mechanics

WB Games wasn’t exaggerating when they said the Arkham Series had “genre defining action” in the Return to Arkham trailer. The genuinely innovative game mechanics should serve as the foundation of the gameplay mechanics of the next game is built on. That doesn’t mean everything should stay the same. They need to refine and build on those mechanics.

Instead of having sparks appear of the player character’s head use whatever brand equivalent of “HD Rumble” is at the developers’ disposal to make the vibration of the controller alert the player of an incoming attack. If the rumble is in high enough “definition” they can use it to tell the player what direction the attack is coming from. If the console or consoles’ rumble feature can’t pull this off at least have the cue to something subtler and franchise appropriate. Maybe the signal could come off of the assailant rather than the player character.

While we’re on the subject of signals let’s talk about how the Batfamily sends and receives their electronic communications. In all three Rocksteady Batman games Batman periodically received calls from Oracle through a bluetooth like device in his cowl. In the Arkham series Batman would always put his fingers up to his temple and talk to Oracle automatically without any input from the player. This presents another opportunity to increase player immersion. You may or may not have noticed this but there are small speakers in PS4 controllers that can emit small sounds that provide cues to specific players in multiplayer games as to not disrupt the experience for everyone just to signal a specific player, especially if that signal isn’t something they other players aren’t supposed to know. This underused technology could be put to great use here.

In the new game whenever Oracle, Alfred or any other “chair guy” calls Batman or any other hero in the field have the microphone in the controller make some kind of sound that only the player character can hear. You could even add some extra flair by having some icon representing the caller appear on the little screen on PS4 controllers. In order to answer the call the player would have to press down on the little screen. These little touches could add a lot of immersion.

We can’t finish talking about signals without talking about the Batsignal. It’s possibly the most iconic piece of iconography in the Batman Mythose. It shouldn’t just be in the game it should serve its actual purpose in the game. At least once or twice over the course of the game’s campaign the Player should be summoned back to the GCPD building by the Batsignal. In these instances, the Batsignal should be the only means of knowing that the player needs to go the GCPD building.

Travel and Transportation

One of the biggest problems with Arhham Knight was the insufferable Tankmobile. Not only was its inclusion very intrusive in the combat missions and The Riddler challenges but the one thing we actually wanted out of the Batmobile wasn’t there. What we wanted out of the Boatmobile in the Arkham games was a fun, fast way to get around Gotham City. Unfortunately for those of us that had to suffer though Arkham Knight gliding was almost always the fastest way to get from point A to point B. You were supposed to be able to summon the Car to your location but that frequently didn’t work. For missions that put you in a time crunch gliding seemed like the only viable option.

So, in the next game. The gliding mechanics are not going to be anywhere near as powerful. They aren’t that powerful in the comics so that should go over pretty well with the fans. Design the layout of Gotham and the game’s mechanics so that the best and fastest way of getting from any point on the streets of a particular Gotham City Island to another point on that same island’s streets is by taking the Batmobile. The gliding mechanics should be saved for traversing the rooftops and skyscrapers, and for specific situations while fighting indoors, like in the comics

Something else the developers need to understand about the Boatmobile is that the Batmobile is supposed to be a CAR. The Batmobile is not a tank. When it’s not being used for general transportation around the city the car chase challenges need to use actual Batman tactics. Batman doesn’t fire a missile at every getaway car he chases after in the Batmobile. Batman would only use missiles to break through walls and fighting specific kinds of metahumans. Batman uses other methods to chase and apprehend regular nonpowered street criminals.

A high-speed Car Battle with the supervillain Road Runner would be AWESOME! Road Runner could ram the batmobile from the side while taunting Batman. The Player should have to use the Batmobile’s gadgets (and possibly some help from some well-placed members of the Batfamily) to disable Road Runner’s car without killing Road Runner or any civilians. Once Road Runner’s car is down for the count Road Runner jumps out of his car and tries to escape on foot with his robot legs. This would be a great point to have the player take control of another member of the Batfamily to continue the pursuit. The player could use grappling hooks, gliding mechanics, as well as other predatory mechanics modeled after the Arkham games to catch up with the super fast Road Runner and take him down.

Better Riddler puzzles and challenges

The Riddler Trophies were a decent way to include the Riddler in the Arkham series but I think we can do better. As I’m sure you’ve heard many people say by now They need to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to The Riddler. One of the best things about the first game in the Arkham series is that it genuinely made you feel like you were a detective. In later instalments of the series The Riddler actually detracted from that. How messed up is that!? In this new game The Riddler needs to facilitate puzzles in the gameplay of the actual campaign. The puzzles and challenges actually need to be in line with The Riddler’s character. He’s trying to prove he’s smarter than Batman not trying to prove his superiority over inanimate vehicles. These challenges need to include at least a few literal riddles. I know people will just be able to google the answers put that can be said of damn near everything in video games.

The Story

Last but certainly not least, a fully realized Open World Batman Video Game needs a good story.

Let’s start with what kind of Universe this hypothetical game with take place in and when it said universe I take place in. The game should take place in a universe that resembles the end of the New 52 continuity or the beginning of the Rebirth continuity.

Batman will be in his Early 30’s, Damian will be about 11 or 12 years of age, Tim and Stephine should be teenagers. Barbra and Dick should be around their mid 20’s.

The Universe this takes place needs to be true to the franchise but NOT adhere to any of the style or tone of the Nolan movies. That Nolan era of Superhero movies is over, and after the dumpster fire that was the DCEU fans are going to want something that’s more in line with the spirit of the source material.

Fundamental to Rocksteady’s success with the Arkham series was fan management. The connected with the fans and they earned their trust before doing anything radical or going off script. If they had killed off the Joker in the first game they would have gotten a VERY different response than the once they got in Batman: Arkham City.

The developers need to apply this understanding of the fandom and fan culture to this hypothetical new Open World Batman Video Game series. Just like the story of Batman: Arkham Asylum the story of the first game in the new series needs to be good but not make any waves. It needs to resemble a typical night in the life of the Batfamily but with more villains executing their plans than normal.

The first installment should have a bit of a lighter tone than the Arkham series. Compare the tone of the average Batman comic to the tone of the average Batman and Robin comic. I think this hypothetical game should be closer to the Batman and Robin side of things. I think the game should probably have Batman & Robin as the main title as opposed to only having Batman in the title. This would better convey to the fans and consumers at large what they should be expecting from the game in question. The Dark Knight will always be dark. The Batman Franchise will always be among the least upbeat in the DC Universe. However, that doesn’t mean that everything that happens within the borders of Gotham City it dark and/or depressing. Batman the Animated series is a good example of how Batman can be dark but still be fun and make room for the occasional joke. After the massive wave of fan feedback that forced the producers of the new version of The Tick to drop the grimdark tone (even though it was for the sake of parodying grimdark superhero media), the catastrophic failure of the DCEU and the overwhelming success of the MCU it’s clear to me that fans and general audiences alike want more fun superhero stories. Infinity War was much darker than all the other MCU movies but it still wasn’t grimdark. It managed to be tactful about the tones of spefic sequences that may have been more jovial while still maintain the tone of the overall film. It’s that kind of measured approach this hypothetical game needs.

Now all the developers would need to do is come up with a premise to accommodate these stipulations. What kind of scenario could facilitate an adequate number of gangs and supervillains being active on the streets of Gotham and putting their plans into motion all on the same night, while still establish a fairly typical night in the life of the Batfamily?

Perhaps there could be a minor breakout at Arkham Asylum that Batman and Robin manage to get under control before more than a handful of Supervillains escape. The gangs and villains already on the streets want to take advantage of the distracted law enforcement officers and costumed virgates by putting their own plans into motion while the forces of justice are preoccupied. In their haste the villains will fail to take into account that the other villains are also having the same idea. Some of the Mobsters, gangbangers and supervillains will inevitably fight over the broadcast systems Gotham’s villains use to terrify and reveal their dastardly plans to the citizens of Gotham City. The criminals would make a mad dash to the Jewelry stores and banks and as most of you know most of those are Mob banks. The Mob is not going to take kindly to common street thugs and Supervillains robbing their banks.

Basically, a the few criminals that manage to escape would cause a domino effect that would have all of Gotham’s most notorious criminals waging war over loot, resources, turf and dominance.

The Player Characters would be notified by the Batsignal right after the tutorial section at Wayne Manor and the Batcave. The Entire Batfamily would be dispatched to contain the breakout before it becomes a city wide catastrophe.

Containing the Breakout on location woud be an excellent opportunity to teach the player how to the mechanics of missions that include the entire Batfamily.

Batman would have the team prioritize the containment of the most dangerous Supervillains in the asylum. This would include Bane, The Joker and Scarecrow

Once the asylum is secured and the remaining “patients” are detained the Batfamily would have to go after the handful of villains that escaped the Asylum

I’m thinking heavy hitters that wouldn’t upstage all the other characters too much Clayface, Mr.Freeze, Poison Ivy, Man-Bat, and Killer Croc.

From there the events of the night should unfold organically the Batfamily has to reinstate order and resolve the chaos that the breakout catalyzed.

Utilizing this template the developers of the next series Open World Batman Games could build the foundation of something that could become even greater than Rocksteady’s Arkham series.